General notes:
Fran made some good adjustments and perhaps sent a signal to some players when he played that defensive group down the stretch. No surprise that Keegan, Rebraca and Perkins were part of that group as I thought they were the best in terms of being where they should be.
Still think Kris getting high minutes is the key to maximizing this team long term, and that Connor could be part of that too. We'll see how the PG's come along.
- NCC took about 10 shots I consider "10 percenters", such as driving one running bank shots over defenders hands, and made about 5 or 6 of them so they were definitely on a hot shooting night. Combine that with Iowa's cold shooting from 3 and you get a closer score than predicted. I thought NCC came in aggressive, fearless and with great effort and it showed throughout the game. Their turnovers and fouling ended up doing them in, but a good test for Iowa.
- I rewatched the first 15 baskets or so by NCC to see what the issue was with dribble penetration. I was thinking they were just blowing by their main defender, but it almost all cases it was due to screens or rubs where the primary defender lost a step due to contact with another player, or where the person switching didn't carry the ball handler properly on the switch. Just like last year, and with most teams early in the season, a lot of work to do on managing screens. We switched a lot, which we can do this year, but those switches need to be done on time and with the proper positioning so they can't split the defenders or turn the corner and NCC did both.
- I'll continue to say we should use drop coverage on pick and rolls because I'll give up mid-range floaters all day long rather than teams hitting a good post on the roll or driving to the rim. This is when the ball defender goes over the screen to stop a 3 point shot and doesn't switch, the off ball defender instead of hedging the ball handler (which allows the pass to the roller) backs off 4-5 feet and denies both the roller AND the dribble drive. It does concede the midrange but given our issues with defensive rebounding and rim protection, this is the optimal tradeoff.
- NCC did a great job of identifying mismatches off of switches, including some high-low post feeds. I thought their offensive action against our switching man to man was executed quite well and Bohannon, Joe T and others just can't guard even NCC's bigs in the post.
- One thing leads to another and dribble penetration led to defensive helpers from Iowa coming over trying to block the shot, and those helpers would normally be defensive rebounders. But when they challenged the shot it left 2 weak side NCC rebounders against a weak side Iowa guard and NCC not only made a rare amount of those challenged shots, but when they missed they got the rebound fairly often. Iowa will be MUCH better this year giving up outside shots where our rebounders can maintain position rather than giving up inside shots out of the post or out of the drive where help defenders remove themselves from good rebounding position in order to help. A packline man or zone to minimize penetration and to provide quick doubles on posts would be best. Might give up a higher 3 point percentage, but giving up offensive rebound putbacks with fouls isn't much better - a tradeoff.
- Keegan had a lot of blocks and challenges, but nobody else really could protect the rim. This to me is why, ultimately, Kris needs 25-30 mpg because Kris and Keegan are the only guys we have who can challenge guys inside. Rebraca does a good job with positioning, and making himself tall, but he's not a shot blocker.
- Iowa could have gone zone earlier and done some things if they wanted to win this game by 25 or more, I think we rode it out a bit in man just to test our guys a bit. In a normal game I think we would zone this type of team a lot heavier, at least until our gap defense and screen management was sorted out. Those were pretty ugly tonight, but its early with a lot of new guys.
- I thought Rebraca was pretty good, with a few exceptions, with his defensive positioning and he seemed pretty aware on screens and where to be. We could utilize him more in the post perhaps, but defensively his best asset is his positioning.
- Patrick seems to rely on his length more than his feet on defense, Guys seem to turn the corner on him very easily and he just rides sidesaddle on them until they shoot and tries to block it. This might work if he's guarding me, but in the B10 you better move your feet first and flatten guys out on the drive. Otherwise your teammates are going to feel they have to help and it just isn't good defense.
- Joe T has some turnovers this year that aren't given to him in the score sheet but are really his. Overall though he's been ok. He hit that reverse pivot fade away in the lane that I don't like much (I need to track it this year - I think it will be a 30% shot) and was very active on defense. I think his skillset will feast on bad teams/players but will struggle against good teams/players.
- Connor was great - predictable in some weaknesses but brings a lot of stability with his ball handling and knows where the ball should go on a given possession. If we are trying to post guys up then he should be on the floor because he is a post player's best friend.
- Bohannon - wouldn't expect such a cold spell out of someone with a stroke and mentality like he has, but we've seen it a few times. I would say that I saw him stone a guy on a dribble drive and close out hard and high on more than one player, so I thought his defense was quite good in stretches. Can't defend the post, but was interesting to see him in the post a couple times.
- Ulis had a few questionable passes but overall was a good defender and fights down low for rebounds which I like because we need all the guard help we can get there. Seems to choose some high difficulty, contested mid range shots so not sure about those, but hit the one at the end of the half.
- Keegan just needs to be more consistent on his 3 point shot, but he's a beast. Plays so effortlessly and smooth that its deceptive. His dad had that same smoothness to him on the court.
- Not a good game to feature Sandfort so understand why he didn't play much. He's a solid defender but NCC was very quick across the board.
- Ogundele got some time - I like his feet and his mentality, probably a year away from anything significant from him.
- Perkins was great on defense and I thought did a good job with not pushing the ball to deep in transition when nothing came open, and just valuing the possession. He's kind of an X factor guy who you plug in when you need defensive energy or some juice on offense and see what happens. Shot is a bit funky in how he pushes it forward but his quickness will keep guys off him a bit.
Fran made some good adjustments and perhaps sent a signal to some players when he played that defensive group down the stretch. No surprise that Keegan, Rebraca and Perkins were part of that group as I thought they were the best in terms of being where they should be.
Still think Kris getting high minutes is the key to maximizing this team long term, and that Connor could be part of that too. We'll see how the PG's come along.
