Clemson Loss to Michigan an Eye Opener
by ggggmen08 on Dec 1, 2010 7:41 AM EST
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PrintClemson's 69-61 loss to Michigan was, to be completely honest, a little depressing. I've watched a few of Clemson's games already this year and I've been trying to look for bright spots in those games. The competition in the games that I had seen was weak though, so I was trying to look at the quality of basketball played rather than the final score. I had negative suspicions about this team, but I reserved judgement until I saw them play a decent team. Those suspicions were confirmed last night in the form of a smack in the face. Clemson's basketball team lacks talent.
Clemson has guards that cannot shoot and big guys with no post game. It's tough to score when you play a half court game with those attributes from your players. Smith and Stitt are Juniors and Seniors, respectively, and those two have proven over the course of their careers that they are not good shooters. At least to Stitt's credit he is good driving the ball to the basket. Smith doest not possess an offensive talent worthy of playing in the ACC. He can't shoot, he's not quick or athletic, and he makes horrible decisons with the basketball. His stat line last night reads like it has far too often over the past 2+ years. 2 points, 0-5 from 3 point land, 2 assists and 2 rebounds, with 5 turnovers. Not only is Smith not helping the team, but he is severely hurting the team. The other starting guard is Andre Young. Although Young actually can shoot the ball, he is 5'9 with lifts and cannot get his shot of easily enough to be a consistent threat in the half court offense. Michigan had guys guarding him last night that were 6'4 or taller. That height difference renders Young useless on offense unless someone can draw his defender away from him.
The big guys are struggling just as bad, if not worse. The three key big guys that we rotate in and out of the game are Grant, Booker, and Jennings. None of them possess an offensive move with their back to the basket that a defense has to worry about. This is ACC basketball!! Ever heard of an up-and-under? A drop step? These guys don't have that in their arsenal. I had kids on my 8 and under team that used an up-and-under move. The only way those 3 are going to score is off of putbacks or because Stitt was able to drive and dish to them. And since none of them are good, aggressive, hard-nosed rebounding big men, these points are few and far between.
I wish I could spin this loss as a poor shooting night that is atypical of what to expect out of Clemson, but I don't see it that way. I see a veteran team that is what it is at this point. They are lacking in talent and basic offensive fundamentals. This team is going to struggle to score against quality opponents all year. Michigan is a middle of the road Big 10 team and they came into our house and ran away with this game. The final score of 69-61 isn't even indicative of how much better Michigan was than Clemson.
Going forward I'd like to see Noel Johnson take Tanner Smith's minutes. I suspect that Coach Brownwell isn't happy with Johnson's defense and rebounding effort, but this is a guy that can actually make an open shot. It's not like Smith is playing great defense or controlling the glass. As long as Johnson can knock down an open shot and not turn the ball over 5 times a game, Clemson will be in better shape with him on the floor. The other thing I will be looking for is development out of the big men. Jennings and Booker are Sophomores now and their big men coach needs to teach them how to be confident and score with their backs to the basket.
These opinions are not necessarily those of the Proprietors of Shakin' The Southland.
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Grant last night was the only reason we scored in the 1st half. Absolutely terrible shot selection by the team, and Stitt kept giving up wide open three pointers early in the game. I think this team has a confidence issue under Brownwell, a similar one OP had to deal with and fixed by upping the tempo on the team. Brad will need to do this to not only keep the confidence up with steals and pressure, but also to keep the games games and not blow outs.
Don't give up, don't ever give up ~ Jim Valvano
Grant did score a couple of buckets in the 1st half
but they were all layups off of either putbacks or drive and dishes from Stitt.
I thought the shot selection and turnovers were a problem, as well.
Many of the poor shots were with plenty of time on the shot clock.
There is something in these Hills!
Attack the zone
I can’t believe how much time we wasted passing the ball around the key. Stitt, Young, and Stanton need attack it. This is pretty basic stuff. From what I know of Brownell he is a fundamentals guy, so this surprised me. They did a little better job in the second half.
That was ugly
Terrible shooting from the 3 (although there were a lot of shots that were dead on and just didn’t drop). The defense was not hustling at all, especially for being down 15 points in the first half. It seemed like Michigan had wide open shots every time they had the ball. Milton looked like is old self, with no confidence/strength in the post, and you can count the actual post moves the team attempted on one hand.
Clemson's problem for the last 15 years has been a lack of good jump shooting
Brownell’s offense wont do squat with the terrible jump shooters we have. They miss wide open 6-10 foot shots.
Now you see why Purnell ran off in the middle of the night, no talent whatsoever. His last recruiting class was full of busts. Noel Johnson, Milton Jennings, Devin Booker… all terribly overrated. I have no clue how jennings was a mcd’s all american. I watched the mcd’s all american game his senior year and he got worked over good in that game, he sucks flat out. No post game, no outside game, terrible on defense, he’s just an idiot.
The ACC is terrible this year. Clemson will win more than you think.
Wake Forest is one of the worst teams in a BCS conference. They got killed by Stetson, VCU, and Winthrop. They beat Iowa (who is also terrible) by 3 points on a 30 foot 3 pointer.
