Catching up with Coach Cross ahead of Conference Play
Troy head basketball coach Scott Cross has made his way through his first non-conference slate as the Trojans’ head man.
The journey through the scheduled began promising enough with a near take-down of in-state foe UAB but quickly to a sharp turn for the worse.
The Trojans opened the season with three straight losses and dropped its first six games against division I opponents. It was not until December 4 when Troy got its first D-I win, a 71-63 victory over North Alabama at home.
Troy followed that up with a win at Jacksonville State and then a tough overtime loss at Chattanooga to close the out-of-conference schedule.
Though the Trojans came out of it just 4-7, the 11 games were valuable for both Cross and fans hoping to find out what kind of team the new coach is running.
Of course, there are several negatives, but there are also positives in the form of some key areas and players that are sticking out as building blocks.
Finding the right group
In 11 games, Cross has used nine unique starting lineups. Only two lineups have been used twice, one for the first two games and one for the last two games.
Cross uses a point-system he has developed over time to determine starters after ditching the plus/minus system he used in the past. The current system is actually heavily weighted towards starters, making it a little more difficult for others to crack the five.
Some executive decisions have been made, however, leading to 13(!) players making at least one start less than halfway through the season. So far, every scholarship player on the team has been in the opening lineup.
“All the guys should see that guys with energy who do the little things typically get to play,” Cross told the Trojan Wall.
Part of the reason so many players were cycled into the lineup was to send a message to the older players. That message was well received, according to Darian Adams.
“It actually made me play my defense harder and I started locking back in on both sides of the ball,” Adams told the Trojan Wall. “I appreciate what coach did, it really opened my eyes. I didn’t see it as a punishment.”
Since his return to the lineup, Adams has averaged 16.5 points per game and dished out eight assists against the Mocs in Tennessee.
New and bigger roles
With a new coach comes a new system and with a new system comes new positional roles. One of the more noticeable changes was evident in game one. Sophomore guard KJ Simon acted as the backup point guard last season but is largely playing off the ball this season.
It seemed a perfect change of scenery for him after game one when Simon dropped a team-high 21 points against the Blazers. Since then, though, Simon is averaging just 4.3 points per game and hasn’t scored since putting up three points against North Alabama three contests ago.
“He has the potential to be our best on-the-ball defender,” Cross said. “He’s got to be more efficient offensively. Efficiency means assist-to-turnover ratio and shooting at good percentages.”
Simon is currently averaging 2.2 assist to 1.8 turnovers per game while shooting just 40.9 percent from the field.
As player minutes fluctuated like stock market trends, new opportunities opened up often. Atakan Sahinkaya took advantage. After a strong 11-rebound outing at Indiana, “AK” made his career start against Carver Bible College. He had six points, four rebounds and two assists in the game.
After playing all of 37 total minutes last season, AK logged 44 minutes against Indiana and Carver. The sophomore would start three more games and has shown a knack for rebounding. AK is averaging 4.6 rebounds per game in 17.5 minutes an outing.
“He plays hard, he plays tough, he’s a solid team defender and he’s a good passer,” Cross said. “He hasn’t really been shooting the ball really well. That’s where (Davion Thomas) has earned some minutes. We’ve moved him to the four because he can knock down shots and we felt this team needed another shot-maker out there.”
Breaking in some freshmen
College basketball, unfortunately, does not have the same redshirt rules as college football does. Once a player hits the floor, his potential redshirt is then burned.
While Cross would’ve loved to save a year of eligibility for guards Desmond Williams and Jakevan Leftridge, that just wasn’t in the cards this year.
With his team desperately needing a spark after a 14-point loss to the 345th KenPom ranked Alabama A&M Bulldogs, Cross made the decision to not only dress Williams and Leftridge, but to insert them directly into the lineup.
The two then combined for 20 points in Troy’s 104-53 win over Shorter.
“Desmond (Williams) and Jakevan (Leftridge), going into the season, weren’t in the top seven-to-eight guys, maybe lower than that in the nine-to-13 range,” Cross said. “They play with so much energy and they’ve gotten better during that time.”
