His 5.9 FGA/40 min this year are about half of what they were last year, and he was a good shooter (60% FG). It's hard to understand why he and Heise don't shoot, particularly when they are left open.
*** Official #8 IOWA STATE vs #16 Kansas Game(Day) Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
There was also a play in the 1st half where Dishon had the ball at the elbow, KU trapped him, and Heise on the weak side had a wide open (and I mean wide open) lane to cut to the rim for an easy layup. DJ looked at him and Heise just stood there. By the time he made a half hearted move to the hoop, KU had cut off the passing lane.
I hate to join the growing crowd and bag on the guy, but his shooting struggles seem to be affecting other areas of his game. His defense, passing, rebounding, court awareness, etc. are all regressing. And he seems adverse to even shooting a layup.
I think it's time for more Watson and some Nojus. If Milan and Nojus were to get it going from 3 land, it would totally open up our offense once again. Watson rebounds, plays D and can occasionally hit from outside. TCU would be the perfect opponent to give Nojus extended minutes.
I got laughed at in the game thread for suggesting Chat fire up a few of those open 3's. He was 31-91 (34%) in his career from 3. I would be interested to know why he's (presumably) being asked not to shoot them here.
Heise and Chat are not our problem. They did not cause either of these last two losses. Our main guys need to play better. Unfortunately, they are all struggling somewhat at the same time.
Our offense has real problems. In watching last night, Kansas barely had to move while our guys just dribbled the ball out beyond the three-point line. Then we do the ol' dribble drive into 4 guys. We nearly always walk the ball up the court allowing the other team to set their defense. Why not pass the ball up at least part of the time? I think we need an offensively-minded assistant who can put in a real offense rather than the ad hoc, predictable stuff we do now. Watching Keshon, especially, dribble into the teeth of the defense is just painful.
I think it's unfair to blame our guys; it's a system problem. They're not being given the tools to enable them to win.
We need to have an actual offense that emphasizes spacing and ball movement. Obviously if we're hitting shots it's easier to spread out the defense but we're settling for mediocre to poor shots rather than making the extra pass.
I'm surprised officials didn't call Tamin for flopping. Just to maintain the insanely inconsistent application of that rule.
Our spacing is terrible and no one off the ball is moving to open floor areas or cutting to the basket. There were openings to do both. Coupled with bad shooting with some really good looks and you get last night's performance on "O".
Everyone's way too tentative on offense right now. Heise's so not wanting to shoot the ball that he's not even cutting to the lane when it's wide open.
I thought DJ played pretty well. But when he gets the ball in the lane, he needs to drive without hesitating. He was better in that regard last night.
Otz's "5 out" approach was a great wrinkle. But our execution of that was awful.
They did this with Conditt too. He was a decent shooter but they never had him shoot the 3
Improvement included:
Hung with KU on the boards (38-39)
17 offensive rebounds
Only 7 TOs (to KU 13)
8 steals
8 blocks
The game was lost on very poor shooting. I believe there were plenty of makeable shots. Confidence is at a low eb right now. I'm hopeful it will return.
I'm thinking that if you go back over the past 3 seasons in the MBB forum during the conference season, you will find the bolded sentiment posted a number of times.
My signature memory of TJ's first team is Conditt at the elbow with the ball, wide open. We ran so much offense through that position. I don't know if he ever once took the shot.
Post during in game Twitter chat on Lipsey foul
Confidence is low and tired legs.... Curtis hit the front of the rim on his first two 3 pt attempts on Monday if I remember correctly
This game is being replayed. Only it is Illinois that is the team that is zero for the 3 ball in the first half. 8 points in 11 minutes in the first half. This has been ugly so far. But it is funny.
