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John_10065 writes:

in response to rockypop:

I used to think that the price of admission to receiving a basketball scholarship was, at the very least, to be able to shoot the basketball and score. Isn't that what the game's all about?

But, UT has had a serious problem finding guys who can score from the field AND the free throw line, except in Rocky Top League games.

I've said for years that UT coaches need to get these players out of the Rocky Top League because of the bad habits they're learning there. There is no defense played, and that experience has got to carry over to real games.

Don't even get me started on free throws. Sixty-five percent is unacceptable for any progam. And that's with Quinton Chievous hitting 2 for 2 for 100%, which skews the number. Without that, they're shooting 57%. How do these guys get college scholarships shooting that kind of percentage for FREE throws? The Next Big Thing - Jarnell Stokes, shoots 51%.

Credit Martin for the defense - it's as good as it gets. Maybe as good as Louisville's. But why are guys like Golden, McRae and McBee so undependable on offense? And, why do the bigs miss so many put-backs underneath?

Because of their shooting deficiencies, UT will see a lot of zones this season, and so far, they have treated a zone as an alien lifeform. They don't seem to know what to do with it. And, that is on the coach.

I played college basketball, so I'm not shooting from the hip here. I know the loss of Maymon is significant, but there is no excuse for scoring less in an entire game than almost every team in college basketball scores by halftime.

The good news is that the talent is there, and perhaps by March, the offense will improve. If it does, coupled with Martin's defense, UT can be a player.

Free throw % has to come up. Even worse is how many of the front end of 1 and 1 are missed?

Pearl teams were notorious also about FT shooting so I can't fault Martin on his own about that. However, there's a point that someone has to step up as a coach or assistant and demonstrate good FT shooting technique. Then it has to be up to the players to make time to practice that technique.

Nothing is keeping any player from practicing FT shooting on their own. Isn't that what every BB player want-a-be did with every open minute of their time? I know there are classes but for God's sake during this semester a BB player can take almost nothing as a class load.

We have to be over 75% as a team from the line, 80% is champion form.

And as far as offense, why won't anyone besides Golden put the ball on the wood and drive through a zone? Just do it guys! Penetrate the darn thing and play inside out if you cant't get a good shot.

Stop this pansy BS I've watched this year so far. Challenge the zone with penetration either with the dribble or the pass. You have to defeat it that way if you aren't looking to beat it with transition before it gets set.

So far this season UT has failed to defeat the zone on all levels. However a team looks to defeat it, it has to be with some form of penetration to make the zone collapse or over commit. Only when you can make that zone smaller can you defeat it. That is just simple basketball strategy.

Martin claims to be about motion offense and that is the name of the game out of the Purdue coaching tree. I have yet to see passes over the zone diagonally to the opposite side. Don't these guys understand the concept of penetration to lure the defenders in and passing over the zone to the open perimeter?

It's like our guys are so completely locked into playing one on one they can't wrap their brains around zone defense. Pearl's teams were also but frankly I am suprised to see Martin's team being the same way. Big 10 ball sees enough zone teams that Cuouzo should know how to play against it.

For two games now they have let the zone defenders stand on the 3 pt line without making them pay. Pass the damn ball or put it on the wood and penetrate!

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