mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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02-16-24 01:54 AM - Post#363250
It's going to take our best—basically, how we played against UMass—to win in Ithaca. I think the keys for us will be:
1) We need Lesmond to get four or five threes, which realistically means getting him eight to ten good looks. It's going to take a team effort to do that. We need to make a point of looking for him in transition, on kickouts, and any offensive rebounds we might get.
2) Which, of course, would require us to get some offensive rebounds. That's been a problem. Our guys aren't magically going to become better rebounders, but an easy thing we could to help would to be run some more ball screens from our bigs. Defenses would have to hedge or double enough that our big guys could get a one step head start on getting inside position. Plus it's something we want to do with Mack anyway.
3) We need to get at least 15 combined points from Pigge and Batties. Whether that means knocking down some threes, catching the defense asleep on cuts, or opportunistically attacking closeouts, we need those guys to be threats on the offensive side of the ball.
4) We can't forget about Okpara; he's our second-best shot creator. I'd like to force feed him early on, especially in the high post where he could exploit his quickness advantage vs their bigs but still back down a smaller guy if they put one on him.
It does without saying that we need an A performance from Mack. We got one last week, which was really the first one since he came back from mono. We need more.
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mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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02-17-24 08:31 AM - Post#363359
In response to mobrien
I'll start with the good; it won't take long. I thought our activity level on defense in the first half was much, much better than the first time we played these guys. We did a great job staying with cutters and having active hands to disrupt their passes. Also did a good job rotating and making multiple efforts each possession. Simon in particular did a solid job, and certainly earned some more minutes going forward.
The bad was our offense. We aren't going to win many games when Mack is that off, or when we only find Lesmond for one three point attempt (he could have had a couple more in the first half, but bad passes took away what would have been open looks). It's too bad because Okpara actually did play well and Ajogbor did give us what we needed from him; we just went away from them in the second half, when things spiraled out of control.
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