In reply to: We had one guy with assists. None from anybody else. posted by Dennis
With the starters having such swings in their scoring and lacking of other things they do except Laz rebounding and Ryan defending, when you get bad offense, there is no one that can be subbed in for a change. Just have to live with the bad shooting and hope they come out of it (which rarely seems to happen - it's either all good or all bad for a game).
Maybe with Hammond and Campbell healthy, it can change a bit, but that's unlikely.
It gives a little more chance of finding someone that can hit a shot any given game. This team is essentially identical to last year’s team. If JJ becomes a star and a drive and dish guy like Wesley, we will be almost identical to last year. We will be a threat to beat almost anyone, but totally dependent on good shooting to win.
Wesley was a bit more of a defensive help than JJ probably will be - so that hurts some.
As I understand it, tracking passes that lead to a shot, regardless of whether the shot is converted.
From my Marquette grad son who knows college basketball: who are the 3 point shooters on this team? That was a microcosm of the issues with this ND team - if they aren't hitting jumpers of any kind, let alone 3s, and the other team has a big man that can post up, even one of limited ability, it will be a long night for the Irish.
Lubin had a nice game. Otherwise, that was nearly unwatchable.
Keep in mind tha point of my post below. The averages can look good, but variance matters.
theme with this team the past few years. Brey went all in with this group - depending on how long he sticks around, this could define the end of this career at ND. As you noted with Ryan, the challenge is that other than him, no one really does anything else all that well other than shoot. So if you are not shooting well, there isn't much else to benefit from. I wasn't able to watch yesterday. I did listen to a bit on the radio and was disappointed that we came out so slow.
The one thing I thought about this team after the first 5 games was that the experienced guys weren't overly excited about these games and were just going to grind out wins....almost like an NBA team that doesn't really do a lot for 82 games but kicks it into a higher gear once the playoffs begin. To some extent, I'm okay with that as long as you get the wins. I considered yesterday to be the first test of any significance as it was the first game away from home and a decent opponent. It would appear we came out flat although it's hard to tell without watching.
The ACC looks pretty bad again so we better do our work in some of these upcoming games. I still believe this team can do a lot of damage but they will have to find ways to win games win the perimeter shots are not falling. The MSU game might be UK last year in terms of a game we need to get.
Starling and Lubin become pretty critical. They can help in different ways in terms of scoring and protecting the rim. And I would say the area we might miss Wesley the most is disrupting passing lanes. He got his hands on a lot of passes because of his length. Starling, while also athletically gifted, does not have the same length and may not help as much defensively.
I try to not put too much stock into one game but we don't have a lot of margin for error outside of conference play. I think the mid-majors are going to get a record number of at large bids to the tournament due to the number of transfers.
I didn't see it; but to hear Tony Simeone describe the game on the radio, the Irish rans the offense and got good shots. They just kept missing them. I suppose it could have been a concentration issue, but I've seen this 'can't make a shot' scenario enough times to believe it was simply the shooters' day to suck.
Two freshman v only one last year. They both will grow this year and maybe take us a tiny notch higher. Otherwise, largely JJ is Wesley and all others are the same. Hubb is gone, but Wesley and Hammond more or less are his offense and defense. Lubin isn’t Atkins today - but probably is close to a tie within 10-15 games and maybe more at times given the athleticism difference.
In short, if we string 2-3 good shooting nights together we can easily be a S16 team and maybe even E8 with the right draw. We also could get bounced early if we start with a cold night.
Campbell may also be a wildcard - because he could become a legitimate sub if we have foul trouble - which we didn’t have last year.
Hammond will allow us to attempt to rotate out the worst shooter each game. We can’t really do that today.
pt. attempts per game. That needs to change. Also Starling is averaging only 0.8 assists per game and 2.3 FTA per. We need more playmaking out of him than that. Hopefully that development comes soon because as others have pointed out our conference isn't going to provide us a lot of opportunities.
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