Currently in the MASCAC the Fitchburg State Falcons Men’s Basketball team has one player that ranks top 5 in any of the major statistics, and its turnovers. This is also while they sit at the bottom of the division at 2-7. Over the past 5 games they have allowed three teams to shoot over 40% from beyond the arc and they were all at a high volume. The two games the Falcons won in the last 5 (Dean College and Massachusettes Institute of Technology) were the only games where they held their opponent below that 40% number. In today’s game, many teams live and die by the three, whether they are making or missing, they are still shooting. This has its advantages and disadvantages, on one side, three is more than two but obviously, it is more difficult to get a good look from three than it is in the paint.
Unfortunately, the Falcons have to pick their poison and usually let the other team get lots of looks from three. Fitchburg has an unusually small starting lineup and the roster currently states that there are 13 guards and 2 forwards. At this moment, starting at center for the Falcons is 6’4’ senior Javon Taylor, who played small forward last season. He does an excellent job of holding his own and often front guards his matchup, but when the opponent has a center that is over 6’6 it quickly becomes an issue. With this initial problem it is very easy to get beat inside, so to counter this they run a 2-3 zone so that they can easily collapse on the drive, and bring help defenders. This sounds good at first but after the driver gets multiple defenders to crash it leaves the shooters behind the arc with lots of space. This is where the Falcons have to pick their poison, they can get torched in the paint due to their lack of size or let teams rain threes on them all night. There are teams out there who can run these smaller lineups and find great success, the biggest keys are pace and communication on defense. The Falcons are decent on the break but once they get into the half-court offense they tend to slow up.
On the other side of the ball, a 2-3 zone can be elite if the team is able to communicate and rotate to perfection. We are only a few months into the season and with a roster of 13 freshmen it is easy to mess up rotations. The Falcons could play a brand of basketball that every undersized scrappy player would love to be a part of, but will they?
