Monday, January 7, 2013

revisiting Lincoln

I may still be wearing the rose (or in this case cardinal) colored glasses, but I did see some things I liked in Lincoln. The biggest of which is that for only the 3rd time this year and the first time since the 3rd game against Cornell, Berggren lead the team in shot attempts. Given the horrendous overall offensive performance I probably should not be looking for positive trends, but I like this one. In addition to the shots, the offense often ran through Berggren, and the other 6 players who got significant minutes each took between 5-8 shots. I like Berggren taking lots of shots, and I like offensive balance from the rest of the players (Evans did have 8 free throw attempts in addition to 8 shots so he was ahead of the others).

I posted earlier this year regarding Gasser's loss that I thought there was no chance that this would become Berggren's team. I thought that Dekker would find his way into that role given the lack of play makers in the backcourt, but he has pretty much stayed the course in his steady development and continues to play within the offense. Ryan Evans and Brust have both taken on the role of shooters and creators. They are 1 and 2 in shot attempts. Brust has been more aggressive with the dribble drive and Evans has been much more active in the post as well as being the primary post feeder to Berggren. In any given game shot attempts can be high for anyone depending on the defense and if a guy is hot or not, but you like to see your best player getting the most shots.

If Brust and Evans are going to lead the way, I guess I'm OK with that. It certainly isn't going to be Jackson and Marshall. I just hope that they remember Berggren is the best player and they need to get him his touches and shots. If not we will be condemned to a season of Evans jacking up 18 foot jumpers and Brust diving into three defenders in the lane.

2 comments:

  1. Good points. I've been calling for Berg to get more touches as well. Going into the NEB game he was leading the country in Offensive Rating among players with more than 20% usage. The problem his is usage was only about 21%. I'd like to see him up around 24% even if that means a lower level of efficiency. But teams have been doubling him aggressively in the post and we haven't been able to get much offense out of those situations (whether because Berg can't find the open man or the open man can't finish).

    The other half of the coin is that Berg has not been effective from the perimeter. He's usually just swinging the ball when he touches out there. But late in the NEB game I noticed that they ran two pick and rolls with Jackson and Berggren, maybe three (I was fast forwarding a lot). Berg got an open look at three out of this and I believe Jackson's pull up jumper came off this action. The pull up is Jackson's one offensive skill (I noticed that he practices it over and over again in pre-game warmups). If and Berg can develop some two man game, that would be huge.

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  2. By the way, when I saw the title I thought this was going to be a movie review.

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