Some takeaways from CU's loss to USC

[Da Lama]

A basketball team's successful begins and ends at the point and in the middle.
1) We have no play making pt guard. We have tweeners playing PG. We have serviceable off guards playing PG. We have wings playing PG. But, no true point guard who can control and create.
2) We have no middle presence. Wes has either given up or is hurt. There's no way that Metu guy should have abused him like that. It was embarrassing. And Miller just seems out of sorts all the time.

This is on Tad to address ASAP.

 

[buffaholic]

There's plenty of exceptions to point #2 above in CBB. Not so much to point number 1.

 

[buffaholic]

Yaz' Euro career didn't predict him getting worse in year 2!

 

[buffaholic]

Tad needs a PG and he needs a coach for the guards. Needs to blow up this staff.

 

[Buffs Basketball Fan]

I don't know what some of you are bitching about. The bench has been shortened. Siewert got 2 minutes last night. Same with Akyazili, 2 minutes. Brown got 6 minutes. That is 5% of the available player minutes per game.

Tad doesn't have a whole lot of options. I don't think that he can shorten the bench any more than 8. Derrick White played the most minutes of any player in the game(either team) and it showed at the end of the game. He was noticeably fatigued at the very end and could not get to the rim. I'm pretty sure that coereg is wrong, that was White that dribbled the ball off his leg in the final 1.5 minutes.

The turnover total was artificially inflated due to the non-calls by the refs. I can definitely say that 3 or 4 of those to's should have resulted in us shooting free throws instead of hustling back down on defense. That said, the 13 or 14 to's were still twice the amount that USC gave up. We probably would have missed the FT's anyway. So, yeah to's, horrible free throw shooting and the refs contributed but that wasn't the worst thing.

The worst thing that I saw last night was the large number of easy putbacks we allowed by not boxing out. I don't care if you're boxing out air, you still need to do this. Especially after we got burned a couple times. USC scored easy putbacks on 2 consecutive trips down the court in the second half because George was "resting" and figured Wes would pull the board. The lack of weak-side defensive rebounding was also noticeable at critical times. There was nobody in position.

Oh yeah, the other dip**** move was our student section throwing stuff at the Trojan bench that resulted in a Technical foul and 2 made free throws. Thanks morons.

The Buffs finally shot the ball well from the field and almost overcame all of the negatives. Almost. These guys need to be better conditioned and have much more focus on the fundamentals. Some(maybe a lot) of this is on Tad.

I don't think you can ask much more from Derrick White. XJ played well. Dom was adequate as a reserve. Tory cannot and never will be able to play D at this level but his offense was good coming off the bench. Peters is a freshman and the minutes are well spent at this time.

The rest of this season (no surprise) hinges on whether Gordon, King and Fortune can pay attention and play some ****ing ball.

The fans did not get a technical, just a warning. USC shot two free throws on the foul by White (which led to student section frustration). White did have ball go off his leg but he recovered and the possession arrow saved the turnover.

 

[Buffs Basketball Fan]

Also first year without Rodney Billups on staff.
The transition from Josh and Rodney departures was not as seamless as expected.
Even though frustration level on AB is high, there are still comments so the passion remains.

 

[Buffnik]

A basketball team's successful begins and ends at the point and in the middle.
1) We have no play making pt guard. We have tweeners playing PG. We have serviceable off guards playing PG. We have wings playing PG. But, no true point guard who can control and create.
2) We have no middle presence. Wes has either given up or is hurt. There's no way that Metu guy should have abused him like that. It was embarrassing. And Miller just seems out of sorts all the time.

This is on Tad to address ASAP.

You don't think that White is a playmaker?

 

[Da Lama]

You don't think that White is a playmaker?

Absolutely. He's not a point guard, however. Someone should be working to get him the ball. He should be a 2, not a 1.

 

[Buffnik]

Absolutely. He's not a point guard, however. Someone should be working to get him the ball. He should be a 2, not a 1.

Was Spencer a point guard in your mind?

I'm asking because I think that there's an old school misconception with a lot of Buffs fans who think of a PG as some sort of slick dribbling distributor rather than a guy who scores. Game has changed. Best PGs on the planet right now are Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry. Then you've got young guys like Lillard and Kemba. The position has changed. PG is not the problem with CU and it only has been that 1 CBI season.

We have a leadership issue. We have a frontcourt issue. And we have an issue with our wings being in shooting slumps this season.

 

[Birch1]

plus at least 8-10 MPG from Yaz

Yikes. But you're probably right. Tad is one hard-headed fella. On any other team, I'd question if Yaz would even be there next year. Surely there's a big man out there somewhere we could grab. Transfer? Anyone?

 

[Birch1]

Tad's 2nd year when the team couldn't compete on the road and we were ready to run Carlon out of town and give the minutes to a younger player... until the Pac-12 tourney happened. That has stuck with me.

Maybe you're right. Carlon led the team in scoring that year, but he only averaged 5 more than Fortune. The rest of their stats are very similar.

So we could bump Fortune's minutes so he gets up to Carlon's mpg (28.5). Sure, why not. Nothing to lose at this point. jkppkjjkp and Buffnik could be on to something. Go Gordon, XJ, King, White, Fortune (28 mins a game). Yaz in the top 3 off bench.

