He brought them back. But after that never played again. That was odd. The player combination at the end was questionable.

We had two chances to put the game away but couldn't execute. But Ole Miss was worse

TheDecadeSapling said:

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Good to see him hit a few threes in crunch time after his recent rough streak.

Shooters shoot. You've shot tens of thousands of these. Trust yourself and let it fly.

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I think Dominguez is a great shooter. The opposing teams know this.

However, I believe at times he plays soft--Euro players tend to be this type of player.

I realize the opposing defender is basically in his jock, but he has to work harder at finding his shots.

Id love to see our win/loss record when Ruben makes 12+ points.

jeremy said:

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Id love to see our win/loss record when Ruben makes 12+ points.

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Valid point, but I think there's more at play than just us winning when he scores more points. I mean if you want to add another stat, when he gets more than 4 rebounds a game, we win.

I think he's having to work so hard on defense that it's taken a toll on his offensive output, but with our team it's more about the flow of the game. So far we've seen quite a few of our guys lead the team in points on any given night and this has been our bread and butter. When we become one dimensional, trying to go one on one against their defenders, it might work a few times, but is not really our strength. Our strength is working through our offense to get the best open shot possible or take advantage of mis-matches.

But to your point we've only lost one game (against Tenn) when he's scored more than 13 points.

I think the issue for Dominguez is just that when we play a good team that can defend us one on one and doesn't have to help on Agee or anyone else it's just hard for him to get open because the other team is going to stick one of their better defenders on him.

For a football analogy, Dominguez is like a good deep threat wide receiver. He's only going to be able to get open if you can run the ball well enough that safeties have to come up and help in the run game. If they can just sit back and only worry about them getting open deep then they're not going to be able to.

Unless we can make defenders help somewhere, we're not individually talented enough to beat good defenders one on one. Clemence being able to reliably score in the block is helping this though, needs to keep doing it. They had to double him which got Dibba that open look late, he just didn't make it.

Yeah, I agree it's more than just (get Ruben 12 points and we win), but he seems to draw so much attention, if he then converts a few looks, defenses go out of their way and do things like foul his shots and forget to cover back door cuts which spreads the wealth.

He has been fighting hard for clean looks, and it seemed easier earlier in the season. Is it because we're facing better defenses or has something else changed? I dont know.

I agree, Ruben has to work really hard on defense to be a mediocre defender.

This is why playing through mistakes is the best method for development…experience. There was no shortage of criticism of Clemence on this board, but as his minutes increased and he learns what not to do, you can see offensive improvement. That's usually what happens when a coach allows a player to develop over time with game experience. It's good to see the development.

let him jack up 1 or 2 of these heat checks per game and see what happens