While coach Billy Taylor raved about how well his team shared the ball in Sunday’s season-opening win against Grambling State, he said the Cardinals’ new dribble-drive offense lacked consistent fluidity.
The offensive numbers were good — 46.3 percent shooting and 17 combined assists — but those statistics were slightly skewed by the transition game and physical dominance inside against a smaller Tigers’ front line.
“While we did have efficiency and low turnover numbers, I’d really like to see us better in our motion,” Taylor said. “[Such as] better cutting, better screening and a better flow into it instead of coming to a stop as we did on numerous possessions to try and figure out what we’re doing.”
Taylor said motion offenses take time to develop, but one thing Ball State struggled to figure out against Grambling State was how to defend the 3-point line.
With Ball State playing a high-volume outside shooting team in Wofford College on Friday, Taylor said giving up nine 3-pointers at a 50-percent clip again won’t get it done.
“That’s just too high of a rate of people shooting the basketball,” Taylor said. “We have to make sure we make our opposition feel more uncomfortable and do a better job of forcing the dribble.”
The Terriers (1-1) have hit 21-of-61 from beyond the arc this season, accounting for 47.3 percent of its field goal attempts.
One player in particular, Karl Cochran — reigning Southern Conference freshman of the year — has scored 22 and 25 points in the team’s two games, while hitting 9-of-22 from deep.
“They’re a team that can really knock down threes,” Taylor said. “They’ve got terrific guards or wings that can really shoot the basketball. They cut extremely well and run really good motion offense. We’re going to have to be in tune defensively challenging 3-point shooters.”
Friday’s matchup is a return game for both teams after competing in a Sears BracketBusters game in the 2010-11 season. Wofford won 66-61 at home in Spartanburg, S.C.
Since Friday’s game was planned nearly two years ahead of time, Taylor said Wofford scheduled a game against Ohio on the team’s way back to South Carolina to make the trip easier. That was a luxury Ball State didn’t have in 2011.
“For us, going there initially in the first game, that’s a tough trip,” Taylor said. “When you’re finding out basically 10 days to two weeks ahead of time [that] you need to go halfway across the country — it becomes very costly. I like the concept [of BracketBusters], because you’re playing a similar type of opponent that can challenge you and hopefully help you. But when you travel a long distance, it can be very difficult, especially on short notice.”
