Post UVa Random Basketball Thoughts

06-07 Basketball General Sidney Lowe60

We shared some thoughts in an updated game entry below, but I wanted to chime in with some more specific comments.

Reactive vs System?

After watching Sidney coach I have been very impressed with both his preparation and in game adjustments. During the games, he has made good use of his timeouts, changed defenses effectively and has his team playing hard without fouling (a must for a team with a short bench). His pre game acumen has been displayed by detecting weaknesses in the other team he can use to his advantage. The Michigan game is a great example of this. When scouting the game, Lowe noticed that McCauley had a speed advantage against the Michigan big men. He pulled Big Ben away from the basket, instructed him to drive and McCauley responded by leading the team with 19 points to go with his 8 rebounds.

What has been a refreshing change is the flexibility I see from the NC State bench. In the recent past NCSU has had a “run the system and it will work” mentality that has been frustrating albeit somewhat effective. We tried to force other teams to play how we wanted them to play. And when it worked it worked well. When our shots were falling and we were running the Princeton offense effectively we were a tough team to beat. We forced other teams to play defense for long periods of time and kept them from getting easy baskets. The problems came when we did not shoot well or for some reason the offense was not generating good shots. We did not react well when the plan was not working.

What I see from Lowe is a coach that reacts to game situations almost before they are happening. He calls timeouts before the other team makes a run. He changes defense to disrupt the other team’s chemistry and flow. He runs plays to take advantage of a “hot” player. He reacts to game situations instead of relying on a system that will not work universally.

It is good (even desirable) to have an over-riding offensive philosophy for your team. But you must realize when you need to look at option B.

Gavin Grant

I have seen many people getting down on Grant and am mystified by it.
Grant has been forced to play the toughest position on the court with little to no preparation. Has he been perfect? No. But he has performed very well against Michigan and against the best PG in the ACC (Sean Singletary). This can only make us better when Atsur returns. Also, I think you will be seeing Grant’s name being mentioned on all ACC rosters before the year is over.

End of Game situations

How refreshing is it to see an actual end of game play set up? Hit or miss all you can ask is to get an open look. This is so much better than the “run the offense” end game philosophy we have had in the recent past.

Player improvement

Fells, Costner, McCauley and Nieman have been playing very well despite a lack of playing time last year. This makes you wonder if the players have developed that much or if they should have played more last year. Either way it is great to see the poise and effort they displayed on Sunday.

About Rick

1992 and 2002 graduate from NCSU. Born and raised an NCSU fan. I remember the good ol' days and they weren't in the last 20 years.

06-07 Basketball General Sidney Lowe

60 Responses to Post UVa Random Basketball Thoughts

  1. VaWolf82 12/04/2006 at 11:14 AM #

    Having spent many nights watching Sidney play in Reynolds, I was not at all concerned about his coaching ability. I am happy to see that my conclusions based on info from 25 years ago have proven accurate.

    I don’t know how anyone could be displeased with any of State’s players. There will be more games like Sunday’s….and probably some that are alot worse…but the team is looking better than I had dare hoped for.

  2. Mr O 12/04/2006 at 11:16 AM #

    Costner was hurt last year. So he definitely couldn’t have played more.

    Fells was playing behind Sr. Cameron Bennerman and Fells isn’t even close to the player that Cameron was last year. Fells can’t dribble though he is definitely talented will keep improving.

    McCauley was playing behind a 5th senior, an NBA draft pick and another potential NBA draft pick even though he did play last year.

    There were no minutes for Nieman to get because we were so deep last year.

  3. PapaJohn 12/04/2006 at 11:16 AM #

    Couldn’t agree more, well said.
    I think this week will tell us a lot about the team and the upcoming season. They all played a lot of minutes Sunday, and then after two days’ practice they take on WVU. Let’s see how they play with less rest.
    I heard Sid say in a post-game conf that DeGand will be available 12/21, so we’ll see him at Cincy. Once again we have back-to-back (Alabama / Cincy) major college opponents that should be a challenge. I’m sure by then his fresh legs will be most welcome.
    I expect to see us at 10 wins going into the BC game, any more than that would be fantastic!
    Go Pack!!

