I guess some people didn’t like the Coppin State game. I thought it was great.
I’d prefer to see Meyers Leonard get twice as many shots, but ten field-goal attempts is a big improvement on the Bonaventure fiasco. Meyers tallied four assists, too — demonstrating an expert understanding of spacing, and a deft passing touch.
Kudos to Bruce Weber for allowing Meyers a whole 32 minutes. That number might be higher but for Weber’s exasperation, during the opening four minutes, at Meyers’ defensive positioning. “Where’s you man?” Weber demanded.
“Right there! Thirty-one!” Meyers shouted back, referring to Coppin State’s Michael Murray, who was also being guarded by Tyler Griffey.
After a few attempts at in-game dialog, and a bit of sass in return, Weber brought Meyers to the bench for a talk. Weber didn’t yell. He explained. I’m not sure what he said because, as I mentioned, he didn’t yell. It’s that other side of Bruce Weber you never get to hear from C section.
I like it that Meyers Leonard has a cocky streak. He’s a genuinely nice person, and — despite all the media training B1G players get — an independent thinker (“weirdo” in sports terminology). I’m glad he stands up for himself, and communicates his impressions & ideas.
In the end, everybody won, including Illinois.
Meyers communicated his impressions and ideas to the game’s officiating crew. Hair Club for Men’s Ed Hightower earned a shout-out and thumbs-up for an especially insightful call. Meyers shouted out “hey!” to him across the court while waving the thumb. “Hey!” he repeated, and when Hightower didn’t respond “HEY!” again and finally “HEY!”
Hightower acknowledged the thumb with a hand gesture of his own.
Meyers did not fare so well with Bo Boroski. Boroski assessed a double technical foul against Meyers and eensy-weensy (but evidently mouthy) Eagles guard Taariq Cephas. I don’t know what Cephas said to Meyers, but I can guarantee you that Meyers’ only reaction was a knowing smile.
In the post-game, Weber said the officials were concerned about behavior due to the Cincinnati-Xavier brawl.
Further kudos to Weber for playing ten guys 8+ minutes, and twelve guys for meaningful minutes.
The least of the participants (timewise) was Abe Djimde, who made a thoroughly awesome play hoisting two dudes from the lane so Tyler Griffey could sashay through the paint for a lay-up. Abe also scored a point!
Also awesome was Mike Shaw’s solo trip through the paint, when he recognized an opening and took it. Because Mike approached from the left, he used his left hand. That’s fucking fundamental.
Nnanna Egwu captured a great steal in his brief (six) minutes. He added an assist and a blocked shot.
Joe Bertrand still looks like he’s experiencing stage fright. And that’s why you play him now. That’s why you continue to play him at every opportunity. Stage fright gets boring after a while. Joe’s game is smooth when he’s not thinking about it. When the spotlight becomes second nature. his consistently short shot will arc smoothly over the iron.
The game was never in doubt, even at 59–57. Not for one minute did I suffer the uncomfortable, too familiar “oh fuck, here we go again” capitulation that haunted Illinois last time out, and more or less consistently since Ariel Sharon was healthy.
On the other hand, this game was ridiculous. The first half run — the scoring spree during which Illinois initially broke the game open — came when Illinois played its worst offense. The ball movement was lousy. Never did an Illini perimeter player look inward.
“Get the ball inside!” Meyers yelled, in the midst of this ugly stretch. Brandon Paul, Sam Maniscalco, DJ Richardson, Myke Henry and a whole bunch of other non-seven-footers passed the ball around the arc and chucked threes.
The threes dropped, so it seemed okay.
It’s not a movement problem, as the familiar response claims. It’s a failure of imagination.
Imagination is the key to motion offense. Unfortunately, people imagine a lot less than we’d like to believe. We see it in conversation. Unless you’re at the top of the Maslow Triangle, you’re boring.
The weather. Sports. The weather. Sports. “Should we talk about the weather? Should we talk about the government?”
There are three reasons basketball coaches continue to promote motion offense.
They have no appreciation for the amount of time dudes spend playing Call of Duty. *They prefer to appear responsive to their players/recruitsGreat players can make you look like a genius, even if you’re Bobby Knight
Beyond that, motion offense is logical street ball with an increased emphasis on screens.
The Coppin State game featured a couple of thrilling motion reads. Some other exciting plays looked pre-arranged, but I won’t know for sure until I see them again (that double dump-down on which Tyler scored, for example, was awesome).
Bruce Weber let Meyers play. He got a lot of guys in the game. It confused Fang Mitchell’s extremely well-coached bunch. Weber said it confused himself, too.
That’s fine. Science shows that trying new routes improves your brain function.
*and other video games which warp a player’s expectations of creative response to situations.