Long Beach State Athletics!: Re: the #1 issue for MBB continues..

Joel has a very effective mid-range jumper (or he did last year). Too often this year he is driving to the basket with his shot attempts more often than not getting blocked. Also in the early going, his FT shooting is off. Last year he was around 86%.

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I thought the #1 issue was rebounding. Did that pretty well last night.

Shooting and defending threes are seriously a significant issue. I don't quite know how we solve shooting issues. Murray was solid last year and has really struggled this year. I mentioned earlier that I see the lack of Colin Slater as really impacting Murray, I watched the first half last night, and I still think it is a central issue. You could see that SC's defense was designed to give Murray no space. The often hounded him and double teamed him, when they did that last year, Colin could effectively run the offense and hit the open look on the perimeter.

I think Hunter is going to be a really good player in time, currently he can't hit threes. Tsohonis scores pretty well in the paint, he is strong and has some real upside; but, his defense and perimeter shooting have been poor so far.

Get Jones back on the perimeter, add in Rotegaard and Murray will get better looks. But, it is also true he has not been hitting shots he made last year. If he doesn't fix that, we will be middle of the pack in the BW.

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modern game hinges on

spreading your offense

shooting the 3

defending the 3

pretty much sums up things, and now only TWO weeks left of practice to rectify

we don't spread our offense

we don't shoot the 3 well (#1 issue is Murray really struggles, surprising as he wants to go pro, and it's a shot he needs to have). Jones returning will help that somewhat

we don't defend the 3 well. again Jones returning will help that a bit, but basically we don't smother guys on the perimeter, the press/trap is risk/reward, leaves for lots of open 3s, frankly we depend on teams missing open 3s.

trading 3s for 2s just is a huge barrier to overcome

not sure how this staff will solve it. why I wanted to see more man on man in non-conf, to establish getting out on the 3.

there's no easy answer, just game after game same trend. so if we can't shott the 3, sure as heck better defend it