Men vs Florida Game Thread

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

6 hours ago, dyehardfanAU said:

Bruce has said Turbo is a 2 guard.  I'm sure he's cross-training but it doesn't sound like Bruce expects him to be a real contributor at PG.

Fella definitely hasn’t shown consistent play making abilities that’s for sure 

[AU64 10,122]

2 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Fella definitely hasn’t shown consistent play making abilities that’s for sure 

IF he were a true #2 guard one would think he might be a threat from outside....but guess we won't know until BP gets desperate enough for someone to break up the pack zone defense or whatever they call that at Virginia.   

[AURex 1,994]

With all due respect, for the posters here who are saying that Auburn players have "good looking shots" -- let's be frank. Thisa is not a beauty contest. The balls go in the basket or they don't. And for the most part, for Auburn, they don't. I'm certain CBP is not looking for guys who are pretty on the floor. He's looking for guys who can score. And right now, he's struggling to find those guys.

 

[GwillMac6 20,666]

7 minutes ago, AURex said:

With all due respect, for the posters here who are saying that Auburn players have "good looking shots" -- let's be frank. Thisa is not a beauty contest. The balls go in the basket or they don't. And for the most part, for Auburn, they don't. I'm certain CBP is not looking for guys who are pretty on the floor. He's looking for guys who can score. And right now, he's struggling to find those guys.

 

Well since you said WITH ALL DUE RESPECT I guess I should be greatly appreciative of this post that shows so much respect to me and others!!!!! lol...... PFFFFFFFFFFFFFF F THAT!!!!!! hahahah

 

 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

4 hours ago, AU64 said:

IF he were a true #2 guard one would think he might be a threat from outside....but guess we won't know until BP gets desperate enough for someone to break up the pack zone defense or whatever they call that at Virginia.   

Man, even as piss poor as UVA has been this year, I think playing their pack line or Syracuse's zone would be a nightmare with our shooting. If our 3 NBA caliber guys couldn't figure out how to break it until about 5 mins left....I just dont want to imagine it anymore

[slyinsocal 831]

Bingo. Aside from Okoro, who is still developing his game, no one has demonstrated explosive scoring ability. Which is, creating and making your own shot off the dribble. The by product of which creates catch and shoot opportunities for others based on this threat. For as lightly recruited as they were, Brown and Harper did that in spades. Nearly every game, one, or both of them, would go off on a quick 6 to 8 point spurt. Except for Okoro, and to a lesser extent McCormick, we are not quick and athletic. We need better half court sets, utilizing "all" players on the floor setting off ball screens. We are not good enough to create off the dribble, which is why we struggle to score so much.

[milehighfan 1,240]

On 1/19/2020 at 3:27 PM, GwillMac6 said:

This team is not built for March like last year's team is. We don't have 2 great college guards like we did last year. We don't have a closer like we did in Jared, Bryce and chuma and we absolutely do not have a good three point shooting team. When we get down away from home it's tough for us to make a comeback without a reliable three point shot.

Ain't that the awful truth.

[cole256 17,043]

Man I love this board😂  

[cole256 17,043]

On 1/20/2020 at 11:20 PM, slyinsocal said:

Bingo. Aside from Okoro, who is still developing his game, no one has demonstrated explosive scoring ability. Which is, creating and making your own shot off the dribble. The by product of which creates catch and shoot opportunities for others based on this threat. For as lightly recruited as they were, Brown and Harper did that in spades. Nearly every game, one, or both of them, would go off on a quick 6 to 8 point spurt. Except for Okoro, and to a lesser extent McCormick, we are not quick and athletic. We need better half court sets, utilizing "all" players on the floor setting off ball screens. We are not good enough to create off the dribble, which is why we struggle to score so much.

You're halfway right. The guys are quick and athletic, but they can't shoot. Brown actually wasn't quick or super athletic and he wasn't great at creating his own shot.....but he can shoot and he has a super quick release. 

Your other stuff is correct, we have to do something to try to create spacing.....which is hard when you can't shoot.

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

11 hours ago, cole256 said:

You're halfway right. The guys are quick and athletic, but they can't shoot. Brown actually wasn't quick or super athletic and he wasn't great at creating his own shot.....but he can shoot and he has a super quick release. 

Your other stuff is correct, we have to do something to try to create spacing.....which is hard when you can't shoot.

