McDermott's offense

[Oldgeezer]

Point taken, I really shouldn't be ragging on the defense. But the same guys who could fix the shooting percentage, that is a couple of bangers who could establish and hold a post position, and shoot 60 % on shots under 5 ft. could also hunt down a rebound now and then. They are not on the roster at this time.

[ISUFan22]

But, if you want to know the biggest problem with this team, take a look at field goal percentage and see where we rank. Dead last.

You mean, we struggle with scoring? No...I would've never guessed!

Yeah, I "expected" that after the lack of scoring last year and losing Mike Taylor, our leading scorer from '06/'07. Combine the fact that we lost one of our better potential scorers in Lucca - and it was clear we were not going to be in the 70's/80's much this season.

[cyclonenum1]

Geezer,


Big 12 Conference - Official Athletic Site

We are 3rd in the conference in field goal percentage defense and 6th in points allowed. The defense is fine.

We are sixth in rebounding as well, but only 9th in rebounding margin. You are correct, our rebounding needs work, for sure.

But, if you want to know the biggest problem with this team, take a look at field goal percentage and see where we rank. Dead last.

Too many outside shots and not enough inside shots leads to a low field goal percentage.

[Darth Cy]

I think when your looking at the field goal percentage defense and see ISU third that looks good. But if you look at the numbers a little closer you can see some problems with this measure. The way I see it is the % is based on other teams attempts to made field goals and coming up with a percentage defense.

So what I look at is that it shows that ISU has allowed FGA of 652 and FGM of 275 to get .422 to place third in the Big 12. Well there are two teams that have allowed more FGA than ISU and they are Kansas and Baylor with 653 and 686. Then looking and scoring per game Baylor is first with 82, Kansas is third with 80 and ISU is 11th at 62 points per game.

The glaring weakness I see is a team that can not rebound worth a crap. So what skews that number a little is the fact that the % scoring defense would look a lot better if I knew ISU was averaging 20 more points a game. So with ISU slowing the game to avg 62 points a game and the fact the the other teams can shoot so many FG during a game does shows me why ISU record is where it currently is at 4-7 in the BIG 12.

I think what I am trying to say that percentages are not worth the websites they show up on. You can always play with numbers to get the desired result you want to see.

[ajjohnson]

Its not the ignorance of the system, its the talent running the system. They have practiced and played together for HUNDREDS of hours. There are only five guys on the court, its not like football where timing and precision are a lot more crucial (where a two or three year learning the system excuse would also be ridiculous). You can learn any offense in the world in 5 months. We don't have a big 12 ready point guard right now and its not because they lack knowlege of our system. Its being able to execute basic fundamentals, not memorizing 250 plays. We go into each game with a scouting report and game plan to exploit matchups and set up our best options. They know the 5 key plays we will run the most before the game, it is not a big surprise that has to be identified from 200 options every time down the court! The fact is our point guards sometimes we have trouble dribbling against good defenders period.

There are hundreds of examples of really good young teams over the years that also don't run simple offenses. This is an excuse and a very weak one if you follow basketball at the highest levels. Put Eric Gordon on this team, and for some reason they wouldn't need two years to learn the system because they somehow picked everything up right away.

[ajjohnson]

I actually have a little different theory as to why the offense struggles at times, and I think it is more to do with the players executing it correctly. For example, I think sometimes our big guys don't post up hard enough, or make a big enough target for themselves, or meet the pass instead of waiting for it to get to them. I think our guards struggle to create any separation, and thus timing is thrown off on the set plays. I think, overall, it's lack of strength inside and a lack of quickness and/or ball handling skills with the guards that throws the timing off set plays. With time, these things should improve.

Agree 100%.

[Wesley]

I think when your looking at the field goal percentage defense and see ISU third that looks good. But if you look at the numbers a little closer you can see some problems with this measure. The way I see it is the % is based on other teams attempts to made field goals and coming up with a percentage defense.

So what I look at is that it shows that ISU has allowed FGA of 652 and FGM of 275 to get .422 to place third in the Big 12. Well there are two teams that have allowed more FGA than ISU and they are Kansas and Baylor with 653 and 686. Then looking and scoring per game Baylor is first with 82, Kansas is third with 80 and ISU is 11th at 62 points per game.

The glaring weakness I see is a team that can not rebound worth a crap. So what skews that number a little is the fact that the % scoring defense would look a lot better if I knew ISU was averaging 20 more points a game. So with ISU slowing the game to avg 62 points a game and the fact the the other teams can shoot so many FG during a game does shows me why ISU record is where it currently is at 4-7 in the BIG 12.

I think what I am trying to say that percentages are not worth the websites they show up on. You can always play with numbers to get the desired result you want to see.

Wesley is way down on rebounding, Craig has helped, Mike Taylor was a rebounding loose ball machne. End result is poor rebounding. We also had 15 turnovers in the 11 point half against Nebraska, which did not help shot attempts.


Unfortunately, our guards pull up too far from the basket and then DG, who can penetrate further, cannot do the finger oll layups worth beans yet. He does look like his shot is getting better. Looks like the whole team needs to practice shooting this summer.