What does our basketball team need to do to improve?

I think the most important thing is for them to mature as players and learn from Coach Howland.

Here are some of my other thoughts of what we can do to improve.

Dribble Drive, get into the paint to shoot or pass. It's like we settle for the 3 pointer every possession. Live and Die by the 3 Ball.
We have to aggressively drive to the basket more.
We need to play better defense and stop making dumb fouls.
Get after those loose balls, they never seem to bounce our way.
I still don't understand why we don't play zone defense anymore, not all the time but wouldn't hurt to mix it up some in certain situations.

Establish defined roles.

We need the Brandon Vincent types that are willing to accept the grunt work role.

Another year at this point. I'm just ready for this season to be over. Like I've been for every basketball season now for going on 4-5 years in a row.

Depth at the 5.
Maturity.

Stop dribble penetration

rebound better

score at the rim or get fouled

Experience and depth inside.

Watching last couple of games no question they have it the Freshman wall. Tired both ment. and phy. another yr of training in weight room and on the court will solve most of that. With the addition of Ado on the blocks will do wonders for the team next yr. plus little Q as our backup PG instead of IJ will take to a new level.

Score more points than the other team

Sign a post scorer and/or relentless rebounder. Fingers crossed on Ado being that guy.

win games

Easy for me and that is interior defense. Ref incompetency aside, we can't defend anyone in the paint without committing a foul. So folks are getting point blank shots against us usually followed by an and one plus our bigs (what we have of them) stay in constant foul trouble. Until we can learn to defend in the post without always fouling things will not get much better. That is the primary reason I have been frustrated that Howland will not play ANY zone. He could protect the interior area a little more with a zone plus try to keep some of our guys out of foul trouble. He was willing to play some zone last year with the veteran team but he will seemingly not play any with this one. I don't get it.

Move our feet on defense. We are losing a lot of games at the free throw line because we don't move our feet and we reach too much with our hands. Did a great job of moving our feet last night in the first half. Second half was bad and they killed us at the line.

I would put emphasis on defense and rebounding the rest of the way. Earn your minutes that way. Eli Wright is doing a great job here so expect his minutes to continue to climb.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cowboydawg

Move our feet on defense. We are losing a lot of games at the free throw line because we don't move our feet and we reach too much with our hands. Did a great job of moving our feet last night in the first half. Second half was bad and they killed us at the line.

I would put emphasis on defense and rebounding the rest of the way. Earn your minutes that way. Eli Wright is doing a great job here so expect his minutes to continue to climb.

---

It doesn't matter. South Carolina used their hands more then any team I have ever seen and they were only called for 15 fouls to our 27. Their post guy mugs people and should have fouled out in the first half. Instead, he is able to play and scores 17. Last night we did drive to the basket to contact in the second half and no fouls were called to the tune of a 31-9 free throw shooting discrepancy Georgia had over us. Teams that have high foul counts every other game are consistently getting record low foul counts against us. It's complete shit. I'd say we need to shoot more wide open threes this year instead of driving to the basket for a contested layup. Those defenses are fouling but nothing is called so there is no free throw shooting. Teams like Alabama and South Carolina foul. That is the nature of how they play defense. Alabama was able to shoot 35+ free throws against us in a 9 point game. Georgia 31 in a 7 point game. We have been called for fouls on legal screens where we don't move, blocking fouls where the offensive player pushes off, been called for fouls when we have played great defense.

I think when Hess gets out of our conference it will be a great thing. He was already kicked out of the ACC. We also have Prima Donna refs like Valentine and Greene. Then we have that asshat that reffed both the Tennessee game in Starkville and the Auburn game at Auburn. Face it, we have the worst refs in the country and this shit needs to be fixed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MarketingBully

It doesn't matter. South Carolina used their hands more then any team I have ever seen and they were only called for 15 fouls to our 27. Their post guy mugs people and should have fouled out in the first half. Instead, he is able to play and scores 17. Last night we did drive to the basket to contact in the second half and no fouls were called to the tune of a 31-9 free throw shooting discrepancy Georgia had over us. Teams that have high foul counts every other game are consistently getting record low foul counts against us. It's complete shit. I'd say we need to shoot more wide open threes this year instead of driving to the basket for a contested layup. Those defenses are fouling but nothing is called so there is no free throw shooting. Teams like Alabama and South Carolina foul. That is the nature of how they play defense. Alabama was able to shoot 35+ free throws against us in a 9 point game. Georgia 31 in a 7 point game. We have been called for fouls on legal screens where we don't move, blocking fouls where the offensive player pushes off, been called for fouls when we have played great defense.

I think when Hess gets out of our conference it will be a great thing. He was already kicked out of the ACC. We also have Prima Donna refs like Valentine and Greene. Then we have that asshat that reffed both the Tennessee game in Starkville and the Auburn game at Auburn. Face it, we have the worst refs in the country and this shit needs to be fixed.

---

I agree and it makes it extremely frustrating to watch our games. We still need to move our feet better which will cut down our fouls but that does nothing to solve the issue your talking about. You always expect to deal with it on the road but the refs don't mind doing it to us at home either.

Keep playing. Get Ado and Brooks on the team. Keep developing.

We are close.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cowboydawg

I agree and it makes it extremely frustrating to watch our games. We still need to move our feet better which will cut down our fouls but that does nothing to solve the issue your talking about. You always expect to deal with it on the road but the refs don't mind doing it to us at home either.

---

I think it's because we are viewed as so young so refs are eyeballing us more then the other team. I think this gets better naturally once we mature and add another year. This year though it will keep on happening because they will continue to eyeball us and Howland doesn't really chew on the refs much.

Our primary issue on defense, and the main reason we are being called for fouls so often, is that we have a tendency to put our hands on the offensive player. They are cracking down on that in a big way. In high school basketball, that mostly goes uncalled; they allow much more physical defense than college basketball now, so as soon as they see you reach out and touch the offensive player with your hands, they're likely going to blow the whistle.

We just haven't fully gotten that instinct out of our system. There was a play last night where the UGA player began to back down on Holman. Holman literally just rested his hands on the player's back for a split second with no force applied, and they blew the whistle. It's stupid, but it's the way they're calling it now. Other teams are doing that less against us than we are against them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by maroonmania

Easy for me and that is interior defense. Ref incompetency aside, we can't defend anyone in the paint without committing a foul. So folks are getting point blank shots against us usually followed by an and one plus our bigs (what we have of them) stay in constant foul trouble. Until we can learn to defend in the post without always fouling things will not get much better. That is the primary reason I have be frustrated that Howland will not play ANY zone. He could protect the interior area a little more with a zone plus try to keep some of our guys out of foul trouble. He was willing to play some zone last year with the veteran team but he will seemingly not play any with this one. I don't get it.

---

Me either...

Aint gonna lie, I tuned out of this basketball season after the OM game

Reduce TO - no more than 15 per game,
FT - 80% per game,
more assists from the PG position and less turnovers,
Improved BB IQ - 1 on 3 you don't pull up and shoot a 3 or drive to the rim.