some thoughts from yall

lets say monasch came to u after this game and said look________ i want u to coach this team moving foward. what is the 1st five things u would do .u cant add anyone to this team. u have these players and the same coaching staff minus norm. what would u do going foward. ur goal is to try to finish middle of the big east and win a big east title

1. kob or any other top aau contact will be my assistant
2. fire the entire former bb staff
3. bring back the stipend
4. let students watch for free
5. get a x & o technician

lets say monasch came to u after this game and said look________ i want u to coach this team moving foward. what is the 1st five things u would do .u cant add anyone to this team. u have these players and the same coaching staff minus norm. what would u do going foward. ur goal is to try to finish middle of the big east and win a big east title

Excellent post.
This team even w/o Norm is going to be a bad offensive team. Hardy is the only shooter and Kennedy is your only passer. The team does have good athletes and outside of Kennedy, Hardy and hopefully Burrell they are all interchangeable. So the very first thing I would do is implement 40 minutes of pressure D. Old school Hoya basketball. The one bad side is outside of Coker there is not a shot blocker, but by pressing we could use our deph and hopefully create some easy baskets for ourselves. This style would allow Boothe to be able to have a purpose. In the halfcourt he is useless. This style of play would also help Hardy, Horne, Kennedy, Lawrence, Roberts and Burrell. Evans would probably have to transfer however.

lets say monasch came to u after this game and said look________ i want u to coach this team moving foward. what is the 1st five things u would do .u cant add anyone to this team. u have these players and the same coaching staff minus norm. what would u do going foward. ur goal is to try to finish middle of the big east and win a big east title

1.  Have a practice from hell. Tell the team I don't care what your previous BS coach did, but if you EARN minutes, you get minutes.  I don't care if you're the walk on or Chris Mullin reincarnate, you earn your time for me.  Tell the team that the way to get benched immediately by me is to not box out and/or make lazy passes.  We do both of these things way too much and doing this will cut down on opponents second chance points and our turnovers.

2.  New Starting 5 (based on what I've seen from games):  Boothe, Horne, Kennedy, Mason, Burrell

3.  Change rotations.  Hardy is first guy off the bench, and we will play much of the game with Boothe ON the bench.  Coker will be first big off the bench for defense.  Sean Evans becomes 10-15 min per game player.  Obviously this can change as I see how they play for me, but I have to base this on armchair knowledge of the team for this question.  Rotation is cut down for sure...guys need to get in the flow.

4.  Recognize I am not a D1 caliber head coach (yet) and consult someone who is a knowledgable offensive mind.  An x and o tactician.  KOB says I can't hire anyone, so after talking to my asistant coaches, I call someone respected in the game.  I probably reach out to Mike D'Antoni, Knicks coach, offensive genius.  I ask him to check out some of our film (if he hasnt watched us) and give me a few pointers.  If Mike's too busy (it is A-S weekend and lives in my hometown, so maybe he'd be nice)  perhaps a top HS coach or an unemployed coach right now...maybe see if a Pete Gillen would come in and talk to me/us for a practice.  I listen to their offense and implement it (to the extent they have prior knowledge and can implement it...for THIS season will have to keep it simple most likely).

5.  Teach and have the team ready to play 3 different defenses - man to man, zone (3-2), and full court zone press.  I would switch the defenses up during the game to keep other coach on their toes.


With all of these things, I reward those who deserve rewarding - the kids that play hard AND smart - and play no favorites.  If JB is having a crappy game and isn't being agressive, I sit him down for a period and tell him he needs to be agressive.  if sean is playing dumb, i tell him that if he ever dribbles the ball past half court again he's done.  if malik tries to shoot a 3...you get a picture.  I teach them to play within their roles.  And I try to positively reinforce my teachings by being up front with them about WHAT they need to do to be better and reward them when they do that correctly.

Oh, same coaching staff?  Man... that's rough.  Part of the problem is the lack of development in some players; I'd want to hire a coach who is excellent at teaching shooting.  I'll take a stab at this, but I don't know exactly what's going wrong in practice or why the offense, in particular, looks so damned confused after 3 years in the same motion offense with basically the same personnel.

- I'd start Burrell and Coker.  And possibly Mase over Horne, but I'd have to think on that one some more.  Evans plays 10+ minutes behind Coker because there isn't anyone else.  But the forwards would be asked to hit the boards harder and own their space - they've been weak on the glass this year.  Rotation would be: starters; Coker/ Burrell/ Mason/ Kennedy/ Boothe, then Hardy/ Evans/ Horne; Stith in a pinch, Lawrence in a pinch, Thomas when there's not enough hustle.

- Make the "motion offense" a little more structured with plays - most involving a touch or three in the post; as an aside, Boothe would start but I would tell him that if he's not probing into the lane on every possession (like last night - that's how I envision him being a solid player on the team) longer than 7 seconds he's cleaning toilets.  The team is admittedly better about not turning the ball over this year, so I don't want to turn the ballhandling over to someone else.

