Getting the ball inside...

tjgopher

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Tubby seemed most frustrated after the game last night with the team's inability to get the ball inside. I pose this:

Colton played 11 minutes, RSIII played 25. That's 36 minutes out of a possible 80.

To really be effective at getting the ball inside, don't we need these guys on the floor more than that?

Tubby needs to really self-evaluate how he rotates guys in and out. It seems like a free-for-all with guys like Colton getting lost in the shuffle time after time.

If Tubby is serious about pounding the ball down low, then he has to commit to playing these guys, particularly Colton. If he isn't willing to do that, then I don't see how he can complain about not getting the ball down low.

Also, he needs to absolutely tutor Al Nolen in the pick-and-roll. Teams are clearly now doubling Al off of the screen at the top of the key because Al is unable to see the "roll" part of the play. At least four times last night he had Colton, Ralph or Damian rolling to the hoop with no one defending them and he couldn't recognize it. Opposing coaches are seeing this and it totally bogs down the offense. Hit on that play 3-4 times and a lot of other things open up.
 

To be fair, both big men struggled with fouls early, and once we went down 17 in the second half, Tubby went with a smaller line-up to try and reduce the deficit, which worked against Becky.

I completely agree with you about the pick and roll. I would also like to see some slip screens, because the big guy is cheating every time.
 

To be fair, both big men struggled with fouls early, and once we went down 17 in the second half, Tubby went with a smaller line-up to try and reduce the deficit, which worked against Becky.

I completely agree with you about the pick and roll. I would also like to see some slip screens, because the big guy is cheating every time.

Yes, actually I should have said slip screens...Damian and Ralph each slipped one last night and were wide open, but Al simply will not make that pass, for whatever reason.

As to the foul situation, Colton committed his second foul at the 8:52 mark of the 1st half, did not start the second half, and did not commit a third foul in the game. So, there were plenty of minutes there for the taking that Tubby didn't play him. Ralph didn't commit his second foul until 14:50 of the second half and did not commit a third foul. Now, Ralph played 25 minutes, which is probably about right.
 

I also really...

think we needed either Ralph or Colton in there on D to make Johnson work more. He had his way inside whenever we didn't have a post presence.

The two big guys are talented, and fairly strong given their experience, I would like to see them in there (at leat one or the other) as much as possible. If they get in foul trouble and/or we fall behind, we can always go to the faster DJ/Carter/Bostick combos.

Without going to our bigs, we missed a great chance to get Johnson in foul trouble (he contests everything) and with Eddie (short whislte) Hightower in charge we would have gotten our share of foul calls. We did anyway, but we could have gotten to the rim a little easier if Johnson had to sit down more often.
 




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