New Assistant

[HRE Otto IV]

Yes. He has great AAU connections. He just got us our best recruit in years. You don't think for a second that we would have got Freeman without him, do you?

I know the answer I was trying to be nice.

 

[dasher]

I know the answer I was trying to be nice.

I don't understand why you are questioning keeping him then? What I am I missing?

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I don't understand why you are questioning keeping him then? What I am I missing?

Where am I questioning Straughn? I said we should have one coach and two recruiters. You place Griff and Straughn where they belong within that. Straughn would fit into the recruiter role, correct? I never said he needs to go or does not fit into that role.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Where am I questioning Straughn? I said we should have one coach and two recruiters. You place Griff and Straughn where they belong within that. Straughn would fit into the recruiter role, correct? I never said he needs to go or does not fit into that role.

In your original post. If you weren’t questioning him why bring up his “fit”.

 

[dasher]

Where am I questioning Straughn? I said we should have one coach and two recruiters. You place Griff and Straughn where they belong within that. Straughn would fit into the recruiter role, correct? I never said he needs to go or does not fit into that role.

In your original post. If you weren’t questioning him why bring up his “fit”.

I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one who didn't get that. I understand what he meant by saying he was trying to be nice now.

 

[007]

I don’t think offense was our problem last year. I think it was defense and a lot of that had to do with roster attrition. For the pieces we had available and lack of an actual post scoring threat. I thought we did quite well on offense.

From an "eye test" perspective, the offense seemed like less of an issue than the D. On the other hand, KenPom year end metrics had SU ranked as 85th for adjusted efficiency for both offense and defense.

This leads me to beleive that: Flawed roster construction, injury/dismissal attrition, individual player skill sets relative to individual player deficiencies, and behind the scenes player issues were the primary factors.

If the above assumption is correct, the new assistant emphasis should be on RECRUITING first over Xs and Os. This does not mean that Xs and Os are or are not an issue. Only that the first focus should be on fixing the talent gap issues.

 

[Wrinkle]

I personally was pleased with Red's in-game acumen. We were playing excellent defense for a good stretch before it fell apart. I'm not sure as to the reasons for that. Red handled the rotation very well, imo. That was a puzzle and a mess that required experimentation and he did just that.

Personally I'd like Red to just hire whoever he thinks he needs/wants. I trust him enough to do that

 

[HoustonCuse]

It seems to me the defense was disorganized and haphazard at the beginning of the season and then started getting more disruptive (albeit with a lot of gambling), but then the attrition really hamstrung it badly. Seems it is based on energy, pressure (remember we pressed a good deal earlier on) and the team just didn’t have the gas in the tank (or concern for foul trouble) to play the scheme as we continued to lose players. Unfortunately that led to a lazy defense that still gambled. I still believe the number one need is somebody who can bring a culture of mental toughness and rebounding will.

 

[phil77]

I won't judge our defense until we actually get some defenders in here. I am not even sure Tony Bennett could have gotten last year's squad to play defense. We had terrible defenders at the 1-2-3. Undersized 4 and 5. And we had zero rim protection. Zero chance last year's team was ever going to be good especially when the rumor is certain players never bought into Red or Red's way of doing things.

On offense, we saw glimpses of what Red wants the offensive system to look like. Ball movement with lots of pick'n roll. The problem is our lead guard didn't always want to run the offense and that is why the offense disappeared from time to time.

If we have 1 open spot or 2 give me the best recruiters money can buy. We have a massive talent gap that we need to overcome before we start complaining about anything else especially if we all want to get back to the level we were.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I won't judge our defense until we actually get some defenders in here. I am not even sure Tony Bennett could have gotten last year's squad to play defense. We had terrible defenders at the 1-2-3. Undersized 4 and 5. And we had zero rim protection. Zero chance last year's team was ever going to be good especially when the rumor is certain players never bought into Red or Red's way of doing things.

On offense, we saw glimpses of what Red wants the offensive system to look like. Ball movement with lots of pick'n roll. The probably is our lead guard didn't always want to run the offense and that is why the offense disappeared from time to time.

If we have 1 open spot or 2 give me the best recruiters money can buy. We have a massive talent gap that we need to overcome before we start complaining about anything else especially if we all want to get back to the level we were.

You can’t win just outrecruiting in basketball. If you could then UK would have won it all this season. Take a look at the star ratings of the rosters left outside of Duke. We could use recruiters sure, but in game coaching has never been more important.

The sets Purdue, UConn, and Clemson run look like a different sport to what we are running. I’m not saying talent isn’t important, but the days of a bunch of young future pros going far in the tournament seem to be over for now based on the past few seasons. Red needs to have a plan, build a program and be a good in game coach.

 

[phil77]

You can’t win just outrecruiting in basketball. If you could then UK would have won it all this season. Take a look at the star ratings of the rosters left outside of Duke. We could use recruiters sure, but in game coaching has never been more important.

The sets Purdue, UConn, and Clemson run look like a different sport to what we are running. I’m not saying talent isn’t important, but the days of a bunch of young future pros going far in the tournament seem to be over for now based on the past few seasons. Red needs to have a plan, build a program and be a good in game coach.

Kentucky is pretty much comfortably getting in the tournament every year. I want to get back to that level before start talking about anything else.

