You're right. The design of the offense isn't the issue; because we don't have an offense! And because of that, our players are forced to take awful shots, and thus, they all come away with lousy percentages.
We’ve been having to win with defense as our offense has been in a slump - currently Kenpom’s #23 most efficient offense now in the country, not as good as where we were at the beginning of the month. Our defensive ranking actually went up to #3. Still, a lot of defensive lapses that stood out by Bona where Jaquez had to leave his man to cover for him, and one by Singleton that led to a Ramey 3-pointer.
But we ended the game on an 11-2 run before they made the two free throws to hit the final margin. We played our usual tough self for the final 5 minutes but that wasn’t enough to overcome our deficit
And now a rant about the refs: Tony Padilla should not have a job at any level. There were two specific calls, both against AZ, where he blew the whistle, had no idea what he was going to call, and just winged it. One was the AZ charge that Nwuba took where Padilla deferred to the official that actually knew what happened, and the other was a block on Arizona where Clark was driving and the AZ player fell backwards kinda tripping on himself. That was called a foul on AZ but stopped a Clark layup and you can see in real time Padilla going from “oh shit I blew the whistle” to “what do I call now”? And then there was the flop technical - if the violation occurred (not a flop imo), why allow play to continue? that ended up gifting AZ 3 straight free throws.
People need to calm down. 17-3. An epically bad offensive day. Shooting percentage actually skewed up by some late layups. Awful. But it was our first loss in months. Just 1 loss. We were not favored to win this game. We still almost beat a very good team in a very tough arena. Talk about “losing alumni support” is HILARIOUS. We were never going to win out. Throw the tape from this one away — we don’t shoot like that again for 2 years. If we take care of business, we will win the conference and have a top 2 seed in March.
The last 1:30 was great basketball. There was intensity. The shots weren’t falling but they were there. Bailey being out has shown how valuable he is. Singleton is good but is better as a sixth man when he can conserve some energy to knock down some open looks. Bailey is a true slasher that can open up lanes when used properly and his absence has been the primary reason for their offensive woes in my opinion.
I do question why the shots aren’t falling though. They’ve definitely picked up the defensive mindset but it seems to have come at the cost of their offensive efficiency. Still, too many missed layups, easy jump shots. And even a few dunks mind you. Just unacceptable. If they can play with the intensity they showed at the last 1:30, they will win a natty this year. If they decide to just run around for 38 minutes, then they’ll lose
In fairness to Bona, the refs took him out of the game less than a minute into the game on a clean block. Not a great way to start, but that's the SPTRs for you.
Yep, the Bruins offense was quite offensive today, otherwise it would've been a very winnable game to achieve a weekend sweep in the desert. Have to give some credit to AZ's hounding defense, which seemed tougher than ASU's. On the good side, this loss wasn't an embarassing blowout, like #2 Kansas getting spanked at home against #14 TCU. The Bruins also outrebounded the Mildcats despite our 2 bigs getting into foul trouble (not sure why Etienne isn't getting more playing time?). And the elite Bruin defense really shined in the last minute or so to make things interesting at the end. Anyway, it was more of a must-win for AZ, and getting a split on the road against the 2nd- and 3rd-best teams in the Pac-12 isn't the end of the world. Payback is in order at Pauley on March 4, though. But first, it's time to work on shooting better and sweep U$C next Thursday. Go Bruins!
Spot on Dmitri. Ours is an inside game. We don't shoot well from the three. our "bigs" are improving but Mac is nonexistent. Jaime is our best near the basket. He plays 'big'. The SPTRs didn't help the cause either. Sometimes our mainstays have an off game, we need to develop that talent we supposedly have. We controlled the inside D, rebs and blocks. I don't think Mick is a 'big' coach.
I agree with the calm down folks comments. We missed way too many open looks and had way too few points on 16 offensive rebounds. I also read Cronin’s comments re: lack of heart tonight. This is a great group that will right the ship. The amount of open shots and our season long offensive ranking is evidence enough of a good offensive design.
Is it just me who thinks we are not getting the full story regarding the extent of Bailey's foot injury? Could have really used him on this road trip and definitely for the rest of the season so Singleton comes off the bench as a great sixth man and three point shooter instead of wearing down playing so many minutes.
