How many teams’ leading scorer is fourth on the team in shots?

[NUCat320]

Maybe others, I’m not sure. Never looked at it.

But that’s Kopp’s story today — 114 FGA, behind Audige, Buie, and Nance.

Part of it is his game — he’s mostly a standup shooter.

But it sure would be nice if there were more sets designed to get him a shot. And it sure would be nice if the guys that do have then ball in their hands did more to find him.

I didn’t watch the game. Didn’t even realize there was one. What a weird season.

Nice publicity during the bowl game, though.

 

[Jonny2TheP]

I can't answer the question in your post, but I will say this. A couple times yesterday Kopp made hard cuts to the rim when he had the ball and was able to finish. He's not going to be able to do this all the time since he's not quick enough to always beat his guy off the dribble, but I'd like to see him go to that more. Even if it doesn't always pay off, it will free him up for more looks from deep as well as it gives the defender more to think about when defending him.

Kopp is a fantastic shooter and a good player. He's not overly quick, which can make it hard sometimes to get him good looks, but he works hard when he doesn't have the ball and is efficient when he takes shots. We have to find ways to get him more shots, whether that be from the outside, or cutting towards the rim.

 

[DaCat]

I've saying for weeks that if we're going to lose, let it be while getting Kopp a minimum of 10 shots per game. When your point guard is trying to have his name changed to Mr. O-fer and is bricking a crazy number of shots a game, that's not a good offense.

 

[Jonny2TheP]

I've saying for weeks that if we're going to lose, let it be while getting Kopp a minimum of 10 shots per game. When your point guard is trying to have his name changed to Mr. O-fer and is bricking a crazy number of shots a game, that's not a good offense.

They need to run their offense more. We have a terrible habit of guys just heaving up tough shots early in the shot clock, especially when the other team is on a run. This is what leads to these long scoring droughts that we seem to go through pretty much every game at least once.

I thought yesterday was one of the worst, if not THE worst, game we have played all year. BUT I also thought we had several good possessions with good spacing, screens, and passing that led to easy buckets near the hoop. Hummel pointed this out last night, and I've been thinking it for awhile as well, that I think good things happen when Young is in the game and we run some possessions through him in the post. He's an above average passer if the double team comes, and if it doesn't come and he's within ten feet of the rim, he's crafty enough to get a good shot up. Running more offense through him (and Nance) in the post would be a good way to get offense going when Boo isn't able to create from the PG position.

 

[DaCat]

They need to run their offense more. We have a terrible habit of guys just heaving up tough shots early in the shot clock, especially when the other team is on a run. This is what leads to these long scoring droughts that we seem to go through pretty much every game at least once.

I thought yesterday was one of the worst, if not THE worst, game we have played all year. BUT I also thought we had several good possessions with good spacing, screens, and passing that led to easy buckets near the hoop. Hummel pointed this out last night, and I've been thinking it for awhile as well, that I think good things happen when Young is in the game and we run some possessions through him in the post. He's an above average passer if the double team comes, and if it doesn't come and he's within ten feet of the rim, he's crafty enough to get a good shot up. Running more offense through him (and Nance) in the post would be a good way to get offense going when Boo isn't able to create from the PG position.

Agreed. But teams are now scheming to stop the high post and the cuts to the basket are being well guarded, although we did get loose a few times. Buie is a wildcard, he's so streaky that he can make baskets from anywhere, but he has been missing most of his shots after the MSU explosion. Audige is the same. Again the basic problem is that even open shots are not falling for us.

 

[GatoLouco]

Back in my day everyone believed good things happen if you get the ball closer to the basket. It still holds true, but some just don't seem to believe it. Including our coach.

So many start hailing the NU offense after scoring close to 100 a game against doormats. Including the TV heads, who should know better with as much experience they have. Hearing them talk about our offense weeks ago, you'd believe it was something they had never seen. Did they ever watch Creighton play? Or if it's just about fast tempo, MSU/Izzo and NC/William, have long forced the tempo.

