mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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01-04-20 03:07 PM - Post#295939
Great start for Juzang. 5 points and a pretty touch pass assist to Kirkwood for a 4 point play.
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mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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01-04-20 03:33 PM - Post#295940
In response to mobrien
We keep getting great looks from the foul extended against their zone, and just missing. Offense stalling a little not because we're playing badly, but just missing good shots.
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mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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01-04-20 03:34 PM - Post#295941
In response to mobrien
And right as I type that, Ledlum and Baker knock down back to back threes to give us the biggest lead so far.
Ledlum making an instant impact again. Drew two free throws, got a block, then made a three.
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mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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01-04-20 04:41 PM - Post#295946
In response to mobrien
Offense has totally died, and UC Irvine has a guy who's getting crazy hot from three. 19 point lead down to 3.
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mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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01-04-20 05:05 PM - Post#295948
In response to mobrien
We held on. UC Irvine had one guy get NBA Jam-level hot — he made three consecutive threes at one point, and had maybe five in a span of six or seven possessions — but Ledlum and Juzang both had timely buckets down the stretch to hold on. They were probably the offensive MVPs in what was a very balanced offensive attack.
One big picture thing: Bassey has to start knocking down *some* threes to stay on the court. We need his defense and rebounding, but we're playing four on five too much when he passes up shots that he should take because he doesn't have the confidence right now. That's why we looked better in stretches with Ledlum on the court — although then we're sacrificing some defense.
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84grad
Junior
Posts: 277
Age: 64
Reg: 11-09-17
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01-04-20 05:19 PM - Post#295949
In response to mobrien
Two straight games where big leads turned into tight games.
As mrjames pointed out, Harvard’s games have come down to opponents’ 3 point shooting. Comeback fueled by 8-13 3pt shooting in 2nd half, but I don’t blame the defense. Several of the shots were very tough makes.
Lot of positives, starting with another solid performance by Juzang. Don’t know if he’s just healthier, but he’s been back to where he was a sophomore.
Lewis continues to be efficient and even hit a couple of tougher than usual shots. Back problems no more.
Ledlum continues to show all sorts of ridiculous athleticism and clearly is playing a much bigger role with Towns out for the year. Has all the tools and when experience is added to the equation he is going to be a really dominant player. His fire combined with Kirkwood’s ice is a hell of a combination to look forward to for 2.5 years.
Oh yeah, and 4 straight wins without Aiken. Lots of scoring options when you have Aiken, Kirkwood, a totally rejuvenated Lewis, Juzang and Ledlum. With a solid defense, the team should be ready for a very strong conference run. Should be fun.
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mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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01-04-20 07:23 PM - Post#295956
In response to 84grad
Ledlum had 12 points in just 17 minutes—and, just as importantly, had zero turnovers for the second straight game. He has an aggressiveness we need. He's looking to dunk the ball pretty much every time he touches it.
He's so strong that, depending on the matchup, we could probably get away with playing him as a stretch four for a few minutes here and there. Anything to get him on the court more.
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H78
PhD Student
Posts: 1458
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
Reg: 01-06-11
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01-04-20 09:41 PM - Post#296011
In response to mobrien
Ledlum had 12 points in just 17 minutes—and, just as importantly, had zero turnovers for the second straight game. He has an aggressiveness we need. He's looking to dunk the ball pretty much every time he touches it.
He's so strong that, depending on the matchup, we could probably get away with playing him as a stretch four for a few minutes here and there. Anything to get him on the court more.
Sometimes his play reminds me of Wes Saunders. Big, strong, not afraid to drive, prone to freshman-level turnovers...
What do you think?
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mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-04-20 10:03 PM - Post#296017
In response to H78
Not winning by the big number will hurt the NET/KenPom/etc area of the world, but I had a bit of a different take as to what happened down the stretch.
The shots UC Irvine hit were mostly fine and in rhythm (not a lot of hero ball prayers), but certainly the number being hit in a row was insane. What I really liked about what Harvard did is that it continued to run offense throughout. In recent years, Harvard has had a tendency to do the whole, wait until 10 seconds left on the shot clock and do a high pick and roll and see what happens.
Harvard might have been a bit *too* aggressive at times (Baker to Kirkwood alley oop attempt was rough but got bailed out by Bassey), but I’ll take that over the prevent offense approach.
Picked up a bit more than a full game over a bubble team since Orlando, and all either without Bryce explicitly or certainly with a severely limited Bryce. This team is different (not better, per se, but different) without him in a way that I like because more players force themselves to contribute and show their talent.
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mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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01-05-20 02:13 AM - Post#296058
In response to mrjames
This team isn't better without Bryce, but the dropoff isn't as severe as you might think (or used to be).
The two big things are the ball tends to move better without Bryce, and other guys are more aggressive looking for their own shots. I don't think it's just a matter of him over-dribbling, although he does that sometimes, as much as everyone else deferring to him a little too much.
However good we might like without him for a 15 or 20 minute stretch, though, there are still moments of a 40 minute game where it becomes clear how much we miss him. The other guys will either tend to get turnover happy or just go cold for awhile without his shot-creating ability on the court.
