The Section 103 Postgame Report.

1. William Sleiger went with an operatic style Anthem tonight. It was a nice change of pace.
2. It appears Sterling Henton will be doing a DJ gig at the basketball games. I bet the band loves that.
3. For the first time this year, UT came out of the gate primed and ready to go. I hope that begins a trend.
4. Jeronne Maymon is rounding into shape. He's still rusty, but he's getting close to top form.
5. People complaining about Cuonzo Martin's recruiting need to take a long look at this freshman class. All three players are going to be major contribitors .
6. Jarnell Stokes is still playing tentative because he's not sure how he's going to be officiated. He needs to just go hard and see what happens.
7. There's no rhyme or reason to how games are being officiated. There needs to be an immediate conference to bring about some sort of consistency.
8. It has to be hard to coach at The Citadel. I have no idea how you could ever convince enough solid players to sign on to be competitive.
9. This team needs to play four around one almost exclusively. Few teams have two posts good enough to make UT pay for going with that alignment.
10. All in all, a good performance against an overmatched foe. We'll see if they can carry it forward.

 

Are you worried about this team's ability to defend against penetration? I ask because I've noticed guards for the teams we've gone against so far seem to penetrate more easily than I'd like. I would think that bodes poorly for our chances against the good teams in the SEC. I hope I'm just imagining things.

 

With the new emphasis on the (old) hand checking rules it's becoming much, much harder to stop penetration. You put a hand on a guy on the perimeter and its a foul. You use your body or hip to absorb contact of the driver and they are calling blocking fouls. I haven't seen a lot of games yet because of my coaching schedule but that's what's happening at the high school level so assume that's what's happening in college.

To me the best options are to play more zone or pack-line m2m.

 

These are the ones that bother me more than anything. I just hate the offense getting the call when he's the one that initiated the contact.

 

It's really tough because I'm a big m2m guy and our kids are asking "how do we stop people if we can't touch them at all?" and at this point I don't have a great answer. On offense you tell a kid to attack the defender's hip with your inside shoulder. I don't have a big problem with the hand check call but agree with you on the blocking call.

Technically a foul should be called if the D is gaining an advantage but D has just as much right to a spot as the O... it's why we are playing a lot of zone right now to keep our guys out of foul trouble and keep other team off the FT line.

 

Additionally it's going to make hard hedging a ball screen much harder because if the O player attacks post player's hip aggressively and there is contact a foul will be called. Best best is ICE on the side or flat hedge to level off or switch.

 

Most people want to play D by getting jacked up on the ball and grab a bit when they try to get by. I agree this is a foul. It looks aggressive, but it's actually lazy. The key, in my opinion, is appropriate cushion, concentration, and an extremely quick lateral first step.

 

So you're saying Bassman sucks at defense?

 

Straight line speed won't keep the opposing PG out of the lane

 

I'm just glad someone got it.

 

This is what I've seen that bothers me. I know the rules have changed (and I hate it) but it seems to me our guys are slow to react/don't give the appropriate cushion and that's the issue more so than the rule change. They will probably improve with time but it better be sooner than later.

 

until shooting improved drastically, I'd zone people to death. The number of teams who can shoot you out of the gym on a given night is near 0.

 

That's the part of this new emphasis that is laughable. With the new standards, a game between two Top 20 teams Saturday saw 87 total points. The problem isn't too much contact, it's too little skill.

 

and that game was abysmal. Shooting across the college game is nonexistent.

 

I'm not sure skill is down. Most high level D-1 guys are tremendously skilled. They just aren't skilled at shooting. That may be exactly what you're meaning, so if so, I apologize. I would say that there is more of an emphasis on being skilled ball handlers and skilled individual defenders. And, I think there is tremendous skill at that aspect of the game in Top 25 teams. I think there just seems to be a general lack of focus on shooting the basketball and developing shooters at every level, even the NBA. That's why the Europeans are excelling, imo.

 

Look at the turnover numbers of the vast majority of D-I teams and tell me again how skilled the ball handlers are. If they placed an "officiating emphasis" on calling the rules of dribbling as they are written, most point guards wouldn't be able to put the ball on the floor without an infraction. Passing is even worse.

 

True, but it's no worse than the passing.

 

I think it's tough to call a guy "tremendously skilled" if he can't shoot a basketball.

 

That would make me a "tremendously skilled" basketball player!

 

fair. offensive skill has been supplanted by athleticism and officiating slanted away from fundamental basketball or practiced skill.