Positionless basketball, or no one playing a traditional back to the basket 5, can work very well. Was definitely not something CC pulled out of a hat. Or that's new at NU for that matter. Minus the forceful tempo, Pardon spent a baffling amount of time at the top of the key doing dribble hand offs. Same for Young last year. But at least we played a true inside player in the lineup, once in a while getting the ball down low. Now we don't.

Why do coaches like the positionless style? Spacing. Pretty much everyone is doing it in the pros. Lots of space inside, cuts and more cuts, dribble hand off galore, until you find, in the scramble of the defense keeping up, an open lane to the basket, a cut... defense is out of balance, balls moves around, open shot.

Problem is, you have to have the players to do it. Villanova does it extremely well. You can't possibly be sustainably good at it if your players are slower or can't withstand being bumped. It relies on at least par physicality. Guess who can't match speed and strength? Us! We're plenty tall though.

Our team has a grand total of one reliable back to the basket player: Young. Nance once in a while is able to take advantage of size down low. Most times does not and ends up in a fadeaway or similarly low percentage shot. Gaines could do it, not a bad hook shot in the paint. Audige could do it, if only decision making was a bit better. Posting up guards is an alternative of the "get the ball close to the basket". Nothing innovative, Bulls did it extensively over 20 years ago. Where's our one reliable back to the basket guy? On the bench because we are not interested in that. We have decided to literally fit a square peg in a round hole and go with what the coach is comfortable with and learned at Duke.

Want to play what you learned at Duke, start by having a quick and strong guard who won't be pushed around. Gilespie or Zagarowski are ultimate examples of that. Buie does not fit the mold for the style in the B1G, would be perfectly fine doing it in the patriot league. That is not to say the kid is not a B1G player, he is. But unless he bulks up you can't rely on him to, night in night out, give you what the offense needs in terms of motion. Just look at what happens when he drives to the basket? Even when he scores 30, how many times does he end up sliding over the baseline because he bumps into someone and is not strong enough to withstand it? Last night he ends up with 2 or 3 offensive fouls because he tries to compensate by pushing knowing he can't gain an advantage by bumping to create a tid bit of space.

It's just bad architecture. It's just bad coaching.

 

[Jonny2TheP]

Agreed. But teams are now scheming to stop the high post and the cuts to the basket are being well guarded, although we did get loose a few times. Buie is a wildcard, he's so streaky that he can make baskets from anywhere, but he has been missing most of his shots after the MSU explosion. Audige is the same. Again the basic problem is that even open shots are not falling for us.

No way around it that if we aren't hitting a higher percentage of our open looks, we aren't going to win games. That being said, we need to have a higher percentage of good possessions where we get good looks during a game. Right now we have too many possessions where the shot going up is a low percentage one that doesn't come within the offense.

On the other side of the ball, our defense has really dropped off recently, especially on the perimeter. Every team we play gets a ton of open looks from the outside. The only thing that kept us in the game last night was that Wisconsin went really cold in the middle of the game. But they were still getting good outside looks on most possessions. I understand that when we play a guy like Garza or Kofi or Jackson-Davis, bringing the double team when they get the ball down low is necessary. But I don't know why we do it in other games against guys like Nate Reuvers. Sure, he could make a move and hit a shot down low, but I don't think he's worthy of a double team. I'd rather our defenders stay on their man in a situation like that.

 

[GatoLouco]

Now let's move to the defensive side.

Our defensive efficiency right now: 1.029 #270 in the country
Last year, with a less experienced team: 1.020 #267 in the country

Hard to compare apples to apples as we are not through the entire season and results against doormats weigh less and less on the averages as the season progresses. So where were we on 01/26/2020, when we played our 9th game in the Big?
0.985, #188 in the country

We are going back with the lineups we choose. Minus Spencer, that's with the same players, just older, more experienced and with a bit more muscle.

Our strength relied on bothering people driving into the paint because we are long. Nance was a huge help as a help defender, you know when he did not have to guard the monster of the other team. We played taller, to our strengths, or at least where we were less weak.