I agree guys like Cambridge and Flanagan are quick and athletic but are not great shooters. They also tend to shoot 3's instead of 2's. A shot 2 or 3 feet closer is an easier shot but the game has evolved to often to shoot a three or drive and shoot a layup or pass off of a drive to player  posted up for a three. This worked when the guys shooting the 3's or posted up for the 3's were Harper and Brown right now the only one with a clean enough stroke is Johnson.  The good news for the future is that players can work on and improve their stroke and range , the bad news is that usually happens in the off season.

We will win games because of Defense, Rebounding and hustle but unless we incorporate better ball movement or improve our outside shot the best we will be is a good team that makes the NCCAA dance but we won't go far there.  

Last years team spoiled us and when we put together the 15 game win streak some of which was smoke and mirrors even though we saw the blemishes and even mentioned them we (Especially myself) found a way to overlook them until bama game really brought them to light. This team needs turnovers for easy baskets to help mask their poor shooting and we need to make our layups even when contested.

[AU64 10,122]

26 minutes ago, AuburnNTexas said:

This team needs turnovers for easy baskets to help mask their poor shooting and we need to make our layups even when contested.

Just my observation but we get more than enough turnovers and opportunities for lay-ups....some contested and some not....but either way, the shooting percentages are just awful.  For that part of our game we should be shooting in the 50% range rather than the 30% level of success by our current major shooters.  Not sure what the coaches can do to improve that.   

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Just my observation but we get more than enough turnovers and opportunities for lay-ups....some contested and some not....but either way, the shooting percentages are just awful.  For that part of our game we should be shooting in the 50% range rather than the 30% level of success by our current major shooters.  Not sure what the coaches can do to improve that.   

Totally agree to me it is more about going up stronger on layups hence making them when you go up stronger there may be a slightly better opportunity for shot to be blocked or shooter to be fouled I think some of players are to worried about layup being blocked they are not finishing. Layups should be 70-80% range not 30% it is worth having a few blocked or shooter fouled to increase the % on layups.    

 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

Panic is in full swing, we got are tails whipped for sure, but let's not throw in the towel just yet. Also, while the offense has been bad the last two days, the second half defense was equally bad. WE gave up 41 to bama and 47 to uf. On the one hand that is concerning in and of itself, on the other hand it seems to point to a problem larger than just "make a shot."  

One thing I was concerned/wondered about at the beginning of the season is what would this team's chemistry look like. Early on it seemed it was ahead of schedule, winning some tight games. Well, our first two road SEC games may have shown us the chemistry, leadership, and mental toughness isn't where it needs to be on this team. The last two games I have watch players take bad shots, get beat badly on defense, be out of position, not hustle, and allow a crowd to dictate your actions. Frankly, the effort and intensity just hasn't been there. Add on to that, we don't have the higher end offensive shooting talent from last year, and here we are. THe question is what do we do. 

@cole256 is absolutely right, we have to find a way to create offensive spacing. Short of we start making shots, there will have to be some scheme changes to address this issue. Looking at our roster and how we have played up to this point, I see a few options that we may implement. First, I think you may see us start to play small more. Get more quickness and explosiveness on the floor and push the pace. Second, I think we could use some dribble weave action to help create penetration opportunities. Think of it like a pick play with wide recievers. Instead of our staple pick and roll (big on small) we may run a weave (small to small) to create movement and lanes, which if we get penetration off of will force a big to help and open up lobs and drop offs to our posts. Also, while it isn't a full answer, I think at this point we have to get Johnson on the floor more, possible playing Okoro more at the 4 in a small lineup. 

[gravejd 3,270]

15 minutes ago, JwgreDeux said:

Panic is in full swing, we got are tails whipped for sure, but let's not throw in the towel just yet. Also, while the offense has been bad the last two days, the second half defense was equally bad. WE gave up 41 to bama and 47 to uf. On the one hand that is concerning in and of itself, on the other hand it seems to point to a problem larger than just "make a shot."  

One thing I was concerned/wondered about at the beginning of the season is what would this team's chemistry look like. Early on it seemed it was ahead of schedule, winning some tight games. Well, our first two road SEC games may have shown us the chemistry, leadership, and mental toughness isn't where it needs to be on this team. The last two games I have watch players take bad shots, get beat badly on defense, be out of position, not hustle, and allow a crowd to dictate your actions. Frankly, the effort and intensity just hasn't been there. Add on to that, we don't have the higher end offensive shooting talent from last year, and here we are. THe question is what do we do. 

