Our current commits, Sisyphus and Aggie Hoops

6,318 Views | 109 Replies | Last: 7 hrs ago by wurmhole
Pumpkinhead
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Thanks for the post, Bob.
TjgtAg08
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bobinator said:

The thing is that the things that make us an efficient offense wouldn't have to change if we were better at actually playing offense.

We're good at exactly two things, getting fouled and getting offensive rebounds.

Imagine if we were also just decent at putting the ball in the basket. We could still be good at those things.

Everyone focuses on shooting, but shooting is often just a byproduct of your ability to handle the ball. If you have guys that can handle the ball and create space, you get better shots and your mediocre shooters become decent ones.

In six years we've had like three guys that could legit create space for others off the dribble at the level you need for a top 25 type team. Taylor, Boots and now Phelps. Maybe 3.5 if you want to count Q, I think he was more of a slasher than someone who's really creating space off the dribble but he did handle the ball a lot. 3.75 if you want to count those like two weeks that Marcus Williams played well. Diarra showed some potential to do that and he's doing it now at UCONN but he wasn't that guy here.

Do you think that our commitment to getting offensive rebounds has a negative effect on our 3pt %?

Watching the last 2 games, there was such an extreme contrast on every possession between the Aggies and OU/Bama in regards to ball movement and spacing along the perimeter. I understand the OU and Bama offenses are much more predicated on the 3pt shot, and so getting open looks is essential, but it really highlighted how we run absolutely ZERO actions to get our "shooters" open 3pt looks.

Its been like that for years, and I've always chalked it up to Buzz not having a a very good offensive mind AND not recruiting good shooters, but could it also be a conscious choice? Like, we so highly prioritize offensive rebounds (position, spacing, number of rebounders) that we don't have the ability or desire to run a lot of perimeter screening and motion action to get guys open out there? The more guys out open or screening on the perimeter, the less there are to rebound?

I certainly don't believe we have high-level 3pt shooters on our roster, but we have a couple guys that are capable. Yet you can probably count on 1 hand each game the number of truly "open" or "rhythm" 3pt shots we take.

Does our offense's ability to get guys open looks fall by the wayside as we commit to offensive rebounding? Is it a chicken-and-egg situation of "we dont make 3s because our guys aren't good shooters but they aren't, in part, good shooters because we don't get them any open looks because we are crashing the glass, and since we crash the glass we recruit guys who will do that and those guys usually aren't good shooters..." and around and around and around.
Method Man
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bob, we have guys who even when they get open looks can't really shoot with any consistency. It does matter.
bobinator
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I'd disagree with the idea that we run zero sets for our shooters. We run several a game. The late three by Hefner was a set play off the inbounds. So was at least one of the others he hit and one of Wilcher's attempts.

But again I think it comes down as much to our lack of ability to create space off the bounce as it does the ability of our shooters to put the ball in the basket.

I don't think our offensive rebounding has a ton to do with our inability to shoot.

I think our shooting problems break down like this, and like you said and like I always say, everything in basketball is so interconnected that it's hard to just isolate and fix one thing, but let's try to go in order of importance.

1) We don't have high level shooters. Obviously. If we had better pure shooters, we'd hit more threes. I'm not ignoring that. Like Method says, the difference between being #285 in 3pt% and being #25 or something isn't just spacing.

2) We don't create a lot of space to make shots easy. Phelps and Taylor can attack off the dribble, but they're not elite at it, especially Taylor because of his size. So that doesn't draw extra defenders. And you don't really have to double any of our post guys. Hopefully we start feeding Payne more and that becomes the case which would open up the backside three.

3) The shooters we do have aren't particularly athletic. Wilcher and Hefner have a hard time shaking defenders even when we run them off of double screens.

4) We have some bad offensive fundamentals. We don't set screens or picks particularly well, which then makes #3 stand out even more.

5) Teams know we don't have high level shooters or attackers. This is where it comes full circle. Teams know that if Wilcher is coming around a Solo screen on the wing that he's trying to shoot it, but there's basically no threat of Solo diving to the basket for an easy dunk if they help off of him, so they do. Teams cheat on defense because we don't have the pieces to make them pay for it.

