Online Q/A with LU basketball coach Clif Carroll

[00hmh]

Coach,

Naturally we are all curious how the limited practice is being used to develop the players.

Have practices so far identified some shooters who can use screens in the motion offense?

You are too young to remember watching Steve Alford and other great shooters at IU who drove the opposition nuts working for a shot then draining it. Love to see a shooter emerge who could do that. Making the other team work hard on defense for 30 seconds really can wear them down over the course of the game.

Have you got some big guys who can screen? Better yet, can they screen then become a scorer after the screen?

Have you found the newcomers able to understand and adapt to the defensive rules? Or are you able to see that without 5 on 5?

Is the team showing enough quickness to take advantage of the spacing on defense and play the passing lanes to get some steals?

Can you tell how good will help and recover be? Pat's teams at Texas Tech were quick but had a lot of problems trying to handle the talented players in the B12, hard to cover those good big guys and then stop the good shooters. Every team had a lights out shooter if you could not help and recover very well.

I know every team in the Knight system looks a little different and it is tailored to fit the talent. How is identifying the talents and thinking about how use them going? What seem to be likely strengths?

I thought last years team did fairly well in the system but that perhaps not the whole system was in use. I'm looking forward to seeing this team which is younger really benefit over time as they are taught from scratch and eventually have the principles ingrained.

[clifcarroll]

Just letting everybody know, I am taking Sherron Wilkerson, Donley Minor, Brennan Doty and Matt Hancock out to Jasper tomorrow at noon for the BBQ benefiting James Gulley. Come out, get some BBQ and meet the new coach and players while you support one of our great players from the past. Look forward to seeing you all there.

[clifcarroll]

[quote author=00hmh link=topic=37042.msg41811#msg41811 date=1345051419]
Coach,

Naturally we are all curious how the limited practice is being used to develop the players.

Have practices so far identified some shooters who can use screens in the motion offense?

You are too young to remember watching Steve Alford and other great shooters at IU who drove the opposition nuts working for a shot then draining it. Love to see a shooter emerge who could do that. Making the other team work hard on defense for 30 seconds really can wear them down over the course of the game.

Have you got some big guys who can screen? Better yet, can they screen then become a scorer after the screen?

Have you found the newcomers able to understand and adapt to the defensive rules? Or are you able to see that without 5 on 5?

Is the team showing enough quickness to take advantage of the spacing on defense and play the passing lanes to get some steals?

Can you tell how good will help and recover be? Pat's teams at Texas Tech were quick but had a lot of problems trying to handle the talented players in the B12, hard to cover those good big guys and then stop the good shooters. Every team had a lights out shooter if you could not help and recover very well.

I know every team in the Knight system looks a little different and it is tailored to fit the talent. How is identifying the talents and thinking about how use them going? What seem to be likely strengths?

I thought last years team did fairly well in the system but that perhaps not the whole system was in use. I'm looking forward to seeing this team which is younger really benefit over time as they are taught from scratch and eventually have the principles ingrained.
[/quote]

OOHM, you are obviously a Knight fan from the days of Indiana. I love talking to the passionate basketball fans from Indiana. I'm betting that we have probably met

We have kids that can make shots this year. I did not get to see Alford play in person, but my good friend Jason Imes has a library of video from some of the IU greats and we would watch some of Steve's games. We do not have a kid that is as prolific of a shooter as him unfortunately. We do have several kids that can really score though. I think the thing that hurt the motion offense as much as anything last year was not having players capable of making good decisions and correct passes to open players. We have solved that problem by recruiting better passers. We will get easier buckets out of the offense this year simply because we are a better passing team. I will say this though, our walk on from Utah can really stick it when he gets a little time. The speed of the game is a little fast for him right now, but when he gets accustomed to it, he could be a deadly shooter.

Our big fellas are getting better at figuring out their roles in the offense. The kids we had returning are learning to put themselves in better position to score after they screen. The freshman coming in is a really talented player. He could be scary if he can ever get over being a freshman. Our JUCO kid that will be here in the fall played in a motion offense in JUCO and will fit in very well with us. He will be our most consistent scoring threat from the forward position.

As for the screeners, you ought to see one of our point guards set a screen. The kid is 220 lbs and benches 300. He can lay a lick. Even our little guys are willing screeners. I like the makeup of this team.

We won't get a good grasp of team defense until we start full out practice. Our goal right now is to acclimate the 9 new guys to the roster to the DI game.

We have great quickness on defense. We have guys who you don't have to tell to push up on guys. I have a feeling that this team will be willing to play defense the way we want without fighting them. While here at Lamar, we have worked on help and recover every team practice that we have had. Help and recover comes down to kids that have the discipline and intestinal fortitude to get it done. I think we have kids that will do it.

This team has a lot of versatility. We will put 4 or 5 kids on the floor that can all hit shots, post, pass, and rebound. We also have the ability to get up and down the floor. I think we will use this to our advantage this season. We also have a different make up of guards. We do not have as many players that need to dribble the ball to be effective. I thought last year our guards dribbled us out of a lot of good options in our offense. They were really good at what they could do, but it wasn't a great fit for the system. This years group of kids will look more like a cohesive team on the offensive end of the floor.

