Hope the staff watches some film this week and makes some adjustments before next week or we'll get sent to the woodshed once again.
What adjustments should the staff make? Come on...... The reality is, our success or failure depends more on what the other team does, not what we do. We have limitations, however, many coaches are arrogant and/or stubborn. They have a system that they installed and don't want to vary from it much. Clooney finally caved and realized why even play defense on Pointer. As good as he has played he still isn't a good shooter and can't create his own shot. Obekpa? Branch is a offensive liability. That's 5 on 2. Green still struggles shooting off the dribble and as tough as Harrison is he lacks quickness and struggles to get separation from his defender. What adjustments can the staff make to change the way other teams would play us according to our limitations?
If I was playing SJU on my board the points of emphasis before the game would be:
1. Defensively, play to their personal
2. Control the tempo and take care of the ball
3. Get back on defense
If a decent team focuses on those aspects, we will lose more times than not and it wouldn't matter if John Wooden was coaching this team. We are 1-4 in BE tournament play because we have the same personal. X's and O's is not going to change the way a team defends the personal. The disappointment I have had with this staff is not the coaching it has been the recruiting.
I agree about the players limitations but that's also on Lavin and staff because he brought them all in. It's fine to run the same old stuff but there has to be counters prepared and we had none. I honestly felt like the reason Lavin did not call a time out was because he had nothing to input. I am probably wrong but I felt the team got so frustrated by him and his lack of leadership and said f*ck it. Our guys had zero response and Prov looked to know where we were going instantly. Why not try and go small with Felix or just the main 5? It wasn't like we were blocking shots or grabbing rebounds anyway. No, instead what did he do ... more minutes for Joey. Really? There are other ways to run your system and be successful. Often times Lavin is reactive instead of proactive. We always respond to the other teams personnel instead of making them adjust.
Have you all noticed our baseline out of bounds plays? Oh wait, we don't really have one. We just throw it deep into the backcourt EVERYTIME! Meanwhile, I sit there terrified because we have a tendency to give up lay ups and dunks frequently along with a bunch of fouls.
I coach a varsity basketball program and we go into every game knowing every play the other team runs along with their defensive style. We prepare our athletes for everything we may see and have them prepared to counter. We can do this because we care, work hard and want to win. We watch endless hours of film and make sure to know every person on the team of value. Do many of you really feel that Lavin and staff spend even the tiniest bit of time doing this? Postgame Kevin O'Neill read his texts from Cooley. That sounded like a man prepared to beat the shit out of us ... and he did. I still can't believe how much they overplayed our pick and roll as our guys ran around lost.
Great Analysis.. You certainly know basketball and, have hit the nail square on the Coaching, preparation and what happened or, did not happen yesterday and last Saturday vs Nova..Only issue was Balamou.. I think the announcers said he was unavailable due to a eye injury, sustained in practice. Harrison also sported a major league shiner and, I don't recall a clear explanation being given..
Throw in Jordan not starting again and the funny farm gets really out of hand.
This group of Players needs to play at a high intensity level to balance out their individual limitations and composite team weaknesses. Throw in the off court soap opera that has been present since this group arrived on Campus and, not hard to fathom this see saw season..
When the tone of the game or, when the opponent asserts their will, our guys begin to look for the exits and, it shows on the Court. Lavin has had no answers on the sidelines and, that was on his resume from UCLA days. Bruin fans were very outspoken in cautioning us about his credentials. After 5 years, some are Lavin supporters and some not..
Your post was interesting since it , without emotion, breaks down what Lavin puts on the COURT as a game plan. Which is not much for a guy making $2 million a year.
Cooley's preparation, on the contrary, was a winning formula and, he seemingly is capable of instilling a will to win in his players that Lavin hasn't. He clearly wasn't going to let us beat his team 3 times this season. Steve didn't do the same installation.