But all that said, I do think we're getting better at some of these things as the season goes.

AggieEP
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You're missing one of the most critical components in the shooting equation, we simply don't move the ball very well.

We had 9 total assists in the game against Alabama, 11 against Oklahoma, 10 against Texas and 11 against Oregon. We are 253rd in the country is assists per game.

We just don't move the ball around crisply and with purpose, and never really have under Buzz. It could be an analytics thing as maybe Buzz believes that ball movement and reversals in particular make you vulnerable to live ball turnovers. And I can see that, but our offense just isn't conducive to getting shooters easy looks due to the lack of ball movement. Even when Buzz runs a set for a shooter like Bobinator mentions, these sets are too obvious and dependent on everything working to get the look we want. One guy dribbling up top while two guys screen for our shooter, opposing defenses read this and jump the screens, and as mentioned don't really fear the pass that comes after that first pass. If we were good at moving the ball we'd quickly make them pay for jumping our screens to get to the shooter, instead we just usually pass the ball back up top for an ISO attack or a post dump.

Contrast that with how some teams attack us with multiple ball reversals forcing us to scramble, switch and eventually concede a pretty good look.

I don't have the data, but I'd bet that we also have one of the lowest passes per possession rates in the country. And we also do a lot of pointless dribbling and non attack passes deep on the perimeter. There is a purpose to some of this as we're trying to control pace, but the two things can go in concert.

The issue with passing and sharing the ball is the one thing about this team that keeps it from being special, and will always hold Buzz ball teams back if he's not going to address it.
AggieEP
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We had 4 assists tonight... almost impossible to play 40 minutes, score 69 points and only have 4 assists.

This is still a good team, but Buzz needs to at some point really consider how he coaches offense because we just make everything so much harder than it has to be with our lack of setting each other for easy buckets.
bobinator
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We just straight up have bad passers. I meant to include that. A good 25% of the time we do actually get someone open the pass hits them in the feet.

I don't think there's any debate that pure offensive talent is just not something we've recruited or developed well.
AggieEP
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bobinator said:

We just straight up have bad passers. I meant to include that. A good 25% of the time we do actually get someone open the pass hits them in the feet.

I don't think there's any debate that pure offensive talent is just not something we've recruited or developed well.


Bad passing is part of it, but sometimes our guys seem surprised the ball is coming to them also, or don't make themselves into good targets for passes. For a team that prides itself on the small things like diving on the court for loose balls, offensive rebounding etc., I just don't understand why ball movement to generate easy looks isn't more of a priority.

One thing on the broadcast that stuck out today was when Wilcher checked in and even the announcer noted that we were about to run an action for him, and then they showed Robinson basically calling out our play in advance.

The couple of set actions we run with ball movement are just too obvious to work with any consistency. And when the first set doesn't work, we seem to default to one on one attacks, and without Wade that means Zhuric and he's been incredibly inefficient in that role outside of a bonkers 15 minutes against Oklahoma.

Why don't we have secondary actions off the primary action? Why don't we reverse the ball more often? Why don't we force teams to switch to give us more favorable matchups? None of these things are rocket science and would improve the quality of offense that we run. These things also don't take elite offensive talent to execute.
Method Man
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Alternative hypothesis. If we aren't going to recruit skilled offensive players, we need more bruisers like Payne but who can actually rebound. We can go full DAWG rout. Football player types.
bobinator
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I think that's where we're headed for sure. Recruiting pure athletes and then just figuring out the rest.

I want to know what happened with our recruiting in 2023 because outside of that year I think you could argue we've hit on at least 2-3 guys in every class and if you do that you're basically on track in college basketball.

But Jace Carter is the only player from the 2023 group (HS or Portal) that's done anything at all.
bobinator
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I will say the teams that can effectively do this these days are few and far between. Blame travel ball culture or modern defensive schemes maybe but the teams that can truly routinely run effective offensive sets are rare.

