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Post by mrdanielx on Jan 23, 2013 8:20:30 GMT -8
First time posting here. I like to look at line-ups and stat sheets based on my time playing simulation college basketball at What If Sports Hardball Dynasty.
I would have this as my non X depth chart.
Starters:
Post Strong Opponents
PG: Winston Shepard SG: Chase Tapley SF: Jamaal Franklin PF: DeShawn Stephens C: Skylar Spencer
Notes: As much as missing X has been hurting us, the aspect of our game that is most lacking is rebounding. Playing against teams with legit front courts means we have to play bigger. Since Nevada, and New Mexico are mostly known for their backcourts this line up will probably not be as important.
Guards off Bench Order: Rahon, O'Brien, Polee Post off Bench: Johnson
Backcourt Strong Opponents
PG: Winston Shepard SG: Chase Tapley SG: James Rahon SF: Jamaal Franklin C: DeShawn Stephens
Guards off Bench Order: Polee, O'Brien, Post off Bench: Spencer, Johnson
Notes: I think Rahon's defense is better than O'Brien's and with Franklin, Tapley and Shepard all offensive options before Rahon, I don't think his (rather extended) cold streak will affect the team, and who knows, he could have another UCLA type night.
Overall Notes:
O'Brien: I'd push O'Brien way back on my depth chart because I have been watching him very carefully, and while he certainly plays with grit, and is occasionally excellent at being a "glue guy" he is regularly beat off the screen or loses his man on the switch. I *regularly* see him looking around for the ball totally confused off a screen. I think he is positioning himself poorly and shooters are getting open looks and/or a lane to run in. Against UNLV he was passive, as was reflected in his 0 PF. Against Wyoming he was too aggressive / sloppy (Fouled Out). Such inconsistency needs to be coming from the bench. He is excellent at times at stopping opponent runs, and should be used for that right now. As far as his offense goes, he doesn't get enough bounce to hit a lay-up, so he needs to fire it up rather than tip it in. I think he is too worried about getting blocked.
Winston Shepard note: Not sure what happened at Wyoming, I think his lack of assists had more to do with poor shooting that him not passing. No one could hit anything, and often times they had open looks. He is getting more aggressive on offense, but I LIKE that, I don't think he is being selfish, I have not seen him take very many shots I have not liked. (Against UNLV that was all I saw X take was ill advised shots).
Coaching note: I know Fish likes his 8 man rotations, but I think a 9 man has to be in effect. I think Polee's length is needed on the court way more often. I think all he is missing is some speed to get where he needs to be.
When X gets back: I think you just push Shep back to bench. I doubt X will be 100 percent so just rotate him in liberally. I get the impression he only wants to play PG, which is unfortunate because I think his shot selection probably would put him ahead of Rahon on the guard chart too, and so would get him more minutes, but I haven't seen him NOT run the point when he is on the court very much at all.
Anyhow, that is my two cents.
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Post by gmwannabee on Jan 23, 2013 8:36:23 GMT -8
One thing I believe they're missing from last years team is a defensive toughness, as far as taking charges. Not nearly as many as last year. Those were as good as blocks, and really made the opponents tentative in the paint. Not sure how they can get back to that, but it something noticeably missing this year. I also think it's a reason our rebounding has been so bad.
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Post by mrdanielx on Jan 23, 2013 8:52:02 GMT -8
Yeah I agree, you can see Jamaal making an excellent effort at it, and O'Brien has taken one or two. But overall there is no Tim Shelton breaking up a fastbreak with a charge anymore. But yeah the defensive toughness in the paint is miserable. You could almost taste it against CSU, UNLV, and Wyoming. Against CSU Iverson and Hornung both killed us, against UNLV Marshall (A GUARD!) murdered us in the paint, and against Wyoming Washingto got us. Which is why I think starting both Stephens and Spencer would be key, maybe if both of them were there at the same time they would feel like they had backup when facing a pure post player in the paint.
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Post by douchey1 on Jan 23, 2013 8:55:20 GMT -8
Seems legit. JJ "passive" was understatement of day. Dude wears a dress. Winston doing a great job driving to lane, just needs to finish strong Can dude dunk? Jamaal needs to play and quit all his Acting and crying. Start Skylar. He's the only not scared to chase someone outta his kitchen. There's a reason buttercup didn't make his high school team. Looks like a cat in a washing Machine. Been surprised how soft our guys are this season
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2013 9:03:10 GMT -8
Seems legit. JJ "passive" was understatement of day. Dude wears a dress. Winston doing a great job driving to lane, just needs to finish strong Can dude dunk? Jamaal needs to play and quit all his Acting and crying. Start Skylar. He's the only not scared to chase someone outta his i am a loser spammer. There's a reason buttercup didn't make his high school team. Looks like a cat in a washing Machine. Been surprised how soft our guys are this season Living up to your name bro.
