The McGuire Room

I admit Coach Horn knows more about basketball than me, and I am not qualified to give him advice, but to participate in your thread, I would suggest that after watching Leonard and Richardson miss several outside shots, I would have told them to try instead to get the ball to Gill and/or Harris and see if they could score in the paint. Gill only took 5 shots and made 4 of them, so I think we would have been more successful in that game getting him more opportunities. I might also have suggested that the guards drive the ball into the lane, if that option was available, and see if they could get a good shot closer to the basket.

I like the game of basketball myself and have played it for a long time at various levels. I admit Coach Horn may know more then me but it seems like he has a hard time making game time adjustments.

This team has a lot of potential but the offense we run and run and run doesn't play to our strengths. I think we should play more inside out with this team. Throw it in the post to DH and AG to get the offense started. Gill has very good hands and tends to make go decisions with the ball. He is pretty good around the basket and I think if Harris slows down on some of his moves he can be deadly down low.

I have seen time and time again the same offensive set run but it is not working. Teams have figured it out and the high screens take our big men away from the basket more often then not. It ends up way the shooter is taking a contested shot with only Harris or Gill or Cooke as the only rebounder. Plus I would to see some pump fakes and drives on some of those contested shots. the midrange game can be a deadly weapon if used right. If you can hit those 14-18 jump shots regularly it loosen up the defenses and they cannot key on just the 3 or sag into the middle to stop drives into the lane or double team the post.

I think with some adjustments we could be very effective and efficient on offense. JMHO

One thing that I have noticed for about 20 years is that we have never been particularly good at feeding the post.

A lot of that has to do with the body types and ability of the guys we have in the post. But it shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be to get them touches. They need to get Harris calmed down in there to where he is making the point blank shots. Taking more time perhaps than he is. Seems like he shoots a lot quickly and off balance.

I will say that in all three games we have made an effort early to go inside and have not been terribly effective at converting those.

I agree that it would be appropriate to run more plays for Gill who seems to be very efficient and skilled in there. And against the mid-majors, he ought to be able to get good shots. In the SEC it will be more difficult.

I don't know what they need to do to get more outside shots to drop for the guards. A good portion of the misses were open looks that you would expect a good shooter to hit at 50% clip. A lot of the misses were less good shots of course.

I have been watching the tape of the Elon game. A lot of the shots Leonard took were pretty good shots, they just didn' t fall. He has the reputation of a good shooter, and you don't get that by missing shots. I have to believe that he will soon have a game in which he makes several shots, and I hope it is the next game. I think every player needs to learn the difference between a good shot and a not so good one, and have the discipline to only take the good ones. But you have to learn that. Most players take some shots that are not good ones, but you hope that we don't take many of those.

I doubt that Coach Horn has told Leonard or Richardson to shoot whenever they get it, no matter what. But I think he probably gives them a lot of room to decide whether they have a shot they can make, or not. That works good if they are making a decent percentage, but when they are cold, they need to maybe try driving the ball a little instead of shooting threes, or passing it to Gill or Harris. Gill needs to get more shots.

Rich is averaging 20 minutes a game, and Leonard 24.5. When Ellington returns, he will probably get some of those minutes, as well as some from our other guards, and that might be helpful in limiting the shots that right now are not falling. Hopefully, Brian and Damien can both start making more of their shots, and USC can become more efficient and productive on the offensive end. Inability to score was the major problem last year, I don't want that to be the case again, but it certainly was against Elon. It will be interesting to see what happens with Ellington on the team.

Williams has a nice shot and he is very good with it, but he kind of shoots his jumper from under his chin, so he needs to be pretty open to shoot it. But he is quick and a very good jumper, so when he is closely guarded, I think he can drive by his defender and shoot a floater, or maybe take it to the rim. I like him and think he can be a good player for us.

I haven't seen any type of repriminds in playing time for taking bad shots or anything. Slawson shot some bad and quick 3s down the stretch in the Elon in which Horn should have been fuming but got no reaction. I think when we are not doing well he seems to become lost or detached for some reason. When we are winning he is up and moving and coaching more. Now I am not at the games and I am only watching on TV or my computer, so someone who attends the games has more insight then me on that.

The only issue with benching players for missing good wide open shots is that it can kill their confidence. On the other hand letting them continue to shot and kill the team is not a good option either. It is a fine line that you have to walk with young players these days.

IMO we had a lot of uncontested shots the first half but really forced up too many 3's down the stretch, especially the last 2 minutes. If we had gotten 2 2-points shots following the 2 missed first shots on the one and ones we would have cut the lead to one. Having Gill and Cooke on the bench was a tremendous factor as well. And my major gripe with Coach Horn was when left Geathers in the game from the 7:50 mark until about 5 minutes to go. We didn't have many scorers on the floor at that time and needed an offensive threat at the 5 position. And without Anthony or Malik being available I guess he couldn't pull RJ for his poor shot choices, but I think I would have taken my chances on Cooke's experience to keep from fouling out in that situation. But when you shoot as poorly as we did you don't give yourself much of a chance to win.

One thing I did see with Leonard is that he is making attempts to get inside.....I haven't sat down and rewatched the whole game, but I know in the first 10 mins I can recall him dribbling inside, and missing a 2, and dishing a assist to Harris for a easy deuce.........and his first couple shots were bad shots selection wise, but then he had about 3 wide open shots......and I can remember when they said he was 0 for 7 I was like dang, it's not even halfway through the first half yet! I wish Brenton wouldn't have stepped out of bounds on that dunk! Dude is fearless going up for dunks when he has the opening! To me, Brenton and Damien, from what I've seen, have played with a edge the first couple of games. And Damien just hasn't made his shots! I agree that Gill seems passive at times.....would like for him to get a killer mentality down low, because he's the most skilled big man we have had offensively in YEARS!!! I would not be surprised if he contended for first team all sec before he's done at USC!