Almost everyone is basically running some series of ball screens.
zgolfz85
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I know Buzz rarely plays freshman, but are Mills or Dockery, etc. not even worthy of small mins right now? I have to think Andre knows how to pass the ball because Manny clearly forgot. Also, we get some quality minutes from McDermott and then he just disappears to the bench again? Henry is NOT playing well and I'd love to see more McDermott. We need another guard who isn't a walking turnover and another big to get some mins until Henry can get out of his funk.

On top of all of that, I have real concerns that we'll lose a quality recruit to the portal for lack of playing time. I see freshman playing all over the country and we just boldly refuse to entertain the idea. Really frustrating.
AggieEP
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bobinator said:

I will say the teams that can effectively do this these days are few and far between. Blame travel ball culture or modern defensive schemes maybe but the teams that can truly routinely run effective offensive sets are rare.

Almost everyone is basically running some series of ball screens.
I agree those teams are few and far between, but doesn't it seem like we should be one of those teams?

We've had Wade for 4 years, Manny for 4 years, Coleman for 3, Andersson for 3, Hefner for 4, Solo for 3... we have had a remarkable amount of roster stability over the course of many years. This should in theory be conducive to teaching and running more complex motion based and passing based sets. Most teams run ball screens and pick and roll actions because they're simple to teach and run. Kentucky and Arkansas have basically 12 new guys this year, so simple actions make sense because no one on the team knew each other even 4 months ago.

But for us, Buzz has gotten buy in from these guys to dive on the floor, to crash the boards, to press, to defend... all things that travel ball isn't emphasizing either, but he can't get them to buy in to move on offense, to make crisp passes and cuts? That doesn't really make sense to me. I've spent a good part of my life around the game, and when I watch us play, it's hard to see what's even called offensively sometimes.

Look at this clip



Manny brings the ball up, stands at the top of the key for 10 seconds, Hefner stands at the free throw line and then we have three along the baseline, they stand still for those same 10 seconds. No movement, no passes until Manny decides to attack at 17 seconds on the shot clock, he goes right, Hefner thinks about screening but then doesn't, he just watches Manny dribble by him and then floats behind the three point line. Manny picks up his dribble because... well he went right and that works about zero percent of the time unless he can spin back left, and passes out to Hefner 4 feet behind the line, and Hefner takes a three on the run and bricks it.

This is probably one of the worst possessions of the game, and there are definitely some with much better movement and passing, but it's a 20 second possession with one pass that leads to a contested fading three. For an analytically focused staff, how does a possession like this make any sense?

Then there was this possession, probably the most important one of the game



Phelps steals the ball, runs down the court... but can't get a layup even on the rim, which maybe was a good decision because the shot blocker was back there with him, but the problem is that Hefner and Andersson kind of jog the court together clogging space instead of making themselves available for passes, so Zhuric tries to throw it to Solo... we then proceed to toss the ball around wildly for about 5-7 seconds, almost losing possession on every pass.

You all should pause it at 1:32:33, this is the best moment, when Manny has the ball and is being guarded by 4 Wildcats. Hefner is wide open on the left wing, Andersson and Solo are under the basket wide open. Who does Manny pass it to... no one, instead he almost dribbles out of bounds and wildly throws the ball back to Zhuric.

Then at 18 on the shot clock, Phelps decides that passing is overrated anyway, and drives right into Butler, then tries to force a shot that is much more difficult than his initial layup would have been, his shot is blocked we lose possession, and the chance to pull within 6 and make the last few minutes really interesting.
MarcAg
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zgolfz85 said:

I know Buzz rarely plays freshman, but are Mills or Dockery, etc. not even worthy of small mins right now? .


Dockery hasn't been on the team in about 2 months. He's gone.

Mills is redshirting.
zgolfz85
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MarcAg said:

zgolfz85 said:

I know Buzz rarely plays freshman, but are Mills or Dockery, etc. not even worthy of small mins right now? .


Dockery hasn't been on the team in about 2 months. He's gone.

Mills is redshirting.


