Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thoughts on the Georgia Game

Mo Patton pens an article saying Vanderbilt's Defense Stars in SEC Win in today's Tennessean, while David Boclair writes in the Nashville City Paper that "Ogilvy plays, carries Vanderbilt to victory over Georgia." Here are the stats.

I was in attendance with the wife and have a few thoughts:

1. This team stands around on offense, especially when AJ is not in the game. They settle for bad shops, and there were times last night where guys (especially Brad on a couple of 3's) seemed hell-bent on shooting. I would make the same observation, pretty much all the time with George Drake (apologies Seamus). That guy is a black-hole on the offensive end.

2. Part and parcel of standing around, this team doesn't pass out of trouble, they dribble. For anyone who's played any basketball beyond youth rec league knows that's a no-no. Georgia spent a lot of time in zone last night. That defense is a lot more effective if the team doesn't move (see above) and refuses to pass the ball.

3. Kevin Stallings' substitution patterns are bizarre to me. There are times when it honestly appears to me that he's just forgotten about guys that are on the bench. He doesn't maximize his players playing time to rest ratio by making substitutions close to the media time-outs. This was particularly problematic with AJ.

4. Vanderbilt's GOT to shoot more that 11 free throws a game. I love that AJ took 9 free throws, but the fact the rest of the team could only manage 2 more is ridiculous. I thought the refereeing was inconsistent and that they let them play a little too much. With that said, as sloppy as the play was, I can't say I blame the zebras for swallowing their whistles.

5. We knew that this would be a rocky, up-and-down season. Still, this team played better in the loss at Rupp than the win in Memorial. Saturday's game in Starkville will be interesting, especially since Vanderbilt host UT on ESPN next Tuesday.

3 comments:

BP said...

I agree wholeheartedly about the offense, Bobby. All season long I have been trying to decipher this offense, without much success. Even against a man defense, they seem to just stand around, waiting for an opportunity to get it in to AJ. The problem, of course, is that with no perimeter shooters, the three players collapse on AJ every time he gets the ball. Whatever happened to that Princeton-style offense that Stallings' teams used to run?

Anonymous said...

this is one game. though georgia is not a great offensive team, they're not bad on defense. vanderbilt did not shoot well and while they are not as strong of a shooting team as years past, they still shoot the ball alright.

jeff taylor didn't really get going like i thought he would against georgia but that's alright. i tend to agree that stallings has some weird substitution patterns. that said, i still think he's trying to figure out what combinations work and which ones he likes.

also, it's clear that vandy does not have a serious shooter on the team and stallings recognizes that. he allows them to play a different style of game in order to give them an opportunity to win every game. when you are the #1 field goal defense in the NCAA., something must be clicking. when you force teams to eat a lot of clock in every possession, your team is also not going to score as much by default. it's not sexy and it's not run and gun sort of like last year, but it works. we really need some help in the half court offense though...

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