Where do we improve?

[hoop_head]

Better in all areas offense. 

 

Defense improved tremendously last year when guys started buying in. You could see it game by game especially with Walt/Rivers. Defense will be improved this season as I'm assuming those guys pick up where they left off. Losing Smith hurts, but very lucky to have Ayegba coming in.

[Vinny]

Just looked it up quick, in Big Ten play before we won at Northwestern we were giving up 69/game and from that game on we gave up 57/game.  Huge turn around in the middle of conference play from our defense.  If we did that all season we would have been a top 3 scoring defense nationally.  Let's hope we can come close to that level of defense over a whole season.

[FredsSlacks]

Scoring should be the main topic of discussion because who is going to be a scoring threat outside of the big 3?

 

shields, petteway, pitchford averaged 41 points, and the rest of our returners: tai,benny,rivers averaged 9 total points.

 

I also wouldn't say we are deeper than last year.

 

we lost 5 guys from last year and are replacing them with 4.

 

are fuller, moses, jake, tarin really an upgrade over biggs, hawkins, gallegos, Leslee, vucetic?

[krazzykirk]

Not necessarily but an extra year of experience together and familiarity with coaches and team is invaluable. The only bad thing is won't be able to sneak up on other teams.

[FredsSlacks]

Not necessarily but an extra year of experience together and familiarity with coaches and team is invaluable. The only bad thing is won't be able to sneak up on other teams.

obviously the returning 6 guys are all going to be better than last year, but it remains to be seen if the 4 newcomers will provide more than the 5 guys that won't be back from last year.

[uneblinstu]

Scoring should be the main topic of discussion because who is going to be a scoring threat outside of the big 3?

 

shields, petteway, pitchford averaged 41 points, and the rest of our returners: tai,benny,rivers averaged 9 total points.

 

I also wouldn't say we are deeper than last year.

 

we lost 5 guys from last year and are replacing them with 4.

 

are fuller, moses, jake, tarin really an upgrade over biggs, hawkins, gallegos, Leslee, vucetic?

Well, five players leave the roster, but only two really were significant contributors, especially down the stretch.  I think you'll get similar production from Moses as you did from Leslee. If Fuller is the shooter we've been told he is, he should be an upgrade from Gallegos. Anything from Tarin is an improvement to Biggs who couldn't keep himself on the roster. Anything from Jake is a bonus this year. 

 

Our biggest improvement will come from incremental improvement from the big 3, Rivers and Benny and hopefully a significant jump from Webster. 

 

They basically had a seven to eight man rotation during the run. If Moses, Tarin and Fuller get into the mix, it could be an eight to nine man rotation, which would be a really positive development.

 

So, to the point, yes, I think we'll be deeper. 

[Dean Smith]

Tai showed some ability to score recently putting up 21 including 11/13 from the line in NZ's upset of Serbia. Good sign.

[Norm Peterson]

Tai showed some ability to score recently putting up 21 including 11/13 from the line in NZ's upset of Serbia. Good sign.

That has to give him some confidence going into his sophomore year.  Hopefully we don't have too many guys again trying to find their own shots like we did at the beginning of the season last year. 

[kleitus]

I think it's safe to say our defense will improve over the ENTIRE year from last year.. we'll probably be just as good as we were down the stretch, give or take such a tiny amount that it won't matter.  if we're significantly better it would be because ayegba isn't going to back down from anyone inside.

 

so yes, defense will improve, which probably means a better non-conference record just with that alone.  also, don't discount the presence of jim molinari and his help on teaching defense.  and don't be shocked if we're top 10 or better in defense in the ncaa's this year.  no, i'm not in the slightest joking.

 

our offense will also probably improve on several fronts :

 

1.  it would be very difficult to be worse at the PG position than last year (oh it can happen don't get me wrong, but i doubt it).  Even a slight improvement is worth a few points per game both directly and by opening the floor for others.  We've got 3 players (benny, webster, and smith) who should have all improved from last year or are new.