Ah my bad, forgot. He's still on our roster, prob need to fix that ha
Proposition Joe
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Shoulda known what kinda night it was going to be when literally our first possession #7 shoves Solo out of bounds (and throws his hands up!) right in front of the ref and no-call.
MarcAg
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zgolfz85 said:

MarcAg said:

zgolfz85 said:

I know Buzz rarely plays freshman, but are Mills or Dockery, etc. not even worthy of small mins right now? .


Dockery hasn't been on the team in about 2 months. He's gone.

Mills is redshirting.


Ah my bad, forgot. He's still on our roster, prob need to fix that ha


They took him off the roster immediately
zgolfz85
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AG
Good post. I didn't want to quote reply as it's so lengthy, but good. It's really mind boggling that buzz can get the buy in on effort and reckless abandon that most coaches would kill for, but can't get development out of guys outside of more toughness. I don't think any of our guys have a higher basketball IQ today than when they came in. I really don't understand that. Manny has clearly regressed, same with Hank. Wade is more talented, but I wouldn't say he's developed a ton as a floor general. Hef is probably static. Andy has maybe developed a bit, but he was a dawg from the moment he came here. He's gotten even tougher, but that's not IQ development. Solo is probably the only clear example I can point to of a guy that's developed and that's been pretty nominal.

If these guys had the toughness paired with an improving basketball IQ (which should be expected with so many guys in the same system under the same staff for several seasons), then we'd be a top 10 team. Period.
AggieEP
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The frustrating thing here is that guys that previously looked like they knew how to play offense seem to lose that ability when they come here. Wilcher basically can't get a shot off here, but was getting up 6-7 shots a game at Nebraska with great shooting efficiency. We brought him in to be a shooter, he is a shooter, but we can't generate him any looks. His stats look bad right now, but if you take away three games against directional schools.... his numbers are horrific here.

I'll again say that this is still a good team despite the lack of offensive flow and efficiency. This team can and should win games on the tournament. But it's hard to see them winning 6 straight.

If Buzz wants to take that next step, he needs to find an offensive coach that can scheme us more consistent and better looks.
Method Man
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Good posts, EP. I don't think it will happen. Best bet is to get better scorers and do whatever we are doing. I think it's tough to watch but the outcomes are similar to what Turgeon did with some outliers where we are out of this world or just terrible.
bobinator
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Yeah I've just given up on us ever being a truly good offensive team. We don't do anything offensively well except get fouled and rebound and we haven't the whole time Buzz has been here. Just have to try and make up for it everywhere else.

You bring up Wilcher but that's a perfect case study in everything we're not good at. We can't screen him open and we can't pass it to him when he is open.

Now I will say part of what he could get shots off at Nebraska is they had several shooters on the court which created a lot more space for a player like him.

This is always true but especially with Wade out you can cheat on our screens as much as you want and there's not much we'll do about it.
zgolfz85
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AggieEP said:

The frustrating thing here is that guys that previously looked like they knew how to play offense seem to lose that ability when they come here. Wilcher basically can't get a shot off here, but was getting up 6-7 shots a game at Nebraska with great shooting efficiency. We brought him in to be a shooter, he is a shooter, but we can't generate him any looks. His stats look bad right now, but if you take away three games against directional schools.... his numbers are horrific here.

I'll again say that this is still a good team despite the lack of offensive flow and efficiency. This team can and should win games on the tournament. But it's hard to see them winning 6 straight.

If Buzz wants to take that next step, he needs to find an offensive coach that can scheme us more consistent and better looks.


100%. Rival schools have so much to counter recruit us with. Until buzz evolves offensively, this is a place where shooters come to die. And, if you're a dominant big and can control the post, good luck getting the ball much. Payne should be getting WAY more of the offense run through him.

Hey, at least we get the toughness award though (said no one ever).
bobinator
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I will say lately we've done a pretty good job of getting Hefner some good looks but he just doesn't hit them at a high rate. He's a little taller and more athletic than Wilcher so maybe that's why, but we've sprung him open a few times. Also if you're a shooter that can create your own space like Wade then you'd think we'd have an edge in recruiting because we'll let those guys do whatever they want. Hell Zhu and Manny cant even shoot and we let them go nuts.
zgolfz85
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bobinator said:

Yeah I've just given up on us ever being a truly good offensive team. We don't do anything offensively well except get fouled and rebound and we haven't the whole time Buzz has been here. Just have to try and make up for it everywhere else.

