End of shot clock stall ball?

[Billy Don]

Will we see passing the ball around until 30 seconds into the shot clock before we shoot, then playing half court defense trying to keep the score in the 50's next year? I hope not. On defense the first year Mick tried the Pitino full court press style and that turned out to be a disaster. Last year he tried the Huggins half court defense style and that was a little better. By playing shot clock stall ball and Huggins half court defense he even surprised a couple Big East teams and got a couple wins he shouldn't have. By finally having to take a couple of 6-2, 3 star players I figure the only thing he can use them for is the press. So I think next year we will see the Pitino Press and the Huggins half court defense both. If that doesn't work then Mick will have to to plan D. Go Mick!

[jkwuc89]

UC was somewhat challenged offensively last season (that just might be the understatement of the season). If you look at the stats, UC has only two reliable scorers: Vaughn and Williamson. And UC as a team did not shoot the ball well. I thought Coach Cronin's approach to slow things down and keep the score down was the right strategy for most games. When his team was "hot", he opened things up a bit more. As the season wore on, opposing teams figured out that if you shut down Vaughn and Williamson, you beat UC.

Hopefully, the incoming recruits plus an older Vaughn plus a return of Mike Williams plus a year of seasoning for returning players will help address this.

[SLMadiCat]

UC was somewhat challenged offensively last season (that just might be the understatement of the season). If you look at the stats, UC has only two reliable scorers: Vaughn and Williamson. And UC as a team did not shoot the ball well. I thought Coach Cronin's approach to slow things down and keep the score down was the right strategy for most games. When his team was "hot", he opened things up a bit more. As the season wore on, opposing teams figured out that if you shut down Vaughn and Williamson, you beat UC.

Hopefully, the incoming recruits plus an older Vaughn plus a return of Mike Williams plus a year of seasoning for returning players will help address this.

Sorry Keith, but he isn't looking to have a conversation about tactics, strategies, etc....you are correct in your assessment though.

[Billy Don]

UC was somewhat challenged offensively last season (that just might be the understatement of the season). If you look at the stats, UC has only two reliable scorers: Vaughn and Williamson. And UC as a team did not shoot the ball well. I thought Coach Cronin's approach to slow things down and keep the score down was the right strategy for most games. When his team was "hot", he opened things up a bit more. As the season wore on, opposing teams figured out that if you shut down Vaughn and Williamson, you beat UC.

Hopefully, the incoming recruits plus an older Vaughn plus a return of Mike Williams plus a year of seasoning for returning players will help address this. Sure that's the only chance he had to win against most teams. I don't see how he had a chance to win any other way. I don't know what happened at the end of the season but there was a couple of games there he should have won. I do know that next year he's got some players that can make a layup, At least I think I know that.

[Carl]

If the full court press works, there will be a turnover.

If the half court defense works, there will be a outside shot and a defensive rebound.

In the long run, the team can not win unless it can stop the other team from scoring at least half the time, which requires they have to be proficient in the half court defense.

Excuse me, but that was not a Huggins half court defense. They played way too much zone defense for a Huggins team. And they have to play zone defense if they don't match up with the opponent in size or quickness, and they did not match up. Maybe Mick knew they did not have enough speed and quickness this year and he is bringing in Dixon and Ward for speed on defense.

I thought Gentry did the best job covering the shooters on the perimeter. When he could not play, they lost some skill that did not show up on the stats. He squatted and kind of leaned forward with his not so long arms. Maybe swipe at the ball, but still maintain some distance so they could not dribble around him.

Gosh, I must be dreaming, because I kind of remember Kenyon on the permimeter at times, with the speed of a guard and much longer arms. And I still love to watch KMart run the court when the Nuggets are on TV. Call me James Joyce if you like.

Both Vaughn and Warren seemed to lose their guys....okay, Gentry lost some also, but I think they played help defense and did not anticipate the next pass all of the time.

[cincycpaw]

Just trying to help out. I'd hate to see you get banned again. Retirement would get even more boring with no more message boards to complain on.

Why don't you stop focusing on the poster and focus on the post.

And stop playing admin too.

It appears that Mick is trying to get the talent and quickness to both press and to play aggressive half court man to man...we won't be long enough to play a great zone, I think.

