URI’s Coach Miller Adjusting Strategy - Jim Malchowski
Jim Malachowski, Sports Columnist
URI’s Coach Miller Adjusting Strategy - Jim Malchowski
Miller is moving away from an emphasis on an up-tempo fast-breaking offense geared toward beating the other team down the court to a more deliberate style of play. He has also made a significant adjustment in the playing time of his point guards to accommodate this new strategy.
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More deliberate, more organized
Miller refers to it as being more “organized”, saying, “When I say more deliberate, I mean helping our team be more organized on the floor.”
Miller used the second half of the win at Davidson as an example, saying, “For the first time all year, we were able to get reorganized and find ways to get to the foul line. Different guys were able to get to the basket and slow the game down and be more organized, and that helped us slow the game back down, where we were not living and dying by gunshot 3s.”
Started the year with an up-tempo style as the key
After assembling the team this past summer, Miller spoke about the team’s overall speed, quickness, and athletic ability. He was asked whether fans could expect to see more of the up-tempo pace they saw last year. He responded, “Yes, but it will be different. We had great tempo last year and, at times, the fastest tempo in the league. Sebastian (Thomas) had the ball in his hands a lot and pushed the pace. This year, we have more guys who can handle the ball. We have more interchangeable parts. More guys who can play, and I think to be able to play even faster.”
This approach served the team well at the beginning of the year in non-conference play. The Rams were flying up and down the court, averaging 79 points per game in their first 8 games, and were a fun team to watch.
In the early-season victory over Yale, URI had 25 fast-break points. They had 17 against Providence.
The team’s weaknesses began to show
As the season moved along and the competition got tougher, the team’s inherent weaknesses, which are a lack of height, poor rebounding, and turnovers, began to show.
Allowing opponents to get second-chance points from their offensive rebounding became a particular problem. Vermont tallied 15 offensive rebounds, Brown got 12, and Providence came away with 10. Miller needed to emphasize rebounding and sternly told his players, “If you are not going to box out, you are not going to play.”
Hitting the boards on defense was essential, but the trade-off was that it hurt URI’s running game. Fighting for rebounds limited the players’ ability to get down the court in front of their opponents to get easy baskets to the degree they were able to earlier in the season.
In A-10 play, the Rams average 8.6 fast-break points per game. They average 64.8 points per game, which is last in the Conference.
Too many turnovers continue to hurt the offense
The other issue with the “Running Rams” is their inability to take care of the ball. Too often, when they are on a break-out, they literally throw away their advantage by throwing the ball away. The team has been plagued by turnovers. In 11 of their 18 games, the Rams had more turnovers than assists.
After the McNeese State loss, Miller said, “The thing we need to concentrate on the most is when we have the basketball, and have numbers, you can’t turn it over. We are turning it over way too many times by multiple players when we have the ability to strike or when we have numbers and a chance to get some opportunities to score. Stop, stop, stop (by the defense), instead of shot, shot, shot. These are killing us.”
Last in A-10 in Assist to Turnovers
A key statistic is a team’s assist-to-turnover ratio. URI is last in the A-10 with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.90. A ratio of less than 1.0 means the team overall has more turnovers than assists for the season. For URI, it's 232 turnovers and 209 assists.
St. Louis is leading the A-10 with a total team assist/turnover ratio of 1.58. URI is the only team in the Conference with a ratio below 1.0.
Nine of the 12 scholarship players on the URI roster have more turnovers than assists. When looking at this metric, it's illuminating to focus on the guards, particularly the point guards, whose main responsibility is generating offense. A ratio of 2.0 is considered good for a point guard.
Starting point guard Miles Corey has 35 assists and 25 turnovers for a ratio of 1.4. Back-up point guard RJ Johnson has 52 assists with 22 turnovers for a ratio of 2.4. This ranks Corey 7th in the A-10.
For comparison, last year Sebastian Thomas led the A-10 in assists with 174 and was 7th in the Conference with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.2.
Point guard playing time
Recently, Miller adjusted the playing time of his two main point guards. Corey has been the starter and, up to two games ago, averaged 24 minutes a game. He is an exciting player who is athletic and fast.
Johnson has come off the bench and previously averaged 19 minutes per game. Miller has often talked about his high basketball IQ.
Starting with the Davidson game, Johnson has played almost twice as many minutes as Corey, logging 57 minutes in the two games to Corey's 31.
Taking care of basketball is the #1 priority
After the win over Davidson, Miller said, “Taking care of the basketball is the number one priority in life for our team. I think redistributing the way we are playing may be more deliberate. I also think that RJ Johnson continues to play a huge, huge role in our development as a team, organizationally, and I think that showed on Saturday (against Davidson).”
After the next game, which was the losing effort at home against VCU, Miller was asked about Johnson’s performance. He responded, “I like RJ with the ball in his hands, and I like the ability level of him being able to organize us. Miles, as well, has to be able to play with RJ more. We have to get Miles more out in transition and more into lanes, and I think less decision-making. So I don't necessarily think every game is gonna look the same, but I like RJ sort of directing things right now. We have to control tempo. We can't turn it over in league play. I think it's a big deal; it's having some organization there.”
Running Rams will be more deliberate
So, the Running Rams are undergoing a mid-season reset. They are not going to become the “Kingston Crawlers” but will be more deliberate in their approach. Spacing, ball movement, not settling for 3’s, and working for better shots deeper into the shot clock are now the agenda. If this new strategy does not produce results, they will end up like last year’s team.