2.  petteway should be more consistent.  he's a streak scorer and always will be but there's a reason he was being hyped at some of those pre-season camps with all that other talent.  the guy's a beast and he really is that good.  don't be shocked at 20+ ppg (he was at 18 last year).

3.  shields and pitchford are a year older.   Believe it or not, these two had room to improve and should. 

4.  The guys we lost weren't really that good offensively.  Yeah, it always hurts to lose people but can you honestly tell me that we won't find another 3 point shooter to shoot 30% or so from 3 like Rey?  I guess I don't see it.  I think fuller or smith or even a more confident webster could pull that off.  One or two guys at 35% and our team looks a lot different.  if one of them hits 40% like pitchford this team's going to make some noise.  If more than one does, this team could win a LOT of games due to our defense.  imagine benny parker hitting 35% of his 3's.  with that defense.  he might not be all-big ten but he'd be beyond solid in crunch time.  we only need one or two guys to do it and this offense would open up a lot.

5.  andrew white in practice.  this guy's going to push shields and petteway -- both in different ways.

 

there's more reasons but those are pretty good.

[AuroranHusker]

1. PG play will improve dramatically - more assists, less turnovers

2. Wing play will improve with better shot selection - less attempts, yet more made with those few attempts

3. Post play will improve by defending the rim quite a bit more - more blocks, and yet less fouls on the interior

[hhcmatt]

if we're significantly better it would be because ayegba isn't going to back down from anyone inside.

 

I hope Ayegba can stay on the court and out of foul trouble. While he should be a better rim defender than Leslee I doubt he's going to have Leslee's offensive moves.

[hhcmatt]

Interesting thread, in that it seems to parrot what fans talk about the most:  Offense.  Virtually every post mentions offense.  When we improved last year, it was about defense.  Turned the season around,  Perhaps because the D was so much better late in the year posters aren't mentioning defense from an improvement standpoint, but I suspect it is just because the natural tendency of fans is to focus on offense. There are some posts about Ray's shooting, but I am wondering whether we have a 2 guard who will defend as well as Ray.  Our interior defense may also be a spot where we improve, with Abraham's physicality, and some buy in by Walt. 

 

The focus on offensive talk, besides it being more fun, is because we struggled on offense last year....especially when Petteway or Shields were off the court.

 

You can roll out both Tai and Benny and they should provide pretty good defense against a PG and SG. We couldn't do that a lot last year because both those guys weren't shooting. If we can't get scoring from at least one of Tarrin Smith, Webster, or Parker it's going to be a year full of frustrating scoring droughts.

[GATA]

A lot of these already have been mentioned, but I'll add my two cents anyway...

1) Less stupid fouls. I'm sure a lot of fans feel this way about their teams, but I think we led the nation in dumb fouls 30 feet from the hoop.

2) More assists. We made a lot of really hard shots last season. Hopefully having a true PG on the floor will lead to more open shots and easy layups.

3) Swagger. We have a confident group of players that know they can win in a difficult league. Early last year we had a group of players that didn't know how to fit together. As the season wore on, people accepted their roles and we turned into a dangerous team.

4) Rim protection. Ayegba probably is a 20-minute player if we're fortunate, but that should be plenty. Having him and Pitchford gives us an athletic front line, and should give Pitchford a little break from getting pounded on the block.

5) Home crowd. We had a really good home-court advantage, but it was taken to a whole new level for the Wisconsin game. Can we expect to be at 80-85 percent of that for big non-conference games and B1G games? If we can have that intimidating home court all year, wow.

[Silverbacked1]

Really agree with # 5. Need to keep the noise level up.

[royalfan]

Where we can improve rather dramatically is scoring downhill.  We were often times playing uphill last year with so much pressure on Petteway and Shields to make something happen.  Fortunately, they can do that.  Very hopeful Tai adds another guy that can do that.  One more guy that cann attack, should help allow for slightly easier 3 point shots, and getting results out of the attack itself.  He has a strong body that should be able to finish plays. 

