Big Sage said:Pump the brakes! Back away from the ledge! Conference starts tonight. Lets see what happens on this road trip.
Good point wait/see. PAC12 v BigSky competitiveness? Wait a minute, Ford v Ferrari?Big Sage said:Pump the brakes! Back away from the ledge! Conference starts tonight. Lets see what happens on this road trip.
GrizWhiz said:astutegriz said:I support Travis even through this low. I'm not jumping ship. I appreciate the winning during his career. I appreciate his discipline, sitting someone when they need it. I appreciate his recruiting and emphasis on defense. I appreciate the team is VERY young and experience means a lot. I appreciate offense and consistency come later, particularly with youth. I could go on. I acknowledge things are not perfect, but choose to appreciate the many great things we have.
It feels lonely here. Anyone with me?
:thumb:
Buttegrizzle said:Travis is a good coach and we are lucky to have him. There are other factors here, including a screwed up recruiting year. We have a very young team. Yes, he needs a quality big to round out this roster, but how does he out recruit the P5 for those guys? And yes they need to loosen up on offense.
GrizBall said:I may be in the minority, but I don't think half court offense is our biggest issue. Points per half-court possession are actually pretty good and we have one of the lowest turnover rates in the country. Yes, the half-court offense could be better, but I think the biggest issue is that we don't supplement our half-court offense with points from other sources. We are literally last in the country in offensive rebound percentage and last in the BSC in points per game from offensive rebounds. Is this due to placing a high priority on transition defense? I don't know. We are also near the bottom in the country and 10/11 in the BSC in transition points per game. In other words, we pretty much grind for every point we get.
So unless you have a DUDE or a pair of DUDES (which I don't think we have this year) and with no ability to get an easy basket here or there, droughts are going to be inevitable.
AZGrizFan said:Buttegrizzle said:Travis is a good coach and we are lucky to have him. There are other factors here, including a screwed up recruiting year. We have a very young team. Yes, he needs a quality big to round out this roster, but how does he out recruit the P5 for those guys? And yes they need to loosen up on offense.
How do you figure we have a young team?
Owens - Junior
Martin - Junior
Vasquez - Junior
Parker - Senior
Beasley - Sophomore
Bannan - Sophomore
Whitney - Sophomore
Anderson - Senior
Blakeney - senior
Hollinger - Junior
That, to me, does NOT look like a “young” team. 3 seniors, 4 juniors and 3 sophmores.
Sport said:I think tomorrow’s night game against SacSt will tell a lot about the character of this team and whether or not Travis has lost this team. My expectation is they will win and win comfortably. I do not know what Sac’s record is so I’m going out on a limb here but Travis, the coaching staff and more importantly the team are embarrassed by their performance against Oregon. That’s the short term issue.
The bigger problem Travis and the staff face is the total lack of any inside game. Not just offensively but rebounding in particular. Just finished watching Ohio St upset Duke. Not that we’re in a class with either of these teams but it’s plan to see the offense starts on the defensive end. If your continually bringing the ball up the court and the defense is set you’ve forced yourself into running a set offense that the other team for the most part is prepared for. Watching today’s game (Duke/Ohio St.) it’s balls to the wall. If you can into transition before the defense is set and go to the basket most likely the offense will get the call. There’s no magic here, we’re 10 deep with our bench. If we push the ball and go the rim the other team is going to run out of gas and get into foul trouble but with the depth we have we can run all day.
This just my observation and I may be all wet but we’re seeing now just isn’t working.
GrizLA said:Sport said:I think tomorrow’s night game against SacSt will tell a lot about the character of this team and whether or not Travis has lost this team. My expectation is they will win and win comfortably. I do not know what Sac’s record is so I’m going out on a limb here but Travis, the coaching staff and more importantly the team are embarrassed by their performance against Oregon. That’s the short term issue.
