Solving Georgia State’s biggest problem will take on a sense of urgency when the Panthers begin play in the NIT Season Tip-Off on Monday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Coach Ron Hunter has gotten next to no scoring from his bench in its first two games, but that’s not what he’s upset about. He’s more unhappy with the defense of his starters, particularly in transition defense.
“That’s keeping me up right now,” he said.
Hunter will give his starters two more games, both part of the NIT: Monday against McNeese State and Tuesday against the winner of the Alabama-Stillman game. If he sees the same mistakes he saw in last week’s 86-80 loss to Vanderbilt, he said he will make a change. Georgia State is 1-1.
“Hard part is not to pull the trigger on Monday,” he said.
Hunter said the starters, all of whom played at least 34 minutes, gave up 17 points in transition against the Commodores.
“If we give up half those, we win the game,” he said.
Hunter said poor defense can’t continue against a team like Alabama if the Panthers hope to win. It becomes doubly important because if the Panthers can win the next two games, they will earn a trip to New York for the final two rounds of the tournament. Those games can provide the program with national exposure.
Hunter hasn’t settled on what change he may make. He has the advantage of having a surplus of one skill set, which may help solve a deficiency in another.
Four of the starting five are proven scorers, while the bench is loaded with defense-oriented players. Swapping a Manny Atkins for a first-teamer could improve the balance. Hunter threw out that possibility, but said he’s uncertain who would join the first five. He said he has no dissatisfaction with Atkins and that he moved James Fields in and out of the starting lineup two years ago for a similar reason.
Moving Atkins, a forward who is averaging 9 points per game, would give some punch to a bench that hasn’t scored often.
In the six-point loss to Vanderbilt, three reserves scored three points in 25 minutes of play. They didn’t contribute much on defense either, pulling down four rebounds and committing six fouls. In the season-opening 97-78 win against Southern Poly, reserves scored 17 points in 66 minutes.
Hunter said he was fine with both performances.
Before the season began, he determined there were likely five games in which the starters would dominate the minutes. Vanderbilt was one of those games and Alabama could be another. The others: East Carolina, Southern Miss and possibly the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game.
When he calls of them, Hunter wants his players coming off the bench to maintain either the lead or the deficit. He wants guard Jaylen Hinton to get some more minutes backing up Ryan Harrow, whom Hunter said became tired against Vanderbilt.
But right now, he wants the starters to improve their transition defense.
“I don’t want to play up hill,” he said. “We did that too often last year.”
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