2016-17 Season

Anything and everything that is UMass Minutemen Basketball.
Marty Peretz
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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by Marty Peretz » Tue Jan 03, 2017 3:45 pm

^I think one of the issues with Clark is that if he doesn't hit threes early in the game he becomes reluctant to continue shooting from deep and instead defers to penetration. The problem is that in the half court he's not a GREAT penetrator. He is not an efficient scorer when he's taking the ball to the rim in the half court. He dribbles a ton and it stalls the flow of the offense. When he's playing in the flow of the offense and taking open threes or taking it hard and decisively to the rim, he's the best player on the team. When he's taking contested threes and dribbling excessively I think he's at times our least valuable player (note that I said at times; this isn't a regularly occurring thing). I am fine with him missing threes if they are good looks. If he starts recklessly taking the ball to the rim after 15 dribbles and loses it in traffic or takes a lousy contested shot, I'd prefer he come out. This is especially true when we are in need of defensive stops, as I don't think he's a great on ball defender (several really nice individual defensive plays notwithstanding).

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by Floyd » Tue Jan 03, 2017 5:37 pm

Would like to see the rotations tighten up a bit and have guys playing together more regularly . I think it helps when guys are more familiar with each other like Deeky and Brison are. Lots of different combinations out there so far, time to get combinations as to who plays better with who
Time to Win

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by minutefanjsf » Thu Jan 05, 2017 11:21 am

^
SSHHHH. That makes it sound like the coaching is better and there is an offensive scheme that works. Can't say that on this board.

69MG
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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by 69MG » Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:47 pm

Does anybody else feel this way? We have more size than just about anybody we play and we continually fail to take advantage of it. If our bigs were mediocre I could see it, but we have some talent up front. I recall games in years past when we played big teams and we couldn't get a rebound and had a ton of shots blocked.

With our lack of outside shooting, shouldn't we go back to a 2 guard lineup and play Rashaan, Gresham and Flowers up front? I realize that the coaching staff would have to totally revamp the offense, but that shouldn't be that hard. It would significantly improve our rebounding and our interior D. We could knock off the press which doesn't work all that well and also creates a ton of fouls and play more zone which would benefit Rashaan.

The problem is finding enough minutes for Deeky, LP and Donte, although we could go smaller for stretches and they could all get 25-30 minutes. I'm just throwing this out there because what we're doing isn't working. I think we all expected that the team would be coming together at this point in the season but I don't see it.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by Berkman » Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:57 pm

I'd like to see some games using that line up just to see how much better it would work than what we are doing now. However I doubt that we will ever see it.

69MG
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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by 69MG » Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:53 am

Matt V. says what we have been saying, but more eloquently.
http://www.gazettenet.com/Character-tes ... ad-7304368

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by NilesGold » Fri Jan 06, 2017 10:46 am

69MG wrote:Does anybody else feel this way? We have more size than just about anybody we play and we continually fail to take advantage of it. If our bigs were mediocre I could see it, but we have some talent up front. I recall games in years past when we played big teams and we couldn't get a rebound and had a ton of shots blocked.

With our lack of outside shooting, shouldn't we go back to a 2 guard lineup and play Rashaan, Gresham and Flowers up front? I realize that the coaching staff would have to totally revamp the offense, but that shouldn't be that hard. It would significantly improve our rebounding and our interior D. We could knock off the press which doesn't work all that well and also creates a ton of fouls and play more zone which would benefit Rashaan.
Yes and no. Between Holloway, Gresham and Baldwin you can maybe get 75 minutes combined out of them a game, but with fouls and being gassed limiting their minutes, you're probably looking at closer to 60. So until Hines comes back, that's going to be tricky.

The rim protection against GMU was good, even without having a massive lineup out there, UMass blocked 8 shots and two of those came from Clark and Jarreau.

Another issue is that our size is still young and inexperienced and not particularly polished offensively. Baldwin has shown a bit of an offensive post game, but Flowers is a perimeter player who is still not that strong phyiscally, and I haven't seen anything from Gresham beyond 1 face-up jumper and put-backs/alley-oops. So if the opposing team throws out a smaller lineup that can stretch the floor like GMU, it can present some matchup problems for guys like Gresham & Baldwin on the defensive end and on the flip side they might not be able to take advantage of their size advantage on the offensive end beyond maybe an offensive rebound.

