REBOUNDING will be this team’s Achilles heels. UC Irvine is a good opponent, and agree that an available Vrankic is a difference maker.
Mental lapses are contributing to the poor rebounding IMO too.
Rebounding woes returned…-17 on the night, and gave up 14 offensive boards…tough to win that way. Team shooting %'s were about the same, we had 3 fewer turnovers and outscored them at the FT line by 6…rebounding the glaring problem, too many 2nd chance opportunities for Irvine
The Irvine 13-0 run coincided with them going to 2-3 zone D…our zone O was stagnant, didn’t get great looks. This the precise reason and example why I (along with many others here) have griped under Sendek and KK about not having a Zone D in your hip pocket to use when needed or even just short stretches to take the opposing O out of their rhythm.
Is there any chance Holt plays this year?
Getting hammered from behind by large athletic men without getting calls has a fatiguing effect. Fatigue is mental as well as physical.
I don’t understand why they correctly tightened up the calls until about 5 minutes to go, and then let them just start beating on people with no calls (but if you push back after they get rebound, then they call it).
This is why coaches get so upset at officials. The inconsistency.
Hopefully this experience will leave the team better suited to deal with conference play when hopefully Vrankic is back and some of the secondary players have had to take on bigger jobs in his absence.
Re: Holt- Don’t know but just noticed he wasn’t suited up again tonight.
No PT for Tongue tonight. Just 10mins for Stewart, 2 mins for Tomley (Tomley was suited up for TCU and Fresno as well BTW). Knapper has been suited up all along, assume they are just trying to preserve a redshirt for him as we have plenty of bodies in the backcourt.
Wasn’t about that. The guards sliced up the zone. But they didn’t get calls when they got hacked going to the basket.
Also, playing zone when you can’t rebound is a very, very bad idea.
Noob, you always blame the refs… poor calls didn’t lose this game, and it’s wasn’t officaited in a lopsided manner.
Bottom line is I said how this game would be played and for most of it SCU handled it quite well. Not sure there’s any counter for your opponent being allowed to walk defensive rebounders under the basket regardless of position. That’s kinda what the rules are designed to prevent.
It definitely was. But you never know what you’re talking about so I’m not surprised how wrong you are.
Apparently you weren’t watching very closely because their zone clearly impacted us. 13-0 run shortly after it was applied speaks for itself. Yes the guards got a couple OK looks but in general our Zone O was clearly less effective than vs. man…less ball and player movement, mostly contested shots, went deeper in to shot clock, etc.
1 Like
You both make valid points on the zone defense. It’s a catch 22 in that it does provide your opponent with a different look especially if not strong from the perimeter, but can leave you vulnerable on the glass if you’re not a decent rebounding team to begin with.
Some front court depth would be welcomed right now, even if contributions from Tongue/Holt are minimal, just to lengthen the bench a little and give 3-4-5 guys a little extra rest.
There were a lot of deep clocks all game.
A lot of times people confuse results with process. They changed defenses before SCU got the 7 point lead (Justice hit a 3 against the zone). So it’s not like boom they switch and instant success.
After that got several shots in the lane but got hit trying to shoot them and no calls on any of them. It’s too bad statcast doesn’t have a shot chart. At least 3 actual layups and a couple of other shots in the lane.
If they didn’t play in this game, they aren’t ready to play.
Shot 80% from the line but missed front ends are like two misses.
Hopefully this at least tamps down some of the crazy talk like Jalen being a pro or this team being NCAA at large. Maybe with Vrankic they might have been good enough, but without him and with all of the other losses, just no way.
Basically just trying to hold it together until he gets back. Like if USF lost Bouyea or BYU Barcello, or LMU lost Scott, or Gonzaga lost Timme. Even though they have other players, it would make a difference, no matter what some here say.
And losing 4 other guys makes a difference too, even if they aren’t as good.
It’s too bad we couldn’t bank 10 points of those 20 point wins and save them for these games.
5 blowout wins, and then 2 close losses. Still 25 odd games to be played. Hopefully Vrankic will be available for 17-20 of them.
1 Like
Time to first shot after Justice’s 3 (not counting the last possession): 17.1 seconds.
Time to first shot the rest of the half up to then (not counting the uncontested dunk on a fast break): 16.2.
There was one possession in each section which was extended beyond 30 seconds despite not getting a shot (basically a foul), and I counted those as separate possessions. But that would affect the smaller sample size slightly more.
So basically, I don’t see a statistically significance difference here, without actually doing a statistical significance test. And SCU got good shots (5 misses in the paint, and 2 missed 3’s before the last possession). I just don’t see much to suggest that the defense change gave SCU problems getting the shots they want.
Interesting that SCU scored 18 points in 11 possessions ending with that 3. So it could be that it was likely that they would go a bit cold and be reeled back in, but going cold at the same time as they couldn’t miss was an unlikely occurrence that happened at the wrong time.
Justice and braun played great . I would like to see more Stewart and Bediako and less G. Williams . He is out of control too much
2 Likes
I don’t know if he out of control, I believe he just can’t chew gum and walk at the same time. The ball stalls with him on simple swing passes. The flow slows down and the rhythm isn’t good. We lost on their 2nd chance shots again after good initial defense but look at the threes they hit. It was drive and kick outs where the defense is trying to recover after helping on the drive. Now, look at how many times we get those same looks with better shooters ?
When you get guys looks in rhythm it’s just like how you practice and do drills but for some reason, we either refuse or just don’t have the skills or desire to kick out for shoots.
Lastly, our turnovers were really bad and in some cases, just trying to dribble into 2 or 3 people instead of kicking it out. We need better ball handling that includes the ability to see the floor and make a pass to the open guy because they have tape on us now and teams are going to continue to pressure us until it is figured out.
Beating a zone is simple, you swing the ball quickly for open in rhythm shots, get it to the free throw line and pivot for a pass left or right, or you penetrate it and then kick out or on the base line for an easy layup or dunk but to do that, you need a skilled player in the popping up in the middle (Vrankic) and not GW.
3 Likes
Stewart is out of control a lot too. I knew that would be an issue bc he is used to doing so much in high school. He was out of control at times there too, but it was acceptable bc well, they had to live with it bc he was all they had.
1 Like
Irvine sat on the 3 point line really well. Pipes didn’t have a single 3 point attempt. SCU made a good percentage but they didn’t have many in the halfcourt – Justice had several that were in quick transition before the defense could get set.
They’re a well coached team. I don’t think they should be allowed to play the way they do, but they were and they took advantage of it.
10 turnovers is not really a bad number. Only 2 in the second half. I might have expected a couple fewer because of how UCI plays defense (they don’t gamble for steals much), but not many. 6 or 7 is pretty much a minimum viable number for a game. You’re almost never going to come in below that unless you’re playing a D3 team or something.
2 Likes
Giordan has given us some good minutes in the past ( the only guy that shot the 3 well last season) but agree he has been out of control the last two games. He is at his best on catch and shoot 3s and straight line drives (of the one dribble, slash variety). Not sure why, but against Fresno and Irvine he has been trying to cross guys up off the dribble and that just isn’t his game.
5 Likes
Bob, I totally agree with you. The Broncos need him to minimize his bounces, avoid getting stranded and drain his open looks until Vrankic returns. Otherwise, we have problems.