Be sure to check out this sports column in the Eagle today. Well-researched and cohesively written, and I think the message is one that Lord Baltimore will find particularly satisfying!
We'll be back later with PL Check-In.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
I did not write this article for the Eagle ! Read it NJuan and those of you who chose not to drink the Kool-Aid from the "Jonestown" at Bender. This JJ does not get it sometimes. He has improved in many ways from his early yrs here at AU. Let's hope he can change things up for the last 4 games.
ReplyDeleteI personally do not want to see the same game plan we have seen in the last 3 losses. Let's see how JJ adapts against Army. What i also do not understand is how we have no sharp shooters at guard. Is Mike Bersch the answer ? i have no clue since i have not seen him play. I can tell you that in the non PL season i felt that Jolivette was a better offensive player than Munoz. Obviously Jones wants to win too, and if he felt Jolivette could help the team win he would, but now we see that Luptak is now a Junior and cannot step in to contribute. Perhaps i would have seen that if he had some minutes in the previous two seasons. I would rather lose with Jolivette and all his failings than with Luptak. At least Jolivette has a bigger upside. This team is losing because of lack of strong interior defense and decemt scoring from the backcourt. Until that changes this team will finish in the bottom of the League.
This season Jonestown gets a pass. Next season they do not.
Agreed... Jolivette must have done something serious for JJ to bench him and not play him at all. This kid is a freshmen and I thought he played pretty good in non PL games and I think JJ should play this kid in front of Luptak as his upside is greater. If JJ does not play him anymore I think it is obvious that JJ does not want him around. Would hate to lose a kid with his talent. Inside toughness has been a big problem for us. Our rebounding is terrible, our scoring in the paint is terrible, and our overall toughness is terrible. Hopefully Lumpkins will get tougher in the offseason and Riley puts on a few more pounds to control the paint.
ReplyDeleteInside scoring is not the problem. Vlad shoots over 50% and gets a ton of FT attempts. Lump leads PL in FG % and also shoots his share of FT. Outside shooting and getting scoring from other guys consistently is problem. Interior defense is an issue but even some of that is created by dribble penetration from other teams. Entire team defense needs to get better and I think Brewer and Hinkle will help in that area. Our rebounding is also in top 3 in PL although offensive rebounding is not. Our defense needs to create some turnovers and get some steals. That leads to easy baskets which we never get. I think AU is almost dead last in nation in steals and causing turnovers. Tough way to play, especially if you don't shoot the 3 very well. A good finish to this year would help players confidence and give them something to build on.
ReplyDeleteWe are in fact dead last in the nation in steals.
ReplyDeleteOut of 334 D-1 Teams:
ReplyDelete#225 in Turnovers per game
#295 in Scoring Offense
#334 in Steals
Though in other news, Vlad in ranked 25th in all of Men's D-1 Basketball in PPG.
I thought there were 337 D1 teams?
ReplyDeleteThere are actually 347, but 13 are still in the 4-year process of reclassifying to D1. If you count all of them, then AU is #347 in steals.
ReplyDeletehere are some quotes from this mornings Phila. Inquirer from the St.Joe coach Phil Martelli- whose team is 9-16 and in 13th place in the A-10. Martelli's teams are usually at the top of the A-10, and this is a rare down season for his Hawks.
ReplyDelete"I leave here hurting for my players. we went 11 1/2 minutes in the first half without scoring. That's hard to do. That's on me. We need more skill timeand creative offensive thinking. We have to get some thrust to the basket." .... "Where i hurt, where i failed them, is that I'd like to say we're moving forward. Our defense was better and we're rebounding better. But now our offense is struggling. It's on me, not on them."
No further comment from this long time AU basketball watcher.
Oh, great. We're now looking to The Eagle to provide cogent basketball analysis. Actually, this is a good thing, as it shows the quality of the criticism of JJ.
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked this line: "the program has looked like a shadow of its former self ever since." Um, dude, that was LAST SEASON. Not five years ago. Not 10. Last. Season. I will not go ad hominem, BB, but you guys are really incredible. To me, it's just really sad that you're so impatient you cannot get through one bad season before you start killing the guy that got us to the NCAAs for the first time ever. And then, got us there again. And had us up 17 on a team that went to the Final Four.
