hunt-ducks
Well-known member
I have followed the comments made regarding the current iteration of the Grizzly basketball team, and would like to add some of my observations. As a former high school basketball coach, I am troubled by what I have observed from our team this season. I have watched about 8-10 games online to form my opinions. Many of my comments have been expressed by other posters before, so you may not read any revelations here. Anyway, here goes.
Offense- This is maybe my biggest criticism of the team. Our offense is, frankly, not even a sophisticated high school offense. As others have said, there is no movement of players off-the-ball. Passing is mostly done around the perimeter with seemingly no purpose in running a play. Way too many possessions result in either a turnover, or a hurried low-percentage desperation shot as the clock expires.
Anyone who has played the game knows that shooting the basketball must involve confidence in making the shot, to be effective. Yet I witness over-and-over again where Montana players pass-up open shots, and seem to lack confidence when they do shoot. It is almost like the are afraid to be slammed by coaches for missing, or even quickly removed from the game.
In my opinion, Travis has not designed an offense to utilize his strengths, which are his guards and quicker players. All of us lament the lack of having bigs who can compete is size and bulk with other teams. Yet, our slow-down style of play does nothing to feature our strengths, but only exposes our weaknesses. We have the depth of quick, smaller players, to run a fast-break, high intensity offense, which would create many more open shot opportunities (as well as open 3-point opportunities). On defense, we could use this depth to create havoc by running a Rick Petino style full-court press, creating turnovers and many fast-break opportunities.
I do not agree with Travis' substitution strategy. He substitutes way too much for me. Players can not get any flow or continuity because the get so few minutes before being taken out. The other problem I see with Travis' substitution strategy is that the team can never feel comfortable playing as a unit, with the same five players on the court. Players need PT together over a season to jell as a unit, but with Travis, players play with constantly-changing line-ups, so they can never feel comfortable with their unit on the floor. Too many seemingly interchangeable pieces which leads to never gelling as a starting five, etc.
Finally, the college game has become a 3-point game, to a great extent. Montana has the shooters to excel at the 3-point game. But their offense is not designed to get players open opportunities to shoot the "3". There are designed plays to create open looks for 3s, using motion, screens, etc., but our offense uses none of them. And when our players actually get an open look, they often don't take them.
Defense- I keep reading how great our defense is. I don't agree at all. We are near the bottom in the nation in the number of fouls we have per game, and I can not remember a game this season in which our opponent had more fouls that we did, even at our home games. Our players commit way too many reach fouls, and play poor individual defense. Because we have good quickness with our guards and wings, we make-up for some of the poor individual defense by shear athletic ability. However, if your team is always putting your opponent on the foul line, it is difficult to win games.
Offense- This is maybe my biggest criticism of the team. Our offense is, frankly, not even a sophisticated high school offense. As others have said, there is no movement of players off-the-ball. Passing is mostly done around the perimeter with seemingly no purpose in running a play. Way too many possessions result in either a turnover, or a hurried low-percentage desperation shot as the clock expires.
Anyone who has played the game knows that shooting the basketball must involve confidence in making the shot, to be effective. Yet I witness over-and-over again where Montana players pass-up open shots, and seem to lack confidence when they do shoot. It is almost like the are afraid to be slammed by coaches for missing, or even quickly removed from the game.
In my opinion, Travis has not designed an offense to utilize his strengths, which are his guards and quicker players. All of us lament the lack of having bigs who can compete is size and bulk with other teams. Yet, our slow-down style of play does nothing to feature our strengths, but only exposes our weaknesses. We have the depth of quick, smaller players, to run a fast-break, high intensity offense, which would create many more open shot opportunities (as well as open 3-point opportunities). On defense, we could use this depth to create havoc by running a Rick Petino style full-court press, creating turnovers and many fast-break opportunities.
I do not agree with Travis' substitution strategy. He substitutes way too much for me. Players can not get any flow or continuity because the get so few minutes before being taken out. The other problem I see with Travis' substitution strategy is that the team can never feel comfortable playing as a unit, with the same five players on the court. Players need PT together over a season to jell as a unit, but with Travis, players play with constantly-changing line-ups, so they can never feel comfortable with their unit on the floor. Too many seemingly interchangeable pieces which leads to never gelling as a starting five, etc.
Finally, the college game has become a 3-point game, to a great extent. Montana has the shooters to excel at the 3-point game. But their offense is not designed to get players open opportunities to shoot the "3". There are designed plays to create open looks for 3s, using motion, screens, etc., but our offense uses none of them. And when our players actually get an open look, they often don't take them.
Defense- I keep reading how great our defense is. I don't agree at all. We are near the bottom in the nation in the number of fouls we have per game, and I can not remember a game this season in which our opponent had more fouls that we did, even at our home games. Our players commit way too many reach fouls, and play poor individual defense. Because we have good quickness with our guards and wings, we make-up for some of the poor individual defense by shear athletic ability. However, if your team is always putting your opponent on the foul line, it is difficult to win games.