I had an extensive interview with Charlotte 49ers coach Bobby Lutz recently and have been sharing some of his responses on a number of topics relevant to Charlotte and its athletic programs.
TODAY’S TOPIC: LUTZ ON SHOOTING THE 3.
Do you think you rely too much on the 3-pointer?
Lutz: "A lot of people say that. What we try to do is get the best shots available for whatever the makeup of our team is. Again, if you look, our 2-point shooting percentage wasn’t very good. Maybe we did shoot a few too many 3s at certain times, but at other times we may not have shot enough because of the makeup of our team.
"If you can get a great low post scorer, you need to take advantage of that. Those guys are really hard to get, and we do our best to develop them. We’ve had more success when we’ve had teams that attack the basket. This year I don’t think 3-point shooting was the reason we lost games. It was because we couldn’t stop people at key times.
"We finished second in the league last year, second in Conference USA the year before, finished first the year before that. It’s not like we’ve had bad years in a row. If you look at those teams, we also shot a lot of 3s, but we also attacked the basket and got fouled. We had guys who could do that – Eddie (Basden) and Curt (Withers) in particular. We had balance."
Was that balance missing this season?
Lutz: "It was missing. Part of that, however, was our inability to consistently score if we threw it inside. Antwon (Coleman) was hurt and got in foul trouble. Courtney (Williams) struggled to score around the basket. E.J. had some moments of being great, but he also struggled at the foul line. E.J. ended up being the guy we kept going to as much as possible. We may have relied a lot on the 3, but it was at least somewhat out of necessity to have the best chance to win games."
-- Jim Utter
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Lutz on shooting the 3
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8 comments:
Great work, Mr. Utter. I'm digging all the updates and great reporting.
the annoynmous dittos what the last annonymous poster posted. I am "Digging in the Dirt" lovng these updates.
It's only a good shot when it goes in according to any "fan" of the 49ers.
If you run plays to get higher percentage shots than 3's, then you will probably shoot a better percentage from the 2 point range and also shoot less 3's. How about trying that Bobby.
Being a player, official, and fan of basketball well over thrity years. I've seen a lot of basketball. Inside-out is the best and most effective way to score. In two years of following the Niners, Mr. Lutz never established an inside game. You have to be consistent with players and encourage their ability. The talent was there, the coaching was not. You get more excitement from watching high schoolers. Thank God it is over.
We did finish 2nd in the league the last two years, but that doesnt get you off the hook for shooting too many 3's. Last year our players didnt feed Curtis in the post, he had to go get the ball himself most of the time. Not to mention our complete collapse at the end of 04-05 and 05-06 where we lost 4 of our last 5 games of the season. Watching our play over those past few seasons, a collapse seemed inevitable. I think if you have a team where guys pass up open 18 footers to step back behind the 3 point line, you're gonna lose more games then you win. Personally im sick of watching our team shot 30 threes a game. I can go 2-12 from behind the arc which seems to be acceptable from our guards these days.
Biggest complaints:
-too many threes
-No defense
-selfish
While I am a hardcore Niner fan, I do hate seeing us go 3 for 39 (Xavier was it?) from 3 land...
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