BOL Round Table

i wish we would have played against vandy and south carolina the way we played against kentucky and played kentucky vice versa.

I'm not gonna beat a dead horse because we talked about it the other night, but did you actually see what was going on during some of our defensive possessions and on the boards?

I'll tell you what it reminded me of: the way NBA guys play defense and block out during the All-Star games.

USC's most effective offensive set was an ill-advised 3 followed by an offensive board and a put back. Hey, at least they had a plan. (g)

TR

I know teams don't score a lot on us but I'm not exactly sure why. Our defense is pretty lazy. We don't use our feet. We reach and swat a lot which is why we get a lot of fouls.

When we get the fouls we bitch and moan. I struggle with that the most. Our players should be leanring by now that when you play lazy refs aren't going to bail you out. Instead we haven't learned anything. Is Grant not teaching or are they not listening?

Grant also doesn't seem to understand that if you want the guys to play hard then give them a fun offense to play in. Otherwise there is a cap on the effort you will get.

Right now it appears that Grant is a good defensive coach that benefited from an extraordinary player at VCU.

All that and I think all is not lost. However Coach Grant needs to change what he is doing if we are going to improve.

Atleast that's explainable. You can't coach a long rebound, shit happens. What irks the *#%+ out of me is giving up a freaking lay-up for the game winner. That is absolutely unacceptable, it is worse than bad. That is on the coaches, period. You cannot allow the dribble-drive there. Pack it in, contest the 3, but no way in hell do you allow a freshman to guard a guy that far away from the basket with no back side help. It's stupid, and not only tonight, but we do it consistently when the shot clock runs down in other games. I'm all about pressure defense, but when the clock is running low back off and make them shoot the three, don't guard them 35 feet away and let the guy beat u off the dribble and dish to an open teammate or get to the basket. Damn, it's frustrating to watch over and over and over.

Sorry for the rant.

Yep and that was after UA fouled Ellington twice because it had them to give. UA knew it was going to be Ellington going to the basket.

TR

No kidding, and the fouls were good. The second one was a little too quick for me, but it was Levi so it's just one of those things, he's a freshman. But then....wth. I've watched it 6 times now. They schooled our coaches man. Run the inbounds play, get the ball to Ellington, four corners, dribble drive to basket. We did NOT HAVE ONE PLAYER IN LANE when Ellington started his move. That is awful guys. FYI for those who don't know, USC doesn't have 1 good 3 point shooter, much less 5. Good god, you just can't let that happen.