 

The thing I worry about is that the improvement will not be reflected in the record.  In my mind, we overachieved last year.  And we also played about as easy a schedule as was possible in the league.  So, while we should be a good deal better, it may not seem that way in the league record.  We should play much better out of league though, and must if we are going to have reasonably smooth sailing to the dance. 

[Silverbacked1]

Where we can improve rather dramatically is scoring downhill.  We were often times playing uphill last year with so much pressure on Petteway and Shields to make something happen.  Fortunately, they can do that.  Very hopeful Tai adds another guy that can do that.  One more guy that cann attack, should help allow for slightly easier 3 point shots, and getting results out of the attack itself.  He has a strong body that should be able to finish plays. 

 

The thing I worry about is that the improvement will not be reflected in the record.  In my mind, we overachieved last year.  And we also played about as easy a schedule as was possible in the league.  So, while we should be a good deal better, it may not seem that way in the league record.  We should play much better out of league though, and must if we are going to have reasonably smooth sailing to the dance.

Your second paragraph is spot on.

[AuroranHusker]

 

Where we can improve rather dramatically is scoring downhill.  We were often times playing uphill last year with so much pressure on Petteway and Shields to make something happen.  Fortunately, they can do that.  Very hopeful Tai adds another guy that can do that.  One more guy that cann attack, should help allow for slightly easier 3 point shots, and getting results out of the attack itself.  He has a strong body that should be able to finish plays. 

 

The thing I worry about is that the improvement will not be reflected in the record.  In my mind, we overachieved last year.  And we also played about as easy a schedule as was possible in the league.  So, while we should be a good deal better, it may not seem that way in the league record.  We should play much better out of league though, and must if we are going to have reasonably smooth sailing to the dance.

Your second paragraph is spot on.

 

 

Agreed on the soft B1G schedule last yr... if NU is 11-7 this yr, it will be a much bigger feat!

[Ron Mexico]

The 2 areas that we must improve on are:

1. Rebounding

We have got make our opponent have only 1 shot at the basket. We were able to overcome this disparity in some games, like Wisconsin, but eventually it is going to come back to haunt us unless we make a dedicated effort for improvement. I believe that the 2 key guys here are Rivers and Abraham. This is the one area where I'm still concerned about improving.

2. Assist/TO Ratio

An improvement here means we have better ball control. We are getting the ball into the hands of our play makers and improves our overall offensive efficiency. Webster/Parker/Smith need to work on penetration and dishing the ball to our scorers. I believe this area will dramatically this year.

[lanigan123]

I think Leslee is a giant loss.

[trickey]

The 2 areas that we must improve on are:

1. Rebounding

We have got make our opponent have only 1 shot at the basket. We were able to overcome this disparity in some games, like Wisconsin, but eventually it is going to come back to haunt us unless we make a dedicated effort for improvement. I believe that the 2 key guys here are Rivers and AA. This is the one area where I'm still concerned about improving.

2. Assist/TO Ratio

An improvement here means we have better ball control. We are getting the ball into the hands of our play makers and improves our overall offensive efficiency. Webster/Parker/Smith need to work on penetration and dishing the ball to our scorers. I believe this area will dramatically this year.

 

OK...while I agree with your thoughts...I got lost with AA, who I think of as Andre Almeida. Unless he got a 7th year of eligibility...who does that mean this year?

[atskooc]

I think it's Abraham, as in Aygeba Abraham...though his name is Moses.

[atskooc]

And I think that might have been the oddest sentence I've ever seriously written.

[uneblinstu]

I think it's Abraham, as in Aygeba Abraham...though his name is Moses.

It's just Moses Abraham. Strike Ayegba from your memories.

[uneblinstu]

I think Leslee is a giant loss.

If what we hear about Abraham is true, it'll come out as about a wash, I think. It would have been a huge loss if we didn't have someone else to pick up some of that slack.

[jimmykc]

Thank goodness, I thought we had someone in Alcoholics Anonymous for a minute.