I don't think the press is really the culprit in our propensity to foul. Also, one of the few things we had going for us was that UMass forced a lot of opponent turnovers. They weren't able to do it against GMU and it was a huge factor in losing that game.

All that being said, with the struggles the team has had, you're right, they absolutely need to try and use their size. If they're going to be a bad 3pt shooting team, which I struggle to see how it will get much better, then at least be a really good rebounding team and rim protecting team. If you're going to miss shots, at least have guys that can go up and get the offensive rebound. That doesn't mean they need Holloway, Gresham/Baldwin AND Flowers in the lineup, I think they can get 95% of the way there just by going with Holloway and Gresham/Baldwin, which is why I was really happy to see Gresham in the starting lineup against GMU.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by Roadtrip » Fri Jan 06, 2017 2:21 pm

Well, they lost the two I thought they would win. Maybe they can win the two I thought they would lose. URI was a tossup. If they start 0-5 they would have to go 10-3 to get where I figured they would end up. If they can manage that, that would be great.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by Marty Peretz » Fri Jan 06, 2017 3:00 pm

Good summary by Matt but two points I think he either omitted or overlooked.

1) I don't think he mentioned Chris Baldwin. I find it strange that Baldwin played just five minutes at GMU after going for 9 and 9 in the loss to Bona.
2) I'm not sold on the notion that Clark is getting the job done. Yes, he scores, but if you get your 15 points on 6 for 18 shooting and go just 1 of 6 from three, is that really the best use of 34 minutes? The previous game he got 19 on 5/12, but five of his points came in abject garbage time (the final 49 seconds of the game) when the outcome was no longer in doubt. Interestingly, in our best performance of the season (at GA State) Clark scored 12 but only took 9 shots, going 4/9. He played less than 30 minutes. Zach Lewis went 6 for 11 against Mason and played far fewer minutes. I also think he's a better defender.

Danta has great talent but just as with everyone else on the team, if he struggles his minutes should be reduced. Kellogg seems very reluctant to do that which I find bizarre given that Lewis and Flowers are terrific options in that 2/3 combo role.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by UMass87 » Fri Jan 06, 2017 3:07 pm

^ There is no "2", "3", or "4" in this offense. If there were then Flowers is playing as a 3/4 or at least that's what the substitution patterns seem to indicate.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by MikeUMA » Tue Jan 10, 2017 10:34 am

Marty Peretz wrote:Danta has great talent...
The worst hacking of Clark's name yet. Come on, man. You follow this team like a hawk.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by capezona » Tue Jan 10, 2017 12:18 pm

^
Maybe he still has Santa on his mind.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by capezona » Mon Jan 16, 2017 1:38 pm

They're 1-4 in conf but I think they can still go 11-7. Home games against 8-8 St Joes and 7-11 Fordham they will likely win. Also home against 12-6 Mason, 11-6 URI, 9-7 Davidson, 10-5 LaSalle and 11-6 Richmond. All those games are winnable although Richmond might be the toughest. There are 6 away games (5-12 SLU, LaSalle, St Joe's, 9-9 Duquesne, 9-8 GW and St. Bonn) that are very winnable although we often struggle at St. Bonn and GW. To go 11-7 they need to win 10 of the remaining 13. I think it's very possible.

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by MJatUM » Mon Jan 16, 2017 1:43 pm

Possible? Yes. As KG told us, "anything is possible."

I think we're looking more likely at 9-9 or 8-10. Anything above .500 I think will be very positive to an overachievment. Under .500 will be a disappointment.

Honestly the way the team has been playing lately every game here on out I would not be surprised if they won (individually speaking, I'll eat my shirt if they finish 14-4).

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Re: 2016-17 Season

Post by NilesGold » Mon Jan 16, 2017 1:58 pm

MJatUM wrote:Possible? Yes. As KG told us, "anything is possible."

I think we're looking more likely at 9-9 or 8-10.
Assuming UMass is more like the team that beat Dayton and lost a close one at URI, and not the team that got blown out by Bona and VCU and lost to GMU... I think they'll probably finish 10-8 with 11-7 or 9-9 being very possible. If they want a chance at the NIT they'll probably have to go at least 10-8.

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