If I recall correctly, someone even said they were killing him last year, but just didn't have the AUH forum to express so publicly. (You remember last year, when we went 13-1 in the PL and 24-8. Apparently, not good enough. Amazing.)
I will say it again: criticizing JJ is perfectly okay, as long as it's based on reality. You want JJ criticism from me? Okay.
He is not great with young players. What I mean by that is not that he is too hard on them or "punishes" them, but that he holds them to the same standards he would upperclassmen. Maybe that's not realistic. Perhaps he should tear some pages out of the playbook and simplify things more. I would argue that it's good he holds them to account, because that's how they get better (I would think LB would be on board with this, as he can't seem to think of a single AU kid who has ever improved in the decade JJ has been here). But let's just leave it there. He's not great with young players.
This season, we have not been ready to play at the start of too many halves. That's coaching. I agree. JJ's at fault there. Whether they're too tight or whatever, they've had too many lapses.
Since none of us (I assume none of us, unless there are some coaches/players following the blog) are in practice every day, we don't know who's improving, who's regressing and who's treading water. If Jolivette is better than he showed in December--and, again, I don't want to kill an 18-year-old who's trying to adjust to college life, but he was not very good most of the time--than get him out there. But if JJ, or any coach, plays a kid that hasn't earned more time, that destroys a team. I really don't think Jeff is in the business of destroying his team.
Now, is it at all possible to just accept the fact that with non-Vlad upperclassmen who don't contribute much, and kids who are just getting their feet wet, we're a poor team this season, and we aren't going to win the PL, and that it's okay? I understand frustration, but believe me: if you're under 35, you simply don't know what you're talking about when it comes to AU and bad basketball and bad coaching. You do not. You can kill JJ all you want, but he's the best coach we've had here since Gary Williams, and if some of the older folks who may read this want to chime in one way or another, please do. I'm very comfortable arguing my position.
Look, it's all relative, but North Carolina may not make the NCAA tournament this year. I'm sure there's a Lord Chapel Hill down there advocating that Roy Williams be fired.
NJJ, eassssy fella, easy. Let me throw a couple of things out here.
ReplyDelete1. I posted this article because it pertained to AU basketball, not necessarily because I agree with it 100%.
2. I said that it was well-researched and cohesively written, both of those things, I think are true.
3. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the reason I don't criticize Jeff Jones and his staff (which is a criticism Lord Baltimore leveled against me, and is a legitimate criticism) is because I don't have a scholarly knowledge of basketball and so I implicitly trust JJ and his staff to make the best decisions. I assume they're making the best decisions, and so I also assume that the players are not playing well when things go wrong. I have a deep trust in Jeff Jones because in the time I have watched AU basketball he has done a phenomenal job. That, combined with my incomplete knowledge, makes it difficult for me to have anything but a tenuous platform to stand on for JJ criticism.
4. In light of 1-3, I'd encourage you to reconsider your desire to put something out here ad hominem. Everything I put out here isn't something I 100% agree with. I'm putting out resources about AU basketball, which is the only thing I promised to do with this blog. I never promised expert (or even cohesive) analysis, just a place for people to discuss AU basketball, no matter what their beliefs or feelings about it; that's what I think that I have done, and that's what I will continue to do. I will never say I think I'm absolutely right. I'm a fan with a blog and a passion, and I'm glad you're all here to share that with me.
Njjones- no one is being as over sensitive as you are. no one is calling for the coach to be fired. What we are noting is that this coach has short comings that need improvement. As you noted his handling of his 1st year players is a major issue. Perhaps since he is a coach's son, he thinks every kid is as prepared as he was when he goes to college. I am over 35 and the only lousy coaches i remember are Chris Knoche and Art Perry. do you remember how in Jones first 3-4 yrs. how whenever a kid made a turnover he yanked him- as if he had a deep UVa type bench ? It was laughable. finally he has adjusted to PL quality players. Jeff jones is not the second coming of Roy Williams or Rick Pitino. He is lucky and appreciative of the opportunity afforded him at AU to resurrect his career. He by far has the best university in the PL to sell to potential recruits. If he does not take advantage of it to build a continuous winning program- then its his fault and not his players. Let's see him take a few pages from Martelli's book and take responsibility for a lousy season. let him interview with the Eagle reporter and refute his opinions. That would be interesting for all of us as devoted followers of this program.
