Bama Game Thread: MBB Bama at Florida - SUNDAY Feb 1st - 12N CST - ABC

[BamaMoon]

Hey everyone......

FWIW - I actually thought you would win this game.

You have a VERY good team and a VERY good coaching staff and I still think you will make some noise in the Dance this year.

Lot of basketball to play.......let's see what happens next game.

Thanks Bazza. Y'all have the best team in the league as of now. Really nothing has changed since last March/April, except we've slipped down a rung or two on the SEC ladder.

 

[jjv0004]

No. Look at what his teams have done in the tourney. They have lost to the champion, second place team and final 4. They aren’t losing to chumps. As far as physicality they have consistently beaten Houston and others. Purdue, Gonzaga, UF and Tenn are thorns. Hopefully S&C changes a little and how he coaches defense.

CNO is the best Bama coach ever and a smart guy that’s super competitive so think he will start adjusting more. Think he tried something new with his roster this year. Didn’t work. Let’s not go crazy with one season of avg play and missed player evaluations. UConn stunk last year and is back so it happens.

Looks like new people to bball section have waited for a down year to pop in.

Been on the basketball board for quite a while. Oats is a great coach and maybe the best Bama coach of all time for basketball. Not positive on that one.

He has been great for the program and we have had great success. I would say we are a little bit spoiled the last 3-4 years. Very high expectations. This team is just not it. They just are not very good. That's ok. I would venture to guess he would admit to doing a very poor job with roster construction this year. Had what amounted to 1 big to start the year. The freshman big was never going to contribute and Williamson was never going to be good in the SEC.

We rely too much on the 3 and have consistently not played defense for how many years now. Outside the top 90 in defensive efficiency last year and currently at number 66. Not going to cut it. Bama will continue to be good under Oats. I don't doubt that. I do have doubts that his system will ever lead to a championship. I do not see it.

 

[alabama mike1]

Frustrating- endless dribbling by Philon.
Frustrating- shot selection when situational BB needs to be played.
Frustrating- the lack of defensive effort. STOP the ball!
Frustrating- rebounding.
Frustrating- the constant injuries that keep us from playing our best players in a game.

This team is just plain hard to watch.

 

[Bazza]

Finally had time to listen to your head coach's post-game presser.

Sounds like he's 100% aware of what happened in the game, so you have to believe he will act on it and make adjustments going forward.

Much respect!

 

[BamaMoon]

Finally had time to listen to your head coach's post-game presser.

Sounds like he's 100% aware of what happened in the game, so you have to believe he will act on it and make adjustments going forward.

Much respect!

Whether you agree with him or not, CNO makes a logical case for Beds, while at the same time, saying what most others are saying: we need better/clearer/enforceable rules!

 

[BamaMoon]

Frustrating- endless dribbling by Philon.
Frustrating- shot selection when situational BB needs to be played.
Frustrating- the lack of defensive effort. STOP the ball!
Frustrating- rebounding.
Frustrating- the constant injuries that keep us from playing our best players in a game.

This team is just plain hard to watch.

On the injuries, I just do not understand what is going on. If I'm not mistaken, we haven't played ONE game this year with the compliment of the full roster being available.

 

[BamaMoon]

Finally had time to listen to your head coach's post-game presser.

Sounds like he's 100% aware of what happened in the game, so you have to believe he will act on it and make adjustments going forward.

Much respect!

CNO noted something interesting to me about how UF has played us defensively two different ways in recent games.

He said they had previously played drop coverage, but on Saturday, they switched to force us off the line.

The reason they could do that is because of Chinyelu (and their twin 7-footers). CNO says he thinks Chinyelu is the best big in our conference. And we saw why on Sunday. When he switched on a screen to guard Philon, he stuck to him like glue (as a former coach of mine would say "he got up in his jock"). Then, when Wrightsell set a screen, Chinyelu switched to him and forced Wrightsell into a travel.

This was the most surreal moment of the game IMO on Sunday. When a 6'10" power forward can check two 6'3" guards on the same defensive set and shut them down, that's impressive.

Chinyelu also had 17 rebounds!!!

No wonder UF decided to switch with his defensive skills, BUT that brings up another issue.

When UF switched a big to stay with our guards, that means our bigs had a guard switch to them!!! Normally, teams can't afford to do this because the offensive team responds with rolling their big to the block who is being guarded by the defensive team's smaller guard. In most cases, this would lead to an easy 2 down low OR a foul and 2 FTs.

Here's one of the times CNO's scheme is exposed. In this scenario, unless the big is open for a lob, we don't typically feed our bigs on the post with a situational post-up.

On Sunday, I recall us feeding Sherrell once and Beds once. IMO, we should have done it alot more.

 

[BamaMoon]

In the former post, I described a possible adjustment when teams "switch" their bigs to our guards.

