Seton Hall Basketball: Kevin Willard vs. Bobby Gonzalez - KenPom Edition

for two reasons:

1- a defense-first system will almost always keep you in the game, and

2- Gonzo’s system was very one-player based. In the offense, it was Hazell, and on defense, it was Paul Gause (once Gause graduated, the press had no teeth).

1) I don’t know if Willard was, “rolling the dice,” per se. I think the approach in his first year (with many guys that didn’t fit his system was), play the way I want you to on defense and you’ll have freedom offensively. Remember Willard told us he didn’t expect the guys to know more than 30% (I believe the number was) of the system before conference play? It seemed like there was a lot of trial and error on the offensive end and it seemed a little play-groundish to me. There were very few set plays, they didn’t work the ball inside enough and often, it seemed like guys were playing one-on-one all too much on the offensive end. Nothing was set and guys would dribble around before settling on their own shot, or one pass on a shot. In a nutshell, the offensive execution was far from pretty. I expect that to improve drastically going forward.

2) I don’t know if he adapts a more “risky” approach on offense, but I do expect him and the players to be better prepared in his system. And I don’t know that he’ll settle with good defense and a 3-PT shooting battle, because I don’t believe the roster is talented enough to pull that off. Not that they pulled it off to any extremes last year, but we did lose two guys that played pretty good D in Robinson and Lawrence. Is the roster including the 6 freshman well equipped to focus on defense? Will Grennan/Karlis/Wilson/Cosby be able to stay in front of their man at this level? Assuming Johnson is eligible, will he have any more of a clue on the defensive end than Geramipoor? I guess I’m in between, here. I expect Willard to revise the offensive gameplan, but I don’t expect our defense to be as good as it was last year and hopefully we’ll shoot the longball at a better clip.

3) I’m not content and I don’t think Coach is either. I don’t expect another player to get away with the permanent green-light as Robinson did last year. If it starts to present itself this year, I’m confident that Willard will end that. There needs to be plays for a slashing Edwin, there needs to be a mid-range game from Auda, Pope (remember, he can shoot it from 12-18), and Mobley, there needs to be an effort to get the ball inside to Pope and (eek.. Geramipoor?) and KJ. Easier said than done, but we need more of a planned, balanced offense. We shot ourselves out of entirely too many games last year. When the 3 isn’t falling for a player or a team, you’ve got to hit plan B. A plan that I expect us to have this year that was SORELY lacking last.

4) With all of that said, I prefer Willard’s style. Gonzo’s team wrecked havoc defensively in flashes, as JP alluded to with Gause frustrating the opposition for streches here or there, but it was never sustained. Willard has shown a focus on the defensive end and that’s where a young ballclub is going to need to win games. Let’s face it, we’re not winning games this year by getting into shootouts and hitting a better percentage than our opponents. This team would probably lose that high-powered VMI shootout of a couple years back. We need to play defense (and that’s more on the players now than the system) to stay in games and hit some shots late in the game. Closing has obviously been a thorn the past few seasons, but a team that sticks to the plan defensively for 40 minutes will be better equipped at closing than a team relying on long balls and forced circus layups. Which brings me to another point, with Keon gone (but Jordan still reamining), PLEASE. I’m begging you. NO MORE FORCED CIRCUS LAYUPS!