The Deuce: Yes, but there were options to keep role players

The seniors played 67.1 percent of the minutes last year, so there wasn't going to be much continuity regardless.

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Short term:

1. Start Will at the 1. He is a playmaker and takes care of the ball. Teams have hard hedged all year and we've never done anything to adjust and KJ can't seem to figure it out. Will can at least use his height to pass over the hard hedge if necessary, and can make plays off the bounce to score or get others involved.

2. Play KJ off the ball. He simply does not have the handles or mental focus to run the team right now. Same with Kylan. Hope they can make cuts off the ball and make shots when set.

3. After the initial action, play through Tomi at the high/pinch post with Kylan and Tre back cuts.

4. Go small with DGL and Jake first off the bench. Hope you make the Tourney and get Morez back. Get the guards back to crashing the boards.

5. Give Ben a nice parting gift and be done with it.

6. Defensively you're gonna give up size until Morez comes back, and it's too late to install anything radically different. But at least mix up your coverages. Token 3/4 court pressure, force the other team to screen and get into their sets much higher, stop going over screens 35 feet from the basket, switch on the perimeter, and dig at the post. Do something to at least to make other teams think. Right now our ball screen coverage is so soft, we let opposing guards get downhill, Tomi comes out to contest, and if he forces a miss, there is nobody behind him on the weak side to clean up the glass. This happened again and again last night. Tomi can't rebound when he's repeatedly drawn away from the rim to contest the drivers our guards can't stop.

Long term:

There has to be a thorough reevaluation of everything top to bottom. Obviously a staff shake-up is must. Kwa's promotion was surely just a temporary reward given the timing of TA's departure. By all accounts Zach Hamer is a great guy, but the defense since he became the "coordinator" has been a tire fire for two seasons. The principles may be sound, but the execution has not, and there has been seemingly no recognition of roster limitations. I get the howls for Tyler's head, but offense was top-5 last year with him at the helm and Underwood's not going to fire his son. But he needs to be demoted.

And the shooting thing is very clearly a problem. Whether it's scheme, or mental, or technique, or physical or who knows, start over and question everything you're doing.

I don't hate the roster approach, but hopefully Underwood will learn that you have to prioritize some continuity. Both seasons now that that were complete resets have been a disaster. For a guy who preaches culture, he has placed very little value on it.

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