A Dummy's Observations on Fairmont at WLU 2/18/23 WLU 119 – Fairmont 113
Summary:
This was a game of two evenly-matched WLU and Fairmont teams who play at maximum effort on offense and defense. Fairmont’s record is very misleading, as their losses have been by no more than 5 points in regulation, or they have lost in overtime.
Tale of the Tape (Season)
Fairmont WLU
Points 94 101
FT % 78% 74%
FG % 51% 49%
3FG% 40% 39%
Turnovers 15 12
Assists 19 23
Assist/TO ratio 1.29 1.97
Fairmont Strategy
- Fairmont is a senior-laden team, with 4 of 5 starters being seniors. Fairmont has outstanding 3-point shooters, and is #10 in D2 at 40.23%.
- Shoot the 3 effectively. Leave Sanders or Parris in corner against pressure for open threes after breaking the press.
- Jump the passing lanes on ball rotations on the perimeter to get steals in half court. Frostburg had success doing this in the last game as well as Fairmont in the first meeting.
- On drives, jump the passing lanes on the likely kick-out pass when WLU player drives and is in the air.
- Keep WLU off the offensive glass and win the rebounding battle.
- Double team Butler in the lane to prevent inside moves.
- Avoid the WLU blackouts.
Fairmont had some success in implementing their strategy
- Fairmont had 11 steals in forcing 15 turnovers, an amazing 73%, nearly all occurring in the half-court defense. They kept the turnovers close, only 17 to WLU’s 15.
- Fairmont had an effective FG% of 60% to 56.4% for WLU and shot their average at the FT line.
- Fairmont was effective in double teaming Bryce initially, for they have no one who can handle him 1 on 1. However, he still had an effective FG% of 69%.
- Both teams limited each other to mini-runs – no famed WLU blackouts.
- Despite a decent, but slightly below average FG and 3FG %, WLU made an incredible 32-35 FTs, or 91.4%, which offset FSU’s effective FG% advantage of 60.3% to WLU’s 56.5%
- WLU shared the ball very well, getting good looks at the basket in most cases with assists on 55% of their made FGs.
- WLU put significant pressure on Fairmont, which resulted in foul trouble for Sanders. At first glance it did not have an obvious impact… until one looks at:
- the second chance points (WLU 20 FSU 10),
- fast break points (WLU 27 FSU 14)
- Offensive rebounds (WLU 15, FSU 9).
- Three FSU players fouled out, and two others had 4 fouls, which is often caused by fatigue resulting in being a step slow and making questionable decisions.
- WLU’s quick guards became a step quicker and were getting good looks close to the basket or getting fouled. Cmont Montague had an effective FG% of 100% and 30 points.
- IMHO the fatigue factor became even more evident at the end of the game and OT period. FSU had trouble getting the ball inbounds in the last minute, which led to the jump ball with 8 seconds left in regulation (video shows it was a good call).
- All players at WLU were sprinting back on defense, rather than galloping as in some previous games. This reduced Fairmont’s easy baskets that occurred in the first game.
- Players are still getting burned by staring at the ball on defense and not being in position to see both the ball and their opponent. They need to stay focused.
- Players need to correct their half-court passing, as opponents have been successful jumping the passing lanes. This is happening on passes on the perimeter as well as kickout passes from a player in the air to a player who is at 3-pt range. These issues resulted in most of WLU’s turnovers. The receiver of the pass needs to move to meet the ball and the sender has to add more velocity or change their angle of the pass to be more of an acute angle rather than flat pass that is roughly parallel to the end line.
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