Where does Bama go from here...do we find answers?

[Hoot30]

Didn't mean to come off too edgy there, Bama94.

Actually, Lipscomb is D-1, so LaKory Daniels is sitting out this year. I think he tore his achilles during preseason practice.

IMO, if Miles and Weber would have been patient last year, they would have an opportunity this year. From what I saw out them, they just weren't ready to contribute like RS did last year. Thankfully, CD was patient after his freshman year and didn't transfer.

 

[Bama-94-00]

Didn't mean to come off too edgy there, Bama94.

You were fine. I wasn't clear as I should have been a couple of posts back.

Actually, Lipscomb is D-1, so LaKory Daniels is sitting out this year. I think he tore his achilles during preseason practice.

OK. It's a bit confusing since there's no Div 1AA in basketball. Lipscomb is in your area.

Dang that's a tough injury. It could take months to get over it. Best of luck to LaKory.

 

[bamapride79]

I've never understood why college players cant shoot +70% at the FT line. Its basically technique anyway.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I've never...

understood it. But, then, I'm a shooter...

 

[Bama-94-00]

FT shooting

I've never understood why college players cant shoot +70% at the FT line. Its basically technique anyway.

Some of them don't have that. Some don't relax. Some rush it, a few think too much, etc.

All poor reasons really.

 

[bamapride79]

Some of them don't have that. Some don't relax. Some rush it, a few think too much, etc.

All poor reasons really.

Thats exactly right. All these guys including million-dollar NBA players cant shoot +70% from the fFT line. These are the same guys that are "supposed" to be some of the best athletes in the world.

 

[GrandBayTider]

These are the same guys that are "supposed" to be some of the best athletes in the world.

Athleticism has nothing to do with free throw shooting, Do you think these guys aren't athletic?

 

[CaribbeanTide]

We have only one true guard, and that's Steele. And he's not at 100%.

This will plague us all year, even if Steele's back gets better.

What we have here is an intractable problem, at least for this season.

That's kind of the way I see it. I'm not writing this season off by any means, but it seems to me the best we can hope for is to 'plug' that hole and do the best we can until we can get some more help in here next season. Gee has the athleticism to play SG on defense, but not the shooting touch (yet) to provide the threat we need from a SG offensively. Jonus offers the exact opposite (although he seems hesitant to take a shot.)

I think the starting 5 we had out there tonight is our best hope for success this season (with Jonas possibly getting more significant minutes if he ever steps it up.) We need to play to our strength - pounding the ball inside, slow the game down and try to get other teams (most will have less post-player depth) into foul trouble.

 

[Ldlane]

Maybe it's just not natural to shoot an open shot with at least 10 seconds of time for each one? Mind over matter!

 

[CaribbeanTide]

I've never understood why college players cant shoot +70% at the FT line. Its basically technique anyway.

Because FT (and perimeter shooting as a whole) aren't a glorified part of our current basketball culture.

And the NBA has basically abolished the zone defense (it's technically allowed but the defensive 3-second rule makes it pretty much worthless) so as to keep this trend alive. If NBA teams were allowed to play a true zone coaches would start camping their players inside and force teams to hoist up perimeter shots to beat them. This is why our Olympic team was embarrased in Athens, the NBA's 'best' players aren't perimeter shooters - they're either slashers or post players and the lack of emphasis on perimeter shooting is a major hole in our current game for the most part. The Olympics allow true zone defenses and they shut down our inside game and willingly let our 'best' guys like Iverson try to beat them with jumpshots. If good perimeter shooters like Chauncey Billups, Ray Allen, Ben Gordan and Michael Redd got more glory you'd see more kids wanting to emulate them rather than the slashers which dominate the modern game.

 

[bamapride79]

Athleticism has nothing to do with free throw shooting, Do you think these guys aren't athletic?

What exactly does athleticism mean? That you can run and jump? Does hand-eye coordination play a factor? If it does then these "athletes" should be able to shoot better from the FT line. Some of them can dunk the ball from the FT line better than they can shoot it.

 

[Ldlane]

What exactly does athleticism mean? That you can run and jump? Does hand-eye coordination play a factor? If it does then these "athletes" should be able to shoot better from the FT line. Some of them can dunk the ball from the FT line better than they can shoot it.

Ability to deal cards without hesitating to count?

 

[GrandBayTider]

Does hand-eye coordination play a factor? If it does then these "athletes" should be able to shoot better from the FT line. Some of them can dunk the ball from the FT line better than they can shoot it.

Actually hand-eye coordination plays a very small part in FT shooting. There are numerous "trick shot" artist who can sink FTs blindfolded no problem. However they don't do this after running up and down the court, with fans screaming and waving objects. The mental aspect plays a much bigger part. That is why "experts" try to have the player perform a routine over and over, so they can ignore the mental aspect, and the body will perform automatically. Think of FG kickers in football, it is an act that is outside of the normal part of the game. BTW very few people can actually dunk a ball from the FT line.