The bigger problem Travis and the staff face is the total lack of any inside game. Not just offensively but rebounding in particular. Just finished watching Ohio St upset Duke. Not that we’re in a class with either of these teams but it’s plan to see the offense starts on the defensive end. If your continually bringing the ball up the court and the defense is set you’ve forced yourself into running a set offense that the other team for the most part is prepared for. Watching today’s game (Duke/Ohio St.) it’s balls to the wall. If you can into transition before the defense is set and go to the basket most likely the offense will get the call. There’s no magic here, we’re 10 deep with our bench. If we push the ball and go the rim the other team is going to run out of gas and get into foul trouble but with the depth we have we can run all day.
This just my observation and I may be all wet but we’re seeing now just isn’t working.
Sacramento State will be playing hard, if only to prove that the Coach, who had to resign due to illness, did a good job. Katz will be missed. He was a great coach for a school, that most times, just doesn't pay any attention.
Think there's a lot to this post and the prior one regarding offensive boards and preventing opponent transition. When you have 4 guys around the 3 point line and not even the weak side corner guy goes after O boards you won't get many. If they looked to push it after a D rebound even once in a while they might get some easier looks in transition but they just don't . Unfortunately Martin looks like the only guy that can take anyone off the dribble in the half court and Blakeney has a bad shoulder so I wouldn't count on much inside. Looked like any contact caused him a lot of pain last Friday. I'm in the choir wishing for an offensive revamp as watching so many possessions end with long jumpers gets old.Sport said:I think tomorrow’s night game against SacSt will tell a lot about the character of this team and whether or not Travis has lost this team. My expectation is they will win and win comfortably. I do not know what Sac’s record is so I’m going out on a limb here but Travis, the coaching staff and more importantly the team are embarrassed by their performance against Oregon. That’s the short term issue.
The bigger problem Travis and the staff face is the total lack of any inside game. Not just offensively but rebounding in particular. Just finished watching Ohio St upset Duke. Not that we’re in a class with either of these teams but it’s plan to see the offense starts on the defensive end. If your continually bringing the ball up the court and the defense is set you’ve forced yourself into running a set offense that the other team for the most part is prepared for. Watching today’s game (Duke/Ohio St.) it’s balls to the wall. If you can into transition before the defense is set and go to the basket most likely the offense will get the call. There’s no magic here, we’re 10 deep with our bench. If we push the ball and go the rim the other team is going to run out of gas and get into foul trouble but with the depth we have we can run all day.
This just my observation and I may be all wet but we’re seeing now just isn’t working.
citay said:I don't have to tell you, last night was a disaster. A humiliation. For a school with a proud basketball tradition--of which you are a big part--this was a major major embarrassment.
I watched the game on the Pac-12 network, where your mentor, Mike Montgomery, did the color analysis. Monty is a huge fan of yours, as you know. He urged Cal to hire you as their head coach when he retired. If there is anybody who wants to see you succeed more than I do, it is Mike Montgomery.
And yet half way through the second half last night he delivered a devastating one-liner that's still ricocheting through my brain: "I cannot diagram the Montana offense."
You should take note of that statement, not only because it comes from Mike Montgomery, but because it echoes many of the complaints on this board about our offense: Where's the up-tempo offense Travis promised? Why do we keep enduring these long scoring droughts? Why in the three-point era do we shoot fewer three's than almost any other team in the country? Where is our low-post offense? Where is the movement off the ball? Why is it that in a game against Oregon our leading scorer doesn't get his first field goal until the second half?
Yes, I resemble those comments!
So let me give you some advice from my business-school training: Delegate! Delegate! Delegate!
When you first took over this program, you did just that. In a remarkable display of wisdom and maturity for a rookie head coach, you went out and hired a guy who had been a head coach at three different schools, a guy who by accomplishment was probably at least as deserving as you to be the head coach at Montana: Ken Bone.
Bone came to this program with a reputation as one of the most efficient offensive coaches in the country. (Duly noted, too, that he coached Klay Thompson at Washington State.) He left after two years and is now an assistant coach at Pepperdine.
So my advice to you: Go out and find another Ken Bone. A guy who can essentially be the offensive coordinator. A guy who can infuse this program with what it so acutely now lacks: An offensive identity.
And if you don't want to listen to some crankbutt from a fan board, then take it from a guy who called it out on the Pac-12 Network last night, a guy you respect, your mentor, Mike Montgomery.