2015-16 Season

[MikeUMA]

^^ Lalanne, Esho and TBerg shot 50% or better from the field, the next best player... 41%.

Throw TBerg out of your analysis, the sample size is too small. TBerg took only 27 FGs all season, less than 1 per game. Yeah, his percentage was great at 74%, but again, less than 1 shot per game.

[MikeUMA]

Isn't it time to consider a Foreign Tour ?

I was thinking this today also. With all the changes to our roster, we need all the warmup time we can get prior to the regular season opener.

Someone close to the program told me we were previously prohibited from a foreign tour because we played in Atlantis a few years ago. I don't know if that prohibition expires this offseason or not.

The Atlantis tourney was in November 2011, so this would be 4 seasons later. Plus, that was a regular season tournament. We haven't done a pre-season international thing in quite a while. Bahamas 2006 was the last one.

[Calmass9]

There's a lack of basketball IQ and discipline on this team that DK really needs to focus on and instill from day 1 of the 15-16 season. The thing is though, I am largely unsure if DK has the ability to realize some of these pretty basic breakdowns we had throughout the year. For example, someone hit on this in the Richmond game thread and it was absolutely spot on. In that game, everytime Clark/DG/Trey were on the wing and looked to make an entry pass to Cady, there was a guard looming in the paint to double as soon as the pass was made. It resulted in Cady just not getting touches in a game he was dominating, even when there was a 6-5 player or smaller on him. The solution to that defensive strategy is beyond simple and one that a high school coach should be counted on to make. Send Maxie to the high post (or anyone really, but you'd ideally like to have a taller player), force the zone to spread out since the ball is in the middle of the court, and dump the entry pass into Cady over the top from there. If they still collapsed, you had wide open looks from 3 for Clark and Trey or a kick and drive opportunity for DG. UMass executed it exactly once in the first half and DK never went back to it. It was an astounding lack of awareness on our coach's part.

College basketball has completely shifted from an up and down, exciting brand of basketball to a slow it down, methodical game. UMass officially made the shift this year and joined the strong majority of the country in the slow down, half-court game. Check out these insane stats on possessions per game from Pomeroy...

@kenpomeroy · Feb 24: Teams averaging 70+ poss/game…2002: 161, 2005: 73, 2009: 57, 2012: 32, 2015: 13 - and that will probably drop a bit.

This shift in the game absolutely benefits coaches who thrive in the Xs and Os of the game and can make tiny adjustments on the fly to exploit a weakness. DK built up the successes here around an up tempo pressing team who would wear teams down and run by them in the 2nd half. We slowed it down a bit last year, but we had the talent, and Chaz, to put together a great year. This year DK's flaws were fully exposed for all to see and it was amazingly discouraging.

The whole program needs to go back to the basics. Establish strong defensive principles, re-teach boxing out, create a simple press that is effective, and develop at least 2-3 offensive sets that institute offensive continuity that leads to instinctual basketball based around options A, B and C. The flex offense that Al Skinner ran at BC is an example of this. When Dayton's plan isn't to pound it inside to Pollard, they have an incredible continuity offense that they run very well. We did far too much 1 on 1 with 5 secs left on the shotclock bullshit.

Also, its pretty evident that this team did not practice hard and that's a major issue. I went to every game in Brooklyn from Thursday to Sunday and one of the things that stood out the most was how hard Dayton, VCU, URI, Davidson, GW, and the Bonnies set screens and made cuts off those screens. Those dudes were varying their speeds and making hard cuts to get open. Besides DG and Jabarie at times, I dont think another player on this team came off or set screens consistently that hard all year. It was impressive to watch and is a trait developed straight from hard repetitions in practice when you play 5 on 0. Who's responsible for getting these guys to practice hard?

This is probably the longest post I've ever written on this site. I care a lot about this program and I believe I know a little bit about basketball. You can probably tell I'm not sold at all on Kellogg, and honestly would be surprised if he's here in 3 years. I'm rooting for him though. And there are simple changes that he absolutely needs to make that are not that hard to produce. Still, I'm real worried about next year and have a feeling we are looking at a bottom 4 finish in A10 play. Unless Pipkins or another newcomer is a total game changer from day 1, I really dont know how you can look at next year positively after what we just witnessed.

[Swampy]

A UMass fan who cares and expresses it without the vitriol or snarkiness.

Good post, thanks for taking the time.

[UMassHoops]

Best post I've seen in a long time Cal. You summed up what I've been thinking but didn't have the ability to express in basketball terms. Not sold on, but rooting for DK also was spot on and I bet how the majority of the fan base feels at this point. I think #1 priority is get an x and o's guy. I don't want to be a team that relies on recruiting a game changing PG to mask a lack of offensive discipline. When that guy graduates there is nothing to fall back on. A guy like Chaz should be elevated by the system, not be the system. Hoping for the best, have a great offseason DK!

