What's the biggest area of improvement for the MBB team?

[Buffnik]

There are some things this team does very well.

We're an excellent rebounding team. We've got 4 double digit scorers in the starting lineup. We generally defend well. We get to the foul line and are very efficient on offense (turnovers excluded).

But then there are some areas that are cause for concern:

1. Bench scoring. Outscored 20-3 off the bench by Fresno State and XJ is leading our bench at under 6 ppg.

2. Foul shooting. It's up to 66.4%, but is still erratic. Last season we worried about our FTs and we were at 69.1%. Were we just spoiled with Levi, Cory, Alec and Marcus and that 77.8% 2010-11 season from the stripe?

3. Assist / Turnover Ratio. Over the past 2 seasons, the Buffs were about 1/1 on this ratio. This year, assists are down 25% and turnovers are up about 10% per game. That has us at a 3/5 AT ratio.

4. Defensive Pressure. Right now we're allowing opponents to shoot 40.9% from the field. That's 109th in the nation. We're also 279th in turnover margin (not forcing many in addition to our own turnover problems), 238th in steals per game, 154th in 3pt% defense (not fighting through screens or extending pressure), 133rd in blocked shots per game and 91st in fouls per game.

All of this needs to improve. But which do you think is most vital for the Buffs to become the team we hope they can be this year?

 

[alec10burks]

It has to be the turnovers. We make so many awful turnovers every game that need to be cut down if we want to compete against good/great teams.

Obviously we need more scoring off of the bench but the turnovers is the most pressing concern right now.

 

[jwhite17]

Easily assist/turnover ratio!! No reason we should be as terrible as we are currently. I think we are close to being the worst team in team in D1 with 9 assists/game. The PG for Syracuse has more assists/game than we do as a team. Surprisingly, Booker is leading the team in assists! Alas, we are a young team still learning how to play together. I believe this number will go up, especially with all the work Boyle is doing over break.

I don't expect our bench to really score much besides X Johnson. Stalzer could get hot shooting threeballs some games, but no one else is really dependable IMO. Talton has potential though.

I wish Jeremy Adams would be that guy, but I don't see him ever being a consistent player off the bench. He will provide some good D and hustle, but that's really it.

If we can get to the asisst/turnover ratio as last year, play better defense, I think this team will easily surpass last year's win total. We have much better talent, and we have a solid post player in Scott.

THinking about it, our team depends on getting to the line a lot. When we go on the road, we obvoiusly don't get the same calls compared to home, maybe that's a factor for all of our turnovers and road difficulties? Our team is too reliant on getting to the strip.

I expect our defense to gradually improve as the year goes on. Scott is still learning how to defend at this level, which will take him some time.

I hope these next two games are blowouts, so Boyle can use different lineups and get our bench mroe experience and build depth.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

improve from the charity stripe -- you have to make teams pay by making these uncontested freebies. They're also critical for closing out games.

 

[Tractor]

Turnovers:
We don't turn it over 14 times a game, we don't give up 7 layups. Our defensive % goes up a bit.

Free throws will hopefully work themselves out. All we really need is a guy that can make them with 4 minutes left (Mayor?)

How do you tell a guy like Adams to not drop his shoulder and try to run over everybody on his way to the hoop?

I think Stalzer plays pretty well, and I trust his 3 point shot.

XJ will get this game figured out eventually. Andre also fouled out of like 1/3 of his games his freshman year too. It's tough to get accustomed to this level of play.

 

[CVilleBuff]

Had to go with turnovers as they've been completely out of control. Not shocking for a young team, but it has to improve and we aren't close to where we need to be with that.

The bench scoring is a major concern at the moment, though. We certainly aren't getting the production that we hoped for, but XJ will come on in the scoring department and it would be nice if SHT could find a few key games to give us 6-8 points instead of 0-2. Stalzer will get a little more comfortable and give us a nice swish or two from the bonusphere every game.

