BOL Round Table

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walt526 said...

I once heard an old guy in North Carolina say" the only man alive who could keep michael Jordan under 40 points a game was Dean Smith" I like Coach Grant, and think he is probably a good man. he is a great defensive coach for sure. I see all the talented shooters we have and it just seems Bama is where three point shooters come to die. If we could open up our offenese and just develop and utilize the talent we have I think with our defense we could be unstoppable.

'62 Jazzmaster

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RTR 65 said...

Who has he brought in that lit it up in HS? If you are referring to Lacy, Cooper and Randolph it is not a fair criticism. There is a huge difference in hitting wide open threes in HS to hitting contested ones in college. There is an adjustment period and they will be improved next year. Saying Grant is stunting their development is silly. He has to take these kids who were the man in HS and get them to play within his team system. They cannot blaze away whenever they feel like it. IMO none of these FR will ever be considered very good outside shooters. That is not their strength and even if they were cowed by the HC, we would have seen a higher percentage from 3 if they had a naturally good stroke.

Lacy may be the exception. He may be like Ernest Shelton who improved dramatically from year one to year two from the outside.

'62 Jazzmaster

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Bamakraut said...

I think we suffer from an identity crisis in our program. During most of CAG's tenure here, we have been so bad on offense that our formula for winning has become 1) play great defense, 2) rebound well 3) look for opportunistic chances to run with Releford and Mitchell and 4) otherwise slow it down and make the game into as few possessions as possible and hope to win on points 1-3 above.

Now we've recrutied some young talented outside players each of whom can shoot. But it is hard to get in a shooter's rhythm when your team is slowing it down and each possession becomes so precious. So we see them passing up open looks, running the clock down and taking a worse shot later in the possession (only to miss).

The good news is that when CAG first got here, we played no defense, didn't box out, were a horrible rebounding team and didn't have enough players to press at all that first year. In the interim, we have recruited enough talent that we can press 40 minutes if we want, we can send in waves off the bench, we can be very aggressive and physical on defense and have the depth to withstand foul trouble when it occurs (which is too frequently for my taste).

When you watch Carolina or Kentucky play, they play tough defense, but they aren't worried about each possession on offense the way we are. They know they have the talent to make up for cold stretches and they can make it up on either end of the floor. We play like the only way we can make it up is on defense. To date, that has been correct. But maybe with the talent we now have we can change that.

To me, changing the culture on defense is harder than changing it on offense. We've already done the hardest work in the metamorphosis of our team. I think CAG just needs to loosen the reins a little and let the number of possessions increase, speed up the tempo of play without giving up our defensive intensity. I think CAG understands that, and I think we will be better next year even without JG than we were this year. Not yet to the level of a Kentucky ofr Carolina, but up to the levels of Florida and Vandy.

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walt526 said...

I once heard an old guy in North Carolina say" the only man alive who could keep michael Jordan under 40 points a game was Dean Smith" I like Coach Grant, and think he is probably a good man. he is a great defensive coach for sure. I see all the talented shooters we have and it just seems Bama is where three point shooters come to die. If we could open up our offenese and just develop and utilize the talent we have I think with our defense we could be unstoppable.

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