 

[bamapride79]

The dunking thing was supposed to be tongue in cheek......

 

[imauafan]

Hoot, the MSU was game was just an example. CMG has never been good at developing depth. Plus, I don't care what any other coach does, it is smart to get the backups playing time at every opportunity possible. If Anderson leaves his starters in the entire game during a blowout, then fine. Who cares if Stansbury left his starters in? I don't blame him. I would do everything I could to knock the 47 point deficit down as much as I could. We should have had all of our backups playing most of the second half. When you don't develop your backups, you go through cycles of up years and down years just like we're seeing this year. This team will develop and we'll be good for a couple of years, then after they leave, we'll be down again until the next group gains some experience.

 

[Hoot30]

I appreciate your comment, imauafan. But..

if you'll remember a few of the early non-conference games from last year (i.e. New Orleans, Tenn St., for example), CMG played most of the backups in the 2nd half after the starters built up a lead. In those two games, (I know, because I was there) UNO and Tenn St. cut the leads to around 10 late in the game. CMG had to put starters back in to hold on for the win in those 2 games.

We should not have had all of our backups in the 2nd half for the MSU game based on the above mentioned examples. It was a beautiful thing to witness the complete drubbing of MSU last year. Other factors contributed to CMG's use of players in that game such as, NBA scouts in attendance, etc.

Also, read Bama-94-00's post # 37 in this thread and look at the minutes played in those games. EB - 25 min.; AW - 9; JF - 9. That's plenty of time.

I think the AW situation was obvious. He was not ready to contribute as a true freshman last year. He thought he was, so he transferred.

The Anderson comment was tongue-in-cheek and to point out that other coaches leave their starters in during blowouts.

Obviously, CMG has no problem playing true freshman. Does anyone remember his early years at UA. For the '99-'00 season 4 true freshman started for that year. This year, 2 true freshman are starting this year, w/ BH providing some solid minutes at PG.

CMG has rebuilt this program from the Hobbs years. Is CMG the perfect coach? No, but who is. How things would be different this year had KW stayed and Ray George been eligible. Is that CMG's fault? I believe that CMG is trying to develop depth, by redshirting Coleman and recruiting the number of guards to build depth there behind RS. Crap, even Coach K at Duke went through two years back in the '90's where they didn't even make the tournament.

 

[imauafan]

Hoot, I think the backups should be rotated into the game and given meaningful playing time against quality opponents. I wasn't suggesting that the backups play exclusively during the second half. Sorry that I wasn't more clear on that. Its one thing to get playing time against New Orleans and another to get playing time against SEC opponents. My comments are made with the memories of Chuck Davis playing a few minutes during the non-conference schedule his freshman year and then sitting most of the SEC season. If you remember, he considered transferring but his mom convinced him to stick with it. Unfortunately that is a pattern with CMG. Yes he has given some freshmen a lot of playing time since he has been the HC but mostly due to necessity. This year is a perfect example. The year that Erwin Dudley, Rod Grizzard, and Terrence Meade were freshmen and played, there were no other choices. The problem was those guys is that for the most part they never improved from their freshman year, Meade actually declined. Kenny Walker never improved. When they weren't performing very well as seniors CMG continued to play them even thought they didn't appear to be overly motivated at times. I know things probably aren't as bad as I may be making them to sound but there are problems with CMG's coaching. Yes, we are much better than when Hobbs was the HC but IMO we aren't at the consistent level that we had reached under Wimp. Wimp was not the greatest coach and probably would never have competed for the NC but we were consistently good every year and competed for the SEC every year.

 

[Hoot30]

I agree with most of what you said, but...

I believe that I did state that the backups were rotated and got meaningful playing time in that M$U game last year (if that's the game that we're going to talk about). Click on BAMA-94-00's link on post #37.
The UNO and Tenn St reference were examples of games where the backups played significant minutes, but the starters had to be put back in to the game. That is why I think CMG left the starters in during the M$U blowout last year.
IMO, I wished CD had redshirted his freshman year, considering how his minutes decreased during SEC play. Of course I remember, I attended every home game that year. Yes, that team struggled, but they were the best players we had on that team (better than the freshmen on that squad) and CMG was trying to win games. So he had to play with those guys.

We can't have it both ways. TM did decline. I have to disagree about KW. His skills were limited, but he had some nagging injuries. But, he also had some big games. But what about ED and AP? Did they not improve over their four years? Has CD not improved since his freshman year? CD has shot much better from the outside this year than in the past. CMG was an outstanding shooter during his career. I have to think that, maybe, CMG has helped CD get better shooting the outside shot. If we're going to criticize CMG for not developing players, then we should give he and his staff credit for developing those players that have improved.
Does CMG deserve some criticism? Yes. But I, like many others that post on here, get tired of the constant criticism of CMG. It appears that the CMG haters overload this message board when we lose and still find reasons to criticize him when there is a 49 point blowout.