ReplyDeleteLB, when you refer to supporters of JJ as being in "Jonestown" and you speak of said supporters "drinking the Kool Aid"--and, if you're over 35, you know exactly what Jonestown and Kool Aid refer to--that's crossing a certain line in and of itself, wouldn't you say?
ReplyDeleteYour words, not mine: "This year, Jonestown gets a pass. Next season they do not." I'm not sure what that means, but a reasoned guess is that you'd be looking for Jones to be dismissed after next season if we have another bad year. (If you didn't mean that, what did you mean? Tar and feathering? The stockade? What?)
No, he's not Pitino or Roy Williams--and for the thousandth time, I'm not saying you can't criticize him. All I'm asking for is some perspective. When people acknowledge they were ripping him last season, in the midst of the most successful season in school history, I have a problem with that. If we were coming off four straight 7-18 seasons, you wouldn't hear a peep out of me. But we're not. We're coming off our two best seasons ever. Without our top seven players. But let's not re-litigate this.
BB: I was not taking you to task for printing the column. Not at all. You shouldn't have taken it that way and if you did, I apologize. I was responding to those who used the column to advance their continuing criticism of Jones, as if all criticism of JJ has merit simply because it is criticism of JJ.
The young man who wrote the article is entitled to his opinion, but you can't "design a system to get more layups and less threes," unless you fully commit to something like the Princeton offense, and that's not a system that many young kids want to play these days. Your players, and your opponents, dictate how you play. Nor can you ask a player who has a wide-open shot to pass it up. We don't have good ballhandlers who can penetrate and get to the basket, nor do we force many turnovers, as one of the anonymi pointed out. We can only play halfcourt basketball, and if Vlad and Lump are getting doubled inside, the only smart play is to go back outside and take the open three. That Hendra, Hill, et.al. are missing them doesn't mean it was the wrong strategy. Sometimes, you just miss.
More importantly, all of us--LB, me, everyone who is a regular here--appreciate what you've done, BB, in giving AU fans, and we all are AU fans, a forum to cheer and argue and express our shared love for the program. No one is "smarter" than anyone else here; we all, myself included, think we know more about the game than we actually do. I know I appreciate it, and take it as a sign of how the program is growing that such a site can exist at all.
It seems there is more thinking in this forum about how to right the AU ship than there is amoung the coaching staff who seem to be throwing the same line-ups and schemes out there. Bersch played well, was a good shooter from three but for whatever reason is anchored to the bench despite several teams packing the middle and daring AU to shoot threes while AU is shooting a sterling 21 for 69 from three over the past 3 games. Matt Wilson, Joe Hill, Dan Fisher, Riley, Simon and Luptak provide almost no offense and still are trotted out there and for the most part play only mediocre defense while chewing upo a ton of minutes. Luptak has scored 5 points over the last three games, TOTAL NOT AVERAGE. I am not sure the right way to bring young players along is to keep them on the bench (unless it is to teach them how to curse). The other PL teams freshmen are getting valuable experience and have grown over the season where they are very credible players. Maybe Bersch and Blake could be doing the same. It appears we have seen the last of both for the season, it would be a shame if they transfer as both were highly recruited and had several offers within the PL and outside it.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to commend the Eagle on a gutsy, critical article.
ReplyDeleteHere is my patented step-by-step analysis of this season.
1) Season starts with a team that excels at one thing: turnovers. And not just run-of-the-mill TOs, but cringe-inducing, fast-break-killing, transition-into-layup TOs. Lots of them. All guards trying to play beyond their abilities. Lump's all around play the only bright spot with an occassional boost from Grafft.
2) JJ installs offense of rigid ball and player movement to cut down on TOs.
3) some players cannot adjust their play, are relegated to the bench. Other players, who are otherwise not as gifted see more time.
4) Vlad shows up and we get our signature win of the season on the road to Depaul
5) Coaching staff comes up with endless screens, pick and rolls, to get Hendra and Vlad shots. We see more of these in a handful of games than we have in ten years. Lump gets the occassional look. Everyone else still handcuffed.
