We went away from what was working in the 2nd half. Some might say that Illinois adjusted but to me we were just settling for outside jumpers which is our kryptonite. For many different stretches of time this season we see our offense become stagnant it is due to this as well as too much dribbling by PM/CM rather than moving the ball.Seems like every other team we play has one or more olayers against our vaunted defense have breakout 3 point games. Why can we have Cam doing the same. ?
One reason is other teams have fast crisp passing around the perimeter and some run the old time weave and eventually someone gets open enough to shoot or drive to hoop. We over dribble into trouble or do lazy passing or force a pass into a double team .
Today in first half we were getting into the paint and scoring. Then after the subs, we totally loss that approach.
Our offense was actually a thing of beauty in that first half all around. A few lapses here and there where we would have pulled away more but we responded anytime they started to make a run.
2nd half concerns:
>Caleb - must have got into his head bc he went away from driving and even pulling up for quick jumpers (both are within his range of offensive skills and a great fit)--only had 2pts in 2nd half
>Simpson - nothing more to say but he is forcing everything and takes some ill advised shots. He does a better job of trying to create his own shots but when he touches the ball it is very limited ball movement
>Cam - no plays run for him expecting him to create his own shots and that is not his game. We need to get him more shots
>Oskar - really can shoot but is completely one dimensional. I am not even sure what he does out there as he seems to stand around a lot like a spectator...look at the one rebound on offense that went right through his hands. Another was his help side defense to allow such an easy layup for Illinois rather than stepping up to defend almost as if it was a "geez, I will get them next time"
>Hyatt - outside of the missed fast break dunk which was a killer, i actually felt he played well outside of his defense which at best is always spotty(good rebounder) but he is always a step slow in covering his man.
>PM - dribbles WAY too much and slows down the offense flow. While I know we are not a high powered offense, I feel when we move the ball faster(rebound transitions or turnovers) we are much better team to score. The faster we move the less time for the defense to settle in. This creates more options for us because we don't have the best off the ball movement nor run set plays for people like Cam to get them open. The pick n roll with him and cliff is great but we seem to go away from him very often and its just odd. That is PMs strength and if he is in the game that should be the play every time down if we settle in the half court offense