  4. DRW 12/04/2006 at 11:16 AM #

    Watching the game on Sunday, I thought I saw us playing a box and 1, with Fells shadowing Reynolds. Was I right? If so, that was awesome. Not to be a very dead horse, but Herb would have never done that. Jimmy V did that quite a bit when he was here. Guess Lowe learned some things from his mentor.

  5. Mr O 12/04/2006 at 11:17 AM #

    Don’t think there were any box and 1s yesterday. Mostly man defense all day that I noticed.

  6. ktpritch 12/04/2006 at 11:18 AM #

    On Grant – he even said as much in a pre-game interview stating that it was tougher for him to get his points as he was accustomed to starting in the post or the wing and making his move from there. Playing the point naturally puts him out of his comfort zone and forces him to score via other means/positions where he may not have as much of an advantage.

    I have mentioned this in another post, but his down court vision is excellent!

  7. Rick 12/04/2006 at 11:18 AM #

    I do not remember seeing a box and one. I nkow Lowe has said the era for junk defenses has come and gone so I am skeptical if one was used.

  8. Mr O 12/04/2006 at 11:20 AM #

    Rick: What has impressed me most is the effectiveness of our offense. I think it will be a lot more effective with Atsur running the point allowing Grant to play on the wing.

  9. Rick 12/04/2006 at 11:22 AM #

    “Fells was playing behind Sr. Cameron Bennerman and Fells isn’t even close to the player that Cameron was last year. Fells can’t dribble though he is definitely talented will keep improving.”

    I have always had a problem with this line of thinking. Why would you not get a freshman playing time even if he is not of the same caliber as the player in front of him?

    By playing him you do many things
    1) you prepare him for future games (even if it is not this year)
    2) you prepare for injuries
    3) you keep players happier
    4) you keep the main players rested and thus helping to avoid injuries
    5) you throw a different look at the other team

    It is a shortsighted philosophy that does nothing to prepare for future games.

  10. Rick 12/04/2006 at 11:26 AM #

    “Rick: What has impressed me most is the effectiveness of our offense. I think it will be a lot more effective with Atsur running the point allowing Grant to play on the wing.”

    I 100% agree.
    But having Grant be forced to run the point expands his skills, gives us a better back up to Atsur and gives us more confident ball handling at the end of games.
    I do not want to see a player ever get hurt but if they do I at least want to see it improve other players.

  11. Mr O 12/04/2006 at 11:26 AM #

    Cameron was our leading score last year. There just weren’t many minutes for Fells and that was mostly because Fells wasn’t ready for more minutes. We needed Cameron on the court as much as possible to win games.

  12. theTHRILL 12/04/2006 at 11:27 AM #

    “I heard Sid say in a post-game conf that DeGand will be available 12/21, so we’ll see him at Cincy.”

    Is this true?

  13. Mr O 12/04/2006 at 11:28 AM #

    Rick: It is good experience for Grant. Those might be the only two guys that can bring the ball up the court for us this year. Unfortunately, not having Atsur yesterday probably cost us a W. Every game is huge this year because we have little margin of error to make the NIT. I wish we could afford to be conservative with Atsur.

  14. Mr O 12/04/2006 at 11:29 AM #

    T Ferguson will be avaible. Degand would be a huge surprise.

  15. dj9686 12/04/2006 at 11:40 AM #

    Good Point! How many players did Herb sit on the bench during their first one or two seasons because they didn’t adjust quickly to his offense or the way he wanted them to play defense. He really wasted a couple years of development for Cam Bennerman, Scooter Sherrill and Cedrick Simmons just to name a few. Miss a dunk against VA and you don’t play for weeks. For some reason players didn’t improve a lot once Herb got them if they didn’t fit into square hole and couldn’t ‘chop wood’ with the exact stroke he preferred. I love El Sid’s coaching. You lucked out big time, Jed.

  16. Dan 12/04/2006 at 11:41 AM #

    The great thing about the offense is that it lends itself to being flexible. You can watch the high-low develop when the pick and roll breaks down and vice versa. All that without having to do a full reset. There are options at each point along the play. I think here is where I see the guys still learning. Especially Fells. Fells is still finding his place. What I like about Courtney is that he doesnt appear to be in a hurry and is letting it come to him. The kid has a sweet stroke though and as he gets a little more confidence, he is going to be scary good.