I'll join the ranks of those who are not as concerned about this loss. I never expected to go undefeated in Pac12 play, and AZ always plays well at home. Those refs were something else, though-- having said that, I was scratching my head at calls on us and on AZ, as their inability went both ways. Can't blame the refs for this loss; we just needed to make shots, as has been pointed out. I trust in Cronin to "right the ship,' as has also been mentioned in the thread already. Our focus should always be to first win Pac12, get a 1 seed for the dance, and then take it from there. I see nothing about that goal changing after this weekend.
Super frustrating game, but ultimately it's not necessarily harmful to the season, as long as the offense can get back on track. I would like to see some more in game adjustments when we are having a hard time finding baskets, because scoring has been a real problem lately, both against stupid $c and Colorado, so yesterday's futility is not as flukey as it might seem. But if the shots aren't falling, the team needs to make a better effort to get some easy shots and/or get to the FT line, or turn up the defensive intensity, and I didn't see any of the former, and little of the latter until the last few minutes, at all yesterday.
I feel like our team gave too much respect to AZ's inside defense yesterday and didn't attack the rim enough. I would have liked to see Bona get the ball in the low post more. He's developed some decent inside moves and the refs proved yesterday that they would blow whistles for virtually anything either way, so he had as good a chance at drawing a foul as he would at getting stuffed. But we needed to make the investment at going at the rim if only to put more pressure on the AZ down low and maybe get some more FTs. Remember that AZ made more FTs yesterday than we even attempted. Can't surrender like that. And if AZ wanted to double Bona (or JJJr) on the low box, he's shown the ability to find an open shooter, or we need the open man to slash to the rim. None of that happened so we were reliant on perimeter passing for more contested jumpers or JJJr trying to create a shot. Oh well. Lesson learned. Get better for next game.
And the refs...Man they were all new levels of horseshit yesterday, and both ways. Outside of the absurd foul on Bona 36 secs in that sent him immediately to the bench, (why, Mick??) I don't think they really tilted the game one way or the other, but they sure made it difficult to watch for everyone. And these kids playing D1 BBall in a P5 conference deserve better.
I'm also really curious to see how far our Bruins, after losing by 6 to a highly ranked team in their barn, drop in the polls, compared to precious Kansas who got destroyed in their own building by an unranked opponent. I already know the answer, but I'll leave it out there for now anyway.
Garbage shooting..
January blues ?!?
You're right. The design of the offense isn't the issue; because we don't have an offense! And because of that, our players are forced to take awful shots, and thus, they all come away with lousy percentages.
We’ve been having to win with defense as our offense has been in a slump - currently Kenpom’s #23 most efficient offense now in the country, not as good as where we were at the beginning of the month. Our defensive ranking actually went up to #3. Still, a lot of defensive lapses that stood out by Bona where Jaquez had to leave his man to cover for him, and one by Singleton that led to a Ramey 3-pointer.
But we ended the game on an 11-2 run before they made the two free throws to hit the final margin. We played our usual tough self for the final 5 minutes but that wasn’t enough to overcome our deficit
And now a rant about the refs: Tony Padilla should not have a job at any level. There were two specific calls, both against AZ, where he blew the whistle, had no idea what he was going to call, and just winged it. One was the AZ charge that Nwuba took where Padilla deferred to the official that actually knew what happened, and the other was a block on Arizona where Clark was driving and the AZ player fell backwards kinda tripping on himself. That was called a foul on AZ but stopped a Clark layup and you can see in real time Padilla going from “oh shit I blew the whistle” to “what do I call now”? And then there was the flop technical - if the violation occurred (not a flop imo), why allow play to continue? that ended up gifting AZ 3 straight free throws.
People need to calm down. 17-3. An epically bad offensive day. Shooting percentage actually skewed up by some late layups. Awful. But it was our first loss in months. Just 1 loss. We were not favored to win this game. We still almost beat a very good team in a very tough arena. Talk about “losing alumni support” is HILARIOUS. We were never going to win out. Throw the tape from this one away — we don’t shoot like that again for 2 years. If we take care of business, we will win the conference and have a top 2 seed in March.
The last 1:30 was great basketball. There was intensity. The shots weren’t falling but they were there. Bailey being out has shown how valuable he is. Singleton is good but is better as a sixth man when he can conserve some energy to knock down some open looks. Bailey is a true slasher that can open up lanes when used properly and his absence has been the primary reason for their offensive woes in my opinion.
