28 replies to this topic

[DJ MC]

Too much talk about the merits of rushing the court or not. Not enough talk about getting back to .500 in league play, and getting the first real quality win of the year.

C'mon Chris, we need to have our priorities.

[Mike B]

Too much talk about the merits of rushing the court or not. Not enough talk about getting back to .500 in league play, and getting the first real quality win of the year.

I agree, Maryland beat a good team and I unlike some think the offense will improve if Faust and Allen improve at the point.
The offense is out of whack right now. It needs to work better inside out, that will free up open shots.

Interesting the NC State players thought the crowd was loud and fired up.

[Mackus]

Interesting the NC State players thought the crowd was loud and fired up.

The student section was good. The rest of the crowd there were a lot of absences, which I don't understand. Maybe the early start time, I don't know. It was probably only 80% full or so, and that was pretty evenly distributed among the non-student seats, not like the cheap seats were completely empty and the M-club people were all there.

I also think that the long stretches without any offense really take the crowd out of the game. It's tough to continue the frenzy when the team only scores 12 points in the final 16 minutes of the first half.

[SportsGuy]

Too much talk about the merits of rushing the court or not. Not enough talk about getting back to .500 in league play, and getting the first real quality win of the year.

This team is way worse than it should be.

They got lucky the other night that NC St started so cold, missing many shots(some contested, some not).

NC St outplayed MD for the last 35 min of the game but they were really awful the first 5 min.

The lack of real ball movement, guys that can make others better and things like that are really showing on this team.

As I said, Howard may be the worst guard on the team in terms of talent but he is the best "point guard" MD has. He is the only guard that will look to get others involved and run a real half court offense. MD fans get on him but I think he needs to have the ball in his hands more in a half court game.

MD has speed and athleticism all over the place but if you make them a half court team, they are terrible.

Plus, they don't get Len the ball nearly enough. He should have 15 shots a game and several free throws but there is too much 1 on 1.

BTW, Turgeon was severely outcoached the other night and having Padgett on the floor in key moments at the end of the game was as poor a decision as he could probably make with his roster...Padgett is terrible.

[Adam Wolff]

This team is way worse than it should be.

They got lucky the other night that NC St started so cold, missing many shots(some contested, some not).

NC St outplayed MD for the last 35 min of the game but they were really awful the first 5 min.

The lack of real ball movement, guys that can make others better and things like that are really showing on this team.

As I said, Howard may be the worst guard on the team in terms of talent but he is the best "point guard" MD has. He is the only guard that will look to get others involved and run a real half court offense. MD fans get on him but I think he needs to have the ball in his hands more in a half court game.

MD has speed and athleticism all over the place but if you make them a half court team, they are terrible.

Plus, they don't get Len the ball nearly enough. He should have 15 shots a game and several free throws but there is too much 1 on 1.

BTW, Turgeon was severely outcoached the other night and having Padgett on the floor in key moments at the end of the game was as poor a decision as he could probably make with his roster...Padgett is terrible.

This. Yes, he's an upper classmen, but he's not one of the best 5 players. Or the best 7 or 8. Worthy of some minutes, not worthy of being in at the end of the game. Completely agree.

[You Play to Win the Game]

I'm not really sure what Turge is to do when the guys in their getting minutes aren't earning their minutes, and we're talented 9 and 10 deep. Padgett SHOULD NOT have been on the floor, I agree... And I also agree with getting the ball to Len more. But I really don't think Turgeon did an awful coaching job or anything.

The worst gaffe by Turge has been scheduling such a cup cake OOC slate. I know he said he never expected to get this good this soon, which is why he did it... but there's really no excuse for going as weak as he did. As a result, this team is just now finally getting pushed, and thus learning who they are, and who can and can't do what when put in certain circumstances.

And SG - You just need to relax... you're just mad because you attended a B1G style basketball game.

[BSLChrisStoner]

[quote name="Sports Guy"]
They got lucky the other night that NC St started so cold, missing many shots(some contested, some not).
[/quote]
NCST being cold was a mixture of them being inept, and MD's defense. Not fair to say it was all MD's defense, and not fair to say it was just NCST being cold.

[quote name="Sports Guy"]
The lack of real ball movement, guys that can make others better and things like that are really showing on this team.
[/quote]

MD is 15th in the country in assists, so they are willing to share the ball. Besides the lack of a true PG, one issue I think the offense has, is the mass substitutions. That depth is one of the strengths of the team as well, but the mass subs does not allow for a lot of continuity on the floor.

[quote name="Sports Guy"]
As I said, Howard may be the worst guard on the team in terms of talent but he is the best "point guard" MD has. He is the only guard that will look to get others involved and run a real half court offense. MD fans get on him but I think he needs to have the ball in his hands more in a half court game.
[/quote]

Howard is averaging 5 assists to 1.8 turnovers. He is shooting 91% from the line. It's just hard to understand what has happened to his shot. As a Freshman, he shot 42.3% from the floor on 4.3 attempts per game. (36% from 3 on 1.9 attempts.) Right now he is shooting 27% from the floor (3.7 attempts per), and 26% from 3 (2.1 attempts per).

I went into the year believing he needed to run the offense in the 1/2 court. However, if he can't knock down open 3's... that presents a problem. I'll take his game vs. NCST most nights though... 7 pts, 5 boars, 2 assists, 2 steals. His defense has also been good most nights.