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Post by aztecfankrishnan on Jan 23, 2013 9:38:01 GMT -8
One of the better assessment I have seen on this board from the OP. I like the idea of having two legitimate big men on the floor at the same time. However, at the end of the day we still need a healthy Xavier Thames. This is a top 20 team with him and only a top 40 team without him.
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Post by AztecFemBone on Jan 23, 2013 10:39:03 GMT -8
Seems legit. JJ "passive" was understatement of day. Dude wears a dress. Winston doing a great job driving to lane, just needs to finish strong Can dude dunk? Jamaal needs to play and quit all his Acting and crying. Start Skylar. He's the only not scared to chase someone outta his i am a loser spammer. There's a reason buttercup didn't make his high school team. Looks like a cat in a washing Machine. Been surprised how soft our guys are this season Living up to your namesake ... FYI, you must have tried to say "kItchen" which is on the filter thanks to loser spammers! It is creating some hilarious autocorrects!
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Post by untitled on Jan 23, 2013 12:04:21 GMT -8
*test*
Want to remodel your culinary area?
Or just your --kitchen--
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Post by tonatiuh on Jan 23, 2013 12:13:05 GMT -8
mrdanielx, your first point is absolutely correct..., no rebounding!
Other than Jamaal, who can you name one on our team that is averaging more than 5 a game? No one, and like Pat Riley ,the coach of the Lakers in the 80's use to say, "No Rebounds, No Rings!" We have had at least some fairly good rebounders in the past 3 seasons which helped us get more & better shots especially inside on offense.
Of course I will not lay all of our problems on just rebounding, but when you include it along with fewer assists, poor "D" play (lately), and lack of hustle on occasions it all adds up to more difficulty winning games against better teams in the MW.
Also, a note to those who felt Wyoming was not worth playing. In case you forgot, or didn't remember Wyoming was our last undefeated team until just 2 weeks ago when Boise upset them. I don't care if most of their wins were against teams like "Our Lady of Forgiveness", it still means they are playing well in order to stay undefeated for 2 months.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2013 12:28:39 GMT -8
So Thames is now completely off the roster? Didn't know that.
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Post by mrdanielx on Jan 23, 2013 12:31:33 GMT -8
So Thames is now completely off the roster? Didn't know that. As I said in my post very clearly, these are my non-X depth charts. when he comes back you just slide Shep to the first guard off the bench since he seems more interested in playing PG.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2013 12:46:20 GMT -8
So Thames is now completely off the roster? Didn't know that. As I said in my post very clearly, these are my non-X depth charts. when he comes back you just slide Shep to the first guard off the bench since he seems more interested in playing PG. Sorry, didn't understand what you meant by that.
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Post by markyc on Jan 23, 2013 12:58:05 GMT -8
Everybody is a coach and wants to set the lineups. If you start Stephens and Spencer, what happens about 10 mins in when they both need a breather? Then you are left with a small lineup and James Johnson as our only big man on the floor. Not a good idea.
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Post by mrdanielx on Jan 23, 2013 14:17:53 GMT -8
I'd think Coach could rotate 3 guys in the two post positions based on who gets winded first (probably Spencer). That said, Polee, O'Brien, Franklin can all man the 4 spot, but yeah the idea is that you rotate 3 guys in the 2 post spots. That's not hard to do.
15:00 Rotate in Johnson out Spencer 10:00 Rotate in Spencer out Stephens 5:00 Rotate in Stephens out Johnson etc etc.
Stevens and Spencer should both get 30 mins, and Johnson 20 if you set it up appropriately, which I don't think is unreasonable. If it seems they all can only go slightly less than that you can break things up a bit with a touch of Polee and O'Brien.
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Post by miners22 on Jan 23, 2013 14:50:41 GMT -8
We can write about the line-up changes, coaching issues, players issues, rebounding, poor offensive and defensive execution, three point shooting woes until we can write no more.
Until the Coach and Players stop their SELFISH play and play together as a team, this trend will continue! And, let me be honest here. This trend did not start this season.
This started last season. You see, a lot of you may or may not have noticed this last season because the Aztecs were winning games!
I noticed it and it was frustrating to watch! When a team wins games these type of issues are not as glaring, but it was there. This season, team has struggled in games they won and looked horribly bad when they lose.
These type of issues "magnify" when team is losing. For example, you did not see Aztecs players "mouthing off at the refs, other team's bench or their coach. Fast forward to this season, Aztecs attitude and behavior is poor!
