Team Basketball.....

RamBo

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We are really playing solid team basketball right now. It's a lot fun to watch. Now, all we need to do is to ratchet down on the defensive end, and we are going to be one tough team to beat. We are scoring, and we are scoring from a lot of different positions / players. Check out the stat line, through the first 5 games:


Statistics category Overall Conf
Games 5 -
FG made per game 30.2 -
FG attempts per game 66.4 -
FG Pct 45.5 -
3PT made per game 10.8 -
3PT attempts per game 27.6 -
3PT Pct 39.1 -
FT made per game 12.6 -
FT attempt per game 19.8 -
FT Pct 63.6 -
Off rebounds per game 13.6 -
Def rebounds per game 23.0 -
Total rebounds per game 36.6 -
Assists per game 19.2 -
Turnovers per game 12.8 -
Steals per game 9.6 -
Blocks per game 5.8 -
Personal fouls per game 18.8 -
Points per game 83.8 -
 
Another key will be treating every game as if we are playing a marquee program whether it's Tennessee, UCLA, or ODU on one side, or Georgia State, Towson, or UNCW on the other. Take no team for granted. That is one of the things that the top programs do year in and year out.
 
Yeah- I agree completely. No silly mistakes. The guys have got to be up for every single game. Because there are on;y a few teams on the schedule that are good enough to beat us, when we play our game. And those are games we can win as well- if we are on. But the point is.... no slip-ups, and we will win a lot of games.

One of the stats that caught my attention on the chart, is our TO's. 12.8 per game is not too bad, when you play the up-tempo style we do, on both ends, and when you are getting more possessions than the average team. And not too bad at all, when you are averaging 83.8 PPG. But this is still a figure we can improve upon. If we could figure a way to cut that to 10, we are going to be extremely hard to beat. Even in JD's slow-paced, ball-controlled style of offensive scheme, I think his mark was 10. But when we were in the 8-9 range, you could just about forget beating us. So I like where we are right now- especially since we still aren't playing our best ball. I think we can be even better.

I like the assists, steals, and blocks stats too. A little surprising, even given our athleticism, that we're getting that many blocks- especially when you factor in WF, Tenn, and UCLA in the early schedule. Those are some pretty darn athletic teams. Hey- losing Larry hasn't been the end of the world!
 
There are still some things to work on:

Offensive Rebound % - Ranked 216 out of 348
Free Throw % - Ranked 256 out of 348
Offensive Rebound % Defense - Ranked 289 out of 348
Free Throws Attempted/Field Goals Attempted - Ranked 291 out of 348
Defensive Three Point % - Ranked 296 out of 348
Offensive Block % - Ranked 302 out of 348

And there are some things we are doing nicely on:

Offensive Turnover % - Ranked 30 out of 348
Steal % - Ranked 47 out of 348
Three Point % - Ranked 47 out of 348
Effective Field Goal % - Ranked 51 out of 348
Defensive Turnover % - Ranked 59 out of 348
 
Here is something that caught my eye, scoring averages.
Brandon...................16 ppg
Brad.......................15
Jamie......................15
Joey........................14.8

That is what I call a balanced scoring attack. If Toby and Ed would average 8 to 10 ppg we would be an offensive juggernaut...oh wait.....
 
We will still have our ups and down. I don't believe all our players can shoot lights out game in and game out.

But if we stay strong on the defensive end, we play both inside and out every game, and we get Skeen some needed inside help we will be a very hard team to beat. Our perimeter scorers are going to have to trust our inside guys....especially if the shots are not falling from deep.

Veal, haley, reddic, and hinton must continue to develop throughout the season.
 
RamBo said:
Yeah- I agree completely. No silly mistakes. The guys have got to be up for every single game. Because there are on;y a few teams on the schedule that are good enough to beat us, when we play our game. And those are games we can win as well- if we are on. But the point is.... no slip-ups, and we will win a lot of games.


A lot of people were complaining about our schedule at the start of the year, and now even more are saying we have nothing to look forward to from now until the postseason, sans ODU and the Pricks, er, Ticks. A lot of people know absolutely nothing about Wofford, and have forgotten how successful Cornell was just last year. That holiday tournament will be tough for us, even on our home floor. You had ODU and GMU getting picked ahead of us, so that's certainly 3 tough ones in conference play, but a lot of people are still sleeping on a darn good JMU team. If Toby fails to show up against Bowles in either of those games like he did against Tennessee, yikes! I'd hate to see the fun that 4RunninRam, NCIN, Andy and the band of merry fools may have should we drop a game or two like that before it's all said and done.....
 
I think one thing the guys, and the staff, have got to remember, and remind themselves of, is that they actually came in 5th in the league last year. No way that should have happened, although obviously, the top-4 were all tough teams. but this year, we are going to have to really stay on top of this thing, and stay strong from here on out, every single game. I like that we have 4-5 guys that can light it up from perimeter. A couple guys are flat, cold, whatever... and a couple more can still do that damage. And we are more balanced as far as a few guys with mid-range type games, and some inside emphasis as well. We have a lot of tools and weapons this year, and a fair amount of depth- sans maybe at the center slot. Hopefully, a couple guys will emerge to handle some crucial back-up minutes.
 
vcubanana said:
BaNgMyPrOgRaM said:
We're done playing marquee programs until the dance so dont worry.
My point was that we don't sleep on lesser opponents.

This is key. The last few years that we were ignored during the post season selections was mostly because or one or two bad losses. They make the good wins invisible.
 
This is key. Wins are GOOD. Losses are BAD. I will never believe any win is bad or any loss is good. Just win everything.
 
ViCtorioUs said:
Here is something that caught my eye, scoring averages.
Brandon...................16 ppg
Brad.......................15
Jamie......................15
Joey........................14.8

That is what I call a balanced scoring attack. If Toby and Ed would average 8 to 10 ppg we would be an offensive juggernaut...oh wait.....

I don't know why, but I was somehow surprised when I saw that too. It's just good to know we aren't going to sink if one guy has an off night.
 
Yep. We are more "well-balanced" this year than we've been in quite some time. Even the 07' team was tough- 1-5, but Anderson was not the proverbial 4, nor was Femeni the typical 5. We made it all work with chemistry and a stable of the best guards and swing-men ANYWHERE. When you've got EM6, Bobby Anthony, Shu the E/B, Jesse, and a couple of the others, and then you add in Calvin Roland to the Anderson / Fameni front-court, you are flat tough. I think this year's team may actually even be more well-balanced, with Skeen's inside scoring presence. We haven't had that in a long, long time. Since LF's senior season, maybe. Now we need to see the consistency in him. If we get that, we are going to go a long way.
 
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