The foul shooting is just unacceptable. This team won't be winning more than 1 road game, 2 max, if we continue this nonsense of shooting in the 50's from the charity stripe. You can't give away free points on the road. While we were extremely good from the foul line two years ago, we weren't spoiled. Plenty, and I mean plenty of teams shoot in the 70s. There's no reason we can't be hitting low to mid 70s. We've been extremely lucky to get away with it time and time again, and I'm afraid that luck has about worn itself out. Either figure it out, or lose heartbreakers in inexcusable fashion.

 

[GoBuffs!!]

I went with bench scoring, not so much just for the pure #'s of scoring, but more of, they have to prove themselves to be more of a scoring threat. This will lighten the load for the starters, which I would tend to equate to a better A/T ratio.

Free Throws, and defense are musts to improve, but I think the biggest impact will be bench scoring/effectiveness.

 

[GoBuffs!!]

Speaking of defensive pressure, does anyone else feel that we have had a quite a few moments where they were playing really good defense, but then some guy hits a 35 ft. shot with 1 second on the shot clock with dinwidde all over him? I would expect that from the Kansas's of the world, but it seems that we have had more than a few moments where, I was just like "gotta take my hat off to that"

I could be off, and wearing my home team glasses

 

[Buffnik]

Speaking of defensive pressure, does anyone else feel that we have had a quite a few moments where they were playing really good defense, but then some guy hits a 35 ft. shot with 1 second on the shot clock with dinwidde all over him? I would expect that from the Kansas's of the world, but it seems that we have had more than a few moments where, I was just like "gotta take my hat off to that"

I could be off, and wearing my home team glasses

I've felt the same way. Some of that is just bad luck. But some of that is that when you're not taking charges, getting steals or blocking shots you're also not getting into the other players' heads to throw them off their game. They don't hit those shots if they're not feeling so confident.

 

[Goose]

This is a no-brainer for me -- it's easily assist/turnover ratio. If this team plays defense like they're capable of, and stops turning the ball over, they're damn hard to beat. Minimize turnovers and make the opponents earn every bucket out there. If we do that, we'll win a majority of our games no matter what our bench production is.

I initially had FT shooting as my (distant) second concern, but I just looked up the numbers. While we're in the bottom third, the national average is 68.8% and we're at 66.4%, so it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I expect us to finish closer to the national average as the season goes on. We're not going to be the Higgins/Burks/Levi/Relphorde team, but we should be able to get to last year's level.

 

[torero]

I voted Free throws. Gotta make the freebies.

Turnovers are a problem, not so much our assist to turnover ratio though. The way this team plays, there are less assists to be had. A lot of our scoring is the Mayor or Ski going one on one on somebody, even a little bit of that from Dre. Chen's couple buckets a game are typically the same way. Lack of assists doesn't worry me, although the turnovers are too high.

 

[GoBuffs!!]

I've felt the same way. Some of that is just bad luck. But some of that is that when you're not taking charges, getting steals or blocking shots you're also not getting into the other players' heads to throw them off their game. They don't hit those shots if they're not feeling so confident.

I completly agree, I liked when we played Bailor, one of the first 3's that Heslip tried to take I think it was Chen (could have been someone else) who took him out, made him know how the game was going to be played, and sure enough, he was not much of a factor in the game.

 

[jgisland]

I think that TO's are an issue but not assist to TO ratio. Tad Boyle teams offenses aren't setup to have a lot of assists. This isn't a motion or pick and roll offense where it is easy to get a lot of assists. There is a lot of isolation and contested jump shots in this offense. Until there is a fundamental shift in offensive philosophy don't expect the ratio to change much.

 

[Andy Smith]

Assists have increased dramatically. There is less of that "Westbrook Syndrome" amongst the team (to be fair, Westbrook's assists are up this season from last year).

 

[Buffenuf]

It has to be the turnovers. We make so many awful turnovers every game that need to be cut down if we want to compete against good/great teams.

Obviously we need more scoring off of the bench but the turnovers is the most pressing concern right now.

:yeahthat: Just plain stop TO's! Nothing killed 'em in KU game more than that. Don't care that much about assists with this team. Yeah, their bench needs to score more, but there are a lot of frosh. They just need to to take the open shots when they have it. More worried about Talton than Stalzer in that regard; but Tad should encourage them to shoot more.