I very much so agree with both observations. We ran the shot clock down to 7 or 8 seconds and took a well defended 3 that we could have had at any time. No reason to run clock at that point. Enough time left there to go for a quick 2 & put the pressure on them. And thought we did enough on that last possession by ODU to call a foul. 9 times out of 10 they would have called it because they know that was our intent. Heck against WKU they would have called a flagrant foul.
We did take our sweet time for a team behind toward the end, but that’s the way we run our offense. Going against habits rarely turns out well. I think if a good shot had presented itself, we would have shot earlier; but ODU"s defense prevented that.
BTW, I didn’t mean earlier that there were a ton of questionable calls today. The few there were all seemed to go against us and that could be a big difference in a very close outcome. In other words, it was a normal road game
Until we start hitting 3s and FTs better, we’re going to have a lot of close losses. I just hate it, because there is NO REASON to be so piss poor at the FT line. NONE!!
We have been solid at the FT line most of the year. It seems we randomly have poor shooting there on occasion.
This team is so frustrating and inconsistent. I do think we have far more offensive power than we are seeing. I am starting to think Ron really is coaching them to run the clock down to limit number of possessions in the game. We shot better than 40% from behind the arc - we need to stop saying we dont have shooters. We do. We just dont put them in the best position to shoot.
Defensively this game was a let down. The dribble penetration was far to easy and we didnt stayu in front of the ball handler.
I think we are all mostly onboard that 15-17 wins is a HUGE step in the right direction, but its maddening to see us close to being better than that and letting chances slip. I do think Coach needs to start opening up the offense some and learning who he wants to be as a coach - not just a Tony Bennett clone.
i sort of agree but for all the games where we shoot 40% from 3, we also have games like ecu where we shoot 0-13 from 3.
That is my point. We have shooters. Games like ECU are proof that we aren’t putting them in the best position to score.
i disagree. if you rewatch the game, you’ll see that most of the 3’s were wide open. we’ve had plenty of wide open threes this season that we haven’t hit.
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Wide open isnt always what a shooter needs - catching in rhythm and timing is often more important. Many of the ones we hit yesterday were slightly contested and in rhythm. I feel like our offense takes our players out of their offensive flow which attributes to our poor shooting and long droughts.
I thought our 3pt shooting yesterday was an anomaly. Shepherd has not shown anything like what he did yesterday, and we even had Edwards bank in a 3 during that spurt of 3’s. We’re somewhere between what we had yesterday and how we looked early this season.
As for setting up our shooters for success, there is some validity there though. Martin is the only one we run a play that has him as an option for 3, which is the shot he’s been making all season. He’s able to setup and wait for the pass and he shoots in rhythm. Otherwise, everything we shoot from 3 is just something that develops and our guys haven’t shown a lot of confidence to step up and knock it down regardless of the shot clock, outside of Young.
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Even the bank was open for Edwards yesterday. I think he over performed.