IMO, the Gators should be running the offense that the Chicago Bulls ran through Joakim Noah when Derrick Rose was injured. That offense essentially involved getting the ball to Noah at the elbow where Noah could find a cutter, find an outside shooter, shoot the 15-footer or take a one-dribble drive to the basket. There also was a lot of off-ball screens and player movement. The lane was open for Noah to take it to the hoop or for his teammates to find space inside. CC doesn’t have the court vision that Noah has, but he is an excellent shooter from 15 feet and is an excellent driver to the basket. We also have players in Reeves, Kugel and Fudge who can finish inside if it’s not clogged up in there. I also would like to see Kugel at times get the ball at the elbow with CC out of the way on the baseline. That’s kind of what the Gators were doing with KJ and CC before KJ went down . Kugel has great court vision and passing skills which are not being utilized. JJ could also play at the elbow. The inside is way too clogged up when CC is in the low post. There is no driving room for any of the other players, and CC is not finding his perimeter teammates on a regular basis. On top of that, when his teammates do get the ball on the perimeter, they are not doing a good job of knocking down open shots.
This goes way back, but at 7'-2", Dwayne Schintzius was great at firing the pass from the high post to cutting men in the lane. Colin has similar passing skills. Time to focus on that and not points for the Big Fella.
Did you see the post touch… perhaps the only true post touch …. Castleton got late on the game? He backed in on Broome, drew a double… and found a cutting Reeves for a layup. I prefer that usage.
We definitely ran something similar with CC initiating out of the high post and with more off ball movement toward the rim. It is too easy to sag in the paint or double the post against Castleton because our perimeter shooting is so average. Golden said at the outset that this team was constructed for more of a spread ball screen offense, so he would start with that, but the stuff he ran at San Fran and Hovde ran at Richmond is very different, with lots of flex and Princeton stuff thrown in.
I’d like to see more picks to open up passing and ball handling. Teams are really pressing hard on both. Seems we use very few outside of a big up top.
With jones in control of his game last night, we had more movement without the ball. It seemed to me that we had more opportunity to score inside with Reeves and Fudge that almost won this game. CC is a good passer and playing him at the top of the key helped get these two open. When he drives into the middle with guys waiting for him, I am sure all of us hold our breath. He scored on FT’s and missed on most of his drives and outside shots. Our offense made Auburn’s top defense chase us all game. Both teams shot poorly, but we had a chance to win and CC was told to make a play. If the team would have had more movement and picks, CC could have dished the winning play, but tried to Bull his way in, a mistake, but in the moment I hope he learned to facilitate will help this team more than him forcing his way into the packed underneath the basket which Auburn kept him from getting close. All SEC teams will do the same. Our hope, he takes this lesson and becomes the best dishing big in the conference and keep getting all the rebounds and blocks he can get. This will get him a spot in the pros and continue practicing his midrange shots and hook shots and using the backboard on bank shots. There will always be three point shooters in the pros but these attributes will keep him there.
Ok… but our shooting is awful partially bc so too are some of the looks. I’d like to see us work a bit more inside-out. If teams sag, or double the post… I think we get much better shots if the ball comes back out. And Colin has proven a good post passer. He had a late post touch last night, drew a double and found a cutting Reeves for an east layup. It’s not as if the current offense has been effective at hiding our poor shooting. We are still missing, and missing low quality looks. In addition, a guy who is really good on the blocks …. Is being neutralized.
We have seen enough of a sample size(almost half of the regular season schedule) to know that an offense focused on getting CC the ball in the low post is not going to work. It’s not going to work because we have no reliable outside shooters and, with the middle clogged, our players other than CC are not going to score in the paint. I am pretty sure that TG realizes this which is why he went with an offense similar to what I mentioned at the beginning of this thread. However, the ball needs to go through CC on offense. He is our best player by far. Instead, we saw the ball in the hands of our guards way too much. In last night’s game, CC was pushed out past the 3-point line by his defenders. That can’t happen. He needs to stay put at the elbow or thereabouts and get the ball from the guards. He can then face up, look for cutters or open shooters, take the 15-footer, or drive to the hoop. As to our defense, we looked better last night, but we still gave up something like 16 assists against a plain vanilla offense. We our going to be facing other offenses that have a lot more screens being set and players moving around than we saw last night. We are getting better, but we have a long way to go. And, finally, that was a great play with CC getting the ball to the cutting Reeves for the layup. That play worked because CC was outside the paint far enough to open up the paint for Reeves cut to the basket. I don’t believe that we can run an offense off of that type of play on a regular basis, but it can certainly work on occasion.
Like others, I wonder why CC doesn't get the ball more posting up at the blocks. He does appear to be hesitant, perhaps looking for and player cutting or one with a good look. I don't understand why he isn't encouraged to go up with a shot immediately if he has single coverage at the catch to avoid getting doubled.
I am not calling for Castleton to be locked onto the lower blocks, but it needs to be a component of our offense. When it is… he often scores, attracts a double team or draws fouls. I dispute the notion that the ball being passed out of a double must only yield a shot from the arc. What it does, is puts the defense in rotations… and good ball movement can yield good shots. Look- we are ultimately going to need to shoot the ball. Not everything is going to be at the rim… and we really don’t have a lot of guys who attack the rim. Fudge can do so… but who else? Reeves gets to the basket, but often from defenders running out on his shot. The bottom line- we are not going to get around shooting. And so I’d rather we complement that reality with more/better scoring opportunities for CC… and hopefully better quality shots when the ball comes out. I also think part of our poor shooting is due to poor quality of shots.
Not really…. Colin caught the ball outside the paint but worked his way inside. When he got into the paint, he drew a bunch of defensive attention. Broome was locked up on CC… his back to the eventual play; and two other AU players were eyeing CC to help down. Reeves cut from the weak side for the layup.
