Learn Basketball.

Dec 6, 2023, 11:09 PM

I get it. Message boards are a place to pop off, to let your emotions out. For fans whose team just lost the game to let off some steam. For our basketball team, a lot of you have been doing that for a long time. No doubt most of you still will.

We're a football school. Most of our fans don't know the first thing about basketball. We lose a game, or we look like we're going to, and most of you default to your 'same old Brownell' posting routine. Well, our Brownell isn't the 'same old' one, and this team is worthy of your attention for the full 40 minutes. I advise you to wait the entire 40 minutes before offering your criticism.

I have also been frustrated with Brad at times, and wanted him gone at times. For me, the deficiencies of past teams have been centered offensively. I was unable to understand our sets and the actions we were trying to run off of them. We seemed to be good defensively, but I couldn't necessarily articulate why. I decided that if I wanted to run Brad out of town, I was at least going to learn enough to be able to understand in basketball terms why I believed that.

I'm still on my basketball knowledge journey, but I'm so much better-informed at this point, and how fortunate that this coincides with a team that is clearly Capital 'G' good. And even if we had lost tonight, that still would've been true. If you're interested, I can't recommend enough https://www.learn-basketball.com/courses/xsandos. Their course is well worth the entry price and explains everything you'd ever need to know to watch the game with your brain turned on.

We're going to lose quite a few games this season. It's ok. It's not always Brad's fault. Sometimes the shots don't go down. Sometimes the other team is better. Sometimes we'll just be unlucky. Enjoy the season. This is a special team. Go Tigers.

Some thoughts on the game tonight:
• At around the halfway point in the first half, Brad made an adjustment. Early on, the Gamecocks were leveraging ball screens very effectively to create space and opportunities to score. Brad had our boys hedge, or alternately fight very aggressively through their screens. This comes with its own set of risks, but in this case it discombobulated what the Gamecocks were trying to do at a critical point in the game. We made them pivot to an entirely different offensive approach and as a result and they weren't as effective for the rest of the game
• I felt for RJ in the first half. He's a terrific post player, and unfortunately just missed a few bunnies. He hits those, we're essentially tied at half and I'd imagine we'd have seen a lot less whining about "same old Brownell" on the boards earlier this evening. His poor finishing half was compounded by that offensive foul on the elevator screen for Girard which was a pretty sharp play call from Brad coming out of a timeout. Obviously he finished similar post chances in the second half and as a result was a key contributor in our win
• My initial take on Bas Leyte was that he didn't really belong, not really a D-1 player. But I dunno, man! He's giving us some pretty good minutes. I'd like to see a bit more of him when we spell PJ/Ian
• Speaking of Ian, what can you say... he's such an important player for us. As important as PJ. It's a pleasure to watch them work at both ends of the court. Without his brilliance tonight, it's an L
• I think there was displeasure on a few fronts in the first half tonight around (1) That long stretch where PJ sat longer than expected because we ran way over the media timeout threshold and (2) During our end of 1st half drought where PJ had virtually 0 touches. For (1), I think you live with it. It's a bit of a hedge against PJ picking up a second foul, and our 2nd unit is good enough to get the job done. Obviously it was a rough stretch, and I'm fuzzy on the details of each possession, but I think it's forgivable that Brad chose not to call a TO to force PJ back on. For (2), man I get it. I think we have a LOT of capable scorers, but it's reasonable that our coach should instruct the guys on the floor to play through PJ if we go a few possessions without a basket. No big argument from me there
• This team is so smart defensively. I haven't attended a game in-person so I can't speak to our on-floor communication, but they're obviously so well-coached with respect to rotations and assignments for how they're handling screens as well as off-ball help. Of course they slip up every now and then, but this is a great defensive team and we wouldn't be 8-0 otherwise
• What a BLOCK party that was coming out in the 2nd half for PJ. Nothing insightful here, just so rare to see 3 blocks in a 30-second span. It was awesome. He's awesome
• Less than ideal start from Chase Hunter this season, but he is and will remain an important piece of our team. Good to see him hit some clutch shots down the stretch

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