SRP
Postdoc
Posts: 4917
Reg: 02-04-06
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02-17-18 03:54 PM - Post#248274
In response to mrjames
I will indulge in the pleasure of I Told You So for a moment as a balm. It was clear pre-season that the loss of Miller was going to leave a hole in the D against good big men, and to some extent against penetration. Those were problems at times last season when the team went small, and then they had Cook and Weisz available to defend the perimeter. I prescribed practicing and using a lot of aggressive zone D and trying to pressure the ball and the first pass more in man D. It's turned out a little bit worse than I thought it might given the presence of quality defenders like Bell and Stephens, but it isn't shocking,
Offensively, there was going to be plenty of shooting and above-average (for Princeton) ability to score on individual moves. But Weisz, contrary to Mike, played a key role last season by moving the basketball to the weak side of the defense with sharp passes. That replaced the old high-post passing somewhat, and enabled the team to get decent looks even against good team defense.
This year's offense gets shut down when the opponent turns it up, pressures the perimeter, and recovers well on drives. If a high percentage of threes go in, that papers it over, but against good D this team runs out of answers and starts putting up difficult shots, getting shots blocked, and committing turnovers. Spacing, off-ball movement, and passing are not up to historical standards, and the team doesn't trust them in tight spots, going for individual heroism too often. The Much-to-Stephens wraparound pass at the end of the Akron game was a rare exception. I thought this team could really be elite offensively by combining a slightly more-traditional passing game with their individual scoring ability and good overall shooting, IF the whole team could replace Weisz's role in moving the ball, but that didn't happen. So the offense is good but not great and falters against the kind of defense Cornell and Dartmouth played during their runs.
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