Head scratcher
- Thread starter cypher
- Start date
Nobody is arguing that the defensive performance against Oakland wasn't dreadful, it's just that many don't think it is going to be a testament of this team this year.
Maybe the answer to the head scratcher is simply that Hoiberg made some adjustments to the terrible defense they played against Oakland and had better success in Game 2. That said, I think a lot of the reason that Georgia State failed to get to the line at all was that no ISU defender was close enough to touch them. Georgia State just couldn't hit their shots and when their weak zone started to get abused by a good ISU offense then they started to press and their offense went in the toilet.
Last year's ISU team was 10th in adjusted offensive efficiency on kenpom and 72nd in defense so this isn't a new phenomenon. I do agree that they will be better once they get McKay on the floor but they have enough good players available that they can afford to crawl up in the opponents jersey a bit more. Like every season, we'll see. LOVE what Morris showed last night. Holy smokes, I would take him in a red hot second. That kid is fantastic. He may be playing himself out of town and to the NBA by the end of next season (at least I hope).
Niang, Hogue, BDJ were a combined 1 for 9 from 3-pt range (good looks too). That won't be happening a lot this year. It seemed the Naz was off a bit too, then I looked at the stats. (42%) I guess I'm accustomed to those 5 for 6 streaks.
See that's the beauty of Fred. He knew that Georgia State had trouble hitting wide open jumpers so he had the team slack off them on defense. They fell right into the trap.
The 1-3-1 zone GSU played limited Niang's touches in the high post. It was difficult to even pass him the ball so yeah, you could say they were keying on Niang big time. However, that allowed Naz to get open in the corners and have a big game from the 3 point line. That is the definition of a good team, your best player can be relatively shut down and still win a game against a good opponent by +20.
It's not impressive holding a team that will average 80 ppg this season to 58? What would it take to "impress" you? Under 30 points for the game?
Really? The play below and the two blocks by BDJ on RJ Hunter would say otherwise...
[video]https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/A9C3C579151146321942358478848_20c510d42c0.5.1.12919270735180063187.mp4?versionId =INXqrMV1NsCUFYxEjGqF0KGzbW8IYjYO[/video]
A team that might average 80+ in the Big 12? Yes. A team that might average 80+ in the Sun Belt? No. You can stat me all you want. I watched the game. That was not good defense that held them to 58 points. ISU had some good defensive possessions but Georgia State missed a ton of bunnies and wide open jumpers. That's just bad offense.
Harrow throwing up 22 floating one-handed runners from 5-7 feet and clanging the majority of them is not "missing a ton of bunnies".
