Heytvelt

[Gonezagaga]

I hope I don't read things like this from other teams fans next year. Release the beast and let him play.

From the Davidson board:
MackMaine4Prez wrote:
Good game. Heytvelt has a future, as he was dominant this game. If he would have had last year under his belt this game could have been a different story.


He is very good. He outplayed Tyler Hansbrough last year and was a matchup nightmare for the Cats. Thankfully Few didn't use him very well. He only played 25 minutes and they stayed perimeter focused. He only got six shots and hit five of them. When they got it to him inside we didn't have the length to bother his shots. Thankfully they kept him out for long strethes and focused on drives and outside shots.



I still go back to the fact that Jeremy for some reason will not throw the ball into Josh on the high pick and roll. It didn't happen once yesterday. Josh was rounding into form the last 6-8 games and the team(be it coaches or teamates) just did not take advantage of it.

Oh well, there is always next year.

[rennis]

I still go back to the fact that Jeremy for some reason will not throw the ball into Josh on the high pick and roll. It didn't happen once yesterday.

For one there was a lot of post-denial defense going on in that game. Davidson knew they were at a disadvantage if we played them strong in the paint.

Second, and for a little conspiracy theory fun, I have heard from students on campus that those two have the biggest egos on the team. Maybe even detrimentally so. If this is true (and I don't know, I'm not close to the team) they need to reconcile their apparent differences and play as a cohesive unit on the court. If they do, we are in for a treat in 2009.

[MedZag]

Second, and for a little conspiracy theory fun, I have heard from students on campus that those two have the biggest egos on the team. Maybe even detrimentally so. If this is true (and I don't know, I'm not close to the team) they need to reconcile their apparent differences and play as a cohesive unit on the court. If they do, we are in for a treat in 2009.

Moot point post-Josh's legal troubles. He was very very humbled by the experience. Trust me.

Just make sure he gets a crapload of calcium and vitamin d this year.

[ebayzagfan]

...From the Davidson board:
MackMaine4Prez wrote:
Good game. Heytvelt has a future, as he was dominant this game. If he would have had last year under his belt this game could have been a different story.
He is very good. He outplayed Tyler Hansbrough last year and was a matchup nightmare for the Cats. Thankfully Few didn't use him very well. He only played 25 minutes and they stayed perimeter focused. He only got six shots and hit five of them. When they got it to him inside we didn't have the length to bother his shots. Thankfully they kept him out for long strethes and focused on drives and outside shots.

Thanks for this little gem. Obvious to any unbiased student of the game.

[deathchina]

Everyone always blames the guards when the bigs don't get enough touches down low...I also think Heytvelt isn't very good at sealing his man and giving the guards a good angle to pass the ball. Batista was great at this.

[Gonezagaga]

Everyone always blames the guards when the bigs don't get enough touches down low...I also think Heytvelt isn't very good at sealing his man and giving the guards a good angle to pass the ball. Batista was great at this.

I think there is some validity to your point about Josh not sealing well when he is in the post. But on the high ball screen, which seems to be our "go to" offense recently, he gets great separation from his defender going to the basket. He just rarely receives the pass. Maybe he fumbled a few when he first came back and the guards just don't have the confidence that he'll catch it. I don't know. It's frustrating for me, I can only imagine how it is for him.

[bartruff1]

Why would he come back ???

Except for the redemption of his reputation, this year must have been a very frustrating one for Josh. You only have a few years to play and sometimes it is best to find a better situation like P Mac did. For what ever reason, Josh only plays 10 minutes a half and very seldom touches the ball. Unless there is some reason to believe that will change, I think he would be foolish to waste another year. I hope he does what is best for him and his future, if that is here, fine. If not, he needs to go somewhere that he will play 35 minutes and get 20 touches...

[TheSpokaneClan]

Josh has a chance to drastically improve his game over the summer, other than last summer when he was probably worrying about if he was even going to be let back on the team. He needs a couple post moves that can confuse defenders, I don't think I saw him make a really good move all season.

As for Jeremy getting him the ball; its pretty tough when your offense doesn't revolve around him anymore. Personally I would rather have Pendo with the ball than Josh, or even Austin. Hopefully he can build some chemistry over the summer with Josh; to me it almost seemed as if the best passes Jeremy made were to Kuso.

[Hextall7388]

We have been complaining about the lack of a post presence all season. We can blame Josh for not getting proper position or not having the desire to be a post player, we can blame the guards for not getting into the post, but shouldn't we be looking at the offensive philospophy that has been employed by the coaching staff? If the game plan was to get the ball into Josh or Kuso, it would happen. Yes....Kuso too. He was known as a defensive stopper, but he impressed me on the offensive side of the ball when given the opportunity. Obviously he is not a guy that can dazzle you with post moves, but if you get him the ball for those 0 foot shots like JP use to get, he was very efficient. When JP played, he touched the ball on almost ever offensive possession. The team found a way to get him the ball. That was not the case this year. In my opinion, there was no concerted effort to get the ball into the post all season. They would try here and there, but it was not a focus of the offense. Do we really believe that teams like Portland, LMU, SFU and Pepperdine were so good defensively or had such good defensive game plans that they were able to prevent the Zags from having a post oriented offense in those games? No way!! If you want to have a post presence, you have to call plays to get the ball inside.

[deathchina]

"Do we really believe that teams like Portland, LMU, SFU and Pepperdine were so good defensively or had such good defensive game plans that they were able to prevent the Zags from having a post oriented offense in those games?"

But then you go back to the initial problem...Our team didn't have a "classic" low post big man. Heytvelt is never going to be confused for Batista. He doesn't play that type of game, he probably never will.

If anything, I wish we could have posted Bouldin up more this season. He was really effective down there.

[ebayzagfan]

Low Post Offense Was De-emphasized All Season

We have been complaining about the lack of a post presence all season. We can blame Josh for not getting proper position or not having the desire to be a post player, we can blame the guards for not getting into the post, but shouldn't we be looking at the offensive philospophy that has been employed by the coaching staff?

Hold your cards-we have a BINGO!!

[applezag]

Heytvelt could do a better job getting, and more importantly holding, position inside, but it is a lot of work and when you do it possession after possession without getting the ball, that becomes disheartening. Not an excuse, but it happens.

I would imagine the coaching staff looked at it this way: what percentage of teh time we throw it in there are we getting a positive return on that decision? There were some games where it really was not very rewarding. However, I would also say that with post players more than any others the more touches they get in there, the more comfortable and effective they become.

The offense they ran this season had a post entry aspect to it, but it definitely was not the focus. They were more often trying to penetrate into the lane and make things happen from there with the perimeter guys. They never really looked like they knew how to incorporate the bigs into this motion, either by posting them up, hitting them on the roll off the screen, or dishing to them on the drive (why not use JH like Dorsey for Memphis?).

One last thought that I have shared here before about JH. The '98-'99 starting 5 man was Jeremy Eaton. I liked Jeremy and thought he was a solid college player, but JH is better in pretty much every skill I can think of as well as being far more athletic (all of this is true regardless of whether he is a "true 4" or "true 5"). If they can make it work with Eaton, who got more touches in the post than JH, they can make it work with JH.

[TacomaZAG]

It's all about tailoring the offense

to the skill sets of the players, rather than requiring the players to modify their skills and play within the almighty "system". The coaching staff had this year to find out what all the freshmen can do, and to be reminded what Josh can and cannot do. The three year experiment to convert Josh to a "back to the basket big" has been a failure. Hopefully, his final year as a ZAG will be one that accentuates his physical gifts and finally unleashes him on college basketball.

Go ZAGS