Ultimately it was nice winning 3 in a row. But, just like it happens every season, teams get better as the season progresses. Players more used to each other, in better shape, etc. Teams adapt and know competition better.

We don't.

Wish I believed it is just about "breaking through". When we start winning, we'll do it consistently. We'll win again this season. But it won't be at any regular basis.

 

[TheC]

I hate to complain about effort, because it is so hard to measure. But.. when I watch how teams guard us (in our face the whole time, even far from the basket) and then I watch the way we guard, I just wonder if it's effort or athleticism or strategy? Then I wonder if our off-season conditioning is the same as other programs. Can these other teams play more intense defense because they are in better shape?

Is that also why we miss so many shots? One thing I notice with Boo is that he takes these crazy 3-point shots, but he is rarely set and sometimes not even completely square to the basket. I think every once in a while, he hits these wild, pull-up threes and then gets into this bad habbit. But even the good pull-up distance shooters still get their bodies square and actually slow their momentum down just enough so that they are going straight up on their shot. Boo seems to go flying into a bunch of shots and, as a result, has no control over where they are going. I don't know if that's discipline or he's just tired and so he loses his form. But it is frustrating.

 

[DaCat]

I hate to complain about effort, because it is so hard to measure. But.. when I watch how teams guard us (in our face the whole time, even far from the basket) and then I watch the way we guard, I just wonder if it's effort or athleticism or strategy? Then I wonder if our off-season conditioning is the same as other programs. Can these other teams play more intense defense because they are in better shape?

Is that also why we miss so many shots? One thing I notice with Boo is that he takes these crazy 3-point shots, but he is rarely set and sometimes not even completely square to the basket. I think every once in a while, he hits these wild, pull-up threes and then gets into this bad habbit. But even the good pull-up distance shooters still get their bodies square and actually slow their momentum down just enough so that they are going straight up on their shot. Boo seems to go flying into a bunch of shots and, as a result, has no control over where they are going. I don't know if that's discipline or he's just tired and so he loses his form. But it is frustrating.

It's the Steph Curry style. Curry is deadly accurate with that style, but the rest who aren't Curry struggle with it.

 

[Sec_112]

I can't agree more.

I don't know what the hell the deal is with getting the ball to Kopp. Someone asked Collins a similar question in the post-game press conference, and Collins chalked it up to defenses. I don't know if I buy that.

I've been watching Kopp pretty closely for a few games now with this idea in mind. He needs to work a bit harder off the ball. He stands in the corner a bit too much. However, that's only part of the story.

Somebody needs to tell Buie and Audige that Kopp should not be the third (statistically fourth) option. If they "can't get him the ball," they need to go out their way to get it to him.

Kopp has improved his ability to make a shot off the dribble. He's also a good decisionmaker, so there's not much of a reason he shouldn't be involved in more possessions.

 

[willycat]

Back in my day everyone believed good things happen if you get the ball closer to the basket. It still holds true, but some just don't seem to believe it. Including our coach.

So many start hailing the NU offense after scoring close to 100 a game against doormats. Including the TV heads, who should know better with as much experience they have. Hearing them talk about our offense weeks ago, you'd believe it was something they had never seen. Did they ever watch Creighton play? Or if it's just about fast tempo, MSU/Izzo and NC/William, have long forced the tempo.

Positionless basketball, or no one playing a traditional back to the basket 5, can work very well. Was definitely not something CC pulled out of a hat. Or that's new at NU for that matter. Minus the forceful tempo, Pardon spent a baffling amount of time at the top of the key doing dribble hand offs. Same for Young last year. But at least we played a true inside player in the lineup, once in a while getting the ball down low. Now we don't.

Why do coaches like the positionless style? Spacing. Pretty much everyone is doing it in the pros. Lots of space inside, cuts and more cuts, dribble hand off galore, until you find, in the scramble of the defense keeping up, an open lane to the basket, a cut... defense is out of balance, balls moves around, open shot.

