I think teams will dare Simpson to beat us and try to limit their help. We lost 2 guys with NBA level offensive talent that opponents schemed for in Poole and Iggy, there will be less space out there if we have less talent to worry teams. For instance, if I’m guarding Matthews or Livers at the other forward spot opposite Iggy, I’m still aware that Iggy is going to get to the basket fairly often. If that’s Brandon Johns and he can’t really create off the dribble, I’m sticking tighter to my man or further focusing on the Teske/Z pick and roll.
And Poole, well there were games he appeared to be the main concern (not by a lot, but still #1) of the other team’s defense.
And while Iggy and Matthews weren’t good passers, Poole could pass it a bit, and who is coming in that we think will be a good passer who creates for others?
I know Beilein runs good stuff, but so does Mike Brey at Notre Dame and his offense cratered this year (105th) after being probably the closest to ours along with Butler over the Beilein era.
We finished 24th on O and 2nd on D. If I was handicapping next year, I’d have our over/unders at about 40th on 0 and like 6-8th on D (slight dropoff because it’s hard to stay right at the top, playing younger players and Matthews being probably the best wing defender in the conference)
Other teams did that this year, especially late, and the teams which had a 5 who could switch screens and stay with X (MSU and TT) gave us issues. Against teams without that type of 5, X is going to force help, and having an extra shooter and passer may lead to more open looks from 3, albeit a reduction of other talents the departed guys brought to the table. Against teams with that type of 5 (MSU for example), we’re going to have to score through off ball movement, some additional post-up looks and emphasis with Teske, and keeping the ball from sticking, as it often did last year. If we do those things, I think we’ll get at least as many open 3s as last year—whether we hit them is another matter. We’ll see.
Brooks created nice looks for himself off the bounce or towards the rim , he just often missed them/ blew easy looks. This makes me believe it’s in his head. Also after being a real nice shooter in high school he’s shooting threes that hit only glass or straight up was scared to shoot them. Again to me that looks like a kid who lost confidence.
I think the ability is there but he has to mentally get back on track.
For example, both Penn State and Iowa threw us off our game this year with token pressure. You don’t always have to create a turnover. When you speed the other team up into bad shots, or when you force them to expend a ton of time before they get into their offense, those are wins for the defense.
Also, some teams will force Z to give up the ball. We will need someone else to initiate offense from time to time. It may end up being Brooks, so hopefully he’s up to the challenge.
That makes sense, but it also could be that players more willing to run the offense down to a few seconds left, rather than rush something at 10 seconds, could be the best solution. Dylan, do you have numbers on how much shot clock this team was willing to use? My guess is that last year’s team would run one more action before a forced/difficult/bad-idea shot in comparison with this year’s team, which had players more likely to go force a shot earlier in the shot clock.
I’m with those who believe that the offense flowed pretty well this season, against all but the very best teams (bar the PSU debacle, maybe). I don’t remember the ball getting stuck very much like it has in previous years (though we have been very spoiled by Beilein’s offenses). I just think the ball sometimes didn’t go in in the end.
Would be interested if there were numbers to bear this out/disprove.
I would expect we’ll face a ton of smallball 5 play next year, (apart from Iowa with Garza and Purdue with Haarms and I’m forgetting some other big 10 center who ain’t quick, why wouldn’t you start with a switchable 5 against us?) and there’s no real reason to believe we’ll be able to effectively make post ups work for the first time ever, I want to say?
But there definitely have been years where the picks and cuts must have been better than last year, because it certainly felt like we had a harder time creating open looks, though I suppose that could be us having 2 very good shooters out there instead of what I feel like is usually 3?
I definitely felt like we lacked the upside on O this year to be likely to make the final 4, even with Beilein’s tournament greatness and our fantastic D. I think that upside is higher next year if one of Bajema or DeJulius is our starting 2 by March and Brooks is our 3rd guard.
I thought we really had just one good shooter in Iggy, and sometimes two when he shared the floor with Livers.
I agree that you’d want to see Brooks be beaten out for the starting role. Frankly, if DDJ can’t do it it could be a bad sign for him. Beilein wanted him to take those minutes in mid-February. I bet that with another offseason and training camp under his belt, that the game will slow down significantly for DDJ and he’ll be able to do just that. I think he’s more likely to start come November than Brooks would be.