 

[Sbucketball]

For better or worse, at this point in time it appears Red wants to run an nba-style offense in the half court with lots of p&r, p&p and iso, but the problem is we don’t have nba players. So sign me up for a recruiting guru assistant. Basketball isn’t rocket science, so if we need better stuff after getting nba caliber guys, I’m sure Red and the assistants will be able to figure it out.

 

[djcon57]

For better or worse, at this point in time it appears Red wants to run an nba-style offense in the half court with lots of p&r, p&p and iso, but the problem is we don’t have nba players. So sign me up for a recruiting guru assistant. Basketball isn’t rocket science, so if we need better stuff after getting nba caliber guys, I’m sure Red and the assistants will be able to figure it out.

Not sure how much nba you watch lately but iso barely exists. It’s like 5 percent of possessions last I looked. We need to follow suit for sure

 

[Cusefan0307]

For better or worse, at this point in time it appears Red wants to run an nba-style offense in the half court with lots of p&r, p&p and iso, but the problem is we don’t have nba players. So sign me up for a recruiting guru assistant. Basketball isn’t rocket science, so if we need better stuff after getting nba caliber guys, I’m sure Red and the assistants will be able to figure it out.

Louisville won 8 games with 8 former top 100 and 4 former top 50 players on their roster this year. They went all in on getting good recruiters who couldn’t coach for a lick and it showed. I was fine with Red’s coaching this year and I am fine with Straughn, but to think we can just replace Gmac(and Griff if he goes)with someone who’s only strength is recruiting probably won’t work long term.

 

[Trueblue25]

Hard to judge the staff based off last year. The team was full of divas who wouldn’t buy into what Red was trying to build. That said - id like a recruiter.

 

[djorange1989]

Hard to judge the staff based off last year. The team was full of divas who wouldn’t buy into what Red was trying to build. That said - id like a recruiter.

This

 

[orangemass]

Need a former bag man.

Men with big bags need apply

 

[DilemaCuse]

It would also help if JAB over the years didn't have a weird fetish for recruiting 7'1 175 pound Centers, or Centers from Africa who played organized basketball for 2.5 years. Hard to mold something out of clay when your parameters are such...Honestly, if you put on ESPN+, you'll find Bigs in the CAA, A10, American conference etc who are shorter in stature but weigh 240 pounds...They're tough on the Boards and have a physicality that we've lacked since maybe Christmas or Onuaku...A couple of years back, Old Dominion had a 6'7'' power forward named Austin from Chicago (forgetting last name) that had a 23 rebound performance with like 10 points...Thought he would be a perfect Grad transfer to bring in etc...

It was a weird fetish, lol

 

[kcsu]

Oh, if Devo wants to start off as a grad ass't., like Gerry did. That would be great. Is that what you mean? That is what I mean by paying your dues.

Devo was an assistant as well . Was a strength coach for JB. Plus he had a role at Detroit Mercy and crushed at the girls JV level
Bottom line Gmac was handed an amazing job by Jim with zero experience. I'm not saying Devo should get a gig but his coaching experience level compared to Gmacs is about equal if not better.

 

[albanycuse]

Devo was an assistant as well . Was a strength coach for JB. Plus he had a role at Detroit Mercy and crushed at the girls JV level
Bottom line Gmac was handed an amazing job by Jim with zero experience. I'm not saying Devo should get a gig but his coaching experience level compared to Gmacs is about equal if not better.

sorry but that’s laughable to say Devo is even in the same ballpark as GMac. Whats Devos experience recruiting players??

 

[kcsu]

sorry but that’s laughable to say Devo is even in the same ballpark as GMac. Whats Devos experience recruiting players??

Read the post. It is about Devo getting an opportunity to become an assistant coach. The comparison is between gmac who got his assistant job from JB with his only experience at the time being a grad assistant at SU and Devos experience to date.
You should read the thread again.

 

[721Comstock]

sorry but that’s laughable to say Devo is even in the same ballpark as GMac. Whats Devos experience recruiting players??

Well, it’s kinda irrelevant, because Devo’s not in any coaching capacity now, and we’re not hiring some dude just because he played for us 15 years ago.

Also - he’s actually pretty decent at broadcasting.
I think he should stick with that.
He’s got a future there, and it can’t help but be less stressful and time intensive than being an assistant coach.

 

[Skinny.Atlas]

Can we steal an assistant from UConn? They play excellent defense and are almost unstoppable on offense. They have talent but not Kentucky or Duke talent.

Since we are losing a coach that won a championship, we might want to bring in someone that knows about building a championship culture.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Can we steal an assistant from UConn? They play excellent defense and are almost unstoppable on offense. They have talent but not Kentucky or Duke talent.

Since we are losing a coach that won a championship, we might want to bring in someone that knows about building a championship culture.

Why would a coach leave UConn to coach here unless we’re paying them 2x as much?

 

[kcsu]

Well, it’s kinda irrelevant, because Devo’s not in any coaching capacity now, and we’re not hiring some dude just because he played for us 15 years ago.

Also - he’s actually pretty decent at broadcasting.
I think he should stick with that.
He’s got a future there, and it can’t help but be less stressful and time intensive than being an assistant coach.

The point wasn't Red hiring Devo for SU it was gmac hiring Devo as an assistant at Siena.