- (This is more for the offseason and individual workouts) Practice shooting off the catch; tell players that if they're not going to the basket to make a play, they shouldn't pound the ball into the court 5, 10 times - make a pass.  Oh, hell, practice shooting off the dribble too; the guys aren't great at it.

- Trap from 3/4 court at times, but generally play man defense with no hedging by the bigs - they stay back and defend the basket. Work in some token zone to switch things up from time to time.  No b-s easy shots, maintain control of the game, keep the other team out of the paint.

-  Find a way to keep players moving.  They have a motion offense where no one's moving at times.  I can't believe the team scraped the Cardinals like that - sometimes they were just standing there...

1. Start Boothe, Mase, DJ, Hardy and Justin. (Small, but decent shooting lineup)Bring Horne, Evans, Dele and (Thomas in spots) off the bench. Give Stith a few minutes here and there.
2. Stop pressing full court and trap more in half court occasionally.
3. Give Mase, Burrell, DJ and Hardy at least 30 minutes a game, fouls permitting.
4. Eliminate this big man hedging out high. Only results in bad switches and rolls to the bucket.
5.Don't run clock down to final second so often.
 

  Unless I'm mistaken Mase is gone next year., New player is Roberts from St Peter's.

1) Explain to Malik Boothe that he will no longer be starting, and his minutes will be reduced to around 10-15 minutes a game.  The new starting line up will be Hardy, Kennedy, Mason, Burrell, Brownlee.

2) Incorporate a 1-3-1 half court trapping defense....same as John Beilein at Michigan.  I love that defense for certain stretches of games.

3) Advise everyone on the team that when we get a defensive rebound to outlet the ball and go!!!  Stop slowing it down!!!

4) When we don't have anything on the fast break....the offense needs to work inside out....and Burrell should get 2 touches every possession.  His attitude and effort on the court has been great, lately.

5) Work on Free Throws!!!

1. Fire the entire coaching staff.
2. Fire the training staff.
3. Apologize to Sean Evans and Paris Horne, because they are now out of the rotation. You have to make good decisions on both ends of the floor, and these two do neither.
4. Adjust the starting line to consist of Boothe, Hardy, Kennedy, Burrell and Coker.
5. Set screens for Dwight Hardy.

When a player on another team makes a bad choice they are pulled. Our guys never get pulled for making bad choices. They get pulled for scoring streaks. Norm was guilty of this even last night, but Louisville was such crap that it didn't matter.   

This team does have offensive talent, but they are soooooo poorly coached, they don't even understand how to run a play. Likely because they've never been asked to. Burrell sets picks, and they are always ignored. 

1. hire a great financial planner, because I will never get a job this good again, and make sure I am set for retirement.I figure Harry will give me 6 years before they wake up.

 2. Send my assistant coaches to Siberia(since I cant hire new ones).
 
  3. Tell my chucking guards that you have to know you suck at shooting 3's, so get the damn ball down low to burrell or brownlee.
 
   4. schedule cupcakes before season schedule..so i  can pad my win-loss record.focus on winning one big east game during conference play.so when we lose 4,or 5 in a row, the one win will make the fans forget how bad we suck.

   5. buy pizza for all the jungle fans, suck up to the press..this way i can collect all 6 years of checks...make sure Maven gets a big fat check from someone to keep him off my back..

Kob, throwin it right back at ya. Tanman makes you coach.  What are the first 5 things you do?

1. Take away that ridiculous b.s. pressure defense...either you press/trap hard or you don't do it at al..

2. Rotate defenses...1-3-1, 2-3, 3-2....3/2 and 1-3-1 out of nowhere will confuse any team for a few possessions.  Force a T.O. then switch back.  I've had games where I came out with a different defense for the first four possessions because most coaches will script the first handful of plays or coach to a certain defense almost exclusively before the matchup.

3.  Get Coker more minutes.  He shoots a high %, rebounds well, changes the game with his shot blocks, plays well with JB1.

4. Get the bigs some looks.  Establishing the post is just like running the ball in football...you ahve to go to it early and often even it isn't working out for you at first.

5. Re-coach them how to screen offensively and deal with screens defensively...as well as to rotate defensively (especailly the second rotation). 

I don't know what Norm does with this team in practice, but I'd spent at least 20 minutes per practice going over fast breaks and secondary transition. I love the Bobby Knight 11 man drill--a perpetual 3-2 fast break. 

I think this team finally has players that can play the same type of game and it is definitely a running team now.  You don't really break the backs of teams by running early, but if you push the ball EVERY TIME you have a 4-3, 3-2 or beter you are going to get a ton of points that you would not get in a 5-5 half court situation.

I don't know what Norm does with this team in practice, but I'd spent at least 20 minutes per practice going over fast breaks and secondary transition. I love the Bobby Knight 11 man drill--a perpetual 3-2 fast break. 

I think this team finally has players that can play the same type of game and it is definitely a running team now.  You don't really break the backs of teams by running early, but if you push the ball EVERY TIME you have a 4-3, 3-2 or beter you are going to get a ton of points that you would not get in a 5-5 half court situation.

11 man drill was always my favorit drill