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Username Post: Brown        (Topic#22576)
HARVARDDADGRAD 
Postdoc
Posts: 2685

Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
02-02-19 08:12 PM - Post#274796    

Aiken starting and looks good
Cambridge missed first 2 three’s
Chris Lewis picks up 2 quick fouls

A lot of defense tonight from both squads



 
AntiUngvar 
Masters Student
Posts: 530

Age: 69
Loc: New York City
Reg: 07-23-18
Re: Brown
02-02-19 08:23 PM - Post#274797    
    In response to HARVARDDADGRAD

Wow, I thought Cambridge would be the league's POY; but he hasn't at all looked the part for three consecutive IL games going into this evening.


 
HARVARDDADGRAD 
Postdoc
Posts: 2685

Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
02-02-19 08:28 PM - Post#274798    
    In response to AntiUngvar

To end their pre-tip-off warmup the entire Brown team surrounded Cambridge who took the ball for a ferocious dunk - which clanged off the rim.

 
AntiUngvar 
Masters Student
Posts: 530

Age: 69
Loc: New York City
Reg: 07-23-18
Brown
02-02-19 08:43 PM - Post#274799    
    In response to HARVARDDADGRAD

Through this moment, he's 1/8 tonight, and 10/57 overall, in league play (4 games, .175 FGPCT.)


Edited by AntiUngvar on 02-02-19 08:45 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

 
digamma 
Masters Student
Posts: 466

Loc: Minneapolis
Reg: 11-27-11
02-03-19 11:10 AM - Post#274901    
    In response to AntiUngvar

We needed that weekend for a lot of reasons. Great defensive performances both nights.

 
mrjames 
Professor
Posts: 6062

Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
02-03-19 12:25 PM - Post#274910    
    In response to digamma

Definitely an important sweep, as wins against Yale will be hard to come by for the rest of the league, so that could end up being a crucial tiebreaker if Harvard needs it.

The suffocating defense was great to see, but might be skewed a bit by sub-par, three-point shooting from Yale and Brown. What has been great to see is Harvard putting together three-straight, two-point defensive performances - especially against two teams that do a nice job of asserting themselves near the rim (Brown - 60%; Yale - 68% shooting near the basket).

I'd expect the three-point shooting to correct in future weeks, which means Harvard won't continue to be able to blow teams out while scoring less than one point per possession over the course of a weekend. What was hidden in these two sleeper-hold games was that Harvard turned the ball over on 1-in-4 possessions on the weekend. What's more is that 1-in-10 possessions ended in steals and led to over 25% (26 points) of the opponent scoring for the weekend.

Many of the turnovers in the Brown game were the of the "flashes of brilliance gone awry" variety (nifty passes that the receiver wasn't ready for), which I'm okay with - but many were merely dribbling into bad spots or reckless drives that led to charges. (Notably, this is the area where Bryce needs to get his feel back most - he just can't beat players one-on-one yet like he used to and expected blocking calls went the no-call direction, ending with dangerous, live-ball turnovers).

Combine that with the awful FT shooting in the Brown game (including multiple missed front ends of one-and-ones), and Harvard missed a bunch of chances to extend the lead late in the first and when the game was still in doubt in the second. Those missed opportunities may be forgotten when the defense is pitching the basketball equivalent of a shutout, but in future weeks when good looks from three are falling more regularly, squandering those extra possessions from the line and with ugly turnovers could be the difference between putting away a winnable game and unnecessarily imperiling the outcome.

The biggest development of the weekend was bigs depth. Big Shot Bob looks really comfortable as a starter, and his ability to stretch the defense is a great weapon. Danilo started his sophomore year strong but had a miserable January - was great to see him back to himself, hitting threes and using his bounce around the rim to create second chances, en route to a 12 and 7 in just 19 minutes against Yale. Chris didn't have a very good weekend at all offensively, and it didn't seem to matter because of how well Danilo and Baker stepped up.

 
mobrien 
Senior
Posts: 390

Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
02-03-19 04:38 PM - Post#274945    
    In response to mrjames

The worst turnovers are when we try to enter it into the post when it's clearly not there, or try to skip pass it from a position we shouldn't. Those two categories make up a significant percentage of our turnovers, and have for the last two years.

If we can't get it into Lewis, I'd love to see us call him out to the high post, pass it to him there, bring a shooter up for a dribble handoff, and then have him roll hard to the hoop. That's the set Penn runs endlessly with Brodeur, and it's a great way to get your big the ball in the post with either a switch from a smaller defender, or with the big slightly out of position. Little things like that would make a big difference. Or simply swinging the ball and having Lewis re-post from the opposite side. Too often, though, we try to force in a pass that has about a 40% chance of working to try to get a contested layup for him.

The defense, on the other hand, has been spectacular. Yes, Yale and Brown missed some open threes that we can't count on continuing, but the activity and communication on switches has been pretty perfect.

This defense, plus our typical shooting, plus a TO rate closer to 19 or 20 percent instead of 23 or 24 would give us a very good chance the rest of the year.

 
84grad 
Junior
Posts: 277

Age: 64
Reg: 11-09-17
02-03-19 09:51 PM - Post#274972    
    In response to mobrien

Obviously, a very encouraging weekend. As they say, the defense is going to be there every night. Particularly encouraging was the work of Kirkwood, who drew Oni and Cambridge for portions of the two games when our stopper Bassey was out, and he did a nice job. His height and strength make him a very capable defender, particularly for a freshman. I also was impressed with his 5th foul on Friday, diving on the floor with 37 seconds to go in a blowout win. He didn’t shoot well on the weekend, but he contributed in a lot of ways. He has talent and basketball IQ.

The contributions by Baker and Djuricic were critical. The team has needed some offense from their second big man on the court and they provided it in different ways. Without Seth, their play is central to this team being championship caliber. And, of course, give major credit to Welsh for his excellent work in the first half vs. Brown

Got the feeling that this team can play a number of different ways. Big with Baker and Lewis. They went smaller (3 guards) with Aiken, Juzang and Kirkwood when Brown went smaller. Tommy has options that would be enhanced exponentially by a Towns return.

As always, Mike makes the correct observations about the TOs and Saturday FT%. 11 of the 34 TOs came from Lewis, who did not react well to the double team. Seemed like they made a bit of an adjustment to start the second half against Brown by having Lewis look inside for Baker, whose man left Baker free for the Lewis double team. It will be interesting to see if this becomes more effective as Lewis and Baker get more time together (only a recent pairing in the starting lineup).

As for the FTs, hoping Saturday was the outlier. The shooting has been much better from the line in recent games. The fact that Harvard won easily despite the missed free throws on Saturday (and with the high turnover rate on both nights) is actually encouraging from my perspective. The limited in conference rotation should improve as they get more time together (particularly with Aiken having only 4 games under his belt after 11 months off).

Regarding the opponent’s 3 point percentage, I do think that a lot of that had to do with terrific defense of the line which was completely absent from Dartmouth I. Bruner’s only a 32% shooter and Swain and Phils, who are more effective from long range, shot 2-6, about what you would expect in % and # terms. As for Onl’s 0-6, that had a lot with Bassey’s great work, assisted by superb team defense that had Oni frustrated throughout.

All in all, lots to like and still some upside.

 
Naismith 
Sophomore
Posts: 149

Loc: RI
Reg: 11-11-18
02-04-19 01:03 PM - Post#275026    
    In response to 84grad

The three commentaries above and similar ones on Ivy teams at this site have made it worthwhile to check out during the week. This is the kind of stuff we older types used to read when the newspapers actually covered college sports in depth.

 
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