I do question why the shots aren’t falling though. They’ve definitely picked up the defensive mindset but it seems to have come at the cost of their offensive efficiency. Still, too many missed layups, easy jump shots. And even a few dunks mind you. Just unacceptable. If they can play with the intensity they showed at the last 1:30, they will win a natty this year. If they decide to just run around for 38 minutes, then they’ll lose
In fairness to Bona, the refs took him out of the game less than a minute into the game on a clean block. Not a great way to start, but that's the SPTRs for you.
Yep, the Bruins offense was quite offensive today, otherwise it would've been a very winnable game to achieve a weekend sweep in the desert. Have to give some credit to AZ's hounding defense, which seemed tougher than ASU's. On the good side, this loss wasn't an embarassing blowout, like #2 Kansas getting spanked at home against #14 TCU. The Bruins also outrebounded the Mildcats despite our 2 bigs getting into foul trouble (not sure why Etienne isn't getting more playing time?). And the elite Bruin defense really shined in the last minute or so to make things interesting at the end. Anyway, it was more of a must-win for AZ, and getting a split on the road against the 2nd- and 3rd-best teams in the Pac-12 isn't the end of the world. Payback is in order at Pauley on March 4, though. But first, it's time to work on shooting better and sweep U$C next Thursday. Go Bruins!
What cures Offensive sensitivity...Ball movement, hard cuts and spacing
Spot on Dmitri. Ours is an inside game. We don't shoot well from the three. our "bigs" are improving but Mac is nonexistent. Jaime is our best near the basket. He plays 'big'. The SPTRs didn't help the cause either. Sometimes our mainstays have an off game, we need to develop that talent we supposedly have. We controlled the inside D, rebs and blocks. I don't think Mick is a 'big' coach.
I agree with the calm down folks comments. We missed way too many open looks and had way too few points on 16 offensive rebounds. I also read Cronin’s comments re: lack of heart tonight. This is a great group that will right the ship. The amount of open shots and our season long offensive ranking is evidence enough of a good offensive design.
Is it just me who thinks we are not getting the full story regarding the extent of Bailey's foot injury? Could have really used him on this road trip and definitely for the rest of the season so Singleton comes off the bench as a great sixth man and three point shooter instead of wearing down playing so many minutes.
I'll join the ranks of those who are not as concerned about this loss. I never expected to go undefeated in Pac12 play, and AZ always plays well at home. Those refs were something else, though-- having said that, I was scratching my head at calls on us and on AZ, as their inability went both ways. Can't blame the refs for this loss; we just needed to make shots, as has been pointed out. I trust in Cronin to "right the ship,' as has also been mentioned in the thread already. Our focus should always be to first win Pac12, get a 1 seed for the dance, and then take it from there. I see nothing about that goal changing after this weekend.
Super frustrating game, but ultimately it's not necessarily harmful to the season, as long as the offense can get back on track. I would like to see some more in game adjustments when we are having a hard time finding baskets, because scoring has been a real problem lately, both against stupid $c and Colorado, so yesterday's futility is not as flukey as it might seem. But if the shots aren't falling, the team needs to make a better effort to get some easy shots and/or get to the FT line, or turn up the defensive intensity, and I didn't see any of the former, and little of the latter until the last few minutes, at all yesterday.
I feel like our team gave too much respect to AZ's inside defense yesterday and didn't attack the rim enough. I would have liked to see Bona get the ball in the low post more. He's developed some decent inside moves and the refs proved yesterday that they would blow whistles for virtually anything either way, so he had as good a chance at drawing a foul as he would at getting stuffed. But we needed to make the investment at going at the rim if only to put more pressure on the AZ down low and maybe get some more FTs. Remember that AZ made more FTs yesterday than we even attempted. Can't surrender like that. And if AZ wanted to double Bona (or JJJr) on the low box, he's shown the ability to find an open shooter, or we need the open man to slash to the rim. None of that happened so we were reliant on perimeter passing for more contested jumpers or JJJr trying to create a shot. Oh well. Lesson learned. Get better for next game.
And the refs...Man they were all new levels of horseshit yesterday, and both ways. Outside of the absurd foul on Bona 36 secs in that sent him immediately to the bench, (why, Mick??) I don't think they really tilted the game one way or the other, but they sure made it difficult to watch for everyone. And these kids playing D1 BBall in a P5 conference deserve better.
I'm also really curious to see how far our Bruins, after losing by 6 to a highly ranked team in their barn, drop in the polls, compared to precious Kansas who got destroyed in their own building by an unranked opponent. I already know the answer, but I'll leave it out there for now anyway.
Also, amazing Steven Manfro reference, Dimitri. That is a deep and all-time outstanding pull.