Providence Game Thread II

[#RollJays]

Everyone here is grasping for straws, and doesn’t fully understand where things are now.

We will be straight up purchasing 1-2 starters a year. This year it was Ashworth, Baylor before him, Hawkins before that. When you factor in guys like Johnson and McAndrew - expected to be impact players from the moment they get here, a la Art/Trey/Nembhard - we don’t need future starters the way we used to. In fact it would be better to hire specialists who realize their role than wanna be feature players who can’t feature.

Whether or not Green stays isn’t as large a matter as what minutes he can give NOW. And that’s in question. Making a few hustle plays doesn’t make you playable, just ask Fred.

The evidence we have is that Green is in for a spot weld to hold things together for a quick minute or two. I’ll leave it to Mac to know whether or not he’s capable of more - and with our situation of our bench being what it is and the 4 spot being what that is, it’s damning that he can’t get in.

If we are looking to buy 2 starters (or more) a year, then we might be in trouble, but I can see us looking for one person as immediate fit for some need every year. This year was a bit of an exception in that we had 3 legitimate NBA prospects possibly coming back and needed to fill holes around them, but even then we only bought a PG

Anyway, I do think there is still a need to develop players and get them to learn to play. Remember Kalkbrenner didn't start as a Freshman, and played 13-14 mpg or so. Trey only started 13 games his freshman year, so there's still a need for development to take place, and in particular there are guys who are good athletes and have skills, but need physical development

Outside of the past few games the 4 spot has been a solid contributor this year, and I think they'll get back into the flow here as well

A quick comparison:
Kaluma last year:
30 mpg, 11.8 ppg, 6 rebounds a game, 1.6 assists, Usage 23.2%
Miller + Traudt this year:
34.7mpg, 9.5 ppg, 5.7 rebounds a game, 1 assist, Usage 12.5

and that's including the downturn these past few games. They are being productive with having almost no plays run for them and deferring to every other guy on the court for offense


But with all of that said, I'm hoping that we work Green in more and play Traudt more as the backup 5 also. Dropping Bello's minutes to around 20mpg helps us in a number of ways and think he's more effective like that

The lack of defensive rebounding from that position has hurt a lot lately.

[Chicagojayfan]

...
The lack of defensive rebounding from that position has hurt a lot lately.

It definitely hurt us in the Providence game, but for the year we've generally done a very good job (30th on Bartorvik in defensive rebounding), but we've had a few games where we really struggled this year - UConn, Bama, and Marquette in particular (although this first half of Providence was just as bad, just did better second half.

It does look like we were more consistent last year, but UConn ripped us on the boards last year as did Xavier on the road, and Providence as well once

Wish I had some explanation for why we've struggled in certain games. We do tend to bounce back well after those games though (I'm sure the coaches make it a point of emphasis) so that might bode well for the Xavier game

[Outlaw_Wales]

Chicago -

Is there ANYTHING at all that you are willing to agree is a concern, weakness, limit, problem with this team? Absolutely anything that anyone suggests as a problem is immediately met with you saying “but” … last year / earlier this year / historically / on the whole …

I’m genuinely curious if you think there is anything at all that is a fair criticism or concern?

[bluejayfan00]

Chicago -

Is there ANYTHING at all that you are willing to agree is a concern, weakness, limit, problem with this team? Absolutely anything that anyone suggests as a problem is immediately met with you saying “but” … last year / earlier this year / historically / on the whole …

I’m genuinely curious if you think there is anything at all that is a fair criticism or concern?

Bravo

[Chicagojayfan]

Chicago -

Is there ANYTHING at all that you are willing to agree is a concern, weakness, limit, problem with this team? Absolutely anything that anyone suggests as a problem is immediately met with you saying “but” … last year / earlier this year / historically / on the whole …

I’m genuinely curious if you think there is anything at all that is a fair criticism or concern?

I think there are a lot of areas where we need to get better and I've mostly noted them, but I completely disagree with the Sky-is-falling attitude that some seem to have. Mostly because a lot of people seem to have little to no memory of the struggles we had last year or the struggles that other teams have around us

For weaknesses that I would like to see addressed (pretty sure I've mentioned all of these more than once):

Backup Center - King's regressed terribly since earlier in the year even. No idea what is going on there, but I think a combination of Traudt and Green can help with that. I was very encouraged by Traudt giving us a few solid, if empty minutes @ Providence

PF - it's been a problem for the past few games, but remember when Miller hit some huge shots against Seton Hall? Certainly doesn't seem like anyone here remembers that, or the Xavier game where he played pretty well also, again, it sucks he's had 3 poor games, but that isn't what he's doing for the season (Anyone remember Kaluma against Nebraka last year? or against AZ? or against Xavier or Nova?)

Bello playing more than 20mpg - this is a problem for the team, IMO, because he's usually giving up size defensively and doesn't bring a lot of dynamic play on offense either. Solid guy, but not someone who should play 33 minutes in a game like Wednesday. Give that time to Miller/Green/Traudt unless a team is specifically playing small ball

Defense - has been good most of the year, but a problem the past 2 games. I'm not sure it's a systemic issue so much as 2 bad games due to luck and/or just being tired in the middle of January/February (something that's happened just about every year I can remember for Creighton, including last year when we went into the NCAA's having gone 4-4 in those last BE games and had a couple of big defensive clunkers).. and never mind our decade long history on the road versus Providence

Turnovers - this is probably the biggest issue we've had all year, at least the one that has caused problems most consistently. 5 of our losses were games with a lot of turnovers, and likely Marquette, Nova, Providence are all due to turnovers, add in rebounding and turnovers vs. UConn and that's 4 of them.