[TruBluMaroon]

Will DK interview at George Mason?

http://www.gomason.com/ViewArticle.dbml ... =209963089

[NilesGold]

There's a lack of basketball IQ and discipline on this team that DK really needs to focus on and instill from day 1 of the 15-16 season. The thing is though, I am largely unsure if DK has the ability to realize some of these pretty basic breakdowns we had throughout the year. For example, someone hit on this in the Richmond game thread and it was absolutely spot on. In that game, everytime Clark/DG/Trey were on the wing and looked to make an entry pass to Cady, there was a guard looming in the paint to double as soon as the pass was made. It resulted in Cady just not getting touches in a game he was dominating, even when there was a 6-5 player or smaller on him. The solution to that defensive strategy is beyond simple and one that a high school coach should be counted on to make. Send Maxie to the high post (or anyone really, but you'd ideally like to have a taller player), force the zone to spread out since the ball is in the middle of the court, and dump the entry pass into Cady over the top from there. If they still collapsed, you had wide open looks from 3 for Clark and Trey or a kick and drive opportunity for DG. UMass executed it exactly once in the first half and DK never went back to it. It was an astounding lack of awareness on our coach's part.

The whole program needs to go back to the basics. Establish strong defensive principles, re-teach boxing out, create a simple press that is effective, and develop at least 2-3 offensive sets that institute offensive continuity that leads to instinctual basketball based around options A, B and C. The flex offense that Al Skinner ran at BC is an example of this. When Dayton's plan isn't to pound it inside to Pollard, they have an incredible continuity offense that they run very well. We did far too much 1 on 1 with 5 secs left on the shotclock bullshit.

Also, its pretty evident that this team did not practice hard and that's a major issue. I went to every game in Brooklyn from Thursday to Sunday and one of the things that stood out the most was how hard Dayton, VCU, URI, Davidson, GW, and the Bonnies set screens and made cuts off those screens. Those dudes were varying their speeds and making hard cuts to get open. Besides DG and Jabarie at times, I dont think another player on this team came off or set screens consistently that hard all year. It was impressive to watch and is a trait developed straight from hard repetitions in practice when you play 5 on 0. Who's responsible for getting these guys to practice hard?

I'm confident in saying that the team has major problems and things to address. With that being said, I haven't watched any team practices, or spoken to the coaching staff or the players to be able to say with any certainty exactly what the root of the problems are. Watching a game I don't think it's evident that practices are not hard, but I'm also not ruling that out as a possibility.

The first problem to address is that the team is lacking in basketball skill. In order to be successful your players need to be able to make shots and dribble and pass without turning the ball over. All of the game planning and teaching in the world isn't going to win you games if the players can't do these basic things. What I don't know, is if the root of this problem is recruiting, player development or simply a lack of emphasis placed on them by the coaches, but ultimately all of them fall on DK if it's a problem that isn't addressed. Once you have those basics down, that's when better X's and O's come into play. I'd love to see more off-ball screens and more variety w/ the ball screens, but again, without the basics these things are useless. Is the current staff and players capable of doing this? I really don't know, but I'd certainly have more confidence in the team if they upgraded the coaching and player roster this off-season.

[69MG]

Also, its pretty evident that this team did not practice hard and that's a major issue.

Calmass, I agree with a lot of what you posted and you did a great job of articulating things far better than most of us have done. I have attended several practices and I can guarantee that the players practice very hard. However, I can't say for sure just how productive the practices are. I don't honestly know if the drills that DK runs are useful for THIS team. I wouldn't be surprised if he learned a lot of them from Cal, but Cal is dealing with a totally different caliber of player.

[fenway617]

TBerg is also a terrible FT shooter so if he plays more teams will zero in on that and foul him when he has an easy put back shot. This year he was 3-13 in FT attempts. He is 7 for 26 in his career from the line. Not a big sample size but enough to know he can't shoot FTs.

[econalum]

Also, its pretty evident that this team did not practice hard and that's a major issue.

Calmass, I agree with a lot of what you posted and you did a great job of articulating things far better than most of us have done. I have attended several practices and I can guarantee that the players practice very hard. However, I can't say for sure just how productive the practices are. I don't honestly know if the drills that DK runs are useful for THIS team. I wouldn't be surprised if he learned a lot of them from Cal, but Cal is dealing with a totally different caliber of player.

Not likely to ever attend a UM practice- too far away.

But 'Cal' above, made a lot of great points.

For me, there are 3 factors on D.K.:

1. Do his players get measurably better over their time here?
2. Is D.K. able to make the 'in game' decisions that win games?
3. Does he have a '3 year out' view of his recruiting needs? And, is he good at filling those needs?

I think that there are lots of data to be collected, but I think that especially 2 and 3 are DK weaknesses, not strengths. 1 is probably a split decision.

To me, 2 is DK's greatest weakness, shown especially 'down the regular season stretch' and in the playoffs. He often seems out-thought and out-coached.

Lots to ponder off season, for him, and whoever the A.D., who inherits a Mens series of programs in crisis.

[iwearglovesndhat]

our team has an extremely low basketball IQ
Kellogg doesn't develop players very well. He lucked out with Cady.

both massive problems

[baseline47]

Will DK interview at George Mason?

http://www.gomason.com/ViewArticle.dbml ... =209963089

I doubt DK and GMU will connect.

For starters, it'd take over a million/year to lure DK from UMass (though maybe some forum members might want to pony up the cash to get it done?) .

[uz2b-len]

There's no reason in the world for GMU to want DK or for DK to want to go there.

[mlaconte459]

it cant be expressed enough how badly we need a 5th year/Juco Big man.. All we need is someone that can alter a few shots and can gobble up rebounds, I see it as an absolute neccesity

[uz2b-len]

Agreed, it would make all the difference.