Of this season are really simple in my opinion.
If we figure out defensive rebounding and lower our turnovers to acceptable levels - we blow all expectations out of the water.
If we continue as we are now - we compete for the conference and roll the dice on winning the MWCT. Meh, so so, improved but middling.
Or I guess we could always regress and tank.
We can talk all we want about pre-season expectations, but we’ve all seen that they were set too low. We are better than projected talent wise and it’s useless to use those projections to judge this team now. “Better than last year” is not an acceptable barometer, at some point you have to reset what you expect.
For the first time in a long time we have the offense, shooting consistency, scheme, and the defense to be a machine against most opponents. We only ever really shoot ourselves in the foot, at times, in those two areas mentioned above - defensive rebounding and turnovers.
As it stands, we are a really good offensive team. We would be crazy good if we didn’t turn the ball over so much. Our shooting percentage is high, we get good shots, we make our shots, we rack up offensive rebounds. The elephant in the room that kills our momentum at times is not ball-hogging, poor shot selection, or streaky shooting - it is turnovers - specifically traveling, and turnovers out of traps. I’ll take the turnovers from inside passing, outlet passing gambles, and creative play gambling. If we tighten up on traveling, and passing out of double teams/traps we would have an extra 5 or 6 possessions a game - at least.
Our team defense is above average. Sure we fixate on guard penetration and lack of help at times, but what is KILLING us is defensive rebound consistency. We are so streaky on the defensive boards, and it’s all effort and focus. We will rebound at an above average rate for chunks of the game and then lose our minds and give up multiple attempts per position for minutes at a time. An opponent can go from scoring on 30% of their posessions to 75% instantly and in large clusters. Both guards and forwards have been guilty of collapses of defensive rebounding.
If either the staff or the players themselves can solve defensive rebounding consistency and mental-lapse caused turnovers, we will carve through this conference like a machine.
Status quo will leave us competitive in a conference that SHOULD NOT be all that hard to dominate. You can give every excuse about the road in the MWC, everybody gets up for UNLV, and sneaky good teams, but the teams in this conference really all suck, just at different levels. Despite pre-season expectations, MWC is not the level we should be aspiring to at this point.
If we figure out defensive rebounding and lower our turnovers to acceptable levels - we blow all expectations out of the water.
If we continue as we are now - we compete for the conference and roll the dice on winning the MWCT. Meh, so so, improved but middling.
Or I guess we could always regress and tank.
We can talk all we want about pre-season expectations, but we’ve all seen that they were set too low. We are better than projected talent wise and it’s useless to use those projections to judge this team now. “Better than last year” is not an acceptable barometer, at some point you have to reset what you expect.
For the first time in a long time we have the offense, shooting consistency, scheme, and the defense to be a machine against most opponents. We only ever really shoot ourselves in the foot, at times, in those two areas mentioned above - defensive rebounding and turnovers.
As it stands, we are a really good offensive team. We would be crazy good if we didn’t turn the ball over so much. Our shooting percentage is high, we get good shots, we make our shots, we rack up offensive rebounds. The elephant in the room that kills our momentum at times is not ball-hogging, poor shot selection, or streaky shooting - it is turnovers - specifically traveling, and turnovers out of traps. I’ll take the turnovers from inside passing, outlet passing gambles, and creative play gambling. If we tighten up on traveling, and passing out of double teams/traps we would have an extra 5 or 6 possessions a game - at least.
Our team defense is above average. Sure we fixate on guard penetration and lack of help at times, but what is KILLING us is defensive rebound consistency. We are so streaky on the defensive boards, and it’s all effort and focus. We will rebound at an above average rate for chunks of the game and then lose our minds and give up multiple attempts per position for minutes at a time. An opponent can go from scoring on 30% of their posessions to 75% instantly and in large clusters. Both guards and forwards have been guilty of collapses of defensive rebounding.
If either the staff or the players themselves can solve defensive rebounding consistency and mental-lapse caused turnovers, we will carve through this conference like a machine.
Status quo will leave us competitive in a conference that SHOULD NOT be all that hard to dominate. You can give every excuse about the road in the MWC, everybody gets up for UNLV, and sneaky good teams, but the teams in this conference really all suck, just at different levels. Despite pre-season expectations, MWC is not the level we should be aspiring to at this point.
