Now before I begin let me state that I understand that we only have 6 and a half players. I also understand that we are young and very small. Furthermore I fully understand we have the worst shooting team in the nation. With all that being said our offense is embarrassing. Now I know coach Lavin has to sign off on everything, but who exactly nominated Dunlap as some kind of genius? Norm Roberts offense was better than this! Now I understand the concept of limiting the opponents attempts in order for the team to try not to lose by 30. But the idea of running down the shot clock is to have movement and try and at least get off a good shot. Princeton used to run the clock down than get back door layups or threes off penetration. Even Norm's offense was designed to have his two"best players" Mase and Geno have the ball as the clock wound down. Under Dunlap whoever has the ball with 2 seconds left is shooting a really bad shot. We have to lead the nation in shot clock violations. So in short if my life depended on it I would have more faith in Geno or Mase firing away from three than have Stith trying to shoot over anyone taller than Peter Dinklage. I think instead of worrying about Lavin's health becoming a problem for recruiting, we should be more worried about our offense. If any kid watches us play they would certainly choose anyone else. In fact I am starting to get afraid we might lose the people we have. It is no coincidence that we played better in the 2nd half of the last two games when we scrapped the shot clock violation offense. I mean it is really basic. We have enough trouble scoring w/o letting the defense rest until there is 5 seconds left on the shot clock.
Last summer you and I had a discussion about the style of play in the upcoming year. I thought they'd play the up tempo system that TGAPL wanted to implement regardless of personnel - you said they'd slow it down because they'd have to. So you're complaining despite predicting last summer what was going to happen.
The problem is that of the 6.5 players, only two of them can make plays. Phil Green (everyone's favorite player while Nuri, who can't shoot at all, was here) was 0-9 last night - 3 points in 32 minutes. I like Pointer but he can't yet create a shot in the half court, Gazuntheit Achiewa is mostly pointless against Division 1 teams, Garrett has been on campus like 20 minutes and Stith is hamburger helper - he wouldn't even be in the mix if there was more meat.
What is slightly interesting is that they had as many shots yesterday as Louisville - they just didn't make them. So it's not like they're slowing things down to a crawl. There was a sequence in the middle or so of the first half yesterday where they ran the shot clock down several times in a row, but they ended the half something like 2 for 30 - meaing that there were 35 or 40 possessions in the half, which is more than enough if the ball goes in the basket. Is that inefficiency partly a function of pointlessly passing the ball around the perimeter? Yes. But pointlessly passing the ball around the perimeter is also partly a function of having no one who can shoot or make a play and no interior presence.
I think that when TGAPL says that along with next years class this is the foundation moving forward he means what he says. He doesn't care about this year at all - and especially now that he's not even coaching. All this year is is a bridge to next year, when he brings in enough bodies to compete. I suspect all he cares about is getting the players in college shape, teaching them the system and keeping them all healthy. The only people who thought this team was going anywhere this year were deluded fanbois anyway.