Orr Presser, #1

Coach Orr entered the briefing room today for his first presser of the basketball season.  This one was pretty interesting.  I've watched it (so you don't have to) though you could if you wanted to.  Anyway, here's what Coach Orr said.

This year's team has more speed, quickness and athleticism then we did last year, especially in the front court.

This will allow us to play more man-man and be up tempo more.

We also have some good shooters, or the potential to be good shooters.

He is not putting pressure on the seniors.  Everyone on the team needs to do what they do best for BG to compete.

He says that while he prefers a set line up, he has not arrived at it yet.  Coach Orr does not believe the best 5 players have to start.  He says that there are chemistry issues, some players need to start, some don't, but the key is getting productive minutes when the players are out there.

He ran though a number of our young players and talked about how they have the kind of ability we are looking for and yet how they have to be better.  The key, however, is that they do what they do well while the learn.

From his comments, I think a key player for this year and next is Jordan Crawford.  Coach referred to him as "the ignition" and we are going to need him to create chances in transition, and I think he has the ability.  He's just a sophomore, and Coach says he needs to keep getting better.

He talked about the Adrian game.  Upon further review, he found video evidence (indisputable or not) to suggest that 10 or 11 of the 15 3s were good looks, with time and space to shoot.

He said that the 3 areas were where we were hurt on offense were....

• Shot 3s poorly
• Didn't convert in transition--we got out and ran, but didn't convert.
• Make free throws.

In all 3 cases, we got ourselves there.  We got open 3s, we got out in transition, and we got to the line, but we didn't convert those things.

He was happy with our M2M, which we played exclusively.  The basis of our game (this won't surprise you) is to guard people and get stops.  Coach Orr believes the M2M is foundational to that, and the zone is plan B or builds on that.

He said that before this, we did not have the athleticism or energy before.  (Which is interesting, since the players he is talking about were recruited to play man and only man.  Anyway).

He went through a dizzying series of sentences about how a man and zone defense could interact with each other, but concluded that a man team playing zone was better than a zone team playing man.

He did allow that we have played some good zone while he was at BG, but last year was not an example.  (We were last in defending the 3 last season).

One note from me:

I'm impressed that Coach Orr invested as much time as he did in the transition between the former system and the current system.  One of my pet peeves is coaches who refuse to coach more than one way.  I cringe when, say, Rich Rodriguez is willing to throw away whole seasons converting from a tank to a sports car.

Conversely, I was pleased when Coach Clawson came to BG and said "I am not a system guy."  So, Coach Orr modified his approach to make the best use of the guys he had.  For which I give him credit.  Seems like a good coach should be able to do that.