I have so much to say about today's performance, and while I support Jay Young, I felt like he lost his players tonight. More on that perhaps at some other time.
Monmouth's half court trap is very effective, our guards seem to panic when they cross half court and see two defenders rush towards them. Monmouth has disrupted our offense and created lots of turnovers with their traps.
We are so mechanical with our weave, everyone knows its coming, where each stag player will be on the floor and when they can complete a trap to create a turnover. Its so pathetic that we have not adjusted to this. Everyone is doing it to us and they don't even need to be successful in the trap. even if the ballhandler escapes the result is a poor shot or shot clock violation because we are wasting too much time 40 feet from the basket. You can't run the weave 90% of the time. Its just too easy to defend. We were a much better offensive team in the first half of the season than we are today. Its because we are too predictable.
There are times where Taliaferro is uncovered behind the three point line. No one covers him at the start of the play because they know the first move will be to start the weave and hand the ball off. How about just passing the ball to the open player and telling him to shoot?
We also run the same 3 or 4 plays to start each game. Here is the first play of the last 3 games: Quinnipiac vs Fairfield - 1st Shot -3 pt attempt Landon Taliaferro Rider vs Fairfield - 1st Shot -3 pt attempt Landon Taliaferro Monmouth vs Fairfield - 1st Shot -3 pt attempt Landon Taliaferro
I wonder what will happen Friday night? I lost track of how many times we have done this but if I'm the opponent, I know the first play is likely to be 1) a three by Taliaferro or a lay-up attempt by Eze. I'm not sure we have run any other play this month.
There is one game left. Practically speaking it won't affect our seeding. How about we try something different and let the open players shoot? How about we stop leaving no time on the clock and forcing shots? How about using offensive concepts rather than so many set plays?
Sorry I am so unimpressed with what we are doing offensively. We're not great offensively but we're also not this bad an offensive team.
Actually concerning last night's game the first two plays were not Landon 3-point attempts but rather two careless turnovers that kind of set the tone for the contest right off the bat. Finally an attempt (and a long and forced one) by Landon the third time down the court meant the Stags were in a psychological hole before they even worked up a sweat, and as we saw, they never recovered. And for a team that doesn't play a high tempo, high risk type offense where dangerous passes are constantly being attempted, to turn the ball over so easily without so much as an attempt at a basket is basically inexcusable. They have to tighten this up or it won't matter at all what plays are called to start a given game. But your description of what the Stags are trying to do at the start kind of reminds me of NFL teams who run "scripted" plays for awhile rather than reacting to what the defense is giving. Maybe in football this is a legitimate way to go about things, but in hoops, instincts should prevail I would think.
To Nash's point, the season is a grind for everybody. In the case of FF, the offensive challenges and the demands of what it takes to win makes every game a grind in and of itself. At this point the guys could very well be weary and leg-heavy, especially with the ridiculous close-out schedule (Friday/Sunday/Wednesday road/Friday road). More talent, more athleticism, and more depth will help alleviate the "grind factor."
Then, why were we significantly better on offense in the first half of the season? Reindeer said it all. We are way too predictable. Aidas, Cruz, Methnani, and Benning can hit 3s. Maybe not as high a percentage as Landon, but when wide open, you have to take them every once in a while. Also, why are we not feeding Maidoh in the paint?!
I know teams get tape and adjust to us, but we can adjust back. We can do better than this.
"Most teams in this league, if they're going to beat you,they have to make 3s," Maciariello said. "We make sure we have that all statted out with 3s made in their wins and in their losses. It's a number we can kind of give concrete evidence to, and also show (Siena players), hey, this is how they play when they're winning, this is how they play when they're losing. It's a tangible thing, right?" - Carmen Maciarello, Siena Head Coach.
The #9 Stags are last in the MAAC at #11 in 3 points made, 3 points attempted and 3 point scoring percentage.
We need to improve in basics: foul shooting, dribbling under pressure, coming to the ball, recognizing when to take a shot and when an extra pass is better. Many players are huge disappointments to me, stuck in their ways. I look forward to new Stags more than anything
The last game and a half has been brutal but, overall, the team has exceeded my expectations. We’ve been horrible offensively but guts and effort has allowed us to compete on most nights. I honestly expected more of what has been the last 1.5 games and thankfully that’s been the exception. The team looked miserable and the staff has to get them to be in a better place mentally. It’s not easy-my class (91) had 79 losses.
Team absolutely is this bad offensively. No doubt JY would love to trade the weave and the planned sets for some guys who can go 1 on 1, break guys down off the dribble and get their own shots. Even a creative playmaker would be a huge benefit.
