A theory on Jordy's development

[Norm Peterson]

I think it's been the general consensus that Jordy was looking really promising at the end of last season and people were figuring/expecting/hoping to see an even better Jordy this year.  And I think the consensus would be that, not only has he not taken the step forward people had hoped, but that he might even have (gasp) taken a step backwards.

 

He seems very tentative when he gets the ball on the low blocks.  He takes a lot of time to decide what to do with the ball.  He hesitates, he crouches, he lets the defense recover and react to him having the ball.  And then ... meh.

 

My theory: It just wasn't a very good time for the sake of Jordy's low-post offensive development for us to bring in an elite shot blocker to practice against.

 

Let's be real honest here.  Duby might have some limitations as a player, but elevating isn't one of them.  Probably his best attribute and certainly the thing he seems to like to do the most is wait for his man to try to shoot and then use his superior timing and leaping ability to go up and get it.  

 

So when you have a guy like Jordy who, again, being honest, is still a bit raw and learning the game, it probably did nothing at all for Jordy's confidence to have to face the robo-shot-blocker in practice all the time.  Duby can get to shots that 99% of the rest of the guys in the nation cannot get to, shots Jordy could get off against most anyone else he would play against.  Except Duby.

 

I know it's not a perfect theory, but it would seem to explain some of the regression and what look like some bad habits.  

 

Ultimately, he's just too tentative and has to think too much about what to do instead of just playing and reacting.  And he might have a little Duby in his head.

[75unlgrad]

Right now Jordy needs to find two offensive 'moves' and get comfortable and confident with the two 'moves.'  He needs to fight for better low post position and get into the position where he will be the most efficient with his two 'moves.'  When he receives the ball in the proper positon, Jordy can decide if either offensive 'move' will work -- and it not -- kick it out and start fighting for position again until you win the spot you want.

 

For the time being, it appears that Jordy's best option for scoring points will be getting lay-ups from  the pick and roll and getting offensive rebounds and easy put backs.  Same for Duby.  That is what they should concentrate on.  Offensively, Jordy and Duby need to react with the ball quickly and efficiently (not holding it for several seconds) or kick it back out and keep the offense rolling.

[royalfan]

Good point Norm.  There could be something to that.  In any event, he needs to get it figured out.  We are going to have to play our true centers a certain amount of minutes, and I believe our highest ceiling involves Jordy playing the majority of those. 

[Huskerpapa]

Norm, excellent observation.  Jordy seems to overthink everything, from the jump ball at the beginning of the game, to any offensive move that may be in his repertoire.  As a result he looks slow and lethargic.  When he is forced to think fast, he does so...for example, when there has been a loose ball on the floor, he is one of the first going after it. 

 

Absolutely no clue what is happening, but gosh darn, we need him fixed.  Lordy, I would love to have him at the top of his game on Saturday.

[jimmykc]

Any way you look at it we will be sorely overmatched on Saturday at that position. All we can hope is that our three bigs will be aggressive enough to draw some fouls from their two bigs and that Roby will then be able to use his athleticism toward the end of the game like he did on Tuesday. I'm pretty comfortable with the rest of the matchups on the rosters.

[basketballjones]

If anything that should make him great at getting better position, pivoting, and shot faking. 

[hal9000]

2 hours ago, basketballjones said:

If anything that should make him great at getting better position, pivoting, and shot faking. 

Agreed.  Combined with last year's experience, one would have hoped that his post skills would have been sharpened even more in the off season.  Nothing's going to get easier in the Big Ten.

[Fullbacksympathy]

Jordy has slightly regressed offensively, but he's improved his rebounding and assists.  I still like his ceiling.  A lot.  He just needs to get mean again.  I feel like that's where most of his problems are coming from--he's not mean right now.  He needs to get pissed off.  

[Norm Peterson]

3 hours ago, basketballjones said:

If anything that should make him great at getting better position, pivoting, and shot faking. 

 

Yeah, except I don't think guys like Duby tend to bite on pump fakes. They don't have to anticipate because they know they can go up and get it when you leave your feet.

 

Pivoting, yes.  Would have hoped to seen more improvement there.  Look at the Husker's recent snap story if it's still up.  Shows Isaiah doing a really splendid (what I would have called a drop step) move that should have resulted in a nice, open righty hook. Instead, he pump fakes into an up-and-under, misses the shot but then gets a tip in. Splendid.

 

Jordy should take some lessons.  The key for Jordy, IMO, is that he needs to learn to spin/pivot to his right or his left. When you have only one shot, you only have one shot to defend.

[FredsSlacks]

he just needs to get his shooting percentage up. he's at 36% right now. 45% last year. there's still time for him to figure out a couple go to moves that can get him a couple easy buckets.

Edited January 5, 2018 by TimSmiles

[Handy Johnson]

Forget basketball drills, he needs to work on basic agility, flex ability, and footwork. Should get him some yoga classes (being serious) and other activities that improve his range of motion and overall motor skills.

[brfrad]

48 minutes ago, TimSmiles said:

he just needs to get his shooting percentage up. he's at 36% right now. 45% last year. there's still time for him to figure out a couple go to moves that can get him a couple easy buckets.

I haven't seen all his shots, but I would guess he has made a good move on probably 10 shots that he just blew a wide open shot.  If those become makes, he is shooting over 50 %.

