03-05-2012, 08:05 AM
Something I noticed last night, and I have noticed several other times this year.
Once we have a lead, our players loosen up and shoot better. If we were able to compare our shooting percentage in the first 10 minutes of the game vs. our shooting percentage in the first 10 minutes of the second half, I bet we would find a large discrepancy. Last night we started with 3 misses, followed by Joslyn's 3, then 3 more misses. (At some point during the year an opposing coach commented something to the effect that if you can keep it close, Stanford's offense can be tolerated, but once Stanford gets a lead and the pressure goes down that their players put on a shooting clinic.)
In many games this year the other teams kept it close for much of the first half, but once we get a 10 point lead it rapidly becomes a 20 point lead. When we get behind or feel the pressure, though, we tend to shoot bricks, like at Connecticut or during the last minutes in the 1st game against Ca.l. In this game, we shot very poorly at the beginning of the game, but once we finally to back to a 5-4 lead we didn't really look back. But this is a pretty consistent pattern all year....except we put Ca.l away last night earlier than often happens.
Is this typical for most teams? Or is this a product of our players having very little experience playing from behind or in close games? Or is it just that the defensive intensity of opponents is high at the start of games and cannot be sustained?Â
As we advance and meet better teams and get into more and more close games this is a concern. For example, can we shoot the 3 at the same percentage when we are behind as we can when we are ahead? Or is it only a weapon that we can use to extend leads?
Once we have a lead, our players loosen up and shoot better. If we were able to compare our shooting percentage in the first 10 minutes of the game vs. our shooting percentage in the first 10 minutes of the second half, I bet we would find a large discrepancy. Last night we started with 3 misses, followed by Joslyn's 3, then 3 more misses. (At some point during the year an opposing coach commented something to the effect that if you can keep it close, Stanford's offense can be tolerated, but once Stanford gets a lead and the pressure goes down that their players put on a shooting clinic.)
In many games this year the other teams kept it close for much of the first half, but once we get a 10 point lead it rapidly becomes a 20 point lead. When we get behind or feel the pressure, though, we tend to shoot bricks, like at Connecticut or during the last minutes in the 1st game against Ca.l. In this game, we shot very poorly at the beginning of the game, but once we finally to back to a 5-4 lead we didn't really look back. But this is a pretty consistent pattern all year....except we put Ca.l away last night earlier than often happens.
Is this typical for most teams? Or is this a product of our players having very little experience playing from behind or in close games? Or is it just that the defensive intensity of opponents is high at the start of games and cannot be sustained?Â
As we advance and meet better teams and get into more and more close games this is a concern. For example, can we shoot the 3 at the same percentage when we are behind as we can when we are ahead? Or is it only a weapon that we can use to extend leads?