Two concepts blurred during yesterday’s work session: the freshman wall, and powering through adversity and challenges. This is the eighth season in which CAAHoops has covered CAA hoops, and I don’t know that I’ve gone three days, in-season, without an update.
You see it’s been one of “those weeks,” challenging time and committment on every front. The real life is tornadic–the frenzy of one group of work people wanting to finish out the year strong, and another group wanting to make we are set up for January. Translation: meetings, the bane of my existence. I have a personal focus issue, too. When others talk about the “end of Q1,” they mean product launches and I’m thinking Quinn McDowell’s career at William & Mary.
Plus, we welcomed a new dog at the home office. (Stock tip: pet odor carpet cleaner company.)
I certainly could have powered through it, pouring through Ken Pomeroy at 10pm and calling Monte Ross to follow up on Devon Saddler’s benching. Or wondering how JMU could play 30 good minutes of basketball, only to give up a 29-9 game-ending run, at home, to Kent State. VCU is playing great basketball–best in the conference if you listen to the smart guys–but face a tough test tonight against Richmond. Lots of meaty preview material there.
But when the dishes were done and the homework checked, I opted for a very nice St. Emilion, closed eyes, and the blessed union of pajamas and couch. This was my wall. And that got me to thinking as I cleaned up dootie during last night’s work session. We don’t give enough credit to the players for fighting through walls and managing their time.
We’ve spoken of acknowleding that they have serious time commitments. The main one is school and the demands of class time and homework. The easy one is practice. But blend that with travel, scouting opponents and watching tape on themselves in order to improve. Factor in having an actual social life. Talking to family.
Downtime.
Here’s where it really got to me. It’s easier to do all of this when you’re 7-1. But I thought of the kids at William & Mary and Towson. They continue to push every day despite adversity and the payoff of a win in front of 8,000 fans. They don’t have the choices that I have. Personally, I tip my cap to all of them.
I realized I need to suck it up and play more offense. Just like basketball, you can’t succeed on a large scale with defense and rebounding. Oh, it keeps you in every single game, but you have got to put the ball in the basket in abundance if you expect to win either significantly, or on a significant stage. So if CAAHoops is to be of any use to you, I need to shoot more.
Which brings me to a graphic that garnered my full attention, perhaps more so than it should. I’m fascinated by it.
I was asked during a radio interview the other day “what’s wrong with Drexel?” My answer was a canned ”Fouch slowed, Ruffin poor start, Givens getting focus…blah, blah, blah.”
But I started talking about blending in freshman Damion Lee, a gifted offensive player, and getting Fouch back healthy and shooting threes. And Frantz Massenat finding those guys–and the post players–in a position to shoot. You know, offensive stuff.
And almost as if it was provided by The Fates, the following chart from Ken Pomeroy was plopped in front of me. (Need another reason to pay Ken? This stuff is everywhere on his site.)
Take a look at how good Drexel’s defense has been, and how bad it’s offense has been. In the past seven seasons, only once has the offense finished better than 208th nationally, and only once has the defense finished worse than 92nd. All you need to see is the Christmastime look of the chart.
The reds and greens are striking in their polarity. What’s more, it isn’t a two or three-year trend. SEVEN YEARS.
What does this tell me? There is absolutely nothing wrong with Drexel. They are simply playing the same style as always. More importantly, as it relates to a CAA championship: Damion Lee and Chris Fouch are far more important to Drexel’s success than its frontcourt.
December 9th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
That would be fine if Drexel was trying to be Drexel from the last seven years, but they’re not. They’re supposed to be better than that.
It’s not that they’ve never had a head-scratching loss, it’s that they’re not supposed to have them (as many of them, anyway) this year. Arguing that there’s nothing wrong with them is essentially saying that they’ve been fine for the last seven years, but only once during that stretch have they been a serious contender.
December 9th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Mike,
The one stat that does stand out for some concern is their FTA/FGA or FTR ratio which is 26.0 which is 319th in the country. When Bruiser’s teams have been successful, like last season and especially 2006-07, they make up for their bad shooting by getting to the line. In 2006-07, when they were snubbed ouf of making the NCAA, they had a FTR of 44.9 which was 21st in the country that season.
This season they are dead last in the CAA in FT attempts with 88 overall in six games, an average of 14 per game. The next worst in that category is JMU with 121 FT attempts in seven games, an average of 17 per game.
Here are Drexel’s FT attempts from the previous five seasons and where they ranked in the CAA
2010-11 682 – 5th
2009-10 650 – 4th
2008-09 637 – 7th
2007-08 622 – 5th
2006-07 724 – 2nd
Generally, the Dragons are in the top half of the CAA in FT attempts, which helps to offset their lack of shooting prowess. Drexel needs to get to the line to makeup for the shooting woes. They certainly have time to fix that.
December 9th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Gary–very true about FT rate, but Drexel has also been a terrible FT percentage team. It isn’t like they get a disparate number of points via the free throw.
It kind of backs up my assertion that they need to score from midrange and perimeter more. Lee and Fouch are those keys.
Chris–I’m not saying Drexel is fine. I’m saying Drexel is Drexel. They need to get out of this rut offensively and as said above score from the perimeter more if they expect to do anything more than contend.
I’d wager right now they win at least 12 conference games and finish top five (depending upon what others do).
I’m thinking their CAA tourney struggles stem from this: the more a team knows you, the less defense is a differentiating skill. By the time we reach March, Drexel’s opponents have played them twice and have 30 games of scout. If you cannot score in multiple ways, you’re in trouble.
December 9th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
I understand that fully Mike. But, it’s always been there strong point to draw fouls and get to the line. Even if you are not the best free throw shooting team in the world, if you get to the line a lot, you will still score your share of points.
December 9th, 2011 at 6:17 pm
“I’d wager right now they win at least 12 conference games and finish top five (depending upon what others do).”
I would agree with that assessment.
December 11th, 2011 at 1:12 am
[...] Read More: Thursday Work Session: There Is Nothing Wrong With Drexel… [...]
December 11th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Really good assessment. You’re correct in that those numbers show that Drexel is Drexel. However, the numbers on that chart are not mutually exclusive from your point about needing Fouch healthy, merging a lot of new players into the system, getting the bigs more effective. Add those 2 things together. Drexel’s defense will always be there. Assuming the offensive numbers can’t get any worse from the first 6 games while our best shooter was out, and the supposedly better shooter of the two freshmen is out a little longer, then it is completely reasonable to think that our numbers will be stronger come CAA play.
As for FT shooting, I agree with Gary Moore. You need to get to the line to win. Even last year, we were getting to the line the most since 2006-2007 and that was our best year in terms of wins. When did our season end? When we got to the line half as much as VCU in the CAA tournament. We lost by two. If that 2nd half was called reasonably (and I’m not trying to bring that debate up again) and we get, say, even 4 more foul shots, even though we don’t shoot them particularly well, that game probably ends differently.
December 11th, 2011 at 10:50 pm
^Wahhhh