[Dean Smith]

16 hours ago, 75unlgrad said:

Right now Jordy needs to find two offensive 'moves' and get comfortable and confident with the two 'moves.'  He needs to fight for better low post position and get into the position where he will be the most efficient with his two 'moves.'  When he receives the ball in the proper positon, Jordy can decide if either offensive 'move' will work -- and it not -- kick it out and start fighting for position again until you win the spot you want.

 

For the time being, it appears that Jordy's best option for scoring points will be getting lay-ups from  the pick and roll and getting offensive rebounds and easy put backs.  Same for Duby.  That is what they should concentrate on.  Offensively, Jordy and Duby need to react with the ball quickly and efficiently (not holding it for several seconds) or kick it back out and keep the offense rolling.

Roy Williams: A drop step is not a post move it's a layup and everyone needs to be able to make layups. Post players need ONE move and the counter. That's all."

 

Jordy's go to move is the jumphook to the middle. He needs to learn a double drop when that move ist taken away and he's good.

 Catch the ball, Drop step either way if available, if not go to your go to move, if they take that away use the counter, if that's not there kick it out and repost. There should be no "thinking" in that process. Just train the muscle memory and then go through the progression everytime you catch the ball.

[jason2486]

2 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

Forget basketball drills, he needs to work on basic agility, flex ability, and footwork. Should get him some yoga classes (being serious) and other activities that improve his range of motion and overall motor skills.

Also add some explosion! He has almost none at this point. 

[Coaches kid]

3 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

Forget basketball drills, he needs to work on basic agility, flex ability, and footwork. Should get him some yoga classes (being serious) and other activities that improve his range of motion and overall motor skills.

This is a great point. His footwork and balance struggles manifest themselves in a number of different ways. For example, there are times when Jordy has been in good position to grab a rebound, but because of deficiencies in his footwork and balance, he isn't able to get the place he needs to be to actually secure the ball. Instead, he'll be off balance, mistime his jump and lunge at the ball, and it will go off of his hands (his ability to catch the ball is another issue), or somebody else who was initially in worse position will get there before him. Same thing on defense. He will get in good defensive position in the post, but when his man moves laterally, he's unable to move his feet to fully contest the shot. I think balance, lateral movement and agility can be improved with work, but it's hard to do that sort of thing in the heat of a conference schedule. Maybe the best thing the staff could do for him right now is to tell him to hit the offensive and defensive boards with reckless abandon, set good screens and expend his energy on defending the post. For the time being, rarely use him as an option in the post and maybe he will get some confidence getting put backs and cleaning the glass. I think he's a great kid, and I know we'd be better as a team with him doing even these small little things. 

 

[cjbowbros]

18 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

I think it's been the general consensus that Jordy was looking really promising at the end of last season and people were figuring/expecting/hoping to see an even better Jordy this year.  And I think the consensus would be that, not only has he not taken the step forward people had hoped, but that he might even have (gasp) taken a step backwards.

 

He seems very tentative when he gets the ball on the low blocks.  He takes a lot of time to decide what to do with the ball.  He hesitates, he crouches, he lets the defense recover and react to him having the ball.  And then ... meh.

 

My theory: It just wasn't a very good time for the sake of Jordy's low-post offensive development for us to bring in an elite shot blocker to practice against.

 

Let's be real honest here.  Duby might have some limitations as a player, but elevating isn't one of them.  Probably his best attribute and certainly the thing he seems to like to do the most is wait for his man to try to shoot and then use his superior timing and leaping ability to go up and get it.  

 

So when you have a guy like Jordy who, again, being honest, is still a bit raw and learning the game, it probably did nothing at all for Jordy's confidence to have to face the robo-shot-blocker in practice all the time.  Duby can get to shots that 99% of the rest of the guys in the nation cannot get to, shots Jordy could get off against most anyone else he would play against.  Except Duby.

 

I know it's not a perfect theory, but it would seem to explain some of the regression and what look like some bad habits.  

 

Ultimately, he's just too tentative and has to think too much about what to do instead of just playing and reacting.  And he might have a little Duby in his head.

It an interesting theory but if I remember right I'd say he's gotten blocked more this year. Which if he's taking all his shots to not get blocked shouldn't happen so often right. Also, I'd hope that he would have learned to pass a little more if he's that scared to shoot. I know he had a few assists early in the year but lately, he has been a classic black hole center. You could see how big of a disadvantage it was that he struggles to pass and catch the ball as when we went with Roby at 5 we picked Northwestern apart down low. Especially when they doubled. Oh and speaking of that did anyone else notice who was on the floor when we had the not 1 but 2 five minute field goal droughts in the 1st half. They were playing Jordy or Duby 5 minute drought. Roby comes in at the five we make a comeback then Duby comes back in and immediately starts another 5 minutes of offensive horror. I'm not sure what it will take to convince Miles to play Roby at the 5 more often because it hardly happened again for the rest of the game. WHY?????

[nuhusker7]

I think Jordy just needs to get his swagger back. I feel like 80% of the issue is mental right now.

 

If he stops thinking and starts just playing instead of trying to not make mistakes he will play so much better. Hopefully he can have a good game or two to get his confidence back.

 

Im also not saying he's going to be an all-big ten center just if he plays with the right mindset, im saying he will be able to do what we need him to do, and will be able to play at the same level he did last year.

[Silverbacked1]

After Ponder graduates this year maybe we can hire him to work with Jordy so that Jordy can also be good in the paint with all those great 5 step-no-dribble post moves he seems to use so very well.

[FredsSlacks]

more than likely a sophomore slump, and he didn't realize the amount of work he'd need to put in to be a great center.