Does this team have a weakness?

[wolverine68]

We've struggled with UM and UI at home. We struggled with BYU on the road. We struggled with UNI on a neutral court.
I'm asking this as an honest question, hoping people with a higher basketball IQ can tell me more about this team. They are 8-0 (and I'm as happy as anyone about that) but they are going to be required to buy me a defibrillator if this keeps up.
Is it height? Speed? What? I think we have proven that it is not depth.
Help!

 

[tyler24]

Biggest weakness is we don't have a weakness.

 

[CyArob]

Sloppiness in the first half of every game. That's a weakness.

 

[cyclonedave25]

Getting off to slow starts and FREE THROWS!

 

[acoustimac]

Lousy free throw shooters

 

[cyclones12321]

Exactly slow starts and freethrows

 

[SenorCy]

Defense.

 

[bosco]

Post depth. Causes lapses of effort due to foul trouble and being winded.

Defense-at times there are miscommunication and the team loses who they see suppose to guard. Transition defense is lacking.

FT-what's the point of getting fouled if you can't make the other team pay.

Offense-gets stagnant at times. Lots of standing dribbling instead of moving bodies and the ball.

 

[IdahoCyclone]

Only played one on the road game?

 

[ken]

There are several weaknesses and areas for improvement, which is true for any team. Free throw shooting comes immediately to mind. But the mark of any great person, team, organization, etc. is recognizing those weaknesses and knowing how to work on improving and/or planning around them.

 

[IdahoCyclone]

Depth, height, free throws as of lately.

 

[JJ4ISU]

Defense.

Agree. I think we struggle to guard at times. Bigger teams like Iowa and BYU have pounded us on the boards with a lot of offensive put-backs, too.

 

[marothisu]

I'd say it's a combination of getting off to slow starts, FT shooting and sliiiiightly some of the 3 point shooting isn't as consistent between games as previous years so far. (it's good but has been better in other years)

 

[marothisu]

Agree. I think we struggle to guard at times. Bigger teams like Iowa and BYU have pounded us on the boards with a lot of offensive put-backs, too.

I think it's only when those bigs are actually athletic. Auburn has a 7 foot starter and he was not a problem for us at all.

 

[Bewilderme]

My one frustration is that we often don't rotate with the other team's best shooter and give open looks at the three. I suspect this is partly because of our push to own the defensive boards and put a quick rush down the floor, but there have been far too many clean looks at three.

If we can clean that up and our tendency to leave the back door open to the hoop, our defense will improve even more than it already has.

My expectations for this team were borderline NCAA - it looks as if we're already one foot in the door before the new year. Great season so far, and our potential is much higher than our performances to this point!

 

[wolverine68]

I agree that free throws are a problem. Was it Eustachy that used to end practice by making the team sink 10 free throws in a row before they could go to the showers? I thought that was a great way of simulating game day pressure.

 

[awd4cy]

Help and rotation defense at times and free throw shooting. Also, slow and sloppy starts.

 

[CoKane]

We've struggled with UM and UI at home. We struggled with BYU on the road. We struggled with UNI on a neutral court.
I'm asking this as an honest question, hoping people with a higher basketball IQ can tell me more about this team. They are 8-0 (and I'm as happy as anyone about that) but they are going to be required to buy me a defibrillator if this keeps up.
Is it height? Speed? What? I think we have proven that it is not depth.
Help!

Slow starts, bad first half play, and free throw shooting.

 

[swarthmoreCY]

Potential wise? Height in the post.

-Right now our defense is poor. Sometimes related to height, but often being due communication and laziness.
-Our guards need to either get back and stop transition or help on the boards.
-FTs
-Slow starts. I would not mind seeing us go to the rim more and getting some easy looks or FT before we almost shoot ourselves out of games.

 

[alarson]

Potential wise? Height in the post.

-Right now our defense is poor. Sometimes related to height, but often being due communication and laziness.
-Our guards need to either get back and stop transition or help on the boards.
-FTs
-Slow starts. I would not mind seeing us go to the rim more and getting some easy looks or FT before we almost shoot ourselves out of games.

All these are good ones.

I might also add that we could be better from 3, Matt Thomas seems to still be adjusting to the college level, afraid to take open looks. Whenever he starts to give himself the green light he'll improve a lot.

The fun part is: this is december. Consider how much we improved from december to january the last couple years. A similar improvement would make this team downright deadly.