Last season Aztecs played decent defense, this season, defense has been inconsistent. I could go on and on, but the bottomline is, when players are more concerned about how many minutes am I going to play? how may shots am I going to get? how many points am I going to score?
This is the type of play you will see. Sure, Aztecs may win games, but the uderlying current of selfishness is still there! How many Aztec players are concerned about rebounding? passing the ball? getting an assist? taking a charge? playing good sound defense? winning as a team?
Like I tell my kid, whatever is in a player's DNA, that's the way said player is going to play!
And, last but not least, as a coach, I would be highly concerned about my team when my PG's are not leading the team in assists! No coach in America will accept this type of play from his PG's!
Fisher is a player's coach who gives his players the freedom to play the game, and presently, the Aztecs players are ABUSING the privilege!
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Post by Section T(urn Up) on Jan 23, 2013 15:39:09 GMT -8
First, I'm dying to know what you've learned about basketball playing WhatIf Sports' Hardball Dynasty since that is their baseball product. It's pretty good but certainly you mean Hoops Dynasty.
Second, one thing that is lost in translation here is the notion that SDSU's players' IQ rating (speaking in WIS terms) is strong for a 4 guard offense. That's not how WIS' IQ settings work, but it's not like every "motion" offense is the same. If your team had IQ ratings of F to C- for Triangle offense you certainly wouldn't run that over Motion offense where your guys have ratings of C to A+. That's basically what you're advocating for.
I think everyone would like to see the team run a 3 guard, 2 forward lineup out there. Obviously Fish doesn't think they're ready for that. He had never run a 4 guard lineup before last year, so there's no reason to think *he* prefers 4 guards. I think it's substantially more likely that Fish thinks having 2 bigs on the court limits the offense the team gets going toward the basket more than it helps with rebounding.
With the composition of the team, the best lineup is 4 guards right now. That may or may not be the case in the future. I get a kick out of people thinking SDSU recruiting needs to change etc. to find bigs when just 2 years ago SDSU had one of the best frontcourts in the nation. Not every team is the same and certainly not everything can be boiled down in a fashion similar to one would do with WIS.
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Post by 1611Luginbill on Jan 23, 2013 16:27:44 GMT -8
Bottom line, it's gonna come down to Fisher finding a way for the guys to score more points against the opponent's lineup.
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Post by csfoster on Jan 23, 2013 17:33:37 GMT -8
Hoping to see James Johnson and Skyler play much more tonight.
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Post by Section T(urn Up) on Jan 23, 2013 17:49:17 GMT -8
Hoping to see James Johnson and Skyler play much more tonight. Why are you hoping to see more James Johnson? Why does everybody keep saying this? What have you seen in his 15 minutes of playing time that makes you think you know better than Fish who should be playing? I understand we haven't seen much of him so you could just as easily ask me what I've seen that means he shouldn't be on the court more--the difference is that by shifting the burden of proof like that you're disagreeing with Fisher--who has seen him play a lot. I've never seen someone's ability so touted with so little evidence to go on. Johnson *looks* like an amazing player. He just hasn't done anything yet to show Fisher he belongs on the court.
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Post by sdsustoner on Jan 23, 2013 18:00:34 GMT -8
We can write about the line-up changes, coaching issues, players issues, rebounding, poor offensive and defensive execution, three point shooting woes until we can write no more. Until the Coach and Players stop their SELFISH play and play together as a team, this trend will continue! And, let me be honest here. This trend did not start this season. This started last season. You see, a lot of you may or may not have noticed this last season because the Aztecs were winning games! I noticed it and it was frustrating to watch! When a team wins games these type of issues are not as glaring, but it was there. This season, team has struggled in games they won and looked horribly bad when they lose. These type of issues "magnify" when team is losing. For example, you did not see Aztecs players "mouthing off at the refs, other team's bench or their coach. Fast forward to this season, Aztecs attitude and behavior is poor! Last season Aztecs played decent defense, this season, defense has been inconsistent. I could go on and on, but the bottomline is, when players are more concerned about how many minutes am I going to play? how may shots am I going to get? how many points am I going to score? This is the type of play you will see. Sure, Aztecs may win games, but the uderlying current of selfishness is still there! How many Aztec players are concerned about rebounding? passing the ball? getting an assist? taking a charge? playing good sound defense? winning as a team? Like I tell my kid, whatever is in a player's DNA, that's the way said player is going to play! And, last but not least, as a coach, I would be highly concerned about my team when my PG's are not leading the team in assists! No coach in America will accept this type of play from his PG's! Fisher is a player's coach who gives his players the freedom to play the game, and presently, the Aztecs players are ABUSING the privilege! I'll go with the player's dad here. This season really sucks. My Aztecs are playing like my Lakers.
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