I am really excited about this group of kids. Our seniors have really done a good job of working hard and our young'ens are doing a good job of listening and learning. We still have a lot of "freshman" in our makeup. We need this team to grow out of that quickly and when they do, this could be a special group.

[Big T]

Coach, which freshman are you talking about here? "The freshman coming in is a really talented player. He could be scary if he can ever get over being a freshman."

[clifcarroll]

[quote author=Big T link=topic=37042.msg41841#msg41841 date=1345069294]
Coach, which freshman are you talking about here? "The freshman coming in is a really talented player. He could be scary if he can ever get over being a freshman."
[/quote]

Muepo

[Big T]

I don't know if you can answer this coach, but with Jason Smith being ineligible to play here at Lamar, what will become of his scholarship? Are y'all looking to replace him or can it/will it go to one of the walk-ons?

[clifcarroll]

[quote author=Big T link=topic=37042.msg41930#msg41930 date=1345153200]
I don't know if you can answer this coach, but with Jason Smith being ineligible to play here at Lamar, what will become of his scholarship? Are y'all looking to replace him or can it/will it go to one of the walk-ons?
[/quote]

We have a few other options on the table. I don't know if any of them would work out. We could table the scholarship and look for a mid year transfer, or just save it to next year.

[Knightman]

I hated to hear the news about Jason, but I have all the faith in this staff that they have several good opitions on the table, or they can just hold it until next year, so I know that we are going to be alright anyway it goes!!!!!!!!!

Go Cards!!!!!!!!!!

Knightman

[00hmh]

[quote author=clifcarroll link=topic=37042.msg41832#msg41832 date=1345056562]

This team has a lot of versatility. We will put 4 or 5 kids on the floor that can all hit shots, post, pass, and rebound. We also have the ability to get up and down the floor. I think we will use this to our advantage this season. We also have a different make up of guards. We do not have as many players that need to dribble the ball to be effective. I thought last year our guards dribbled us out of a lot of good options in our offense. They were really good at what they could do, but it wasn't a great fit for the system. This years group of kids will look more like a cohesive team on the offensive end of the floor.
[/quote]

That all sounds very interesting.

The old time IU basketball fans lament that everything in basketball today is off the dribble. Catch and shoot off a screen, and using screens to get angles to cut is not part of the game for kids coming up.

That's more about the way kids grow up playing than it is about efficiency. Any way you cut it, you can move the ball faster with a pass than on the dribble. Of course somebody has to be willing to pass, somebody has to be working hard and screening, everybody has to play together, and you have to be able to keep your eyes open and expect a pass to catch a pass...

The fact kids don't really learn to screen, except a ball screen, and don't really learn to watch for the cues when to cut to the basket off a screen except off set plays, since it isn't the norm to play old fashioned motion offense, that adds up to a big teaching job for the staff. Good luck! Passing can be an acquired taste. Mike Lewis at IU came in a #1 option Mr Basketball scorer and left with the assist records.

Great to hear that there are lots of kids who can play. Athleticism means we can expect some defense, and some points on the break. Pat played on a pretty athletic and versatile team at IU which could and did play fast paced basketball, but they were disciplined and ran the half court offense very well, too. Hope you can get that going, so you can play with teams that match up in athleticism. Pat's IU team had Calbert who could score on his own or use the offense to get open, but had a lot of weapons. I really hoped the Tech teams could play that way, but it didn't work out. They just didn't ever seem to really get into half court play, and made too many mistakes when they did.

Pat surely has to understand passing. In his playing career, he had to be a passer and screener, he was about the last scoring option... All despite the fact that as a HS player, he loved to shoot as much as anybody. I'm thinking that will pay off big time with the right kids.

I'll look forward to seeing a more efficient Lamar team this year, and expect the real results might be a year or two down the line.

[bigred360]

Omgish, I hate to hear that about Jason Smith. I was looking forward to him here at Lamar.

[00hmh]

Coach,

What's going on with the Program in these early weeks. Are the kids getting settled into school, showing good work ethic in practice?

As you see the kids work with coaches and the other players how is the chemistry and the how are they handling the learning curve.

How do you work with the newcomers on the difference between straight man defense and the ball oriented defense we might expect to see? Can you do much to get them ready for that or do you need to wait for full scale practice?

Are any strengths and weaknesses going to be a theme we watch during the year other than the talent (I hope a strength) and the experience (looks like a challenge)?

[lcm2007ms]

What are we getting paid for our guarantee games?

[BigRedTrack]

Coach - If you had one wish from the outside, fans/community, what would that be? This could be anything from facilities, support, etc.

[Mr.KnowItAll]

Happy birthday coach!

[clifcarroll]

[quote author=Mr.KnowItAll link=topic=37042.msg43704#msg43704 date=1347663893]
Happy birthday coach!
[/quote]

Thank you for the birthday wish. My parents came into town and we had a nice day.