Virginia has something like 8 freshmen. They lost to Washington by 40 something, Stanford by 20 something, and Witchita State by 12. They are in major rebuild mode.
Ga Tech was crushed by Kennesaw State and Northwestern. They stink.
I could keep going through all the bad losses in the conference this year, but I think you get the point. If you think Clemson stinks, that’s one thing. But there are teams in the ACC that stink a lot worse. Miami, however, is not one of them.
We might be stuck.... but let's see what happens.
OP’s departure on the midnight train and TDP’s handling of all the circumstances has left Coach Brownell to pick up the pieces. Brownell tried to hold on to all the OP recruits and wanted new ones but look at where we are. We still cannot reliably shoot 3’s and our remaining big men do not know how to play big inside. I truly hope that Brownell can coach them “up”. I am going to give him a chance and see how the season goes.
I would point out that no two motion systems are the same
and these guys might be thinking too much instead of just playing. That might contribute to the sloppyness I see on offense.
Brownell has to find an option inside though, we’re getting killed defensively in the paint.
The problem was in the 1st half Michigan was playing a lot of zone
and Clemson seemed very stagnant on offense. Beilein loves playing zone and I would’ve expected Clemson to come out better prepared against it.
I could be way off here... but
If we have players that were recruited to run and gun, then why couldn’t Brownell mix it up a little bit? It’s like he cut our players abilities out cold turkey. If it were me, I would allow them to push the tempo some, but also work on the offense that Brownell wants to run.
Thoughts?
Winning only matters when it matters.
I think it's something he is going to have to seriously consider
this team won’t win too many ACC games in half court sets.
Running and gunning doesn’t necessarily have to be a full court press. It simply means that when you get a rebound or take the ball out after a make that you push the tempo and try to get down court before the defense gets set. That’s what I’d like to see.
Pretty much hits the nail on the head: poor performance out of the Tigers
with a bad offensive performance (especially inside) on the night. I was a little surprised to see Tanner out there as much as I did as well.
We won’t win many games playing like that last night, there is little to argue there.
Clemson Sports Analysis and Insight
www.shakinthesouthland.com
Simple Stuff
I don’t really understand why, on offense, when we’re struggling, we don’t revert to simple plays run out of simple sets. I didn’t even see us try to set a legitimate high pick and roll last night and Stanton and Stitt especially need to be told to drive to the basket more. Those were 2 huge problems under Purnell, our guys literally could not even set a basic pick, it was unbelievably atrocious to watch and it doesn’t seem to have gotten better. I’ve also never understood why Stitt is not instructed to drive to the basket more. A lot of people seem to praise Stitt for a lot of things he doesn’t really deserve, like his defense, shooting, or general ballhandling. But I do think his best asset is his quickness and he probably has one of the quickest first steps in the conference. Let him drive off the dribble and attempt to dish or score, he’s a decent finisher at the basket and a good free throw shooter. These just seem like such simple options when our offense is struggling and we’re literally passing it around the key and not challenging the defense in any way.
Post game thoughts
Coaching – Michigan’s lead grew from 8 to like 15 in the 1st half and Coach B didnt use any of his timeouts to try to stem the tide. I guess he thought with the home crowd behind us.. we’d figure it out. He was wrong. I was happy to see that when HUGE errors were made, guys were pulled and coach knelt down right in front of them to get in their face
Backcourt – The # of mental errors from Andre and Tanner were baffling, and Stitt really looked like he was pressing when we got down early. I kept yelling RELAX! at my TV.
When Still went to the line for his first 2 FTs.. you could see how stressed out he was.. and he proceeded to brick them both. Tanner is 5-28 from the field in his last 4 games (2 – 17 from 3) He’s not a shooter. I have no idea why he thinks he is. Corey Stanton played very well. His minutes will be going up. Noel has to start playing some D.. and his minutes will go up.
Frontcourt – Jerai has to learn to use the backboard from 2 feet away. I liked his hustle and his rebounding in the 1st half. He was the only person doing anything in the 1st half. Milton and Devin were just awful. Milton needs to calm the F down. When he gets the ball down low.. he’s in such a hurry and so out of control.. i’m amazed he hits the rim. Devin is pussy. He’s 6’8" and he throws up fall away- fade away shit. He has to have some sort of move going towards the basket.
In the last few years.. when things didnt go well in the 1st half — we didnt have answers.. we couldnt make in game adjustments. Our defense was god awful in the 1st half.. they looked completely lost. On the defense end.. there was much more focus.. and much more energy in the 2nd half.
We just have to figure out how to score and i dont know if this roster will provide any good answers for the rest of this year.
Can't say that I'm surprised Noel is transferring
Don’t really see this as a bad thing. He’s apparently a moron that hasn’t figured out how to set screens and run off them. He just wants to sit on the 3 pt line and chuck away.
He also doesn’t want to rebound or play D. We don’t need this kind of player.
Good news — With Donte Hill and Noel now transferring.. that’s 6 open scholarships for next year. We have B Sullivan and Sapp coming in.. 4 more… can we PLEASE recruit 2 guys that can shoot????
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