    To me this offense is doing what the “Princeton” was advertised to be and which it fell short in doing. We have positions, but they mean nothing if the matchups say Fells and Grant can post Singletary and Reynolds. This offense is all about putting guys in good matchups in a position to score. It just doesnt rely on the same trick every time to accomplish that.

    I echo Rick’s comments on Grant. He’s doing fine. In fact, a small part of me thinks we are better with Grant at PG than with Engin. He’s just so versatile. If we can scrap out some wins, this experience will make us a more dangerous team in February.

  17. tooyoungtoremember 12/04/2006 at 11:41 AM #

    “Don’t think there were any box and 1s yesterday. Mostly man defense all day that I noticed.”

    Yeah, mostly man-to-man. There were a few defensive sets in the first half where they played either a 1-2-2 or a 3-2 zone. UVA hit a big three against the zone and we promptly went back to man-to-man. One of the announcers mentioned the zone we were in and said it was affective in the win against Michigan. They were wrong though because it was a 2-3 zone in the Michigan game and a 3-2 against UVA.

  18. dj9686 12/04/2006 at 11:43 AM #

    Yeah, I believe Degand has to sit out until next year. It would be great if he and Ferguson both could play after exams but I don’t think that is the case.

  19. Lock 12/04/2006 at 11:46 AM #

    Well said. Well said indeed.

  20. McWufPacker06 12/04/2006 at 11:49 AM #

    I have a couple of roster questions and I don’t have time since I’m at work to go back and review the roster posts so I’ll drop it off here.

    1) T Fergusion will be available to play on the 20th-21st. Correct?

    2) F Degand as per gopack won’t be available till next year? 2007-2008.

    3)What are peoples opinions on B. Lewandowski? Do you think he will see any playing time this year as the season progresses and he shows improvement during practice. Or is he too much of a work in progress. I think any minutes he could provide would be helpfull in letting our big men get a rest and have stronger legs at the end of the game (AKA Costner’s final 3 in the UVA game).

    OK, so actually I didn’t have as many questions as I thought, I guess 1&3 are the only players that we have that could put in minutes this year.

  21. Redblogger 12/04/2006 at 11:50 AM #

    I saw what I thought was a box and 1.

  22. dj9686 12/04/2006 at 11:53 AM #

    Lewandowski has a knee injury. I saw him during a timeout in the Michigan game and he was walking with a pretty serious limp. Maybe we can have him deported instead of Gavin after this season. Sorry, that wasn’t funny.

  23. MatSci94 12/04/2006 at 11:54 AM #

    “3)What are peoples opinions on B. Lewandowski?”

    He had some type of knee injury earlier, but I don’t know how serious. I would be surprised if he doesn’t get some playing time once he is healthy.

  24. choppack1 12/04/2006 at 12:19 PM #

    “To me this offense is doing what the “Princeton” was advertised to be and which it fell short in doing. We have positions, but they mean nothing if the matchups say Fells and Grant can post Singletary and Reynolds. This offense is all about putting guys in good matchups in a position to score. It just doesnt rely on the same trick every time to accomplish that. ”

    OK – this just isn’t fair, whether it was Grundy, Hodge or even Grant, we used our guards plenty of times when there were mismatches – and same thing at 4 and 5 spots.

    The big difference, IMHO, is that rather than a plodding, methodical halfcourt set where the movement was non-existent or exclusively around the perimeter, we now see constant movement, and a much faster paced offense. The way Herb ran his PO here, often times, it was it’s own worst enemy, the “climax” – where the offense was supposed to score – often came too late or didn’t happen at all. With Sidney’s offense, the shot can be taken after any passes, and the offensive designs are very quick and concise when necessary – I never get the feeling we have to throw something up in the air.

    This is probably a direct result of Sid’s experience in the NBA where you have 24 seconds to shoot. With such a tight window, you always have to be looking to score on offense, as opposed to the PO, which appears to intend to lull the defense to sleep w/ seemingly meaningless passes. (Just think of the challenges you’d face in football running the ball if your “clock” for a set downs, as opposed to every down.)

  25. KChill 12/04/2006 at 12:30 PM #

    Towards the end of the game, we were DEFINITELY in the box and 1 at least twice on defense, with Fells guarding Reynolds.

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