What we need to do to improve our offense

Very insightful comment made by Steve Cleveland with respect to our losses in the WCC. He indicated that we need to have at least 3 people step up to the plate and score. Tonight we had Davies (29), Harstock (20) and Abouo (15). In loss to LMU, we had Harstock and Davies and no one else.



Additionally, our guard play needs to improve drastically. If we don't have someone constantly bagging the 2 or 3 from outside when the teams double up on our bigs, then they will pack it inside and show no respect for the outside. We must have the players that make they pay for that type of defense.



IMO Zylstra, Abouo, Carlino, Cuscik, et. al. need to have consistent performances and not this up-down, who is going to show up this game approach.



We are very lucky that we were able to avoid getting blown out in the first couple of minutes (11-2 run by the waves almost sunk us). If we start out like this against better teams, we may not recover.

Most games we start put flat...way flat. Against poor teams that can be made up. Against good teams, an early deficit equates to a loss.



This season, we haven't won a single game when down at the half.



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1. Our 2 conference losses played out in nearly the same way, Rogers was injured, Abouo got 2 fouls early in the first half, he became less aggressive when he was in, no one else stepped up. We need good play from the 3 spot. Zylstra is a good player, however, he's a little too small (both in height and size) to effectively play the 3. When he is playing the 3, he looks out of place and uncoordinated. We really need our injured guys back. We need them healthy. Once we have the 3 settled, our team functions better.

2.I like what Rose is doing with Carlino, he is forcing him to be accountable for the bad shots and bad decisions he is making. Now is the time to do that. Late in the season, we will need Carlino to play more minutes regardless. Once he starts to make good decisions, the longer play will be fruitful. He is our best option, however, the worst thing we can do is allow him to think that he is the only option. As Carlino develops, I think we will see Cusick less and less and Winder will see more and more playing time off the bench. The problem that we have now is that we have a freshman running the point and the next best player that we have at the point is also a freshman. So, when you want to pull the freshman point guard and sit him down because of freshman mistakes, you need to put someone in that has the experience to do it the way the coach wants it done. It doesn't work to put another freshman in to do that. It would have been better for the teaching phase to happen during the early season rather than during conference play, however, that wasn't an option.

3. In reality, this is a rebuilding year. We are rebuilding the guard line. Fortunately, the building blocks we have to build with have some awesome potential.

#3 on your list - rebuild - that should not have been a surprise - but the new guys overachieved early and it seemed like it would continue. Now - film - and people have figured them out a bit.



There is that potential word again. Time will tell.



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