Coach Mussleman has changed our offense lately so that we are driving to the basket time after time. He said in an interview I saw, he was going to do this because we were shooting poorly from the 3 point line. He said it, and we are doing it.
Alabama never did anything to stop this constant driving to the hole. We won this game because of the drive game, in my view. What should Alabama have done to stop us? Play a zone and clog the middle? Other teams will make adjustments, and we won’t be able to drive at will, I don’t believe. I thought Alabama played right into our hands. They kept taking 3’s, missing most of them, and we kept driving.
How does this play out? Is this our game until Joe recovers?
CEM doesn’t mind the players taking Good wide open 3’s. He wants them to be taking good shots period no matter where they come from. The step back back 3 and the contested 3 are not good shots. The 3’s taken in the TCU game were good shots. The 3 where Desi dribble the baseline to the corner and turned and jacked up a 3 was poor shot at best. The wide open 3 against Bama Harris took his feet were set and it was catch and shoot that’s a good shot.
Getting good shots is what he wants.
Since I am not a coach, I rarely have any idea of what to do defensively to stop anybody or what to do offensively to better score. However, I do do recognize when it happening.
I am often baffled why highly paid coaches often seem as ignorant as I am. I guess each situation thrown at you has a solution. Muss seems good at recognizing what is happening and having a possible solution. But the players have to be able to take the directions and actually execute them.
I do love the fact that Musselman explains what happened and how they adjusted and tried to correct it. Neighbors does too, but maybe to a lesser extent. Broyles and Petrino did some of that too in their shows.
One strategy would have been to double and make him pass the ball. However, that day you had Harris, Whitt, Sills alongside Jones and all 3 of them can handle the ball. Whitt was especially dangerous with his ability to drive and convert.
With Joe out/ineffective I would have thought they would have played some zone. Oats maybe much like Musselman where it is 100% man to man.
If the defense over plays the 3-point line, you drive. I think it’s pretty simple to understand. I expect Auburn to double Jones and make him give up the ball. That will open the 3-point line for someone. Auburn has been pretty effective on defense in taking away the other team’s top weapon. Of course, Whitt did score 26 in support of Jones and has gone off a few times this season. Need someone else to chip in if they double Mason.
Desi Sill and Harris need to be in double figures. Jones will get to double figures. Chaney need to be effective along with Adrio. Rebounds will be a focus. If Auburn gets to the free throw line 40 times like they did against Kentucky it won’t be a positive outcome for our hogs.