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Re: The offical UMKC thread
I think the argument about defending the 3 point line may be a little suspect. Granted, this year has not been a good one and the amount of 3's rained in on us seems to be especially disheartening. However, I don't see it as a coaching issue, but rather an athlete issue.
At the UWMilwaukee game we opened up in a zone, which seemed to be the wise decision as UWM is more of an athletic team than a shooting team. However, one of their guards got extremely hot and Nagy immediately went to man. At that point, their players began driving around our guys who were just not quite quick enough to stay with them. When the game was turned into a blow out, it was a result of drives to the hoop, not 3's. With a team that is usually less athletic than the opponents (which I think we can all agree is the case for the Jacks most of the time) you have to pick your poison. Most coaches will try to shore up the lane and the glass and hope for a hand in the face of any player launching threes.
The best teams in the NBA give up open looks for 3s all the time. That's why a guy like Antoine Walker can go a season shooting more 3s than 2s. Those teams have to focus on stopping easy bucket in the lane and ensuring they don't give up the offensive rebound. Unless you are so far superior in talent, you can't expect to shore up every possible scoring threat. For every San Antonio Spurs team in the NBA, there are four Dallas Mavericks or Milwaukee Bucks who give up points in bunches.
My point is, unless we have the horses to out-man, out-bang a team all over the court, open looks for 3s are something we're going to have to live with.
- One last thing. At the Marquette game we were able to keep it close early on in the first half because of our post game. Marquette brought in their big guys off the bench and shut the post game down. We then entered the second half making a run on the back of some well timed three pointers. Marquette is a top 25 team and they had to make a choice of what to stop from a below average SDSU team.
I think the argument about defending the 3 point line may be a little suspect. Granted, this year has not been a good one and the amount of 3's rained in on us seems to be especially disheartening. However, I don't see it as a coaching issue, but rather an athlete issue.
At the UWMilwaukee game we opened up in a zone, which seemed to be the wise decision as UWM is more of an athletic team than a shooting team. However, one of their guards got extremely hot and Nagy immediately went to man. At that point, their players began driving around our guys who were just not quite quick enough to stay with them. When the game was turned into a blow out, it was a result of drives to the hoop, not 3's. With a team that is usually less athletic than the opponents (which I think we can all agree is the case for the Jacks most of the time) you have to pick your poison. Most coaches will try to shore up the lane and the glass and hope for a hand in the face of any player launching threes.
The best teams in the NBA give up open looks for 3s all the time. That's why a guy like Antoine Walker can go a season shooting more 3s than 2s. Those teams have to focus on stopping easy bucket in the lane and ensuring they don't give up the offensive rebound. Unless you are so far superior in talent, you can't expect to shore up every possible scoring threat. For every San Antonio Spurs team in the NBA, there are four Dallas Mavericks or Milwaukee Bucks who give up points in bunches.
My point is, unless we have the horses to out-man, out-bang a team all over the court, open looks for 3s are something we're going to have to live with.
- One last thing. At the Marquette game we were able to keep it close early on in the first half because of our post game. Marquette brought in their big guys off the bench and shut the post game down. We then entered the second half making a run on the back of some well timed three pointers. Marquette is a top 25 team and they had to make a choice of what to stop from a below average SDSU team.
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