Problem is, you have to have the players to do it. Villanova does it extremely well. You can't possibly be sustainably good at it if your players are slower or can't withstand being bumped. It relies on at least par physicality. Guess who can't match speed and strength? Us! We're plenty tall though.

Our team has a grand total of one reliable back to the basket player: Young. Nance once in a while is able to take advantage of size down low. Most times does not and ends up in a fadeaway or similarly low percentage shot. Gaines could do it, not a bad hook shot in the paint. Audige could do it, if only decision making was a bit better. Posting up guards is an alternative of the "get the ball close to the basket". Nothing innovative, Bulls did it extensively over 20 years ago. Where's our one reliable back to the basket guy? On the bench because we are not interested in that. We have decided to literally fit a square peg in a round hole and go with what the coach is comfortable with and learned at Duke.

Want to play what you learned at Duke, start by having a quick and strong guard who won't be pushed around. Gilespie or Zagarowski are ultimate examples of that. Buie does not fit the mold for the style in the B1G, would be perfectly fine doing it in the patriot league. That is not to say the kid is not a B1G player, he is. But unless he bulks up you can't rely on him to, night in night out, give you what the offense needs in terms of motion. Just look at what happens when he drives to the basket? Even when he scores 30, how many times does he end up sliding over the baseline because he bumps into someone and is not strong enough to withstand it? Last night he ends up with 2 or 3 offensive fouls because he tries to compensate by pushing knowing he can't gain an advantage by bumping to create a tid bit of space.

It's just bad architecture. It's just bad coaching.

Bad coaching ? I thought O'Neil left. Would bet you don't even know which schools are in the Patriot League.

 

[hdhntr1]

I can't answer the question in your post, but I will say this. A couple times yesterday Kopp made hard cuts to the rim when he had the ball and was able to finish. He's not going to be able to do this all the time since he's not quick enough to always beat his guy off the dribble, but I'd like to see him go to that more. Even if it doesn't always pay off, it will free him up for more looks from deep as well as it gives the defender more to think about when defending him.

Kopp is a fantastic shooter and a good player. He's not overly quick, which can make it hard sometimes to get him good looks, but he works hard when he doesn't have the ball and is efficient when he takes shots. We have to find ways to get him more shots, whether that be from the outside, or cutting towards the rim.

A lot depends on the defense we are facing. There were some openings that he could go through. That is not always the case. But they had shut down his three point shot

 

[GatoLouco]

Bad coaching ? I thought O'Neil left. Would bet you don't even know which schools are in the Patriot League.

What does Kevin O'Neil have to do with CC being good or bad?

What does knowing the name of the teams in the patriot league have to do with knowing it's not comparable to the B1G?

Unless you are 9, please enlighten me on your arguments.

 

[DaCat]

I can't agree more.

I don't know what the hell the deal is with getting the ball to Kopp. Someone asked Collins a similar question in the post-game press conference, and Collins chalked it up to defenses. I don't know if I buy that.

I've been watching Kopp pretty closely for a few games now with this idea in mind. He needs to work a bit harder off the ball. He stands in the corner a bit too much. However, that's only part of the story.

Somebody needs to tell Buie and Audige that Kopp should not be the third (statistically fourth) option. If they "can't get him the ball," they need to go out their way to get it to him.

Kopp has improved his ability to make a shot off the dribble. He's also a good decisionmaker, so there's not much of a reason he shouldn't be involved in more possessions.

Spot on. Get Kopp the ball and design some plays to get him open.

 

[PurpleFaze]

Kopp isn‘t getting enough shots because Boo is too busy jacking up 3’s from 7 feet behind the arc with 20 secs left on the shot clock. Tired of watching Collins get all exasperated on the sideline- hello CC you have the power as head coach to actually pull him out of the game. Bad actions should have consequences.

Basketball team is like a complete 180 from NU football as far as using their brains and playing smart. Frustrating to watch because there is a lot of raw talent on this squad.