@cole256 is absolutely right, we have to find a way to create offensive spacing. Short of we start making shots, there will have to be some scheme changes to address this issue. Looking at our roster and how we have played up to this point, I see a few options that we may implement. First, I think you may see us start to play small more. Get more quickness and explosiveness on the floor and push the pace. Second, I think we could use some dribble weave action to help create penetration opportunities. Think of it like a pick play with wide recievers. Instead of our staple pick and roll (big on small) we may run a weave (small to small) to create movement and lanes, which if we get penetration off of will force a big to help and open up lobs and drop offs to our posts. Also, while it isn't a full answer, I think at this point we have to get Johnson on the floor more, possible playing Okoro more at the 4 in a small lineup. 

Always appreciate the way you try and give actual solutions to the problem. You aren't always correct but i appreciate you actually putting something down instead of just speaking in vague terms to avoid being called out as wrong later. Not all posters are willing to stick their necks out with stuff like this. 

I was thinking about doing a thread today about how to fix the offense so i could see the ideas that the knowledgable folks on here have. I like your idea about Johnson in more but i think i would put him at the 2 and have Doughty play the 3. I think Doughty could possibly hold up better at the 3 spot on defense as compared to Johnson. 

I also like the idea of trying to run more set plays where 3 screens lead to the shot we want instead of having guys just make plays. I don't know how much our offense uses set plays versus letting guys be creative with the ball. But seems like we need some more options to help out our guys when they go cold. And especially during our early game struggles that have become the norm.  

I was pretty disappointed in the bama and fl loses....not because we lost but how we lost. After our close wins and especially the MS St game i was thinking our team was just too mentally tough to let a blow out  happen. And then we played bama we lost our edge and it got worse against FL. You could definitely tell our guys got frustrated and it impacted their play on both ends of the floor. It was a rude awakening that we lost our edge and tenacity which is what this team has to rely on to win. 

But as you say all is not lost. We can take those blowouts learn from them and figure out how to not let it happen again. Maybe being back home and seeing some shots fall will be just what this team needs. What we really need is Purifoy to step up like Chuma did last season. It was chuma's ascension that carried that time to the promise land and we need someone to do that again. Purifoy has all the tools......he can be the matchup nightmare that chuma was he just has to do it

[AU64 10,122]

2 hours ago, AuburnNTexas said:

shooter fouled to increase the % on layups.    

Our poor foul shooting probably encourages defenders to foul rather than allow an uncontested lay-up.    A few guys shooting FTs in the upper 70s might make it easier to hit the lay-ups too.  

My primary concern about DP is that he is basically a 5th year players and I'm thinking what we see now is what we are gonna get.....some brief streaks of 3s but no consistency and just seeing  Okoro as the guy to be better in March than he is now.    Otherwise it's a matter of better team play...keeping their head in the game and cutting down on the turnovers. 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

2 hours ago, gravejd said:

Always appreciate the way you try and give actual solutions to the problem. You aren't always correct but i appreciate you actually putting something down instead of just speaking in vague terms to avoid being called out as wrong later. Not all posters are willing to stick their necks out with stuff like this. 

I was thinking about doing a thread today about how to fix the offense so i could see the ideas that the knowledgable folks on here have. I like your idea about Johnson in more but i think i would put him at the 2 and have Doughty play the 3. I think Doughty could possibly hold up better at the 3 spot on defense as compared to Johnson. 

I also like the idea of trying to run more set plays where 3 screens lead to the shot we want instead of having guys just make plays. I don't know how much our offense uses set plays versus letting guys be creative with the ball. But seems like we need some more options to help out our guys when they go cold. And especially during our early game struggles that have become the norm.  

I was pretty disappointed in the bama and fl loses....not because we lost but how we lost. After our close wins and especially the MS St game i was thinking our team was just too mentally tough to let a blow out  happen. And then we played bama we lost our edge and it got worse against FL. You could definitely tell our guys got frustrated and it impacted their play on both ends of the floor. It was a rude awakening that we lost our edge and tenacity which is what this team has to rely on to win. 

But as you say all is not lost. We can take those blowouts learn from them and figure out how to not let it happen again. Maybe being back home and seeing some shots fall will be just what this team needs. What we really need is Purifoy to step up like Chuma did last season. It was chuma's ascension that carried that time to the promise land and we need someone to do that again. Purifoy has all the tools......he can be the matchup nightmare that chuma was he just has to do it

I wouldn’t get my hopes up about Purifoy. What I just want from him is effort on defense and knocked down a few shots every game.I wouldn’t get my hopes up about Purifoy. What I just want from him is effort on defense and knocked down a few shots every game.