With CC likely out for a significant amount of time, this gives White a legit excuse for having a poor record this season, even if he had a healthy roster it was not going to end well. The CC injury just took the heat off White for at least another year and that disappoints me to the bone.
The club seems to have found new life but against 2nd tier competition, we shall see how they hold up against quality opponents going forward.
It may or may not. At 11 wins, we need nine more to reach 20 (often a magic number for tourney eligibility among at-larges). There are at least seven games that are "easily winnable: Van, @MZ, MS, GA, Ark, @GA, @Van The remaining seven games are tough, but if we can steal one or two there + get the winnable games, we are positioned pretty well going into the SEC tourney.
I'm curious as to why it wasn't practiced. When I played in high school, we ran multiple zones, presses and flavors of man-to-man. We sucked, but it wasn't because of that
Not sure about that but have to say there were times during that game that I didn't have a clue what the plan seemed to be. It was like a game of pickup in the hood!
Several times we played a 1-3-1 zone that extended to midcourt so that a trap could be run out of it. The purpose of which was to get the ball out of Molinar's hands when he saw the trap coming. I guess that because we hadn't done this before MSU was not drilled on how to get the ball back to Molinar in their recent practices and walk throughs. We will not have that advantage going forward because now teams will be prepared. But how many PGs will we see as talented as Molinar? Not many. We had run 1-3-1 zone in previous years, but more compact with the idea of disrupting perimeter passing instead. I thought it was a great adjustment and I credit the players for having a high enough basketball IQ to get what was expected and then to execute it. The basic concept of what Coach White wanted was very simple so not that hard to implement: Have Molinar give up the ball and make the other players make decisions. I get not practicing a 1-3-1 zone much this year. It would take CC, an elite shot blocker, away from the rim and up near the free throw line. In a 1-3-1 you really want your fastest guy as the "1" near the basket for closing out on baseline shooters if the other team finds a way to get the ball to them. That is why White used Chiozza as that player very often we he ran a 1-3-1 when Cheeze was here. And we don't have anyone that fast.