The last thing I want to see is these guys trying to be something they’re not. Can imagine the reaction on this board to guys jacking up undisciplined 3’s because of a “why not, we suck anyway” attitude?
It’s fairly remarkable this team has stolen 11 wins, possibly 1 or 2 more, through nothing more than a real commitment to defense and rebounding (not the case last night).
Some of this is already improved with the influx next year. Need much more to compete effectively with the talent in the conference, which I think is also going to improve.
Well I can't completely agree. No one was complaining about the weave at the start of the season. The reason was for all practical purposes it was working. It made sense and was keeping us in games. The complaint really is that other teams have adjusted to what we are doing and we have not made any changes. Really, ever since Dunne trapped us so successfully in the first Marist game, essentially everyone but Massiello has used that approach with some level of success against us. What are we doing to change our approach as a result of this?
I see so many things that Young has done better than Sydney. I am not anti JY. I just think that 1) we have not gotten better as the season progresses, 2) We are not adjusting to some of the things our competition has repeatedly done, 3) When competitors press against us they have no risk of given up easy points because we almost never try to break the press with passes up court 4) We are susceptible to trapping 5) we are a high turnover team. So we might agree that we don't have a ton of high percentage shooters or guys that can create their own shots, but offense is so much more than that. We got back in last nights game after falling way behind with basic solid play and frankly should have lead at the half except for missed foul shots and stupid turnovers. Some of these issues can be coached away. I can't blame jay for Chris Maidoh letting a perfect pass for a dunk going through his hands, but the traps are something that can be worked on in practice and dealt with by teaching proper execution.
I am hopeful Jay becomes an all-time great coach at Fairfield. I am hopeful he has a good recruiting class. I see the good things he has done. But one of the hallmarks of a good coach is his teams get better as the season progresses. We saw that with Cooley and we didn't see it with Johnson. So far we haven't seen Young making the team demonstratively better from season start to finish.
This is his first year. I'm sure he has learned a lot. I am just not as ready as others to give up on this season. There is no team in the conference we can't beat given a good night. There are only 2 teams this year that we did not come within a possession of beating (Iona and Rider). If we make the right adjustments, I think we can get two more wins this season.
We all knew we were in for a long season. There are two players shooting above 30% from 3 in conference play, Benning and Aidas, that's not coaching, that's recruiting and the roster we have. Sure you can improve shooting in the offseason but only by so much. I think the reason we're running the offense we are is for pace of play. We use up almost the entire shot clock each possession and while it's not always fun to watch it's 30 seconds where the other team cannot score. The slow play is part of the reason we have been so good defensively this year. If we start shooting 3's 10 seconds into the shot clock chances are they won't be going in and that's even more possessions for the opponent who is surely better offensively than we are. I don't know if the future is bright yet, but willing to give Jay some time to bring in the right players.
Well, in another month, we will be breaking ground on the facility that everyone said would trigger a lot more interest from higher level recruits. Let’s see.
Now I like Maidoh and AJR very much, but there are frosh on other MAAC teams who have had more minutes and impact.
Last Edit: Mar 5, 2020 20:32:03 GMT -5 by stagparty
Yes we have regressed a lot as a team since December. But why? Let me count the reasons:
* very, very predictable offense ( see terrific recent posts by Reindeerfan and Nashville) which opposing teams can easily prepare for. * lack of in game offensive adjustments ( how many times with little time left on the game clock and we are behind in a close contest do we come down and just run the slow down weave again and again) * too many individual players regressing from last year( Specifically Cruz, Methnani, Whipple, Aidas and Landon) Could JY's player rotational strategy where players come immediately out for defensive lapses or turnovers be cause for a player to lose confidence in his offensive ability? Most players perform best when they can feel relaxed and get into the flow of the game. * Whatever happened to a fast break off a turnover or rebound? Aidas (remember all his assists the past seasons) and Cruz have thrived in the fast break in the past. Maybe opening up the offense this way might generate more open looks for Landon.Try a different offensive strategy against Manhattan. * perhaps too much emphasis on defense and not enough on offense ( how many times have we seen a lineup on the floor consisting of Petersen, Eze,Jean-Rose, and Aidas, all non offensive threats. * foul shooting getting worse as the season moves on. Whatever happened to practices where a player couldn't leave the gym until he made at least 8 of 10 foul shots? Foul shooting should not be this poor!
Yes, I am a frustrated Stag fan. However I don't like to read after every game JY's post game comments about how well prepared and how well the opposing team played. This team has regressed way too much on offense. That regression is on JY and his staff.