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Not sure if ok to do this. If not plz delete. Longtime poster but trying to gain a little exposure for my sports/music creative writing blog. Here is a sample on asu baskrtball. Will have boxing stuff up soon.
https://985dk.blogspot.com/
Understsnding ASU basketball's precipitous fall from the rankings:
The short explanation is that in the non conference, aside from Kansas, our opponents have not had the personnel to expoit our deficiencies on defense. (we really shot well in Lawrence, 14 of 28 from deep to hide this) And while Xavier, Kansas State, and San Diego State are quality wins, and talented opponents, they do not have the balanced rosters, with multiple bigs and shooters, to really give us fits. But even teams with simply two or three scoring posts, namely Stanford and Utah, have been able to hand us losses.
We start three very talented offensive senior guards, who are below average on ball defenders. All three of our big men, (if we are to include Shibal who is a stretch four) have no experience competing at this level. While I expect them all, especially Lake, a junior college transfer, to make great strides next year, they are all foul and mistake prone on defense. We were scoring more than ninety points per game to conceal this flaw, that we cant defend anyone. We aren't able to even fake it now against the very athletic, well coached, and physical teams in our league. The "Conference of Champions."
From an undefeated non conference, ranked 3rd nationally, to losing six of our first ten conference games, this is a collapse like unlike any I've seen. I dont remember any other team , excluding teams with crucial injuries, having a similar decline. Having this kind of exodus from the rankings, from third to likely unranked this monday, all within five weeks or so.
We do have two very gifted athletes who can defend. Remy Martin is our best on ball defender, and highest in steals per 40 minutes, and Mickey Mitchell can rebound, defend, and compete at the rim despite being 6'6" or so. However, Mickey is offensively not ready to play at this level, and his turnovers, mental mistakes, and shot selection have hurt us, badly. As a transfer, elligible first against Kansas, he has only played significant minutes in key games we have lost, except at Utah. He will develop an understanding of his role next year, but he congests and complicates our offense by not playing in the post. These issues have not been offset by his impressive energy, defense, and rebounding contributions.
And why can't Remy play all the time? He is confident, really fearless, exceptionally so in our close loss to Arizona. Remy is also turnover prone, simply because he is a fresheman. He will be the best guard in our league next year. (don't care how many Mcdonalds All Americans Oregon or UCLA signs, he will be that good) For now, ASU has three senior guards. Coach Hurley is loyal to them, laudably but also to a fault in my opinion. While it is not guaranteed that utilizing our great on ball defender more, either by starting Martin or upping his minutes significantly, would change the outcome of these games, I would give it a chance.
Offensively, our shot distribution is poor, and now exposed against better defensive teams. Kodi Justice shoots over 45% from the field and takes considerably fewer shots than Tra Holder or Shannon Evans. Shannon shoots at a lower clip from the field than Kodi, Tra, and Remy do from three point range. 37 percent, a debilitating percentage for our team offense. This is not because he's less talented, but because he takes many bad and contested shots.
Coach Hurley has given the fanbase something we have never seen in the undefeated non conference campaign, but we now must make adjustments, play our best available lineup more often, or at least tweak our rotation. If not, we risk not making the tournament. A goal now in doubt somewhat after our abysmal start in conference, and an RPI currently in the low fourties.
https://985dk.blogspot.com/
Understsnding ASU basketball's precipitous fall from the rankings:
The short explanation is that in the non conference, aside from Kansas, our opponents have not had the personnel to expoit our deficiencies on defense. (we really shot well in Lawrence, 14 of 28 from deep to hide this) And while Xavier, Kansas State, and San Diego State are quality wins, and talented opponents, they do not have the balanced rosters, with multiple bigs and shooters, to really give us fits. But even teams with simply two or three scoring posts, namely Stanford and Utah, have been able to hand us losses.
We start three very talented offensive senior guards, who are below average on ball defenders. All three of our big men, (if we are to include Shibal who is a stretch four) have no experience competing at this level. While I expect them all, especially Lake, a junior college transfer, to make great strides next year, they are all foul and mistake prone on defense. We were scoring more than ninety points per game to conceal this flaw, that we cant defend anyone. We aren't able to even fake it now against the very athletic, well coached, and physical teams in our league. The "Conference of Champions."
From an undefeated non conference, ranked 3rd nationally, to losing six of our first ten conference games, this is a collapse like unlike any I've seen. I dont remember any other team , excluding teams with crucial injuries, having a similar decline. Having this kind of exodus from the rankings, from third to likely unranked this monday, all within five weeks or so.
We do have two very gifted athletes who can defend. Remy Martin is our best on ball defender, and highest in steals per 40 minutes, and Mickey Mitchell can rebound, defend, and compete at the rim despite being 6'6" or so. However, Mickey is offensively not ready to play at this level, and his turnovers, mental mistakes, and shot selection have hurt us, badly. As a transfer, elligible first against Kansas, he has only played significant minutes in key games we have lost, except at Utah. He will develop an understanding of his role next year, but he congests and complicates our offense by not playing in the post. These issues have not been offset by his impressive energy, defense, and rebounding contributions.
And why can't Remy play all the time? He is confident, really fearless, exceptionally so in our close loss to Arizona. Remy is also turnover prone, simply because he is a fresheman. He will be the best guard in our league next year. (don't care how many Mcdonalds All Americans Oregon or UCLA signs, he will be that good) For now, ASU has three senior guards. Coach Hurley is loyal to them, laudably but also to a fault in my opinion. While it is not guaranteed that utilizing our great on ball defender more, either by starting Martin or upping his minutes significantly, would change the outcome of these games, I would give it a chance.
Offensively, our shot distribution is poor, and now exposed against better defensive teams. Kodi Justice shoots over 45% from the field and takes considerably fewer shots than Tra Holder or Shannon Evans. Shannon shoots at a lower clip from the field than Kodi, Tra, and Remy do from three point range. 37 percent, a debilitating percentage for our team offense. This is not because he's less talented, but because he takes many bad and contested shots.
Coach Hurley has given the fanbase something we have never seen in the undefeated non conference campaign, but we now must make adjustments, play our best available lineup more often, or at least tweak our rotation. If not, we risk not making the tournament. A goal now in doubt somewhat after our abysmal start in conference, and an RPI currently in the low fourties.
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