I think a big point of emphasis should be trying to get Bryce up to around four or five assists a game. When he's doing that, it usually keeps the other guys involved enough that they stay aggressive.
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mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-05-20 12:06 PM - Post#296076
In response to mobrien
This team's ceiling is definitely higher with Bryce. I can't imagine anyone else dropping 30 on Maryland with a 112 ORAT.
But the average performance... not sure I see much of a difference with or without. It just ends up being a different way of getting there - more defense, Lewis and wing-based offense.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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UC Irvine
01-05-20 08:49 PM - Post#296119
In response to mrjames
I look at Bryce in a different way.
There is no question he is a unique talent for this league, a player who can (and has) willed his team to victory, sometimes with incredible plays.
Without Bryce, Harvard is thin at the small guard/ball handler position. Thankfully, Christian has stepped up in Byce's absence. Otherwise, the burden falls on Rio and, to some extent, Luka Sakota.
Without Bryce, this otherwise deep squad is vulnerable at PG. The Crimson almost blew 15, 15 and 19 point leads against Cal, USF and UCI. In each game, the opponent came roaring back in the final 10 minutes or so to put each game much closer. Tired guards miss FT's, are susceptible to the press, and tend to allow open 3's - all of which happened in the final 10 minutes of those games.
The recent play of Christian and the athleticism, defense and shooting of Rio are assets. It's one thing to consider them as depth supplementing Bryce, as opposed to starters playing 50 to 60 combined minutes in his absence.
Christian/Rio are the best PG backups in the league. I'm hoping that we get to use them that way - with a healthy Bryce.
Edited by HARVARDDADGRAD on 01-05-20 08:51 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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tkapiko
Freshman
Posts: 28
Reg: 07-04-16
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Re: UC Irvine
01-05-20 10:22 PM - Post#296124
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
Aiken is a great player, but it seems to me he is not a willing passer and wants to take every shot himself. He needs to trust his teammates more. If you look at his assists/game last season, he is last in assists among the league's top 6 scorers (Morgan, Brodeur, Oni, Copeland, Stefanini).
I think the best approach is to find a way to make Aiken/Juzang work in tandem as well as back each other up. They should be on the floor at the PG/SG slot most of the times, with Rio filling in the remaining minutes.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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01-05-20 11:08 PM - Post#296127
In response to tkapiko
Their is certainly an argument for having Aiken and Juzang on the court together. Tommy seems committed to Lewis & Baker starting up front. That means one of Kirkwood or Bassey would have to sit for Aiken and Juzang to play. Kirkwood and Bassey are Harvard's best defenders and are strong rebounders as well. Likely depends on the opponent's roster, size and level of on ball aggressive defense.
For what it's worth, Towns is being replaced by a combination of Baker and Ledlum. Sure miss Seth's sweet stroke. To think he won the team's Crimson Madness three point shooting contest this October.
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digamma
Masters Student
Posts: 468
Loc: Minneapolis
Reg: 11-27-11
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01-06-20 11:23 AM - Post#296139
In response to mrjames
The shots UC Irvine hit were mostly fine and in rhythm (not a lot of hero ball prayers), but certainly the number being hit in a row was insane. What I really liked about what Harvard did is that it continued to run offense throughout. In recent years, Harvard has had a tendency to do the whole, wait until 10 seconds left on the shot clock and do a high pick and roll and see what happens.
Harvard might have been a bit *too* aggressive at times (Baker to Kirkwood alley oop attempt was rough but got bailed out by Bassey), but I’ll take that over the prevent offense approach.
Generally agree with you, but there was a stretch when the lead was cut from 11 to 3 where we took three threes (Bassey, Baker, Juzang) within 15 seconds of the shot clock. Going from memory, the Baker and Bassey looks were open, and Juzang's was maybe a little deep. I guess you have to have the green light on shots like that, but they seemed quick at the time, given the flow of the game at that point.
Overall, I think we have to be pretty pleased at this point.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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UC Irvine
01-06-20 01:12 PM - Post#296148
In response to digamma
Harvard's 3 point shooting usually improves in conference. Team has shot 41.8% in the last 3 games (without Aiken), and is now at 33.4% on the season.
Juzang has shot 8-17 in the past 3 games, following a 5-28 start.
Except for Bassey (16.7%) and Djuricic (25.8%), the other regular 3 pt shooters are in line:
Aiken 36.1%
Haskett 46.7
Kirkwood 34.9%
Baker 36.1%
Ledlum 40%
Sakota 40%
If Bassey in particular can improve like Juzang has, that would be HUGE. Bassey shot 32.9%, 42.5%, and 40.8% each of the past 3 years. Djurici shot 36.5% and 31% his first two years. For what it's worth, Towns would like have been this team's best 3 point shooter at close to 50%.
FT shooting is 73.4%. Once Bryce (87%) is back this should trend upwards and the end of game FT shooting advantage will increase for Harvard as well.
Edited by HARVARDDADGRAD on 01-06-20 01:14 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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