More than the missed free throws, the missed layin, the missed tipin... there is one thing that is so frustrating with this team in key situations. They refuse to go inside. It's like because we've had to be so perimeter oriented the last three seasons that we have no clue what to do with options inside. Glen Rice was scoring inside at will... Casey Jacobsen and Dan Langhi can't handle him. If a double comes, Rice is a great passer. Yet, for apparently no reason, we just stopped feeding him the ball down low, even though the results were great. Mo Taylor was playing better than I've seen him in a long while... the way he sealed off low post position and went inside to that jump hook was just great to watch. We need that kind of presence. Of course, he misses ONE shot, and we completely go away from him, and take him out of the game. Even in the first half, Yao was playing very well... and had some good post moves on Tsakilidas. Of course, we never gave him more than three or four touches on the entire night in the low post. To this team, it seems like they think an open 18 footer for Francis or Mobley is a good shot in the big moments. It may have been in previous years, but we have better options now. It isn't just tonight... I've seen it repeatedly in the other games where Francis or Mobley pass up an open Yao or KT down low and kick it to someone on the perimeter. Because they haven't had low post options, I recognize that it will take some time to adjust... but I haven't seen any yet, and after two and a half weeks of the season it is starting to be a concern.
Both Yao and Taylor looked like they could score fairly easily down low and we should look to score more in the low post but our rebounding needs to improve.Rice played well today and posted up and shot well too. Cato was missed today. Collier just had one basket and is really too slow on the court to be effective.
Two things I'd like to see: 1) At game end, on alternating possessions where the clock has been stopped - have offensive and defensive substituition patterns. 2) When someone is hot, run their play until the defense proves it can stop it. Jacobsen was never able to stop Rice in the low blocks, we ran it twice in mid Q3 and...voila...into thin air.
