Now that we've had a chance to see the team play a few games I was wondering what everyone thinks are our areas of weakness? Every team can improve, so how should the coaches effectively allocate their resources to help this team take the next step? Is there any low-hanging fruit we could address immediately? Are there weaknesses that are, maybe, personnel based that we won't even be able to address this year?

Sometimes we settle for a lower percentage shot too quickly.

Playing defense with our hands instead of our feet.

Hitting the offensive boards.

I think we'll learn a lot more with tomorrow's game.

hipsterdoofus21 wrote:Playing defense with our hands instead of our feet.

Hitting the offensive boards.

I think we'll learn a lot more with tomorrow's game.

Defense is one that I'm a little concerned about too. It seems like when our offense isn't rolling we don't hold on to leads very well. I'd be concerned that if we got behind by 10 or 12 points we wouldn't be able to shoot our way back into it.

AngusAg wrote:Sometimes we settle for a lower percentage shot too quickly.

I get frustrated with that at times, but I think it's something we'll have to get used to. TD seems to be more in the camp of letting the players have more freedom on offense. When we are scoring in the 80's and 90's it's hard to argue against that theory.

Periodic defensive lapses and shot selection issues.


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Perimeter defense (our opponents show 29 and 33 3-pointers). A team with better shooter could make that hurt badly.

Offensive boards (only 3 against UCI and 4 against NJIT).

1. Defense. This coaching staff does not give it enough attention.
2. Run the clock a little better to get better shot selection. I cannot complain to much about the offense I seen so far.
3. It is obvious that some players need to spend more time on free throw shooting.

AggieDude wrote:

AngusAg wrote:Sometimes we settle for a lower percentage shot too quickly.

I get frustrated with that at times, but I think it's something we'll have to get used to. TD seems to be more in the camp of letting the players have more freedom on offense. When we are scoring in the 80's and 90's it's hard to argue against that theory.

Yes and no, TD has gotten after Shane with his shot selection.

ratofallaggies wrote:

AggieDude wrote:

AngusAg wrote:Sometimes we settle for a lower percentage shot too quickly.

I get frustrated with that at times, but I think it's something we'll have to get used to. TD seems to be more in the camp of letting the players have more freedom on offense. When we are scoring in the 80's and 90's it's hard to argue against that theory.

Yes and no, TD has gotten after Shane with his shot selection.

True. Which tells me they have an understanding of what a good shot is and what is not. He's holding them to a certain standard but not as high of one as Stew demanded.

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Perimeter defense and offensive rebounding. Did I say offensive rebounding?

AggieDude wrote:

AngusAg wrote:Sometimes we settle for a lower percentage shot too quickly.

I get frustrated with that at times, but I think it's something we'll have to get used to. TD seems to be more in the camp of letting the players have more freedom on offense. When we are scoring in the 80's and 90's it's hard to argue against that theory.

I would only say to that, trust is earned after say 10 games, imho. Even with Jalen, I think this team could hold a rule besides fast break points, go through the sets for at least 12-14 seconds, and focus on setting good screens, and create good passes. My only other pet peeve, personally, is when we take a fade away shots. This is college amateur basketball, we don't have an NBA MVP playing on our team right now, it's super rare to be good at fade away shots. The team should be looking for give and go opportunities, wide open 3's, back door layups/slams, post-up's (norbert j.), and our offensive sets where we get a shot 15 ft. and in based on great passing. How awesome would it be if they averaged 3 assists per turnover because of running the plays, and taking advantage of the fast break opportunities.

I also agree with what was said about the boards, offensively we could always leave 3 and have 2 ready to cover the break once a shot goes up. I loved it when Jared quayle would lead the team in rebounds.

Lastly, I think with the turnovers if we could get them under control we would have better offensive sets, this is fundamentals to a T.

I think we are still too lazy in passing and need to go gets passes instead of being flat footed and waiting for a pass, especially on the perimeter. Pearre and Moore might be the biggest culprits here.

Janicek and McEwen need to work on free throws.

Posts need to go up quicker. I've seen quite a few times where they would bring the ball low after getting it and then lose it or allow the defense to set around them and usually turn it over.

Rector needs to allow the game come to him a little more while he is a little cold shooting. Merrill needs to be more assertive and less patient. When he has pressed himself a little more into the game good things have happened with good passes, good shots or good assists.


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jpswensen wrote:Perimeter defense (our opponents show 29 and 33 3-pointers). A team with better shooter could make that hurt badly.

Offensive boards (only 3 against UCI and 4 against NJIT).

I would suggest that blow-out wins, like USU has had, result in a lot of 3-pointers by the opposition. Also, NJIT had no inside presence and was forced to shoot from outside. I'm more concerned about how our 3-point defense does than the number of 3-point shots taken by our opponents.

NJIT had one player by himself shoot 17 threes. So yeah.

LoveMyAggies wrote:

AggieDude wrote:

AngusAg wrote:Sometimes we settle for a lower percentage shot too quickly.

I get frustrated with that at times, but I think it's something we'll have to get used to. TD seems to be more in the camp of letting the players have more freedom on offense. When we are scoring in the 80's and 90's it's hard to argue against that theory.