I feel like Turnovers are addressed a bit by Ashworth pushing the ball more in the offense, which takes some of the load off of Trey and where he's generally been very solid w/ the ball --- Oh, that's right, Ashworth and Trey... seem to remember people saying they were MVC players or something

My issue is more that Mac should have more than proven his ability to get teams to play well down the stretch at this point, and this team has had some ups and downs, but it is still developing and getting better and Mac and the team deserves more of the benefit of the doubt
than many appear to be willing to give them

Do you have anything good to say about the team?

[Chicagojayfan]

Chicago -

Is there ANYTHING at all that you are willing to agree is a concern, weakness, limit, problem with this team? Absolutely anything that anyone suggests as a problem is immediately met with you saying “but” … last year / earlier this year / historically / on the whole …

I’m genuinely curious if you think there is anything at all that is a fair criticism or concern?

Bravo

My comments already posted

Do YOU have anything good to say about the team?

[mannygakou]

...
The lack of defensive rebounding from that position has hurt a lot lately.

It definitely hurt us in the Providence game, but for the year we've generally done a very good job (30th on Bartorvik in defensive rebounding), but we've had a few games where we really struggled this year - UConn, Bama, and Marquette in particular (although this first half of Providence was just as bad, just did better second half.

It does look like we were more consistent last year, but UConn ripped us on the boards last year as did Xavier on the road, and Providence as well once

Wish I had some explanation for why we've struggled in certain games. We do tend to bounce back well after those games though (I'm sure the coaches make it a point of emphasis) so that might bode well for the Xavier game

The rebounding rate has generally been acceptable but the last two games have exposed the 4 position's inability to defend versatile wings. Unlike with Kaluma, or even when Bello is on the floor, there's a huge issue with switching on defense as Miller/Traudt have poor lateral quickness and aren't strong defending in the paint. Any of the per/40 stats highlighting their offensive production is weak, at best, because their combined efficiency during conference play has been below average.

Hopefully Miller is able to find his stroke again. He hasn't scored since the first Xavier game (granted 3 games, but he's 56 minutes since in that span).

[McKinney's Neighbor]

Outside of the past few games the 4 spot has been a solid contributor this year, and I think they'll get back into the flow here as well

A quick comparison:
Kaluma last year:
30 mpg, 11.8 ppg, 6 rebounds a game, 1.6 assists, Usage 23.2%
Miller + Traudt this year:
34.7mpg, 9.5 ppg, 5.7 rebounds a game, 1 assist, Usage 12.5

and that's including the downturn these past few games. They are being productive with having almost no plays run for them and deferring to every other guy on the court for offense

You can't be serious.

Traudt shot it great against Florida A&M and Central Michigan - phew. He scored 30 of his 78 points this season vs. those two scrub teams.

Now run your analysis during conference play when we actually play real opponents. Miller + Traudt in Big East play ... 6 ppg on on 35% shooting + 5 boards in 33 mpg. That's before mentioning the 4 has been the worst position defensively for us this season.

From my standpoint - the 4 has been the least productive position for us by far.

[Trifecta]

Also, everyone talking about our lack of bench should look straight at the Lawson whiff as the primary culprit. Everyone except Kalk could be playing less minutes if he could give us 20 (Baylor sliding over to the 4 if needed) but since he can’t we are in a huge bind.

That’s where the problem lies, because that roster spot was where some of the depth optimism was originating from. It also goes to show how narrow the margin is between surviving and thriving.

Maybe... I'd say Traudt over Lawson. With Trey, Baylor, and Ashworth being what we thought he was going to be (kinda of happening now), I don't think there was going to be a ton of perimeter minutes to come by. But we supposedly weree going to have a two or three-headed monster at the 4 spot. Now we're at the point where we can't (or won't) play any of them in crunch time and we're playing Farabello instead.

Yes it would be nice if Lawson was able to give us 5 to 7 minutes a game. A bigger problem is that our sixth man is Farabello and he was also arguably a miss... Which as much as it sucks to say with how he played in the tournament last year, it's kind of true.

[Chicagojayfan]

...
The lack of defensive rebounding from that position has hurt a lot lately.

It definitely hurt us in the Providence game, but for the year we've generally done a very good job (30th on Bartorvik in defensive rebounding), but we've had a few games where we really struggled this year - UConn, Bama, and Marquette in particular (although this first half of Providence was just as bad, just did better second half.

It does look like we were more consistent last year, but UConn ripped us on the boards last year as did Xavier on the road, and Providence as well once

Wish I had some explanation for why we've struggled in certain games. We do tend to bounce back well after those games though (I'm sure the coaches make it a point of emphasis) so that might bode well for the Xavier game

The rebounding rate has generally been acceptable but the last two games have exposed the 4 position's inability to defend versatile wings. Unlike with Kaluma, or even when Bello is on the floor, there's a huge issue with switching on defense as Miller/Traudt have poor lateral quickness and aren't strong defending in the paint. Any of the per/40 stats highlighting their offensive production is weak, at best, because their combined efficiency during conference play has been below average.

Hopefully Miller is able to find his stroke again. He hasn't scored since the first Xavier game (granted 3 games, but he's 56 minutes since in that span).

good points, I think we have a definite weakness in that we don't have anyone of the right physical type to defend a Telford type player (Kaluma was much better at that) and my memory is that mostly the coaches are playing Baylor more against the opposing 4 and having Miller play the forward/wing instead. I think Miller's lateral movement's been pretty good and his long arms help with how he can position himself, but he can get knocked around by the stronger guys. Traudt's going to have to do a serious offseason of S&C to work on his strength and quickness