How can this season be fixed and next season

[bearcatrunner]

I feel like maybe I am crazy sometimes in thinking that this team has all of the talent to be really good but these things below are getting in the way.

1.) This team should be playing a big lineup with a zone for 25% of this game. Our Bigs get lost on the perimeter all of the time.
2.) This team should be pressing with a smaller lineup 15% of the game. We have plenty of players to sub in and out why not tire the other team out and maybe get some easy buckets.
3.) Someone has to hold this team accountable for making mistakes they shouldn't be making. Fouling a three point shooter is a good example and needless turnovers.
4.) Wes needs to stop taking out the hot shooters and put the cold shooters on the bench. If a player is wide open they should have the freedom to take the shot within reason. However, everyone has hot and cold nights and the coach should see this. Play to the hot hand this drives me crazy.
5.) Play Jizz a whole lot more! He is a freshman who will make some mistakes? He and Day Day can make their own shots and both could be really good together especially on a press. At the very least we are giving him experience for next season. He could be a superstar!!!!!!

I feel like if we just switched up our defense some and stop becoming so easy to scout it would make this team better and maybe help keep them focused. We have the talent to win the Big 12 tournament and that is what I would focus on right now. Try new things and lets see what works and what does not work. We have no real leader that can hit shots for us at the end of the game. No Steve Logan, Kenyon Martin, Fortson etc. We do have a lot of pieces that are good at a couple of things and we need to play to their strengths, hold them accountable and work on basketball IQ. This quite frankly is all on the coach. I really like Wes and he is still young but he needs to take a look at himself and figure this out. At worst he needs a new assistant coach (Bob Huggins?) who can teach defenses.

[sedz]

I appreciate some concrete ideas being brought to the table. I'll respond to yours and then propose my own.

1.) Zones are tough with two true bigs. We normally run a 1-3-1, which has one big in the middle. The baseline guy (usually Simas) is responsible for both corners so needs to be mobile. With a 2-3 you've got to put a big out on the wing.

2.) Easy buckets go both ways with a press. We might get some off turnovers, but good teams will get easy baskets when they break. You don't see much pressing in college basketball anymore as bigs have become more skilled and can score in space behind the guards. To be successful, you need quick bigs, like we had with Kenyon and Justin Jackson. So if we do press, I think we'd need Ody or Reed at the 5. Worth a try against some opponents I think.

3.) Agree, but not sure how. The three point fouls were by Newman, who is in his sixth year and is arguably our best player. Do we bench him for that? Would that take away some of his aggression, which has been so valuable? Then you worry about guys playing scared of making mistakes. It's a tough balance for all coaches.

4.) Has Wes taken out a hot shooter? We very rarely have a guy with a hot shooting night. Vik had that one game where he hit 5 threes. Skillings has had some good nights. They are already playing 30 minutes most games.

5.) Jizzle and Day Day are both very inefficient scorers. They are the only guys on our team with true shooting percentages under 50%. Sure, they can create their own shots but what good is that if they aren't even scoring a point per possession? Jizzle especially shoots way to much from midrange. It looks good when it goes in, but he only makes 38%. Playing them together works against some slow defenses, but in general just puts two bad scorers on the floor. Day Day plays more because he's a much better defender. He has shut down some good guards this year, and leads our team in steal rate (more than twice as high as Jizzle). Day Day's defensive box plus minus is third best on our team below Newman and Aziz. Jizzle is second worst, just above Jamille.

[sedz]

I think the reason we are struggling is we don't tailor gameplans to our opponents. Last night's PnR disaster was a perfect example. The simplest way to make a defensive gameplan is to identify the other team's one dimensional players and take away the one thing they do well. Most college basketball teams have a handful of guys who either only score from the perimeter or only score at the rim.

You can bother outside shooters by staying on their shooting hip. Invite them to put the ball on the deck with their off hand. If they get a step, don't try to recover and open yourself up to a crossover or stepback. Stay on their hip all the way to the rim if necessary. One dimensional shooters will be very uncomfortable in that situation. But most defenders are scared of getting beat of the bounce so they instinctively retreat after a quick first step, and then the shooter takes advantage of space. The other strategy is that bigs must hedge ball screens. That means they need to aggressively step past the screener and force the ballhandler to redirect.

Against slashers, defenders should back off and not go for pump fakes. This one should be easy, but many defenders feel the need to try and block every shot. We should not leave the floor to contest a bad shooter's jumper (like Newman did against Battle last night). On ball screens, bigs should stay with the screener and the guard should go underneath. Preventing rim runs is much more important than contesting a jump shot if the ballhandler is a guy who wants to get to the rim.

Most good teams also have one or two guys who can score at all three levels, but even poor defenders can cover one dimensional players ok if they are aware. We've been torched by pure shooters (Olivari, Blackmon) this year by playing them straight up. Last year Kendric Davis got to the rim whenever he wanted because we played him tight and went for all of his pump fakes. Last night, West Virginia's guards were one dimensional. Kriisa is a pure shooter. Our big should have hedged screens on him. Farrakhan is a slasher. Our big should have stayed with Edwards when he screened for Farrakhan. But our bigs didn't do either. They got caught in the middle all night. That can be fixed with a simple scouting report.

Our offense has been pretty consistent in conference play. We're generally scoring about a point per possession every game. It is what it is without good shooters. We have had many wide open threes that guys just haven't knocked down. Simas and Day Day especially have struggled. There's not much coaching that can fix that. Before last night, we weren't taking many threes though (second fewest in conference), so we're doing what we can to score inside. It's not easy to score more than a point per possession with no outside shooting.

Our defense determines if we win or lose. In all three of our wins we've conceded under a point per possession (way under against BYU and UCF). In 4 of our 5 losses, we've conceded at least 1.04 points per possession. Baylor is the outlier, but they still put up 0.98. The frustrating thing is we often make good adjustments at halftime, but we're either getting beat from the tip before we can make adjustments, or we have no response if the other team changes something at the half, as happened last night with the PnR. We need to do a better job of implementing scouting reports from the opening tip and making our players aware of the other team's tendecies.

[Gmann]

Sedz, this is great stuff! I appreciate the depth of analysis. I often wonder what are the coach and assistant coaches discussing in their gameplan and on the fly as the game unfolds. Are these strategies being shared and the players just not receptive? I hope at least they have as much insight as you and some of the other posters. Last night's postgame interview with CWM was one of the few times he shared his frustration over outlining a plan and the players just go do something else. I know CWM wants to use positive reinforcement and I appreciate that but it's the same thing with raising a child.....it's not a popularity contest and sometimes you have to use tough love. There seems to be little remorse over bonehead plays and TO's and certainly does not appear to be any consequences. If CWM is going to move this program forward I believe he is going to have to figure address that.