I would only say to that, trust is earned after say 10 games, imho. Even with Jalen, I think this team could hold a rule besides fast break points, go through the sets for at least 12-14 seconds, and focus on setting good screens, and create good passes. My only other pet peeve, personally, is when we take a fade away shots. This is college amateur basketball, we don't have an NBA MVP playing on our team right now, it's super rare to be good at fade away shots. The team should be looking for give and go opportunities, wide open 3's, back door layups/slams, post-up's (norbert j.), and our offensive sets where we get a shot 15 ft. and in based on great passing. How awesome would it be if they averaged 3 assists per turnover because of running the plays, and taking advantage of the fast break opportunities.

I also agree with what was said about the boards, offensively we could always leave 3 and have 2 ready to cover the break once a shot goes up. I loved it when Jared quayle would lead the team in rebounds.

Lastly, I think with the turnovers if we could get them under control we would have better offensive sets, this is fundamentals to a T.

There is always room for improving fundamentals, I agree. I disagree with a mandate on running a specific amount of time off the clock before taking a shot. That would lead to guys going through the motions, unintentionally, during that mandated period and a defensive lapse during that time would go unexploited. If our guys know what a good shot is and are free to take them when available, that puts pressure on a defense to defend the duration of the shot clock.

They key is recognizing what a good shot is. At times, an open 3 early in the shot clock isn't a good shot. For example, if a guy just subbed in and on his first touch he takes an open 3. He hasn't established any rhythm yet. That is a bad shot. However, if he just sunk a couple of free throws and knocked down an elbow jumper, taking an open three early in the shot clock is a good shot, if he's one of our shooters.

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I'm worried about consistent low-post offense. I'm not convinced that can be a go-to when we need a basket.

I don't think we will have a good picture of weaknesses until we play better competition. Not much to evaluate against at this point. That being said, I continue to believe we are weak at center.

I think our inside game is weak. Interior defense has not been exposed so far because we haven't played against a good center. But boy oh boy when we go against a good posting power forward or center I think we will have to double the post at a minimum and that will open up everything else.

Defensive rebounding is going to get exposed by athletic teams such as SDSU.

Coloraggie wrote:I think our inside game is weak. Interior defense has not been exposed so far because we haven't played against a good center. But boy oh boy when we go against a good posting power forward or center I think we will have to double the post at a minimum and that will open up everything else.

We just faced a pretty good 7 foot center who was averaging 13.5 and 12.5 against UNM and UVU, held him to 4 and 6

MetsJetsAggies wrote:

Coloraggie wrote:I think our inside game is weak. Interior defense has not been exposed so far because we haven't played against a good center. But boy oh boy when we go against a good posting power forward or center I think we will have to double the post at a minimum and that will open up everything else.

We just faced a pretty good 7 foot center who was averaging 13.5 and 12.5 against UNM and UVU, held him to 4 and 6

I was encouraged by what I saw down low last night. I'm hoping that was an indication that we aren't as deficient in the post as we feared. I am confident that, if nothing else, our boys are going to put forth the effort. What more can we ask for at this point?

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MetsJetsAggies and AggieDude, do you still want to disagree that our interior defense isn't very good? Though I don't think against MW competition we will be exposed as badly as we were last night and our guard play will be able to make up the deficiencies often.

Coloraggie wrote:MetsJetsAggies and AggieDude, do you still want to disagree that our interior defense isn't very good? Though I don't think against MW competition we will be exposed as badly as we were last night and our guard play will be able to make up the deficiencies often.

I didn't watch the entire game due to other responsibilities, but from what I saw we had some weak fouls called on us while they were hacking away. From what I saw our bugs seemed shy because of it. They beat us good and I'm not "blaming officiating" , I'm
Only pointing out that it made out bigs look worse than they probably are.

That avocado center guy was also probably far better than most bigs we play.

Coloraggie wrote:MetsJetsAggies and AggieDude, do you still want to disagree that our interior defense isn't very good? Though I don't think against MW competition we will be exposed as badly as we were last night and our guard play will be able to make up the deficiencies often.

The big 7' from Purdue will eventually be a lottery pick, so I expected our bigs to struggle. I will be loking forward to seeing how our bigs stack up against MW players though.

Coloraggie wrote:MetsJetsAggies and AggieDude, do you still want to disagree that our interior defense isn't very good? Though I don't think against MW competition we will be exposed as badly as we were last night and our guard play will be able to make up the deficiencies often.

Or interior D was bad at times but I think we all expected difficulties against Purdue. I'm not sure why we chose to play behind Haas the whole time. I would've liked to see more of an effort to deny the entry pass more by fronting or at least playing on his hip with an am in the passing lane. I don't know that it would've worked any better but it couldn't have been much worse.

Janicek isn't quick enough to defend bigger, stronger players. He relies on his size and strength to compensate for his lack of quickness. He was just out matched last night and everybody knee he would be. Props to him for a steady effort throughout. That would've been a frustrating assignment.

We may be weaker on defense in the paint than many of us realise though. Our guards are always sagging in to help. If they trusted or bigs they wouldn't have to. Either they are trying to wreak havoc or they are compensating for something.

I think our defense and rebounding will be good enough to be successful this year so long as our offense returns to form.

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