Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Random Thoughts from Georgetown-Marquette

(Small sample size caveat: This is the second time I have watched a Georgetown game this season)

Let me run through the last minute of regulation, with Georgetown up by four with the ball:

· First, Georgetown ran the shot clock to less than three seconds left and Mikael Hopkins threw up a wild shot. The referees whistled for a shot clock violation while the shot actually hit the rim and the ball still loose on the ground. After realizing that there was no shot clock violation, the referees decided to call it a jump ball, and the possession arrow, the godsend of college basketball, rewarded Georgetown with the ball up four with a little less than 30 seconds on the clock. Thanks ref!

· Reggie Cameron was fouled on the next inbound. He missed the front end of an one-and-one as John Caprio was called for an over-the-back foul going for the offensive rebound. I do not want to belabor on what a terrible foul it was with the team ahead and the opponent in the bonus. Good job Caprio!

· After two made free throws by Marquette to cut the lead to two. Markel Starks was trapped on the sideline after the inbound. It appeared to be dangerously close to a held ball as the referee called a foul on Marquette. I wonder what the call would have been had the referee not been expecting a foul.

· Starks hit both free throws. One of Marquette’s big men made an open mid-range jumper near the free throw line. Starks was fouled again and made only one of two this time. Marquette is down by three with about 15 seconds on the clock.

· I have to question JT3’s decision to stick with the 2-3 zone for this possession. An open 3 was the one thing that you couldn’t allow in this situation. I would not go so far as to suggest fouling intentionally to avoid the three as there was still a lot of time left. However, man-on-man defense is probably the best way to prevent an open three.

· Marquette ran some actions on the right side of the court. Starks, defending the top left, helped. However, as he recovered, he did not see the pass and ran past his man and the ball to close out on an opponent who does not have the ball in the left corner. By the time Caprio, defending the left corner, realized Starks’s mistake, his close out was already way too late.

· With six seconds left, Starks dribbled the length of the court and had a pretty clean look at the hoop. The shot actually caught rim, but it was not meant to be.

General Thoughts:

· Defensively, the majority of the shots at the rim were challenged. Mikael Hopkins’s length is really a threat on defense. The only constant open shots the 2-3 zone yielded was the mid-range jumper at the top of the key for the Marquette big men. And they could hit those shots. As the game progressed, this threat forced the Georgetown center in the middle of the zone to close out and opened up the baseline for the other big man lurking or a cutter.

· One last thing on defense, stop jumping so much!

· Overall, the shot quality of Marquette was not good. I was largely satisfied by the Georgetown defense.

· The problems are much direr on offense. There was no offensive threat on the team other than Starks and D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera. There was not a single player other than Reggie Cameron and the aforementioned two who were willing to take a shot outside of the paint. No one is even within five feet of Hopkins, Lubick or Caprio when they were hanging on the perimeter or even when they had the ball. Why does Hopkins spend so much time camping in the corner? His defender was literally standing right beside the paint and he was not cutting at all.

· A typical Georgetown possession against Marquette went through 25 seconds of aimless actions and passing the ball around the perimeter. The last ten seconds of the shot clock were given to Starks or Smith-Rivera to take their defenders off the dribble. Why don’t they just get the ball to run isolations from the start of the possession? At least they get the chance to kick the ball out if they are completely shut off, instead of throwing up a shot against the shot clock.

· There are just no better options than isolations for Starks or Smith-Rivera. This is the situation Georgetown has to deal with, without any big man who can roll, pop, post up, or has any semblance of range. On one instance, Nate Lubick caught the ball wide open on the left baseline 17 feet from the basket. Instead of taking the jumper or driving all the way to the rim, he took one dribble, saw a defender running at him, and passed the ball back out.

· Add to that the fact that John Caprio plays any minute as a small forward while having no range, no ball-handling skills, or being any sort of a lock-down defender. I seriously don’t understand why he is on the court. The spacing on offense, even with Cameron in, is terrible. Add in one more total offensive non-threat and Starks and Smith-Rivera are essentially playing two on five.

· I don’t know if there are any solutions to Georgetown’s offensive problems. Starks and Smith-Rivera made a ridiculous number of tough shots to keep Georgetown in this game. Their shooting percentages would not hold up if they continue taking the same kind of shots. Without Joshua Smith, my only suggestion would be to play Reggie Cameron more and John Caprio a lot less. Most likely, the roster just has to rely on Smith-Rivera and Starks to continue making difficult shots to carry the offense and to hope that the defense is stout enough to hold down the opponent.

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