adjustments for tonight?

buckwheat

buckwheat

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biggest game of the year tonight and there isn't much talk about the actual game itself. so here goes.

it seems that vcu and smart made some necessary adjustments for mason and learned a lot from the earlier blowout loss. the guys played better defense and were calm, cool, and collected out there. the havoc didn't run us into the ground. shooting the ball well didn't hurt either.

so that said, what type of adjustments are being made for tonight? after being humiliated on the boards vs. odu at the stu, what did these guys learn from that game? one thing i do know, and that is that this team absolutely cannot hand odu easy layups and MUST get back on defense. play a tough zone. BOX OUT on the defensive end and crash the boards. if we allow them anywhere close to 18 offensive boards again or get outrebounded by 19 again, we are in for a long night.

so other than what i mentioned, what adjustments is coach smart in the process of making tonight?
 
I'd like to go with a big line-up. DJ, Skeen, Veal, Burgess, and Joey. Punch them in the mouth early and give Skeen, Burgess, and Joey green light on three's. Just to start the game. Then after we have the lead, put in the shooters and destory them from three point range. Be aggressive!
 
L72boy said:
I'd like to go with a big line-up. DJ, Skeen, Veal, Burgess, and Joey. Punch them in the mouth early and give Skeen, Burgess, and Joey green light on three's. Just to start the game. Then after we have the lead, put in the shooters and destory them from three point range. Be aggressive!
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This. We did go with the small lineup at times yesterday and we were lucky it didn't hurt us. I believe we already had GMU in a funk at that point. We should stick with the big lineup against ODU tonight though. They only hit three 3's the last time we played. 46 of their 70 points last meeting were in the paint. When we beat them in Norfolk, we limited them to only 25 points in the paint. In Norfolk, they out rebounded us by only 4 and in our last meeting by 25. I'll leave it up to the coaches, but a zone defense would be nice against ODU. The keys will be rebounding, limiting their points in the paint, and hitting our shots. They rank 11th out of 12 teams in our conference from the 3-pt line.
 
We need a strong opening five minutes from DJ. A good start will work wonders for the confidence and put ODU back on their heels.

Have to value every possession. Typically, ODU will have droughts on offensive, especially if we take care of the defensive boards. When they do, we have to take advantage of it and not get careless with the ball or take bad shots.
 
I worry more about our offense. I expect ODU to come out in a tough 2-3 zone. If so we need to stay hot from 3. We have had trouble at time with creating dribble penetration. Brad's size allows him to be able to penetrate and then make 8-10 jumpers. Tougher for Joey to drive and make shots in the paint if a dump off pass if not there. Ed is another wild card. He has shown in the past that he can cross-over most defenders and create easy baskets. Just don't carry the ball Ed :lol:

I would expect some 2-3 zone on our part just to pack the paint and try to limit easy inside looks and provide a better chance of rebounds and limiting second chance points. I'm almost convinced ODU's offense does not start until a shot is taken. They really rely heavily on offensive boards that lead to second chance points.

I like the idea of playing less full court press due to the minutes ours guys have played over the last two days, might be some tired legs.

Hard to predict this game. If we get an early lead we can probably dictate our will. Same goes for ODU. Maybe the first possession of the game will be the most important :shock:
 
2-3 ZONE! Won the game for us at ODU (inexplicably, we didn't use it one second at home when they waxed us or when Mason beat us at home). When we used it yesterday, the zone was stifling. There were two stretches where we went to man and they went on a run immediately...then we switched back to the zone and they couldn't function. It's a major weapon in college basketball when you play against a team that cant shoot and is a great rebounding team...ODU fits that bill more than any other. If we get away from the 2-3 zone for anything other than a different look then i say we're gonna be in trouble. Our guys have been rotating in the zone to perfection, closing out on shooters, and boxing out for the most part. I expect it to continue and see a barn-burner of a game with us coming out on top 62-58.
 
The only "adjustment" I'd like to see is constant change. 2-3 zone, 1-3-1 matchup zone, M2M, Box +1, heck throw the whole kitchen sink at them. Confuse the snot out of their players. Switch it up even during possessions. If the ball gets in the corner, switch on the fly from a static 2-3 to a 1-3-1 matchup and trap them along the baseline.

When Coach Smart talks about "Havoc" I think that's what he means. We befuddle the other team not necessarily with one set, but with a range of different sets. I think it will be much more to our advantage to do something like that against an ODU team that has just played two games in the span of 44 hours.

I do believe if we try to bang with them for 40 minutes, we'll lose. ODU isn't Drexel, and they'll know how to block/alter shots in the post without fouling. Their guards are more athletic (Bazemore deflecting passes with those freakishly lanky arms of his) than Drexel's and can run the break more effectively. They saw what we did vs. Drexel (get ball to Skeen in post, Skeen gets fouled, watch 73% Free Throw shooter rack up 11 points at the line, watch three Drexel forwards foul out) just like Mason saw what we did vs. Drexel. I don't think we'll be able to just muscle it in if they are hunkering down expecting us to try the same thing we did at their place.

That's not to say we should crumple into the fetal position and start hocking up 3s with reckless abandon. But we'll see what kind of look ODU prepares for and we'll make an adjustment to do something completely different. As long as we keep them on their toes and hit our open looks, we give ourselves a fair chance to win.
 
Gotta hit shots. Have a feeling ODU will take Skeen out of the game and take their chances on our erratic perimeter players.
 
Mistachill said:
Gotta hit shots. Have a feeling ODU will take Skeen out of the game and take their chances on our erratic perimeter players.
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Kinda makes me wish we had Troy Daniels available.
 
DCDuck said:
Mistachill said:
Gotta hit shots. Have a feeling ODU will take Skeen out of the game and take their chances on our erratic perimeter players.
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Kinda makes me wish we had Troy Daniels available.
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agree

Maybe Brandon and or Brad will get hot. Brandon is due to go off. He started feeling it yesterday and Mason quickly realized it and started getting in his face. But it opened up the post game and gave us some balance. Perimeter shooting will probably be the key for us if ODU stays with a 2-3 zone and focuses on stopping Jamie.

Would love to see Jamie get a double-double, 20 rebounds and 20 assists :D
 
DCDuck said:
The only "adjustment" I'd like to see is constant change. 2-3 zone, 1-3-1 matchup zone, M2M, Box +1, heck throw the whole kitchen sink at them. Confuse the snot out of their players. Switch it up even during possessions. If the ball gets in the corner, switch on the fly from a static 2-3 to a 1-3-1 matchup and trap them along the baseline.
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I like it.
 
Need to stay our of foul trouble, especially Skeen.

Keep working the inside out game and perhaps get their bigs in some foul trouble, just like the past 2 days.
 
foul trouble on our floor????
with our refs???
i mean really, please
(heavy sarcastic emphasis)
 
We will need DJ to play smart and stay out of foul trouble giving us valuable minutes. Our press has been so much more effective because of DJ on the floor as a 5, Skeen playing the 4 and Brad playing the 3.
 
Whatever we do, we need to get off to a quick start. ODU has some good atheletes but they can't run with us the whole game. Our problem is sometimes when we run we don't make our shots. When you have a wide open style of play you have to hit the shots to make the style effective. Run hard and play good deffense. We can go big when we need . I agree that it is important to be able to control the paint especially on defense because that is where ODU's strength is. .. :ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:
 
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