First post here, just wanted to post my thoughts (well its quite lengthy).
Here is my take from this game:
Offensively: The team looks out of sync when running through the sets. One problem that has bothered me ever since Lavin came in was that the players do not cut with authority to the basket. In the Princeton-style offense, a solid cut to the basket and a good pass can open up possibilities. With these players not cutting hard it doesn't keep the defense honest and it takes away possible baskets. The outside shooting from the wings/guards, especially D'Angelo Harrison who was just not there today. I'm hoping this isn't a trend. After a great game vs. CW Post, I was a little disappointed in Phil Greene. 1-6 isn't going to cut it. Finishing today was awful. Even with the defense collapsing, players made poor decisions to put up shots that were sure to be blocked. Malik Stith was unimpressive in this area, but it was the whole team. We tried to make tough contested lay-up attemps. With the outside shot not falling, it definately made it harder on the offense to get going inside. 17 offensive rebounds netting only 18 2nd chance points is not going to cut it. Turnovers were terrible today as well. A -4 assist-turnover margin is unacceptable. Finally, free throws. In the second half St. Mary's was almost content with fouling since it was a guarentee we'd miss at least one. It looked like these players haven't shot free throws before. I'm sorry, but 52% is awful, no matter what level you're playing at...and it only looks that good because Mo Harkless and D'Angelo Harrison went 13-16 combined.
Defensively: Same story as last year, team plays zone that gets beat on ball reversal and threes. The players are really aggressive on D, they fell for a lot of pump fakes and as a result gave up a lot of open perimeter looks, exactly what St. Mary's seemed to be looking to take advantage of. The full court press looked solid. On a lot of possessions it took St. Mary's between 8-9 seconds to get across, and even got called once for 10-seconds. This is where the team should accel this year with all the athleticism and speed. In the half court set, they seemed lazy and a lot of times left a big open right at the block (unnoticed though by St. Mary's). In my opinion, I feel their athletic advantage is nullified by the zone. Man-to-man I think will work better for a squad that is more athletic than last years. I mean I understand the zone is meant to force perimeter shots, but against a team like St. Mary's that can deftly shoot and is looking for it you got to change things up. St. Mary's also wasn't setting many screens; only a few on the wing to open up a shooter. Positives included the defense having active hands, garnering 11 steals, and late in the game the squad picked it up in the paint (blocked dunk late in game by God's Gift Achiuwa was the pinnacle highlight). In the end though, it comes down to passion and a determination to play solid defense and overall, it doesn't matter what defense you play; if you lack tenacity and intensity, you will get exploited.
Overall: The team was sluggish, didn't look to play with much intensity. They were lazy and thought they were going to run over this team. But really I must give a ton of credit to the St. Mary's squad and head coach Chris Harney. They seemed to have game-planned for this like any other game. This team was disciplined in its offensive sets. It wore down a young, inexperienced, and at times impatient squad by running down the shot clock and making some nice perimeter shots. On defense, they had executed a perfect plan. Every time any one drove to the basket or was in the paint, the defense collapsed into the paint. This forced an either awful shot (layup blocks/poor shots) or a kick-out. Well with the way we were shooting outside, its almost as if we lost confidence in the outside shot and forced everything inside and we weren't getting consistent baskets inside. You could tell as the game wore on the players were feeling the pressure to start pummeling this 'Division 3' squad. Rushed shots, poor selection, poor perimeter D...I think it was a combination of St. John's not having a good night and St. Mary's executing a great game-plan to a T.
Positives: intensity at end of game, commitment to defense at end of game, active hands on defense, full-court press, rebound margin
Negatives: Lack of motivation for most of game, poor outside shooting, poor decision making at times, buying too many shot fakes, inability to finish inside 5 feet, free throw shooting, D'Angelo's stupid technical in the second half
Youth and inexperience reared its ugly head, but this experience should put things in perspective for this squad. They should only improve from this and I expect a solid performance next Monday vs. William and Mary. Stats were deceptive, but it goes both ways. We outrebounded them by 14, but watching the game it certainly did not feel that way. We shot a decent percentage, but we also missed a lot of easy looks. Troubling is we made only 4 FG outside the paint the whole game, 1 three and 3 twos.
Post how you feel about this assessment. I am just trying to be honest;This is just a game you look at the film once, and move on. We'll have better days and there will be low days, the team has just got to work hard and keep their heads up. I am not upset by the performance...sure a little disappointed, but with such an inexprienced squad that lacks depth and hasn't really practiced 5-on-5 or played together for too long, this is just one step towards the future success. I think this may be one of the best experiences these players could have gone through.