4-for-6 from 3...

[MdWIldcat55]

Vandy's defense was determined to shut down Booker, and the 3-point shot in general. But the Cats hit a high percentage of the ones they took.

I think the strategy was fine to keep going inside. Normally Towns and Dakari would find ways to score. Towns was in foul trouble and Dakari just let himself be pushed too far out to effectively use his body to score. Every so often this team makes the extra pass on the interior, and then they look unbeatable, with Lee or WCS getting dunks, or Towns getting the ball where he can make a quick move. But Vandy did a good job clogging the lane.

It is a tough call for a coach: Do you start setting double screens to get some perimeter shots, knowing that you might really stall the offense in a close game and let Vandy get over the hump? I think as hot as Booker has been, I'd have tried it a couple times, maybe when the Cats had pushed the margin up to 7-9 points.

By the way, Cats' season percentage from 3 up to 36 percent. That's edging closer to where championship teams normally shoot.

 

[Bluegrass79]

they did a damn good job of preventing 3's for sure. Vandys strategy was to prevent 3's and block/steal the ball from Dakari Johnson and throw transition passes to Lachance and his buddy for 3 pointers lol!
This post was edited on 1/21 11:27 AM by Bluegrass79

 

[Joneslab]

Originally posted by MdWIldcat55:
It might be time for Cal to start considering Booker's shooting more of an asset, and set more double screens for him. When a guy is shooting 50 percent from three this late in the season -- after a slow start -- he needs to take 6-8 a game.

I agree but there were some sets last night designed to get Booker open. He wasn't working as hard as he usually does, and the screens set to spring him were poor. Just a lot of unfocused play, and it showed up mostly in the lack of loose balls we grabbed early in that game. We got a bunch of deflections early and just couldn't grab the basketball. That set the tone.

Anytime you're playing almost completely inside the three-point line it's hard to get much separation in this sport. I thought we really outplayed them in the last few minutes of the first half and couldn't get the game into double-digits.