You bring up Wilcher but that's a perfect case study in everything we're not good at. We can't screen him open and we can't pass it to him when he is open.

Now I will say part of what he could get shots off at Nebraska is they had several shooters on the court which created a lot more space for a player like him.

This is always true but especially with Wade out you can cheat on our screens as much as you want and there's not much we'll do about it.


Agreed. It's honestly shocking that buzz and company would think a single shooter would be enough to turn around that aspect of the offense after the heinous shooting stats of much of last season. Maybe they thought Lee would be another shooting threat…I can't remember his 3 % from HS, but seems like he just chucks up 3s when he comes in, so I assume he's supposed to be a shooter.

It's all so frustrating cuz we're so close to being a next level team. The deficiencies are glaring though and none make for a formula for a deep March run. It'll just be another year of what could have been I'm afraid and I think that's the ceiling with this coaching staff until proven otherwise.
zgolfz85
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bobinator said:

I will say lately we've done a pretty good job of getting Hefner some good looks but he just doesn't hit them at a high rate. He's a little taller and more athletic than Wilcher so maybe that's why, but we've sprung him open a few times. Also if you're a shooter that can create your own space like Wade then you'd think we'd have an edge in recruiting because we'll let those guys do whatever they want. Hell Zhu and Manny cant even shoot and we let them go nuts.


If by go nuts you mean it seems like they have zero guidance and full autonomy to do whatever they want whenever they want at any cost, I agree. For a coach that develops men off the court and instills maturity and discipline, I wish there was a semblance of that on the court.
bobinator
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As long as Wade gets healthy we'll be fine. I still think this is a second weekend team. My concerns are more about next year and the program long term. This team was built around Wade so it's not surprising we look terrible on offense without him.
AggieEP
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zgolfz85 said:

AggieEP said:

The frustrating thing here is that guys that previously looked like they knew how to play offense seem to lose that ability when they come here. Wilcher basically can't get a shot off here, but was getting up 6-7 shots a game at Nebraska with great shooting efficiency. We brought him in to be a shooter, he is a shooter, but we can't generate him any looks. His stats look bad right now, but if you take away three games against directional schools.... his numbers are horrific here.

I'll again say that this is still a good team despite the lack of offensive flow and efficiency. This team can and should win games on the tournament. But it's hard to see them winning 6 straight.

If Buzz wants to take that next step, he needs to find an offensive coach that can scheme us more consistent and better looks.


100%. Rival schools have so much to counter recruit us with. Until buzz evolves offensively, this is a place where shooters come to die. And, if you're a dominant big and can control the post, good luck getting the ball much. Payne should be getting WAY more of the offense run through him.

Hey, at least we get the toughness award though (said no one ever).


Funny you bring up the recruiting, because Jaxon Robinson was recruited to be a shooter for us. He left and has been at 4 schools now, so who knows if he actually would have stuck it out here had things started better, but he CLEARLY had some sort of axe to grind with Buzz. He was straight staring him down at the end of the first half.

Imagine this team with Robinson helping to spread the floor right now.
zgolfz85
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AggieEP said:

zgolfz85 said:

AggieEP said:

The frustrating thing here is that guys that previously looked like they knew how to play offense seem to lose that ability when they come here. Wilcher basically can't get a shot off here, but was getting up 6-7 shots a game at Nebraska with great shooting efficiency. We brought him in to be a shooter, he is a shooter, but we can't generate him any looks. His stats look bad right now, but if you take away three games against directional schools.... his numbers are horrific here.

I'll again say that this is still a good team despite the lack of offensive flow and efficiency. This team can and should win games on the tournament. But it's hard to see them winning 6 straight.

If Buzz wants to take that next step, he needs to find an offensive coach that can scheme us more consistent and better looks.


