Post game radio GU-USF

[Section 116]

Hudson and Morrison: Zags win 75-65 in San Francisco. GU takes lead 8-4 2 1/2 mins in and never trailed. Pushed lead to 14 points with nine minutes left. It's tough for GU to deliver the knockout punch in this building. Some bonehead errors and some questionable officiating, yes they said it, allowed USF to creep back toward the end of the game, but the Zags held on. Baum, Ratinho and Ferrari combined for 56 of USF's 65 points. J3 with 17 and 9, 16 for Perkins, 14 for Melson and 10 for Rui. GU shoot 53%to 38% for USF but USF made 12 threes to GU's 7. USF had 2 big chances to really make a move but 6 consecutive missed free throws for USF was a big missed opportunity for USF. Another came when GU had no field goals for the final 4 minutes until Tillie's with 15 seconds left. Morrison noted USF has to feel good about themselves but moral victories don't do much for you. GU wins rebounds 42-26. Statistically it looks like a bigger margin, but the three is the great equalizer. Also two late blocks by Rui were huge!

Michaelson: We know coming in here this was going to be a step up. We did a good job early shutting down the three, but not in the second. We said we wanted to shut down the three and not turnover the ball and we didn't do either of those well tonight. J3 really did a great job tonight, just missed a double double by one rebound. We talked about sticking with the plan and I thought we did that well tonight other than a couple rotations and too many turnovers. A couple role players for us came in played well. Norvell hit a couple really big free throw for us. SMC picked to win the league and Landale is doing a great job. SMC has not lost since November, they have so much experience, it's going to be different for some of our young guys but it's going to be great to have our students back after a long break.

Hudson and Morrison: Zags move to 16-3, 6-0 in the WCC. Kispert made the only shot he took. For the first time tonight we saw the bench shortened up a bit. Not a lot of minutes for some of the bench. Jones and Larsen will probably see their minutes shortened up a bit as the season moves along, something Few almost always does. The starters logged a lot more minutes tonight. USF was 8-16 shooting threes in the second half which is what Michaelson was upset about. GU caught a break as USF was only 9-19 from the line and they are a better free throw team than that. GU had a pretty good defensive plan and survived some dubious foul calls, the second time they noted this. GU-SMC Thursday night but you all know that!

[Zagricultural]

IMO we really don't play as well when we shorten the bench like this.

[CDC84]

The guy that GU also really needs to focus in on Thursday is Naar. I had no idea he's second in the country in assists at 9.1apg. With Landale it is not a surprise. They need to cut off the easy passing angles. Easier said than done with the number 3 rated offense nationally at kenpom.com

[thespywhozaggedme]

IMO we really don't play as well when we shorten the bench like this.

I agree, and I was just going to post the same thing. I don't understand why we play a deep bench for half the season and then inexplicably Few shortens the bench every year like clockwork. I honestly just don't get the reasoning behind it.

[Zagger]

I agree, and I was just going to post the same thing. I don't understand why we play a deep bench for half the season and then inexplicably Few shortens the bench every year like clockwork. I honestly just don't get the reasoning behind it.

Me either really. Only thing I can think of is that he may want the usual suspects working on specific things in games and they just plain need game time to get that done. I'm really liking how the bench has been doing and hoped we'd have a solid 8-9-ish guy rotation.

[jazzdelmar]

Blaming the officials is so tiresome and not a good look for these guys. Give USF and Kyle Smith some credit as well. Where was that said?

[MileHigh]

The guy that GU also really needs to focus in on Thursday is Naar. I had no idea he's second in the country in assists at 9.1apg. With Landale it is not a surprise. They need to cut off the easy passing angles. Easier said than done with the number 3 rated offense nationally at kenpom.com

Naar is really the only player on that team that Bennet lets handle the ball, run pick and rolls, and penetrate the lane. Once he gets in the paint he feels where the help is coming from and either kicks to a shooter or a lob or pocket pass to a post. Nothing really complicated about defending him, you have to keep him out of the paint, and if he does penetrate the help needs to come from the weakside AND everyone needs to be really tight in their "help the help" rotations.
On the pick and roll I would have the guard go under the screen because I dont think SMU wins with Naar taking a lot of threes. Few will probably hard hedge and recover, which is how he played them last year.
St Marys strength is their spacing, passing, and their shooting. They will try to get Naar in the lane to draw help and Londale on the block to draw double teams and once you double they will find an open shooter. They are real good at what they do.

