triplec2195 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2026 11:21 pm
Wags wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:28 pm
Can they ever set a screen for Davis to free him up? He struggles because he always has to do it all by himself off the dribble. You have the top scorer in the conference. Maybe free him up once in a while? Even away from the ball, if nothing else?
I was saying this as I watched Davis frustrated as hell trying to go around two defenders and every team employs the same D KNOWING THAT WE HAVE bigs that suck at setting screens and picks. Sunday tries to compensate for his bad picks and gets called for a moving pick like tonite. Cruz didn't have a good game but you have to feel bad for him with the help he's not getting. We should be able to get more open looks and easier basket on this every game "CRUZ DEFENSE". With two guys coming out on Cruz every time he touches the ball we need to have an offensive set that exploits this D. Let him pickup assists when he can't shoot the ball.
Move the ball and move people. They're often very stagnant and 1-on-1, often only passing when the 1-on-1 drive gets cuts off. They do move the ball a bit, it seems it's often out of that, rather than by design. And, moving people? Not so much. A lot of offense with guys just standing in the corners or on the wings waiting for a pass rather than moving without the ball and actually making the defense move and work.
We don't really see screens, we don't really see backdoor cuts and passes for backdoor layups, we don't see many possessions with 4, 5, 6 crisp, quick passes to find and open man for an open jumper or a layup, we don't see too much reversing the ball. A lot of it just seems to be dribble, dribble, dribble, try to find someone only when they can't dribble anymore, and other standing in place, waiting for a pass rather than others moving and making themselves more of an open target for a pass. I have to think Speedy learned all of that very well under Jay Wright, Larry Brown, Greg Popovich, even Mihalich, but he maybe places too much trust in guys like Davis and Edmead to almost always orchestrate and create rather than letting the ball swing around at a better pace, with everyone a little bit more involved. I get why to an extent. Davis will likely be the POY and Edmead will likely be the ROY. And for all I just said, Davis is still 1st in scoring and 3rd in assists while Edmead is still 9th in scoring and 4th in assists in the CAA.
However, if we saw more of what I said above, I think they could make it a lot easier on Davis and be more dangerous overall, offensively. But after 31 games, heading into a tournament that makes or breaks the season, they're not going to try new wrinkles now. Bottom line is it will still come down to their D (continuing to hold teams under 70 points as they have 19 times this year, while losing only once in that case) and rebounding anyway.