Honestly, I'm all for it. Why not try something different?

 

[dyemeduke]

Was Spencer a point guard in your mind?

I'm asking because I think that there's an old school misconception with a lot of Buffs fans who think of a PG as some sort of slick dribbling distributor rather than a guy who scores. Game has changed. Best PGs on the planet right now are Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry. Then you've got young guys like Lillard and Kemba. The position has changed. PG is not the problem with CU and it only has been that 1 CBI season.

We have a leadership issue. We have a frontcourt issue. And we have an issue with our wings being in shooting slumps this season.

I couldn't agree more with this post. I get rather tired of talking about positions, and a true 1 vs 5 vs 3 vs 4 vs 2... ...The game has started to become positionless from the aspect of 1 through 5. A true point guard is absolutely great, but five bball players on the court that fill what needs to happen can easily overcome not having a true point. This year in the NBA should drive home how the old thoughts on positions is breaking. The Greek Freak and Harden are point guards this year.

I'm still holding out hope on Dom. I think he has tools and game. There definitely is a spot for him in the starting five, but yeah, as the primary ball handler and distributor...maybe not. Now if we move around more and find some rhythm on offense, yeah, he can fit in nicely.

 

[BuffGAP]

Dom-XJ-Wes-Tory Miller-King-Josh Fortune-TA

How many of these players have improved since they arrived in Boulder? How many have regressed?

Player development has been missing for a few years.

 

[Daaah]

Dom-XJ-Wes-Tory Miller-King-Josh Fortune-TA

How many of these players have improved since they arrived in Boulder? How many have regressed?

Player development has been missing for a few years.

Well King got better but then...

 

[cu62nu36]

There is no way that Boyle can start Akyazili and Miller next year. The thought depresses me.

Walton had better be real good and Namon Wright or Deleon have to be better than AK at the Point. Dom is the "Levi" for this team going forward.

I think we'll need to see a transfer out and a transfer in at point guard. We've got to get better there.

 

[Birch1]

Well King got better but then...

Maybe we're being a bit too hard on King. His numbers are almost identical to last year, except he's gone up by 2.5 rebounds per game, and dropped 2.7ppg. His three point shooting went from .456 to .329, but he should be able to improve this over the rest of the year (because he's a good shooter!).

We all had high expectations because of his leap last year, but he hasn't really regressed that much all things considered. He's down 2.7 ppg in an offense that doesn't work with the cast we have.

 

[Daaah]

Maybe we're being a bit too hard on King. His numbers are almost identical to last year, except he's gone up by 2.5 rebounds per game, and dropped 2.7ppg. His three point shooting went from .456 to .329, but he should be able to improve this over the rest of the year (because he's a good shooter!).

We all had high expectations because of his leap last year, but he hasn't really regressed that much all things considered. He's down 2.7 ppg in an offense that doesn't work with the cast we have.

Good points on the stats - I didn't realize they are so similar. I'm not sure, do stats lie?

 

[Goose]

Maybe we're being a bit too hard on King. His numbers are almost identical to last year, except he's gone up by 2.5 rebounds per game, and dropped 2.7ppg. His three point shooting went from .456 to .329, but he should be able to improve this over the rest of the year (because he's a good shooter!).

We all had high expectations because of his leap last year, but he hasn't really regressed that much all things considered. He's down 2.7 ppg in an offense that doesn't work with the cast we have.

Good points on the stats - I didn't realize they are so similar. I'm not sure, do stats lie?

That's a phenomenal point - if it were true. The simple fact is that King's numbers have gone down in almost every area except for rebounding.

	2015-16​	2016-17​
ORtg	110.3	102.3
eFG%	54.8	52.5
TS%	58.2	54.1
OR%	6.9	8.9
DR%	12.4	20.4
ARate	5.8	5.9
TORate	16.9	19.1
FD/40	4.7	3.7
FTRate	35.5	23.6

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

He's not as efficient, he's not shooting as well, he's turning it over and he's not getting to the line NEARLY enough. As for his rebounding rate, he definitely deserves credit for that. But there's also a decent reason on why his numbers (and Wes') have gone up this year.

 

[jgisland]

King in transition situations as the ball handler has a 46% TO rate which is 1/3 of his transition possessions. So...that's not great.

 

[Birch1]

But there's also a decent reason on why his numbers (and Wes') have gone up this year.

Could be the reason the rest of them are down, honestly. When J40 plays not as much pressure rides on the wings and guards.

Overall his numbers are down because he's not shooting well. That effects orgt, ts, fd/40, ftrat. If he's missing there's no need to guard him, so he's not going to draw fouls.

Turnovers are definitely a worry. That's an interesting stat. His confidence is down I'm sure. So is he trying to pass more on his transitions? Is he out of place? Does our offense as a team just suck? Or did King truly regress on every level from last year, which must have been a fluke year (although I don't know how you do that for a whole year)?

We tend to look at the symptoms of a disease without determining what has changed to produce the symptoms, and forget to examine what the symptoms tell us about the whole.