Second half foibles

[milldew72]

My apologies if this has been hit in another thread and I missed it, but is Bryce Drew to blame at all for the terrible way this team plays in the second half? Meaning, does he change schemes or something when the Crusaders hava a big lead or a lead in the second half?
Does he essentially go into a "prevent defense" type of mindset when VU has a big lead?
Just wondering.

[Crusader03]

My apologies if this has been hit in another thread and I missed it, but is Bryce Drew to blame at all for the terrible way this team plays in the second half? Meaning, does he change schemes or something when the Crusaders hava a big lead or a lead in the second half?
Does he essentially go into a "prevent defense" type of mindset when VU has a big lead?
Just wondering.

Do you watch the games?  If you do watch the games, what do you think is happening?  Or, are you just here to flame Bryce and troll the forum.

[vu72]

An interesting question and one worthy of a sectionee analysis.  My brief look tells me the following: If you look at second half stats, and eliminate the blowout we suffered at Ohio State and the blowout we inflicted against Holy Cross, we had 8 games where we were out scored in the second half and 6 where we outscored our opponent.  The overall stats say we actual scored 4 more points total using the same games.

What needs to be looked at is shooting percentages.  Obviously, if the players aren't shooting as well then the blame can't be put on Coach Drew, provided he is allowing the same number of shots, which would indicate us not going into our shell offensively.

An interesting question...

[Crusader03]

An interesting question and one worthy of a sectionee analysis.  My brief look tells me the following: If you look at second half stats, and eliminate the blowout we suffered at Ohio State and the blowout we inflicted against Holy Cross, we had 8 games where we were out scored in the second half and 6 where we outscored our opponent.  The overall stats say we actual scored 4 more points total using the same games.

What needs to be looked at is shooting percentages.  Obviously, if the players aren't shooting as well then the blame can't be put on Coach Drew, provided he is allowing the same number of shots, which would indicate us not going into our shell offensively.

An interesting question...

You hit the nail on the head here

[chairback]

A few things I notice in the second half.
-We do a horrible job on getting back on d.
-We struggle with one on one defense at times.  Players get hot on us and we literally can not stop them.
-Buggs does a good job early on in the game with driving the lane.  In the second half he has too many fouls and can not drive or the opposing team completely sags off of him and starts doubling elsewhere.
-Edwards is needed in the second half.  He needs to start performing and being aggressive like he was late in the Butler game.

Also, Ryan is POY so far in the Horizon. 

[valpo4life]

To go off of the Edwards comment by chairback, I completely agree.  He should have played more in the Milwaukee game because I believe that it was his style of game.  The Butler game was very physical and he excelled.  He's crafty around the rim and could have been a nice change of pace inside from Kevin's power game.

[milldew72]

It always appears what we do so well in the first half just up and goes away in the second.
I've actually been watching this team (and posting on this board) since about 2003, and for the past few years it has seemed the second half poses problems because Valpo guys tend to stop doing in the second half what had proved to work really well in the first.
Just wondered if opponents take 20 minutes to figure us out or if Homer and Bryce have a habit of calling off the dogs and going into prevent mode in the second half.
Appreciate the honest answers from most of you.

[sectionee]

We have actually scored more points in the second half (572) of the ball games this year then we have in the first half (536).  Without figuring out the numbers, I assume that the VU shooting percentage goes up and that they aren't slowing the game down (running clock/stalling/getting fewer possessions).  However, the opponents have scored nearly 100 points more in the second half then they have in the first half (479 vs. 567).  Again without doing anything with statistics, because who really has time for that sort of thing, I assume the other teams are finding ways around whatever defense Valpo is starting with.  Hopefully Coach can find a way to adjust his defenses in the second half of ball games once it is clear that the opponent has found a weakness.

I remember the home game against CSU last year.  Valpo had a nice lead with about 4 minutes left.  Homer went to slowing down and chewing up clock.  Our guys were having to force bad shots at the end of shot clocks.  Valpo got lazy (probably the wrong term) on offense which in turn led to laziness on defense.  Our guys started fouling and let CSU back in the game in those final minutes at the free throw line.  I hate the prevent defense/offense in all sports.  If you have your foot on a teams neck go ahead and squish it.  I'm a firm believer you don't call off the dogs until the other coach sits down and puts his subs in first.

[valpotx]

We have always struggled in 'stepping on the opponent's throat' after getting a large lead.  This goes back to at least as long as I have been a VU fan, since my FR 1999-2000 year.

[vu72]

We have always struggled in 'stepping on the opponent's throat' after getting a large lead.  This goes back to at least as long as I have been a VU fan, since my FR 1999-2000 year.

Stepping on an opponents throat is an interesting idea, like we did against Holy Cross.  Unfortunately we aren't Ohio State talent wise, so the typical team we face will have similar talent, or at least enough to make some adjustments as we have done at half.  Witness the IUPUI game when they were up by 17 at half and we outscored them by 8 in the second, and tied the game at one point.  Was it IUPUI failing to close the deal or was it Bryce et al making some adjustments or just our guys being pissed off enough to play like they can?  There are so many variables to college basketball and that is why most of us love the game.  Kids are still kids and respond differently, thus the major swings in scoring.

[historyman]

I believe the difference in scoring from the first half to the 2nd half is mostly in the way Valpo plays defense. I think there is some intensity letdown on defense in the 2nd half, especially this year. Did anyone believe that if the Green Bay game went one minute longer that Valpo would have beaten the Phoenix? The difference was that Valpo was not playing good defense at all in the 2nd half, especially from the three point arc, and Green Bay scored a huge amount of points in the 2nd half. During the 2nd half Green Bay came from 15 points back to get it down to 3 twice at the end of the game. If it weren't for the great plays by Matt Kenney and the last seconds on the shot clock three by Jay Harris Valpo does not win that game. It wasn't because the Crusaders did not play well offensively. It was because Valpo could never stop Green Bay from scoring. Unless Valpo shuts down their opponents defensively I don't see Valpo winning or even finishing in the top half of the conference.

In a side note Green Bay's Daniel Turner tore his ACL in the game against Valpo and will be out for the season. This will give Green Bay fewer options on offense and makes it easier to stop their center Alec Brown from scoring. I think this will make Valpo the favorite when we travel to Green Bay at the end of January.

[StlVUFan]

Did anyone believe that if the Green Bay game went one minute longer that Valpo would have beaten the Phoenix?

Nope.  With you all the way on that observation.  Look at the play-by-play and you'll see a gradually diminishing lead over the course of the half.  There was one huge leap when Green Bay had a 7-0 run, but a lot of it was us hitting a FT and them a layup, or us hitting a layup and them hitting a 3.