I enjoyed watching Olympic basketball, especially the U.S. men’s and woman’s teams. Here are a few observations that in some cases apply to IU basketball.
- Watching players that don’t crush one’s soul by missing critical free throws is a real pleasure. If U.S women can shoot 80-90%, why can’t IU players, many of whom come from a shooting state (Indiana), learn to shoot better?
- Watching the U.S. women, I posed the following question to myself. If I were a coach choosing first when picking sides, who would I choose? A world class center (Griner)? A power forward who can shoot, defend, run and rebound (Wilson)? A shooting forward who did everything and played every meaningful minute (Stewart)? I decided to follow the teachings of Tom Izzo, “playing without a point guard is like a root canal”. The team played so much better when Sue Bird was on the court than when she was off. She ran the offense, distributed the ball, hit the kick out, played defense and rebounded. A 41 year old point guard is my first pick.
- Recalling that the NBA switches on everything, I took note of the way France used Rudy Golbert. He set a high pick on the point guard’s defender in the center of the court and then immediately posted up in the paint, defended by a switched guard. I asked myself whether this tactic could be used by TJD and whomever is playing point. I realize that B1G teams hedge, get over the top and try to defend without switching. I also understand that this tactic requires a point guard that can shoot.
- A measure of how the NBA has changed is that Kevin Durant, who functions as a point forward, guarded the opponent’s center. I think the U.S. men had a 7-foot center that never got off the bench.
- I noticed how frequently announcers and analysts referred to deflections. Maybe Tom Crean is on to something.
- Were the Japanese women running a motion offense?
- The fact that international players play in the NBA and WNBA in large numbers certainly reduces the shock and awe of lining up against the men’s and women’s teams. U.S. opponents now believe that they are underdogs that can take us down. Before they believed that a 30 point blow out was par.
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