6) Team is rolling along fairly nicely. Players are still very limited, though. And foul trouble for Vlad means we can't pull off anymore upsets.
7) Two surprise travelling calls against Hendra vs. Holy Cross. We rarely see Hendra drive to the basket from then on.
8) PL teams adjust to playing Vlad. They ignore our perimeter game, which is down to Hendra and Vlad taking 3s. Everyone else missing. All ball movement is lateral. Not enough firepower to win games.
9) Everyone is afraid to make a move, the screens stop working because they simply ignore us from the outside.
Personally, I am not so interested at this point in whether we win or lose the games. I want to see us play better. My guess is that in a weak PL year, that should be good enough to challenge in the tournament.
I give the coaching staff credit for making some nice adjustments in a difficult situation.
But I have never liked the whole 'doghouse' thing. IMO, it limited the development of Hendra and Lumpkins their freshman years. It limited Nichols, it caused that pretty good 6-9 guy from Florida, Mike Technow, to transfer.
We should allow our guards, Blake and Danny more freedom to create off the dribble and force the big guys to help out and find better shots for our centers and forwards. We saw some of it at the beginning of the season and we stopped. I understand that this style of play could create more turnovers but over time we can improve if we try and stick with it. As a team, our stats has not improved much from the beginning of the season. But looking at previous teams, ie. mercer's freshmen and sophomore season, we did not encourage him to create plays off the dribble. If JJ is not willing to utilize the strength of his players he should recruit players to fit his style of coaching. It will be very interesting to see how our coaching staff will adjust next season with the addition of the more athletic players. I have watched many years of AU basketball and for those of you who think the style of play will change you are kidding yourself. I wonder how many points we get from fastbreak and dribble penetration.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'd like to point out is that once you get outside the power conferences and get into the mid-majors (which for the sake of definition I'm defining as everybody not in a power conference), a lot of programs tend to follow a path of competing for two years and developing for two years. Think about some of the better known mid-majors from the past ten years that simply aren't as good as they once were: Creighton, Southern Illinois, George Mason, St. Joe's, Western Kentucky, Penn, Princeton, Winthrop, even Bucknell. All of them were very successful not too long ago before falling off (though GMU is right there in the CAA this year there was a dropoff after their Final Four run). Unless you're Gonzaga (and maybe Butler), it's incredibly hard to sustain success at the mid-major level.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm only a junior at AU, and AU basketball was not remotely close to being on my radar before I came here, but from what I understand we've been competitive since joining in the PL, always finishing at least 4th and making the PL final a few times before finally winning in 2008. But if this is really the first year we're truly struggling in the PL, is anyone really going to complain? As long as we improve next year (which still would mean compete 3 years develop 1) it's not all that bad.
It can't be all sunshine and rainbows.
Let me also add one other point. Would you rather be 7-18 (4-6) and struggling when everyone expected you to struggle due to lack of experience, or have the same exact record when you were expected to win the league? Holy Cross was the 2nd best team in the PL last year and made the PL final. They lost 2 seniors I believe and returned basically the same core as last year and are struggling just as much as we are. This is their time to compete and they simply suck this year. Now I know part of it is adjusting to a new coach, but I think that would be much more frustrating if AU was expected to win this year and struggled as much as they have.
ReplyDeleteAll - I've been watching AU basketball for 30 years. We've had some great seasons (almost cracked the top 25 when Gary Williams was here) and some disasters, with a lot of time in between trying to find ourselves. This is a great forum to get passionate about AU hoops. As far as I can tell, Jones runs a clean program, his players graduate, and more often than not the team is in the hunt for the league championship. Two NCAA appearances should be reason enough to give Jones a lot of slack - I'd criticize him more if the University gave him the tools to recruit (think better facilities for starters) and the team was irrelevant for a number of years in a row. Until then, we hired the right guy - he needed us and we needed him - and I'm very happy with the results. Class of '83
ReplyDeleteLord Baltimore, are you the same guy sitting behind Kerwin with the former AU student gov't kid demanding that JJ sub in "the guys who never play" all the time? You sound like him.
ReplyDelete