MBB G2 M1: Louisiana 66, UNO 63

[Cajunsmike]

What is even more concerning is according to Marlin postgame, he was happy with UNO shooting the 3. He wanted to take his chances with that.

I watched UNO vs BYU and they struggled from the perimeter in that game. Understandable game plan was to shut off drive and allow certain guys to have outside shots. Guy who went 4 for 4 including three 3 pointers had gone one for 6 in the two previous games. Agree some of the open threes given up late were too wide open but the game plan generally worked defensively. I was at the game and the big negative is obvious to all. Shooting 4 for 24 from three is a recipe for disaster. I cannot recall ever winning a game before last night with perimeter shooting that poor. Winning when that occurs is virtually unheard of. Therefore you have to do a lot of other things well to be victorious when that occurs. That includes forcing turnovers, protecting the paint, and hitting free throws at crunch time. Encouraging in that Awkuba and Wilson were money at the line when pressure was on. A big man who can hit free throws is a luxury and MAlik seems to have improved at the line. There is Another encouraging sign you guys who watched online may not have picked up on. That is morale and body language of the guys on the bench was positive throughout the game. You could tell they were supportive of all the guys on the floor and team success was the priority. Still, we cannot continue shooting like last night and expect to have much success. While we did well forcing turnovers we still committed too many. I do not expect the shooting to be as poor as last night on a regular basis. Guys have shown they are better than that previously. Hopefully last night was an anomaly in that regard.

[zephyr]

Believe it or not the team is shooting 46% on the season (Granted Awkuba is carrying the team with a team leading 83.3% from the field), where we are horrendous is from 3 point land, where we are shooting a total of 23%.

And most of that is Mylik Wilson who is 1-7 and Gueye who is 0-4. As bad as Russell has looked he is actually 5-16 or 31% on the season, which is not as bad as I thought. I would have assumed he was around the 25 or lower %

Yes, you are correct about the 3 pt shooting and what always drives me nuts is our unwavering commitment to just jacking up 3's no matter how poorly we may be shooting. At some point, working for open shots around basket has got to be considered and if we are going to continue shooting all those 3's, we better start getting equally persistent about hitting the boards and trying to get second chance points.

[cajuns80]

Are we playing Saturday as Marlin stated was a done deal in his presser? Or that not happening?

[Cajunsmike]

Trying to find out now

[cajuns80]

Trying to find out now

Thanks

[Cajunsmike]

Quick reminder our staff relies on analytics to some degree and design things to push open threes and shots in the paint. Mid range is an afterthought. They will not pass an open one up if it is late in shot clock however. That is an area I disagree with staff on. I think we should prioritize mid range a little more. Consider two huge baskets last night late were mid range makes by Gueye and AU. On the other hand the huge majority of threes taken last night were open. Shooting such a low percentage was doubly frustrating therefore.

[cajuns80]

Quick reminder our staff relies on analytics to some degree and design things to push open threes and shots in the paint. Mid range is an afterthought. They will not pass an open one up if it is late in shot clock however. That is an area I disagree with staff on. I think we should prioritize mid range a little more. Consider two huge baskets last night late were mid range makes by Gueye and AU. On the other hand the huge majority of threes taken last night were open. Shooting such a low percentage was doubly frustrating therefore.

Agreed, if we were shooting 38-40% from 3 for our guards I would agree with them on taking the 3 but we don’t shoot near that clip with our guard trio of Russell, Wilson, Au. Don’t think Wilson will ever be shooting at that clip. Offense got better in the second half using Au to get Wilson some easy slashes to the rim

[CajunEXPRESS]

It doesn’t take some strange algorithms analytics to understand making 3 pointers at 33.333% clip is equal to the a duce at 50% clip. But it’s not. Those inside the arch duces gets you many more foul shots, and with a good rebounding team more 2nd chance points.

Then of course there’s the clear sign you’re not even close to the 33.333% mark. My 3rd grade granddaughter can give me the odds of that suddenly changing during the game.

[zephyr]

Quick reminder our staff relies on analytics to some degree and design things to push open threes and shots in the paint. Mid range is an afterthought. They will not pass an open one up if it is late in shot clock however. That is an area I disagree with staff on. I think we should prioritize mid range a little more. Consider two huge baskets last night late were mid range makes by Gueye and AU. On the other hand the huge majority of threes taken last night were open. Shooting such a low percentage was doubly frustrating therefore.

Creating "open" shots should always be the focus of an offense. This stupid 3 ball or layup thing works very well if you are the Golden State Warriors and have shooters all over the place. You have to have the players with talent and skills to be able to execute what you want. Why build a team on shooting 3's when we have guys who can't shoot for ____?

[cajuns80]

Creating "open" shots should always be the focus of an offense. This stupid 3 ball or layup thing works very well if you are the Golden State Warriors and have shooters all over the place. You have to have the players with talent and skills to be able to execute what you want. Why build a team on shooting 3's when we have guys who can't shoot for ____?

And with all these missed 3's, teams are getting out in transition and getting way too many easy buckets.

[moorecajun]

Most of the SBC tournament games have been played at the Alario Center, not Lakefront Arena.

Sorry Dave, I have gone to some of the games at Lakefront Arena.

[Cajunsmike]

Creating "open" shots should always be the focus of an offense. This stupid 3 ball or layup thing works very well if you are the Golden State Warriors and have shooters all over the place. You have to have the players with talent and skills to be able to execute what you want. Why build a team on shooting 3's when we have guys who can't shoot for ____?

Obviously these guys are showing they can make the three pointers in practice. Guys like Au and Butts have done so in their previous stops. Wilson actually shot 38 per cent from three last year. Perhaps the pressure of having to actually perform in games is a factor here. As far as analytics go, the 33.33 percent from three equaling 50 percent from two is obvious. However, it is also true that rebounding numbers and free throw attempts are negatively impacted by a heavy reliance on the three ball. Studies have shown that you have to hit 38 percent from three to truly make it equal to 50 percent from two. At least that is what NBA folks believe. I imagine it is similar in the college game.