keckjm
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I had a chance to watch the vols play last night, and I thought some good and bad things stuck out. For those who didn't watch the game, cncchris33 broke it down nicely. Here's the link.
I want to add on to his thread with some items I think will be important moving forward.
The Good
1. The press. Our press is pretty dynamic. We will go from a full court press, to a 3/4 court press, etc. We like to change it up, and it's going to wear teams with little depth down come the second half.
2. We have a lot of guys who can play for us this year. For atleast the first half of the season I expect us to consistently play 9-11 guys every game. This should help us stay fresh when we press all game.
3. We are very athletic. Again, this should really help us in the press.
The Bad
1. We have no true PG. A few times during last night's game we became a 1 on 1 team in the half court on offense. We can't win doing that against good teams. The bright spot is, we seam to be a good passing team against the zone. Here's an offense similar to the one I saw us play against the 2-3 zone.
2. We have no scoring threat down low. It's really that simple.
3. We have no experience.
No PG + No Scoring Post Player + Little Experience = Hard Times To Come
If I Were Coach
Yea, yea, we are all coaches on here, right? However, if I were coach this is what I'd do:
My starting line up would be:
Josh, Mostella, Baulkman (when healthy, otherwise I'd start Hubbs), Moore, Willie
6th man: Punter
7th man: Hubbs
8th man: Owens
9th man: McGhee
10th man: Woodson
11th man: Reese
12th man: Chiles
Punter is a good scorer. He's also our best PG option at the moment IMO. So, why have him come off the bench? We need a leader for the second unit. Someone who can play with the backups and make them all better. We also need a scorer off our bench. Hubbs and Punter should provide a good scoring spark for us off the bench. Plus, Josh, Moore, and Mostella should be able to play PG by comity just fine. Yea, I did just say Moore. He'll have to help out against teams that press us, so will Baulkman and Hubbs.
Also, I feel as the season goes on Woodson's playing time will increase. You can see why Tyndall wants this guy to get in shape and play. He's a monster. He'd be a huge help on the boards and in defending bigger post players.
A few more tidbits of info to pay attention to:
I. Owens may be the first natural shot blocker we have had here in a very, very long time. He's going to be good once he adds some weight and works on his low post game.
II. McGhee and Owens play well together. These two guys may become something special off the bench for us in the coming years. McGhee can rebound pretty well already, and Ownes can block shots. If McGhee can develop a 12-15 foot jumper, and Ownes can bulk up and develop a few solid low post moves, we may have an electric post duo off the bench in a few years. I could easily see down the road a sitaution where Woodson and Willie start and every 4-5 minutes they sub out with McGhee and Ownes. This should help build chemistry between our post players, keep us fresh, and give us another spark off our bench.
III: Mostella looks like a very good scorer in the making. He'll be really fun to watch in a year or two.
IV: We need Tyndall to get cleared from the NCAA so he can recruit for us. I like Tyndall. I think he's what we need as a coach, but we also need a PG/low post scorer. Until the NCAA investigation goes away, it'll be a distraction, along with a recruiting obstacle.
V: A big key to our success will come in our ability to excute in the fast break. We need to obtain as many easy points as we can, and we have the athletes to be very good in break. We should push the ball as much as possible. This will wear teams down even more. It'll help create turnovers in the press late in games due to fatigue. It'll positively correlate with our atheltism and ability to rebound, and biggest of all, it'll mask our two biggest weaknesses, no PG and no low post scorer.
Go Vols:rock:
I want to add on to his thread with some items I think will be important moving forward.
The Good
1. The press. Our press is pretty dynamic. We will go from a full court press, to a 3/4 court press, etc. We like to change it up, and it's going to wear teams with little depth down come the second half.
2. We have a lot of guys who can play for us this year. For atleast the first half of the season I expect us to consistently play 9-11 guys every game. This should help us stay fresh when we press all game.
3. We are very athletic. Again, this should really help us in the press.
The Bad
1. We have no true PG. A few times during last night's game we became a 1 on 1 team in the half court on offense. We can't win doing that against good teams. The bright spot is, we seam to be a good passing team against the zone. Here's an offense similar to the one I saw us play against the 2-3 zone.
2. We have no scoring threat down low. It's really that simple.
3. We have no experience.
No PG + No Scoring Post Player + Little Experience = Hard Times To Come
If I Were Coach
Yea, yea, we are all coaches on here, right? However, if I were coach this is what I'd do:
My starting line up would be:
Josh, Mostella, Baulkman (when healthy, otherwise I'd start Hubbs), Moore, Willie
6th man: Punter
7th man: Hubbs
8th man: Owens
9th man: McGhee
10th man: Woodson
11th man: Reese
12th man: Chiles
Punter is a good scorer. He's also our best PG option at the moment IMO. So, why have him come off the bench? We need a leader for the second unit. Someone who can play with the backups and make them all better. We also need a scorer off our bench. Hubbs and Punter should provide a good scoring spark for us off the bench. Plus, Josh, Moore, and Mostella should be able to play PG by comity just fine. Yea, I did just say Moore. He'll have to help out against teams that press us, so will Baulkman and Hubbs.
Also, I feel as the season goes on Woodson's playing time will increase. You can see why Tyndall wants this guy to get in shape and play. He's a monster. He'd be a huge help on the boards and in defending bigger post players.
A few more tidbits of info to pay attention to:
I. Owens may be the first natural shot blocker we have had here in a very, very long time. He's going to be good once he adds some weight and works on his low post game.
II. McGhee and Owens play well together. These two guys may become something special off the bench for us in the coming years. McGhee can rebound pretty well already, and Ownes can block shots. If McGhee can develop a 12-15 foot jumper, and Ownes can bulk up and develop a few solid low post moves, we may have an electric post duo off the bench in a few years. I could easily see down the road a sitaution where Woodson and Willie start and every 4-5 minutes they sub out with McGhee and Ownes. This should help build chemistry between our post players, keep us fresh, and give us another spark off our bench.
III: Mostella looks like a very good scorer in the making. He'll be really fun to watch in a year or two.
IV: We need Tyndall to get cleared from the NCAA so he can recruit for us. I like Tyndall. I think he's what we need as a coach, but we also need a PG/low post scorer. Until the NCAA investigation goes away, it'll be a distraction, along with a recruiting obstacle.
V: A big key to our success will come in our ability to excute in the fast break. We need to obtain as many easy points as we can, and we have the athletes to be very good in break. We should push the ball as much as possible. This will wear teams down even more. It'll help create turnovers in the press late in games due to fatigue. It'll positively correlate with our atheltism and ability to rebound, and biggest of all, it'll mask our two biggest weaknesses, no PG and no low post scorer.
Go Vols:rock:
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