With the latest national narrative (and regional, and local) seeming to be that every win or every loss comes down to "great" coaching or "bad" coaching, let me say, there are tons of horrible coaches that will end up in the HOF.
It's not worth naming the games in which the final play of a tight game ends up with some iso play where the player invariable launches a well guarded, off balance 22 footer that doesn't have a prayer. Happened today with Lousville at Kentucky and this was the play that was drawn up during the timeout.... I seriously doubt it, of course, but that was the end result. So apparently Pitino is terrible with X's and O's.
The thing is, you see that same play happen around 90% of the time in the same situation. Hell, last year, Wisconsin, who was a strong offensive team with a lot of versatility and firepower - and a team that was pretty disciplined... They went iso several times down the stretch. That Bo Ryan is a horrible coach.
I mean everybody across the nation seems to pin the results of every game on the absolutes of great coach or terrible coach, right?
We see good teams with great coaches struggle with zones, we see undermanned teams shred a zone.
The thing is this - D1 coaches know basketball inside and out. The worst one has forgotten more X's and O's than we'll even begin to understand. Yet we continue to see such undisciplined play at every level.
Add up the years of experience with that same team on the floor at a given moment - the higher that number, the better coached they appear. If you've got a squad with 4 SR's who have spent four years in the program and a sophomore with two years in the program - I don't care if they are all 3 and 2 star recruits... There's a far higher probability that they going to look fluid even with a JR high coach running the team.
There are a lot of other variables, of course. A poised point guard that's an extension of the coach, team buy in, low egos, etc. But team year experience is going to trump a lot of things.
It's not worth naming the games in which the final play of a tight game ends up with some iso play where the player invariable launches a well guarded, off balance 22 footer that doesn't have a prayer. Happened today with Lousville at Kentucky and this was the play that was drawn up during the timeout.... I seriously doubt it, of course, but that was the end result. So apparently Pitino is terrible with X's and O's.
The thing is, you see that same play happen around 90% of the time in the same situation. Hell, last year, Wisconsin, who was a strong offensive team with a lot of versatility and firepower - and a team that was pretty disciplined... They went iso several times down the stretch. That Bo Ryan is a horrible coach.
I mean everybody across the nation seems to pin the results of every game on the absolutes of great coach or terrible coach, right?
We see good teams with great coaches struggle with zones, we see undermanned teams shred a zone.
The thing is this - D1 coaches know basketball inside and out. The worst one has forgotten more X's and O's than we'll even begin to understand. Yet we continue to see such undisciplined play at every level.
Add up the years of experience with that same team on the floor at a given moment - the higher that number, the better coached they appear. If you've got a squad with 4 SR's who have spent four years in the program and a sophomore with two years in the program - I don't care if they are all 3 and 2 star recruits... There's a far higher probability that they going to look fluid even with a JR high coach running the team.
There are a lot of other variables, of course. A poised point guard that's an extension of the coach, team buy in, low egos, etc. But team year experience is going to trump a lot of things.