I also think that by trying to get so many "combo" guards, etc. that it appears Mick is trying to get to the point where he has the players to push the ball and open up the entire court.

I've been critical of mick from time to time, but the style of play that he has used during the first couple of seasons certainly has matched his personnel...which I feel is the correct way to go about it. Now to get players that can play the style Mick wants to play...that's his charge and I hope he is successful.

[jkwuc89]

This thread has been pruned a bit. Off topic conversations between posters should be handled via PM's or e-mail. Remember, talk about the message, not the messengers.

[MDW79]

I think Cronin's strategy suited are personel pretty well this past year. His hand was obviously forced to run with the gamelan that he did. I'm really anxious to see what he runs when he can open it up a little bit with the incoming players. Everything is pointing to pressure D and an uptempo style, which I'm going to love to watch.

[SLMadiCat]

Why don't you stop focusing on the poster and focus on the post.

And stop playing admin too.
Because I've been around too long and know well enough that this post wasn't done to discuss basketball, or UC, it was done to slam Mick.

If anyone thinks Mick was playing "stall ball" then they haven't watched them play. They had a lot of open shots, including layups that they just missed. This isn't Memphis where they have 5 athletes that take the ball and go one on one with their defender, they actually try to run an offense to get good looks. My guess is that if they make the majority of their open layups they would be near the top in offensive efficiency.

[Billy Don]

Because I've been around too long and know well enough that this post wasn't done to discuss basketball, or UC, it was done to slam Mick.

If anyone thinks Mick was playing "stall ball" then they haven't watched them play. They had a lot of open shots, including layups that they just missed. This isn't Memphis where they have 5 athletes that take the ball and go one on one with their defender, they actually try to run an offense to get good looks. My guess is that if they make the majority of their open layups they would be near the top in offensive efficiency.

It was common knowledge, even by the adverage fan, that UC wanted to slow the game down and keep the game in the 50's. Anybody who watched the games would know that because it was stated dozens of times over the course of the year. Of course there is always that 10% that doesn't know what's going on.

[SLMadiCat]

There is a difference between not playing an up-tempo offense and playing stall ball. I guess only the 10% can figure that out.

[GoCats1994]

Getting back to the original post... One might argue that the ONLY success UC had last year is when they played this "stall ball" game. Towards the end of the season, they got away from that style completely...and we all know what kind of losing streak they finished with.

They did not have the horses to run last year. Next year.... I think they might. Wright will be a HUGE key. I don't know much about him (other than what I've been able to read on-line)...never seen him in person. Although if UC is able to get someone that can handle the ball, get them in their offense, AND take some pressure off Vaughn to score....could be a very good thing for this team.

[bearcatmark]

I agree they clearly played to try to slow down the game. They'd often run Vaughn around for 30 seconds and hope he got open (not a bad strategy with that team). I hated when we played zone last year and felt like we were absolutely dreadful at it. We were slow rotating, we gave up a ton of open looks, we didn't have the length or athleticsism to truely bother anyone. Honestly there were some mismatches in man-to-man, but I felt we played far better man to man defense than zone. My hope is Cronin will play less zone, not more zone next year...I just grimaced every time we went to a zone defense.

[Billy Don]

Wright will be a HUGE key. I don't know much about him (other than what I've been able to read on-line)...never seen him in person. Although if UC is able to get someone that can handle the ball, get them in their offense, AND take some pressure off Vaughn to score....could be a very good thing for this team.

Vaughn stated a few times that Warren was really good at setting him up for his shots. What happens with a new inexperienced point guard is at best a guess right now. Going to be a work in progress that's for sure.

[MDW79]

Vaughn stated a few times that Warren was really good at setting him up for his shots. What happens with a new inexperienced point guard is at best a guess right now. Going to be a work in progress that's for sure.

Teamates tend to say positive things about one another. I thought Warren was average at best. While he was solid and didn't make many mistakes, he did virtually nothing to penetrate and open this offense up. If Cash is as quick as advertised, while he might turn it over more, his quickness should free Vaughn up for a lot of looks and he should be able to create a lot of kickouts by taking his man off the dribble.

[Bearcat Cafe]

Sorry Keith, but he isn't looking to have a conversation about tactics, strategies, etc....you are correct in your assessment though.

Yep. Ole MCwhatshisname is just looking for a soap box and some suckers to bite.