[quote name="Sports Guy"]
MD has speed and athleticism all over the place but if you make them a half court team, they are terrible.
[/quote]

Allen is the guard that continues to impress. He some issues when asked to run the offense, but he has real athleticism, scoring ability, and a willingness to play defense.

MD is poor in the 1/2 court. Not shocking with the PG issues. Have to feed the post, and Allen/Layman/Aronhalt have to consistently knock down some shots from outside.

Wells and Faust are great open court players, who don't shoot well enough. Their troubles shooting, compound the PG issues.

[quote name="Sports Guy"]
Plus, they don't get Len the ball nearly enough. He should have 15 shots a game and several free throws but there is too much 1 on 1.
[/quote]

Agreed, have said the same. He leads the team in scoring, but averages just 9.5 FG attempts per game. Like you, I'd like to see that closer to 15.

[quote name="Sports Guy"]
BTW, Turgeon was severely outcoached the other night and having Padgett on the floor in key moments at the end of the game was as poor a decision as he could probably make with his roster...Padgett is terrible.
[/quote]

Padgett has regressed from last year. He's always been limited offensively, but there were moments last year where Padgett made a difference with his rebounding, and even help defense. This year, there have been few moments where he has positively contributed. Perhaps he is dealing with self-esteem issues with being a Senior, replaced by Freshman?

My primary issue with Turgeon right now, is that I believe MD has to press more. They might give up more easy shots, but by trapping and pressing (and they can do that with Faust, and Wells), they can get easy breakaway shots of their own.

It would be easier to live with MD's self-created turnovers, if they were creating turnovers of their own.

Looking at the year as a whole, the OOC schedule is an issue. One, it was limited. We knew that going into the year. Second, while I do like using a larger bench, I think the starters had things they needed to be working on. They probably needed additional minutes.


All that said, I like where MD is right now. I do think it is important to win tomorrow at North Carolina, and Tuesday vs. Boston College. You do that, you are 16-3, 4-2 heading to Duke. While you figure to lose that game, you want to play well. That would set-up another important game, a rematch vs. Florida State in Tallahassee. MD lost the home game, in a game they should have won. They will need to go on the road, and steal a win there.

[BSLMattJergensen]

This team is way worse than it should be.

They got lucky the other night that NC St started so cold, missing many shots(some contested, some not).

NC St outplayed MD for the last 35 min of the game but they were really awful the first 5 min.

The lack of real ball movement, guys that can make others better and things like that are really showing on this team.

As I said, Howard may be the worst guard on the team in terms of talent but he is the best "point guard" MD has. He is the only guard that will look to get others involved and run a real half court offense. MD fans get on him but I think he needs to have the ball in his hands more in a half court game.

MD has speed and athleticism all over the place but if you make them a half court team, they are terrible.

Plus, they don't get Len the ball nearly enough. He should have 15 shots a game and several free throws but there is too much 1 on 1.

BTW, Turgeon was severely outcoached the other night and having Padgett on the floor in key moments at the end of the game was as poor a decision as he could probably make with his roster...Padgett is terrible.

I disagree. This what I expected for the most part from a young team. Ups and Downs. If the offense is this disjointed in February then I'd be concerned about not meeting expectations. I think expectations were unrealistically raised due to the strong performance against a young Kentucky team (currently 11-5).

I agree that Howard is probably the best option to run the offense. He's better as a pass-first type than either Allen or Faust and fits the point guard profile a bit better. That said it's hard for an offense to run smoothly when you get erratic play from the point. At this stage I'd keep Howard there with Allen spelling him and allowing him time at the 2. Faust is better utilized as a slashing 3.

Half court execution has been an issue for the past two and a half games. It has little to do with scheme and more to do with players relaxing and making appropriate reads and decisions.Wells and Allen both have a TO/Assist ratio of 2 to 2. That's simply unacceptable.

I would agree that Len needs more touches. While I feel Motion is a good offense I'd like to see Turge use a few sets or "quick hitters" to get the ball to Len or Wells in spots where they can operate when the offense stagnates.

On this year's team Padgett shouldn't be getting much time. I'd expect Cleare and Mitchell who are both more physically talented to surpass him on the depth chart. But until they play consistently Padgett will stay in the mix due to his Senior status.

I've read some others who feel Turgeon got outcoached. I'd like to know why you feel that way. I saw MD do all the right things to attack the 2-3 except put the ball in the basket. They only turned it over one trip and that was a charge on Cleare.

I do think that the rotation should shorten a bit and that constant lineup changes aren't a good thing. There needs to be some stability and understanding of roles among the players.

[Mackus]

BTW, Turgeon was severely outcoached the other night and having Padgett on the floor in key moments at the end of the game was as poor a decision as he could probably make with his roster...Padgett is terrible.

This. Yes, he's an upper classmen, but he's not one of the best 5 players. Or the best 7 or 8. Worthy of some minutes, not worthy of being in at the end of the game. Completely agree.

Padgett's been playing poorly this year, for certain. I thought that last year he played pretty well, certainly well enough to be a strong part of the rotation.

If he continues to struggle, then he definitely should see his minutes cut and particularly his crunch time minutes. I do think it's possible that he improves and gets back to playing like he did last year, and if he does, then the time he's getting now seems appropriate. I still think even if he can play like last year that he's 4th in the big man rotation. Cleare and Mitchell are simply far more talented than Padgett.