Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › So, what's going on?
This topic contains 7 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by StablerBum 9 years, 2 months ago.
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December 3, 2015 at 1:58 am #24141
Now 0-7. What are the theories on what is going on here? We all know that 3 (of my) projected top 8 either transferred (Simelton) or are out for the year (Alston and Holba). Is that it? Or did these guys buy into the preseason hype? Or are these guys just not as talented as people thought? Is it leadership? Were Corey, Conroy, and Stefan providing more behind the scenes than we thought? Did the early season schedule destroy their confidence?
I know that no one has the real answer (and there isn’t just one…), but I’d love to hear some thoughts on what is going on so far this year.
December 3, 2015 at 2:03 am #24143The only thing I’m confident about is that, right now, this isn’t a very good team. I’m not smart enough to know if that’s all a talent problem, or if there’s a coaching/system problem. Effort looks like it’s there, to me. We just look out-classed, regardless of opponent. I can’t point to any single area to say “better X would fix it”.
At this point, my best guess is that we over-achieved last year, and have fooled ourselves as a result.December 3, 2015 at 4:07 pm #24162I don’t think it is a talent issue. We have the returning Player of the Year in the PL (TK), and the reigning Rookie of the Year in the PL (KR) and a third player who may be in the mix for First Team PL this year (AP). I think you could put our big 3 up against any 3 in the league, and ours may be the best. Are we thin as far as depth, certainly, but many winning basketball teams only go 8 deep, so I think that is a little overblown as well. We should be able to win with an 8 man rotation of KR, AP, TK, JC, JG, DC, KL and TJ.
Winning basketball starts on the defensive end of the floor. Good teams who defend are always competitive, always in games, and even on off nights offensively stay in games. This team is a horrible defensive team. We don’t do the basics. We don’t defend on the perimeter. Teams get blow byes on us, constantly. We don’t pick up shooters on the perimeter. We are slow to close out shooters, and rarely contest on the perimeter. We don’t box out and give up a ton of offensive rebounds. There is not one thing we do well. We don’t stay in front of anybody, don’t contest jumpers, don’t block/alter many shots, and just, quite frankly, play soft. Terrible at help defense as well. Guy gets beat on the perimeter, and walks right down the lane, nobody comes off their man to contest. We give away the paint, like it is a runway. We can’t lock anybody down in a half court set. Teams get anything they want against us.
We have played 7 games so far, and look at the points against, it is atrocious.
98, 79, 88, 80, 77, 84 in the last 6. An average of 84+ per game. I throw out the Syracuse game where we gave up 57, for a couple of reasons. Syracuse, with their zone, plays at a snail’s pace, and both teams shot it horribly that night. Lehigh didn’t really defend that night, either, just got lucky Syracuse was so bad.
So, to me it starts there. Stop somebody, for God’s sake, and maybe you win a game. It’s fun to run up and down the court and score, but you won’t win a thing with that mentality. I only see one guy, who is getting minutes, giving any effort on the defensive end and that is KL. He’s trying at least. Hold teams down in the 60’s and 70’s and this team will win. In the 80’s and 90’s, no shot. And, I don’t really care about the statistics, if you watch this team defend, then watch a good team defend, there is no comparison. Effort not there.
December 3, 2015 at 5:15 pm #24163Is Botts helping the defense?
December 3, 2015 at 5:34 pm #24164they are playing 3 on 5 or 4 on 5 pretty much the whole game, JG does not look 100%, look at box scores, over 56 pts per game from TK, PA, KR, JC and now KL getting minutes, less than 8 pts per game from the rest of team, if those 5 could play 40 minutes we could win
December 3, 2015 at 10:06 pm #24165The Ds. Depth and Defense. We dont have much of either.
8 man rotation? Not really. 6 seems more realistic.
Defense is inconsistent at best. Some of that is the quality of our opponents so far. SFU ,however,is troubling. Very little effort by team on D. Tired. No doubt.
Sched does ramp down going forward. With no frontcourt depth,our edge in starting talent will not always be enough. Other squads can run out fresh,if less talented ,legs. We cant.December 3, 2015 at 10:54 pm #24166I’ll honor 90s request about defensive stats, but I’m not so convinced that D is the bulk of the problem.
Offense (of 351 D1 teams):
Effective FG%: 44.3% (295)
Turnover %: 20.3% (257)
Steal %: 9.7% (258)
2pt %: 41.7% (311)and the capper…
block %: 15.7% (342)December 4, 2015 at 1:55 am #24169I agree with almost everything ’90 said, but the bad defense (and bad offense as Todd cited) are the outcomes – not the reason. If it’s not talent, what is it? Was Corey Schaefer that good of a defender? He was serviceable but not exceptional on that end. Is it a leadership void? If it is an effort/focus issue, that is pretty disappointing considering the experience of the guys (aside from KL) playing serious minutes.
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