But what about when teams play "drop coverage?" This, by the way, is how most teams play us on the screen and roll. When we set a pick, their big momentarily foreces our guard off the 3 point line to avoid an opportunity for a wide open 3, but then when his guard-teammate can recover, the big drops into coverage near the rim to protect against a pick and roll lob pass.

However, when a big man drops like that he is dropping so deep to the basket that if our guard beats his man off the dribble, guess what is going to be wide open??? That's right, the 10-15 foot pull up is wide open most of the time.

Incidentally, we play drop coverage the same way. It is why you see so many opposing teams taking wide-open jumpers around the FT line against us. Unguarded, it is a high percentage shot for a good shooting guard.

I wonder if one of the adjustments we need to make on offense is starting to take a few more of these wide-open 13-15 foot jumpers. Philon and Holloway are very capable of making those shots! I know it runs counter to CNO's philosophy of shots at the rim, the 3 point line and the FT line (after fouls), but it perhaps would change the way teams play drop coverage on us if we start making them guard that shot.

BTW, I think this is one reason we struggle with offensive rebounding. When the opposing team drops their bigs to the basket and we kick it out for a 3, they have perfect rebounding position most of the time.

Sorry for the long post, but this is something that's been on my mind and was jolted with CNO's comments at his presser.

 

[JDCrimson]

In the former post, I described a possible adjustment when teams "switch" their bigs to our guards.

But what about when teams play "drop coverage?" This, by the way, is how most teams play us on the screen and roll. When we set a pick, their big momentarily foreces our guard off the 3 point line to avoid an opportunity for a wide open 3, but then when his guard-teammate can recover, the big drops into coverage near the rim to protect against a pick and roll lob pass.

However, when a big man drops like that he is dropping so deep to the basket that if our guard beats his man off the dribble, guess what is going to be wide open??? That's right, the 10-15 foot pull up is wide open most of the time.

Incidentally, we play drop coverage the same way. It is why you see so many opposing teams taking wide-open jumpers around the FT line against us. Unguarded, it is a high percentage shot for a good shooting guard.

I wonder if one of the adjustments we need to make on offense is starting to take a few more of these wide-open 13-15 foot jumpers. Philon and Holloway are very capable of making those shots! I know it runs counter to CNO's philosophy of shots at the rim, the 3 point line and the FT line (after fouls), but it perhaps would change the way teams play drop coverage on us if we start making them guard that shot.

BTW, I think this is one reason we struggle with offensive rebounding. When the opposing team drops their bigs to the basket and we kick it out for a 3, they have perfect rebounding position most of the time.

Sorry for the long post, but this is something that's been on my mind and was jolted with CNO's comments at his presser.

I dont think it will make a difference imo. We arent going to shoot and make enough of them for them to make a difference in the game. And the other team isn't going to do enough of the same to force us to change either imo.

What we need to do is understand that we need to play more physical on the ball defense. We need to mix in more physical play in the lane on offense.

Interestingly, I think officials are influenced by how they see you play on offense that it affects what the call on you on defense and vice versa. Meaning finesse one end of the court followed by physicality on the other end of the court likely translates into more fouls called on you.

 

[BamaMoon]

I dont think it will make a difference imo. We arent going to shoot and make enough of them for them to make a difference in the game. And the other team isn't going to do enough of the same to force us to change either imo.

What we need to do is understand that we need to play more physical on the ball defense. We need to mix in more physical play in the lane on offense.

Interestingly, I think officials are influenced by how they see you play on offense that it affects what the call on you on defense and vice versa. Meaning finesse one end of the court followed by physicality on the other end of the court likely translates into more fouls called on you.

In the other post on what happens when teams "switch" that is EXACTLY what I'm proposing. If a guard switches to our Big, he should immediately post him up at the block. That's literally what I'm suggesting in answer to your statement:

We need to mix in more physical play in the lane on offense

 

[Bama Shoals]

In the other post on what happens when teams "switch" that is EXACTLY what I'm proposing. If a guard switches to our Big, he should immediately post him up at the block. That's literally what I'm suggesting in answer to your statement:

We did this with Noah Gurley. He would duck in and we would throw him the ball in the post since he frequently would have a smaller player guarding him. He was very effective in the post. It was another good source of scoring in the offense to supplement the drive and 3s gameplan. I'm not sure why we don't do that anymore with someone like Amari Allen.

 

[BamaMoon]

We did this with Noah Gurley. He would duck in and we would throw him the ball in the post since he frequently would have a smaller player guarding him. He was very effective in the post. It was another good source of scoring in the offense to supplement the drive and 3s gameplan. I'm not sure why we don't do that anymore with someone like Amari Allen.

I remember once or twice we did with AA in earlier games. I remember a couple times against UF we did....but we need to do it more when there are mismatches!