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Improvement Areas?

Psiclone

Psiclone

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
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As Fred said, the teams that will succeed at this stage are the ones which continue to improve. So, what areas do you see in which the team still needs to improve? Here are some things I would like to see the team do better:

1. Play with the same urgency/intensity they have shown when the game is on the line at the beginning of the game such as they did at K-State. Can't afford to spot teams leads and keep expecting to pull games out.

2. Royce needs to focus on defense. When he does so, he seems to move his feet fairly well. He also needs to quit deferring so much to his teammates as when he has a scoring mindset, he has taken over games for brief periods. Oh yeah, continue improving on his free throws.

3. Scotty's ball handling has improved immensely as the season has worn on and I did a double take when he made the spin move off the dribble against Baylor. But, he needs to not turn the ball over in crunch time as he did against Missouri.

4. Allen needs to improve in his shot selection. I thought he would have gotten past that at this point, but he continues to throw up shots early in the possession when he's covered or shots you can get at any time in the possession. I still think he a bit too "me" oriented.

5. Melvin absolutely has to start catching passes more cleanly. I've laughingly started to refer to him as Melvin "Roberto Duran" Ejim, i.e., "Hands of Stone." Really can't find any other areas as his intensity, defense and rebounding are a glue and his outside shot continues to improve.

6. Booker needs to quit getting upset with every foul that doesn't go his way. His reactions and attitude have taken him out of too many games.

7. McGee: the only thing I can think of is his ball handling which will probably have to improve in the off-season.

8. Rebounding on transition has to improve. When getting back on a fast break, the team too often is looking at the ball instead of looking for a man to block out after the shot goes up. Still, we can't really complain since we're rebounding so well as a team in-light of our height.
 
Transition defense (namely stopping the ball). We tend to back pedal until we're under the rim and either give up an easy layup or commit a stupid foul.

And tone down some of Royce's passing. You can't throw it at 87 from one block to the other and expect Melvin/Booker/Gibson to be able to handle it unless it is a perfect pass. A lot of them are places where a bounce pass would accomplish the desired result.

Going to the rim instead of worrying about the defender. Go hard to the rim on the break, don't drive in and then shy away from contact at the end to miss the layup.
 
IcSyU said:
Going to the rim instead of worrying about the defender. Go hard to the rim on the break, don't drive in and then shy away from contact at the end to miss the layup.
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I don't blame them from shying away from the contact. It seems that many times when I thought they did a pretty good job of skirting the defender they still get the charge call.
 
Add a BIG Post player in the next yr or 2 --- 6'10" or bigger that plays and can contribute. The middle presence is needed for us to go deep into tournament.
 
Psiclone said:
4. Allen needs to improve in his shot selection. I thought he would have gotten past that at this point, but he continues to throw up shots early in the possession when he's covered or shots you can get at any time in the possession. I still think he a bit too "me" oriented.
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Nobody was complaining when he was on that insane 3 pt streak. Many of those shots were deep and contested. I know we as fans aren't really used to players like Allen, but I really don't think a hand in his face or an extra foot bother him. He is a great shooter and if he shoots just as well guarded as unguarded, than who cares?

Scotty gets the same freedom and so does Babb when it comes to the depth of shots, they just aren't guys who like to take shots with hands in their face.

CA is that player and has a great stepback and a great mid range jumper. If CFH was that mad about those shots he would outlaw Allen from taking them altogether.

On the point about RW's defense, I agree that he basically doesn't play a whole lot of it, and I'm going to guess it is a to stay out of foul trouble. He has been phenomenal at that in the past 10 games, but it would be nice to have a little more defensive effort while staying out of foul trouble. Probably won't be able to have both, it's a fine line.
 
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Psiclone said:
As Fred said, the teams that will succeed at this stage are the ones which continue to improve. So, what areas do you see in which the team still needs to improve? Here are some things I would like to see the team do better:

1. Play with the same urgency/intensity they have shown when the game is on the line at the beginning of the game such as they did at K-State. Can't afford to spot teams leads and keep expecting to pull games out.

2. Royce needs to focus on defense. When he does so, he seems to move his feet fairly well. He also needs to quit deferring so much to his teammates as when he has a scoring mindset, he has taken over games for brief periods. Oh yeah, continue improving on his free throws.

3. Scotty's ball handling has improved immensely as the season has worn on and I did a double take when he made the spin move off the dribble against Baylor. But, he needs to not turn the ball over in crunch time as he did against Missouri.

