Note: This is gonna be kinda long, but I think unmentioned stuff worthy of discussion.
In the first half of the season (>early feb) I had said on here that our choreography in the half-court offense was usually well executed. We just couldn’t make shots. I got to thinking yesterday, we O-boarded substantially better on offense, boarded better defensively too. Shot more FTs. I don’t think our defense was ever bad, but it seemed like we forced way more steals early on in the year. More transition offense too. I started going through our box scores, right on the money. Couple exceptions but with reasoning (ie: high O-Reb vs UNC high possession game) — I’m not claiming that we didn’t take any bad shots early on. Collectively as a team we made more of an effort to get a high-percentage shot because everyone was moving.
Bobby Knight invented the motion offense and he has a famous quote about it — “If you’re not moving then you’re doing it wrong!!!”
Skip games during Z’s injury, fast forward to ACC / NCAA Tournament..... Wtf happened? We were statues. Someone would set an on-ball pick and then everyone stood still and stared, ISO watching. Zion(or RJ) chillin’ on one wing, Cam’s the same on the other. Tre’s chillin in the corner or up top. RJ or Z driving into pack-line or pulling up a three. We went from motion offense to no-motion offense. For the most part, we were solidly defending teams. But we didn’t have that energy (motivation? intensity?) in the passing lanes. Overall on both sides of the ball, we never had momentum and that translates into energy that powers the extra effort.
With all the mid-season injuries it’s easy to forget that we once looked pretty healthy in the half-court set and ran a real offense. We may have shot the ball piss poor all year, but we comfortably survived most games because everyone was collectively active.
I need an answer, why we were different?
Watched some parts of games from first half of the season and I noticed something — Nearly every time we brought the ball up the court (non-transition), JACK WHITE is jogging up the court parallel to Tre and giving signals. Immediately he starts the movement with someone, this forces everyone else to MOVE (rotate, cut, screen, etc.) in order to keep proper spacing. Teams still played a condensed defense against us, but our off-ball movement tangled defenders, opened up cuts and open 3’s. Most importantly there was openings to attack the basket, which made a lot of attempts result in FTs rather than turnover / poor choice. Defensively, Jack’s hustle created the energy that powered the extra intensity notch. (Steals translating into transition offense)
He was an underrated defensive rebounder. I’ve never been shy about scoffing at metrics, but I can’t statistically translate my point of his contribution because of minutes played gap. His D-Reb% was 1% lower than Zion’s. He was also a great offensive rebounder, but the fact that he kept the offense moving (more basket cutting, less perimeter napping) translated into more 2nd chances because we didn’t have everyone 20ft+ from the basket. Our offensive rebounding would of fell off even worse if Javin wasn’t a magician at finding quick position after screening.
If you look at everything on paper, Jack means virtually nothing. On both sides of the ball he was a VOCAL LEADER. As inconsequential as his existence/contribution seemed, especially with the poor shooting slump, he made all the difference. He virtually controlled the offense without even touching the ball. I think this also creates a defense for Coach K’s offense choice. Although we weren’t a good shooting team, proper movement made this motion set best utilize our personnel. We’re slashers and space with movement is only way to free the paint.
To keep it real, I just wanted some closure on this season. I wanted a real answer that explained the disappointment. It still sucks, but I feel better knowing that Jack’s injuries took away the mandatory element of leadership. I didn’t want to believe or join the “K can’t coach anymore” camp or believe that these guys weren’t a good team. — Thoughts?
In the first half of the season (>early feb) I had said on here that our choreography in the half-court offense was usually well executed. We just couldn’t make shots. I got to thinking yesterday, we O-boarded substantially better on offense, boarded better defensively too. Shot more FTs. I don’t think our defense was ever bad, but it seemed like we forced way more steals early on in the year. More transition offense too. I started going through our box scores, right on the money. Couple exceptions but with reasoning (ie: high O-Reb vs UNC high possession game) — I’m not claiming that we didn’t take any bad shots early on. Collectively as a team we made more of an effort to get a high-percentage shot because everyone was moving.
Bobby Knight invented the motion offense and he has a famous quote about it — “If you’re not moving then you’re doing it wrong!!!”
Skip games during Z’s injury, fast forward to ACC / NCAA Tournament..... Wtf happened? We were statues. Someone would set an on-ball pick and then everyone stood still and stared, ISO watching. Zion(or RJ) chillin’ on one wing, Cam’s the same on the other. Tre’s chillin in the corner or up top. RJ or Z driving into pack-line or pulling up a three. We went from motion offense to no-motion offense. For the most part, we were solidly defending teams. But we didn’t have that energy (motivation? intensity?) in the passing lanes. Overall on both sides of the ball, we never had momentum and that translates into energy that powers the extra effort.
With all the mid-season injuries it’s easy to forget that we once looked pretty healthy in the half-court set and ran a real offense. We may have shot the ball piss poor all year, but we comfortably survived most games because everyone was collectively active.
I need an answer, why we were different?
Watched some parts of games from first half of the season and I noticed something — Nearly every time we brought the ball up the court (non-transition), JACK WHITE is jogging up the court parallel to Tre and giving signals. Immediately he starts the movement with someone, this forces everyone else to MOVE (rotate, cut, screen, etc.) in order to keep proper spacing. Teams still played a condensed defense against us, but our off-ball movement tangled defenders, opened up cuts and open 3’s. Most importantly there was openings to attack the basket, which made a lot of attempts result in FTs rather than turnover / poor choice. Defensively, Jack’s hustle created the energy that powered the extra intensity notch. (Steals translating into transition offense)
He was an underrated defensive rebounder. I’ve never been shy about scoffing at metrics, but I can’t statistically translate my point of his contribution because of minutes played gap. His D-Reb% was 1% lower than Zion’s. He was also a great offensive rebounder, but the fact that he kept the offense moving (more basket cutting, less perimeter napping) translated into more 2nd chances because we didn’t have everyone 20ft+ from the basket. Our offensive rebounding would of fell off even worse if Javin wasn’t a magician at finding quick position after screening.
If you look at everything on paper, Jack means virtually nothing. On both sides of the ball he was a VOCAL LEADER. As inconsequential as his existence/contribution seemed, especially with the poor shooting slump, he made all the difference. He virtually controlled the offense without even touching the ball. I think this also creates a defense for Coach K’s offense choice. Although we weren’t a good shooting team, proper movement made this motion set best utilize our personnel. We’re slashers and space with movement is only way to free the paint.
To keep it real, I just wanted some closure on this season. I wanted a real answer that explained the disappointment. It still sucks, but I feel better knowing that Jack’s injuries took away the mandatory element of leadership. I didn’t want to believe or join the “K can’t coach anymore” camp or believe that these guys weren’t a good team. — Thoughts?
