This team is transforming

[Monroevillefan]

Early in the year this was a three man team with Young, Artis and Robinson. Robinson struggled for awhile but has made a comeback. Lately Young and Artis have struggled as teams have double teamed them.

But there has been the emergence of Luther, Jones and Johnson. For this team to improve it needs to be a five man team. Young and Artis need to take the double teams and move the ball to one of the other three.
And the three of them need to be aggressive and shoot or drive as the situation warrants. the time to defer to the older players has to come to a stop. If they do then the pressure will come off Artis and Young. Louisville was flummoxed in how to guard Luther. I think that for this team to be successful going forward they have to be balanced. Young and Artis cannot carry the total load.

One last comment Sheldon Jeter is a mystery to me. He is lost in the offense and he sometimes does his best JJ Moore imitation and disappears. He could be a huge help if Dixon can find a way to motivate him.

 

[TiredRam97]

I don't know if I agree with the Cam Johnson comment. I don't think he's emerged at all. I've been thoroughly unimpressed with him so far. He needs to put on some weight, become more consistent with his shot, and learn how to defend. I'm sure the injury threw a big monkey wrench into his development. This offseason will be key for him in determining if he can be a solid contributor to this program.

 

[iMissTheOldDays]

How has Cam emerged at all ..? And how has Jones emerged at all ..? He's the same player he was last year and Cam usually does nothing ...

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

I think Jones is doing a better job at the defensive end.

He's also more comfortable on the offensive end, and confident.

Cam, I agree..but Chris has developed and improved. Cam needs to grow into his body, with strength and improve his quickness, to be less one-dimensional.

 

[MoTownPanther]

Early in the year this was a three man team with Young, Artis and Robinson. Robinson struggled for awhile but has made a comeback. Lately Young and Artis have struggled as teams have double teamed them.

But there has been the emergence of Luther, Jones and Johnson. For this team to improve it needs to be a five man team. Young and Artis need to take the double teams and move the ball to one of the other three.
And the three of them need to be aggressive and shoot or drive as the situation warrants. the time to defer to the older players has to come to a stop. If they do then the pressure will come off Artis and Young. Louisville was flummoxed in how to guard Luther. I think that for this team to be successful going forward they have to be balanced. Young and Artis cannot carry the total load.

One last comment Sheldon Jeter is a mystery to me. He is lost in the offense and he sometimes does his best JJ Moore imitation and disappears. He could be a huge help if Dixon can find a way to motivate him.

When the ball gets dumped to young at the elbow during their set, it's almost like a dead possession at times, I don't understand why he doesn't turn and face. I did notice when Jeter subbed in for him, his first move was to turn and face. This resulted in him sending the pass to an open Luther in the corner for 3. It's almost like the team just kinda waits for Young to try and drive to the middle for a hook. Jeter seems to do a better job of looking for the open guy.

 

[JS School]

I'm a little disappointed in Johnson's shooting. I figured the rest of his game would take time to develop, but that he was going to be a 3 pt threat this year. He looks good at times, but at other times his shot is so far off that it's kind of shocking.

 

[thebadby2]

When the ball gets dumped to young at the elbow during their set, it's almost like a dead possession at times, I don't understand why he doesn't turn and face. I did notice when Jeter subbed in for him, his first move was to turn and face. This resulted in him sending the pass to an open Luther in the corner for 3. It's almost like the team just kinda waits for Young to try and drive to the middle for a hook. Jeter seems to do a better job of looking for the open guy.

This is exactly right. When Young takes the entry pass the possession ends with his make or miss. Nobody else is going to get a touch. The post above suggests that some of the complimentary players need to shoot more. Well, for that to happen, Young and Artis need to shoot less--and start to pass the ball to the open man.

Artis gets really lazy with his passing too. He needs to play a little more focused. He was a PG in high school, you;d think passing the ball would be a strong suit for him.

 

[thebadby2]

I'm a little disappointed in Johnson's shooting. I figured the rest of his game would take time to develop, but that he was going to be a 3 pt threat this year. He looks good at times, but at other times his shot is so far off that it's kind of shocking.

Very disappointing. Another Greentree shooting legend. Probably looks great shooting 3s in warm-ups.

If you're a designated shooter, you'd better be able to shoot.

Ashton Gibbs, paging Ashton Gibbs......

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Very disappointing. Another Greentree shooting legend. Probably looks great shooting 3s in warm-ups.

If you're a designated shooter, you'd better be able to shoot.

Ashton Gibbs, paging Ashton Gibbs......

He's shooting 40% on the season from 3P range.
He's only getting 10 MPG on average and is taking 2.2 3pa per game..

i'd say he's playing that role in his limited minutes.

 

[pittbb80]

MY has a very limited set of moves as a post player and quite frankly hes not a post player. Most of the time he tried to back into the lane and shoot that jump hook which is incredibly ugly. I would have thought he'd have added a drop step, step through, spin move and fade away jumper to his arsenal. Perhaps part of that is he lacks the lower body strength to execute those moves and the other part is simply the art of low post play is becoming just that............a lost art..........Kids like MY want to shoot threes and dribble from the perimeter rather than work on post moves.

As far as others stepping up, yeah we've seen guys like Luther and CJ contribute more lately but they need to be more consistent. CJ had some good games last year as well and then was invisible. For whatever reason he is not always as aggressive and seems to defer to the other three too much. Gotta hope the VIlle game was a huge boost to Luthers confidence as he was very impressive in that game. Jamie really has no one off the bench Yet that he can count on consistently. It seems as if he has to keep trying guys to see who has the hot hand each night and most nights comes up empty.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

He's shooting 40% on the season from 3P range.

Yeah, but it's only 39.4% in conference games, so clearly he stinks.

 

[Black_Man_Panther]

I have no trouble w/ CJ - he has defense footwork issues - but so does the entire team.

 

[Monroevillefan]

I put Johnson in the group that is improving primarily for his defense. We know he can shoot even though he has been in a little slump but since he and Jones have played more minutes the other teams guards have not been torching us. Johnsons length and quickness is stopping the easy threes. He even seems like he enjoys playing defense which is an anomaly on this team. I believe he will get a lot better in the next few years.

 

[Thee Jackie Treehorn]

Very disappointing. Another Greentree shooting legend. Probably looks great shooting 3s in warm-ups.

If you're a designated shooter, you'd better be able to shoot.

Ashton Gibbs, paging Ashton Gibbs......

Gibbs had two seasons (sophomore and senior) where he shot a lower percent than Johnson's current 40%. His 35% senior season was rather pedestrian.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Evidence for why the eye test alone isn't strong .

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

Transforming? If they beat Duke, yeah. Right now more like plodding along fighting to keep the wheels on.

 

[Wednesday Morning]

For the others to even matter, I'm just waiting for the "big 3" to play well more consistently, especially in the bigger games. And as far as the others, I don't know if Cam is just deferring to the other more experienced guys this year like some young guys tend to do or not. Chris Jones is and will always be erratic, but he does slash to the basket pretty well. Also, I'm glad to see Luther possibly breaking out a little. But lack of that big enforcer underneath magnifies all of our other flaws.