4. Allen needs to improve in his shot selection. I thought he would have gotten past that at this point, but he continues to throw up shots early in the possession when he's covered or shots you can get at any time in the possession. I still think he a bit too "me" oriented.

5. Melvin absolutely has to start catching passes more cleanly. I've laughingly started to refer to him as Melvin "Roberto Duran" Ejim, i.e., "Hands of Stone." Really can't find any other areas as his intensity, defense and rebounding are a glue and his outside shot continues to improve.

6. Booker needs to quit getting upset with every foul that doesn't go his way. His reactions and attitude have taken him out of too many games.

7. McGee: the only thing I can think of is his ball handling which will probably have to improve in the off-season.

8. Rebounding on transition has to improve. When getting back on a fast break, the team too often is looking at the ball instead of looking for a man to block out after the shot goes up. Still, we can't really complain since we're rebounding so well as a team in-light of our height.
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We really need to improve our defense in stopping the dribble drive (and on help d when we fail to do so). Point guards with good handle and speed (Taylor, Jackson, Pressey) have exposed this as a major weakness for us. Hopefully, Korie will be able to shore up this problem next year.
 
IcSyU said:
Transition defense (namely stopping the ball). We tend to back pedal until we're under the rim and either give up an easy layup or commit a stupid foul.
Click to expand...

Cyclonepride said:
To me, by far the main area of concern is stopping the ball in transition. At the very least, make them make a great pass to score, rather than give up a lay up.

Solve that, and I'm happy
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I concur fully with these two sentiments. Our transition defense has not been good, and we will face teams in the upcoming tournaments who can push the ball.
 
I'm thinking more along the lines of next season with this thread because at this point you can't make too many drastic changes overnight.

Royce: work on goto post move, defense, and free throws
Team in general needs to get that "killer instinct" and take teams out of the game completely when they have leads.
Intensity: too many times we get caught celebrating a big play and get burnt on a quick fast break off an inbounds play. Have to stay focused all 40 minutes and not take plays off on defense
Play smart: while the spectacular pass or dunk can get a crowd pumped up, you can take them out of the game just as easy by committing dumb turnovers. Value the basketball EVERY possession and go for those crowd pleasing plays once the game is in hand.

Next season already has me excited. Going to miss Scotty, wish I could say the same about Allen but I can't but Lucious, Clyburn, and the recruits are going to add a lot of depth to this roster and the returning players finally have built that chemistry that was lacking early in the season.
 
Jeffreyisu said:
Learn how to take a CHARGE!
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+1. I would love to see how many charges we have taken this year compared to other teams. We do a terrible job of this. This would help our transition defense as well.

Going along with this, I think our help defense could vastly improve.

Our offense runs great, but we need to make sure that it runs through White most of the time. Sometimes we get away from him and the offense stagnates.
 
we got what we got, can it be better? Sure - but thinking that every player is all of the sudden going to clean up all of their imperfections is a little optimistic, main thing to me is to keep playing as a team, make 3's and play D. This has been the formula for winning big games in conference and I believe will be what wins games in the tourney.
 
CyBer said:
Silly turnovers are the biggest problem IMO.
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This. Value the basketball.

Most of our turnovers are unforced errors. Get another 5-6 possessions / shots per game, get another 6 points or so. That is a lot for this team.
 
justcynn said:
we got what we got, can it be better? Sure - but thinking that every player is all of the sudden going to clean up all of their imperfections is a little optimistic, main thing to me is to keep playing as a team, make 3's and play D. This has been the formula for winning big games in conference and I believe will be what wins games in the tourney.
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It does seem at the point when the positives (playing as a team, smart selection of 3's within offense, strengths on D) are more important that what might improve. Although almost all the OP points have validity.

What makes me most ecstatic about this season (other than getting back to the tournament, of course! :yes:): The noticeable, gradual progress along the way. Almost every weak spot, both as a team, individually and in-game coaching, has become less of a hindrance; and positive points have been polished.

We see periods of backsliding in many areas during stretches. Certain combinations of those traits have meant losing some otherwise winnable games.

I can find flaws in isolated places. Taken as a whole, this season gets more fun as it moves forward. I hope that continues into the tournament. Microcosm improvements are a bonus.
 
When Royce shoots a free throw, be ready to rebound. We did get one rebound last game off a missed free throw.

Flop more.

SC get up closer on defense for the shooters.

Let Booker shoot more threes. It is hard to block his shot.

SC drive lane and then pass out a little more.
 
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