Cross also told the Trojan Wall that Williams and Leftridge approached him before the game to let him they were ready and willing to go, making it a two-way decision.
Some things never change
It’s unclear how Cross keeps a healthy heart rate during games with the sheer number of three point attempts he has watched opposing players fire up over the years.
In his 12 years at Texas-Arlington, opponents took at least 40 percent of their shots from beyond the arc in eight of those seasons. It has been no different through 11 games at Troy. A dizzying 49.3 percent of opponent shot attempts have come from long range this year, sixth-highest in the country.
| Year | 3PA% | Rank |
| 2019-20 | 49.30% | 348 |
| 2017-18 | 44.60% | 339 |
| 2016-18 | 44.80% | 342 |
| 2015-16 | 41.50% | 334 |
| 2014-15 | 40.50% | 329 |
| 2013-14 | 39.60% | 335 |
| 2012-13 | 42.30% | 342 |
| 2011-12 | 40.60% | 332 |
| 2010-11 | 39.80% | 326 |
| 2009-10 | 33% | 198 |
| 2008-09 | 41% | 336 |
| 2007-08 | 41.30% | 325 |
| 2006-07 | 38.50% | 295 |
“All my teams have done that,” Cross said. “It’s a trend of probably playing gap principals.”
Cross isn’t too concerned as long as opponents aren’t actually making the shots. The splits between wins and losses have been evident. In losses, opponents are shooting 35.4 percent from deep while in wins opposing teams are shooting just 29.6 percent.
The Trojans have become a little more zone heavy as of late, leading to better three point defense numbers. That in turn led to a three-game win streak stopped only by a tight overtime loss on the road.
Recovering at the free throw line
Through the first couple of weeks of the young season Troy was one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country. It had proven costly on more than one occasion, most notably in the UAB game.
While Troy still sits 11th in the Sun Belt in free throw shooting at 64.1 percent, the difference between the last five games and the first six has been night and day. The Trojans shot just 55.3 percent at the stripe through the opening six games but has since knocked down 76.2 percent of their free throws and own a 3-2 record in that stretch.
“We’ve been doing mental training with the guys,” Cross said. “Just, like, short five to six minute lessons with them. We started it with the Samford trip. Just helping their confidence and their mental focus.”
Cross also worked individually with some players, including Zay Williams and Sahinkaya.
A love/hate relationship with Ken Pomeroy’s new stat
New to KenPom.com is the non-steal turnover percentage stat and Troy happens to be one of the best teams in the entire country in forcing non-steal turnovers. Those, of course, are dead ball turnovers. Throwaways, dribbling violations, etc.
The Trojans are eighth nationally in the stat, forcing a non-steal turnover in 13.9 percent of possessions. The national average is 10.4 percent.
While that’s all fine and does point to Troy rotating well within its zone defense, Cross would love to keep the ball in play when the possessions change hands.
“I’d love to force more live ball turnovers,” Cross said. “I see that on KenPom and I’m like ‘is that a good stat or a bad stat.’ I would rather have live ball turnovers because you should get a number offensive possession where you’ve got an advantage. If they travel then its five-on-five and we’re not super efficient five-on-five right now.”
On the other side of the floor, Troy is top-100 in lowest non-steal turnover percentage.
“That’s probably a good thing because fundamentally we’re not travelling a lot,” Cross said.
Health update
One big plus for the state of the Trojans is their current health. Freshman big man Tyrek Williams came into the season with a brace on his leg and in a limited role, but has since shed that brace.
Sophomore Zay Williams dealt with a couple of minor leg injuries in the middle of the non-conference schedule but has since recovered from that. Williams was held to just 10 minutes against Shorter to help recover and bounced back with a 15-point, nine rebound outing against North Alabama.
Ty Gordon suffered a hip pointer at Chattanooga but isn’t expected to miss any time, according to Cross.
Sahinkaya missed the Chattanooga game (the second one) with an undisclosed illness and the team hopes to have him by tip-off of the conference opener against Coastal Carolina.