[TexasZagFan]

Jock will get his points. Minimizing 3 point attempts is the key to victory.

We’ve been inconsistent on defense, need to tighten it up. Guards are allowing too much dribble penetration.

[JPtheBeasta]

The guy that GU also really needs to focus in on Thursday is Naar. I had no idea he's second in the country in assists at 9.1apg. With Landale it is not a surprise. They need to cut off the easy passing angles. Easier said than done with the number 3 rated offense nationally at kenpom.com

I've watched only a few minutes of a couple of their games this year, and Naar has been pretty crafty getting to the hoop. A lot of the Landale action seems to be at the end of Naar's drives when the help defense comes. As a result, Landale didn't post up all that hard, and didn't really seem to need to work that hard in general for his points. If the small sample size is an accurate indicator, I feel that the Zags could tire him out if they keep involving him in pick and roll and posting hard on him on his defensive end, and making him work for his points on the other end by keeping Naar in front of them.

And hopefully the refs call a cleaner game than at San Francisco.

[MontanaCoyote]

Seems to me that it's just too easy for good guards to drive and score inside on us. Far more penetration than last year. Just no Shem or Collins in waiting. I'm hoping that Larsen can fill that void as the season progresses. I think he has the ability and just needs more minutes to truly establish his defensive presence in the paint.

There were some nice blocks by our bigs against driving guards last night but not enough to keep them from trying. And that's my point. Last year opposing guards knew what was waiting for them, which wasn't good.

If I've got this wrong, in whole or part, take me to school.

[Zag365]

Seems to me that it's just too easy for good guards to drive and score inside on us. Far more penetration than last year. Just no Shem or Collins in waiting. I'm hoping that Larsen can fill that void as the season progresses. I think he has the ability and just needs more minutes to truly establish his defensive presence in the paint.

There were some nice blocks by our bigs against driving guards last night but not enough to keep them from trying. And that's my point. Last year opposing guards knew what was waiting for them, which wasn't good.

If I've got this wrong, in whole or part, take me to school.

I think you right. Good guards are turning the corner on us and getting more penetration for layups, drawing shooting fouls, or kickouts for clean looks from the 3 pt line.

[gonstu]

Naar last year vs. zags

Game 1: 2 for 7 shooting, 4 points, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 27 mins
Game 2: 2 for 11 shooting, 5 points, 4 assists, 4 turnovers, 39 mins
Game 3: 4 for 10 shooting, 9 points, 3 assists, 3 turnovers, 37 mins

[bballbeachbum]

“We just gave up way too many 3s in the second half,” Few said. “It’s counter intuitive. They’re driving in to throw back behind themselves out to the 3. In a day, (you have) to retrain you’re habits of what you’ve been doing all year.”

agree with Montana too. Zags aren't fighting over screens consistently like last year either, switching screens a lot, just different personnel so different D ideas seems to me.
please, take me to school too!

re. the officials, it's not blame imo as much as recognition of the obvious and what was overcome to get the W. Like Zagceo said in the game thread, good teams win anyway.

but I can feel some bulldogs here hanging on until Thursday ready to pounce if the Zags stumble

[willandi]

Blaming the officials is so tiresome and not a good look for these guys. Give USF and Kyle Smith some credit as well. Where was that said?

We can blame the officials and you can blame the players and coaches. Hows that?

[jazzdelmar]

We can blame the officials and you can blame the players and coaches. Hows that?

Huh? Blame for what?

[willandi]

Huh? Blame for what?

Sorry, you're right. You don't blame them. You just think our guard play sucks, our bigs have disappeared or are going 1 on 1 too much, and Few can't coach. Other than that, you don't blame.