100%. Rival schools have so much to counter recruit us with. Until buzz evolves offensively, this is a place where shooters come to die. And, if you're a dominant big and can control the post, good luck getting the ball much. Payne should be getting WAY more of the offense run through him.

Hey, at least we get the toughness award though (said no one ever).


Funny you bring up the recruiting, because Jaxon Robinson was recruited to be a shooter for us. He left and has been at 4 schools now, so who knows if he actually would have stuck it out here had things started better, but he CLEARLY had some sort of axe to grind with Buzz. He was straight staring him down at the end of the first half.

Imagine this team with Robinson helping to spread the floor right now.


Yep. That disdain he had was creepy. He had clear hate in his heart for buzz and the finger guns that he repeatedly aimed at our bench make me think the dude is a pos and and just couldn't get down with the life before ball aspect of a buzz program.
bobinator
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Tbh the way the whole Kentucky team played was annoying, I kind of liked that coach going in but they played like some *****es.
AggieEP
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zgolfz85 said:

bobinator said:

I will say lately we've done a pretty good job of getting Hefner some good looks but he just doesn't hit them at a high rate. He's a little taller and more athletic than Wilcher so maybe that's why, but we've sprung him open a few times. Also if you're a shooter that can create your own space like Wade then you'd think we'd have an edge in recruiting because we'll let those guys do whatever they want. Hell Zhu and Manny cant even shoot and we let them go nuts.


If by go nuts you mean it seems like they have zero guidance and full autonomy to do whatever they want whenever they want at any cost, I agree. For a coach that develops men off the court and instills maturity and discipline, I wish there was a semblance of that on the court.


Here I kind of disagree, there is discipline on the court, Buzz just can't coach offense. So as Bobinator mentioned the guys we have out there that are threats have full permission to let it fly. If Buzz took away that freedom we'd probably only score 50 a game .

If we agree that we're not going to get good looks consistently within our offense, then we at least have to let our best players be our volume shooters to try and score enough to win.
zgolfz85
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AggieEP said:

zgolfz85 said:

bobinator said:

I will say lately we've done a pretty good job of getting Hefner some good looks but he just doesn't hit them at a high rate. He's a little taller and more athletic than Wilcher so maybe that's why, but we've sprung him open a few times. Also if you're a shooter that can create your own space like Wade then you'd think we'd have an edge in recruiting because we'll let those guys do whatever they want. Hell Zhu and Manny cant even shoot and we let them go nuts.


If by go nuts you mean it seems like they have zero guidance and full autonomy to do whatever they want whenever they want at any cost, I agree. For a coach that develops men off the court and instills maturity and discipline, I wish there was a semblance of that on the court.


Here I kind of disagree, there is discipline on the court, Buzz just can't coach offense. So as Aubrey mentioned the guys we have out there that are threats have full permission to let it fly. If Buzz took away that freedom we'd probably only score 50 a game .

If we agree that we're not going to get good looks consistently within our offense, then we at least have to let our best players be our volume shooters to try and score enough to win.


I don't disagree there, but as you've said elsewhere…if you've got the green light to shoot, why don't they have the green light to pass? We'd be unstoppable if Wade/manny/ZP would be coached to drive and dish. It's like they've forgotten it was an option and nobody seems to remind them.
bobinator
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Manny and Zhu have the green light to pass they're just bad at it. Zhu's not that bad but Manny is terrible at it. My theory on that is he just doesn't see or read the floor well at all.

Also can we stop using my real name?
AggieEP
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bobinator said:

Manny and Zhu have the green light to pass they're just bad at it. Zhu's not that bad but Manny is terrible at it. My theory on that is he just doesn't see or read the floor well at all.

Also can we stop using my real name?


Yes, sorry about that, it's just what I know you as, we were contemporaries from 03-07. I'll edit those out, just seems weird to call you Bobinator.
zgolfz85
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Seems like it should be baubinator
bobinator
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You're not far off, Aubinator was actually the nickname I based the username off of.

It's not a big deal, just want to make it slightly harder for the AI bots to dox me. Not like it's a secret.
 
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