Coach K on the state of 2020 college basketball

[UpstateSM]

What makes you say Coach K is senile? Just curious.

Last season was all the proof I needed that he couldn't coach anymore. Not finding a way to win with the talent on that roster is amazing. He just seems out of it and I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of his staff is doing most of the heavy lifting at this point.

The most recent evidence is his outburst at his own student section last week. I've never in my life seen a coach do that and even now its unbelievable that he did. No reasonable person does that in the middle of a game. Can you imagine the reaction here if Boeheim did that?

I guess senile Coach K is my tinfoil hat sports conspiracy lol

 

[Eric15]

Last season was all the proof I needed that he couldn't coach anymore.

Come on now, anything can happen in one 40 minute college basketball game. Great teams get bounced all the time, and good but not great teams win national titles all the time.

 

[Eric15]

The thing I miss most about college basketball is the lack of "villains" anymore. Like back in the Big East when great players stayed 3-4 years, you would get to know opposing players and "hate" them, and that made the sport so much more fun. But now, most elite player are 18 year olds going through the motions because they're being forced to, and by the time I know who they are and get a feel for their game, they're gone.

 

[UpstateSM]

Come on now, anything can happen in one 40 minute college basketball game. Great teams get bounced all the time, and good but not great teams win national titles all the time.

They should have been knocked out in the second round and VT had them on the ropes. They should have been historically good with the talent on that roster.

Ignoring the tourney results, he let RJ Barrett take 18 shots per game compared to Zion's 12 and have a higher usage rate even though his effective field goal % was 20 points lower and shot worse from three. That's garbage coaching.

 

[Fat tire 13]

The "problem" this article sensationalizes is actually a solution, and at a bargain price - the loss of a tiny fraction of talented kids who want to play for pay. Let them go. We should send them off with a pat on the back instead of whining about the 'talent drain'. They have the right to explore expanding opportunities in the G-League and the NBA. With any luck, in the next few years the players association might allow drafting out of HS again. All of that is a good thing, since most pro prospects have no interest in school. Pretending they're college students was always a fraud, made even more unsavory (and illegal) by the infusion of booster money. College hoops will survive (and maybe thrive) without semi-pro shams.

Will there be a talent hit? Sure. The top factories won't have as many monster players. Boo Hoo. I'd rather watch real student athletes competing (and going to class) than pretenders using college as an NBA audition. If the Kentucky/Duke model dies a natural death I won't shed any tears.

After reading that article, my main comment was that all he is doing is complaining, and not offering a solution. He basically sounds like a big baby, and comes across as insincere because Duke gets as many "one and dones" as anyone. Didn't hear him complaining last year when the media was sweating Zion constantly

Thank you for offering a solution.

Thinking big picture, it is kind of sad. People on the board are finding both college and NBA less enjoyable. I can't really think of any people who watch G-league religiously. Personally, I would prefer a college landscape where kids stay 3-4 years, even if that means the top 5-10 HS players go straight to pros

The other challenge is the NCAA and NBA don't ever seem to be on the same page with these topics either

 

[alphaorange]

I believe the current disinterest in college ball stems from lack of name recognition. Back in the day, you had guys for 3 years minimum and most for 4 years. You knew who was on Duke, Georgetown, St Johns, UNC, Kentucky, etc. Not just one guy but most of the guys. I was a league unto itself with rosters that seldom completely turned over so people could get really invested in the games. It's always been about the players first, then the teams.

 

[Newhouser]

Last season was all the proof I needed that he couldn't coach anymore. Not finding a way to win with the talent on that roster is amazing. He just seems out of it and I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of his staff is doing most of the heavy lifting at this point.

The most recent evidence is his outburst at his own student section last week. I've never in my life seen a coach do that and even now its unbelievable that he did. No reasonable person does that in the middle of a game. Can you imagine the reaction here if Boeheim did that?

I guess senile Coach K is my tinfoil hat sports conspiracy lol

He seemed pretty with it against us.

 

[OttoMets]

Same here (and being older with kids) I can probably name 3 starters from each Big East team from 85-95...

Big East- 600+ Points in a Season, 1990-2016

Can you name the Big East basketball players who scored at least 600 points in a season from 1990-91 through 2015-16?

www.sporcle.com

Ready...go!

 

[Cusefan0307]

Last season was all the proof I needed that he couldn't coach anymore. Not finding a way to win with the talent on that roster is amazing. He just seems out of it and I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of his staff is doing most of the heavy lifting at this point.

The most recent evidence is his outburst at his own student section last week. I've never in my life seen a coach do that and even now its unbelievable that he did. No reasonable person does that in the middle of a game. Can you imagine the reaction here if Boeheim did that?

I guess senile Coach K is my tinfoil hat sports conspiracy lol

They have been somewhat overrated with the one and done. The lack of shooting usually does them in. I'm more scared of Duke when they can kill you from the outside.

 

[UpstateSM]

He seemed pretty with it against us.

With the game being reffed as it was down low the only realistic shot we had was shooting lights out from deep, which we didn't. You could stand there and tell Tre Jones to feed Vernon Carey the ball. And Carey should have had three fouls in the first half but there's not many refs with the balls to do that agains K.

I would say that his coaching had little to do with the outcome of the game, we were severely outmatched in a game played that physically. The best compliment I can give him is the substitution patterns with their big in foul trouble, but most assistantships coaches can help with that.

I'm convinced that if you gave K our roster the outcome of the season is much worse than what it's going to be under Jimmy B. I can defame K all day if need be haha

 

[OttoMets]

...

I just have to laugh thinking about how many people you see on here or social media that don't want players to be paid and thought they had the trump card with "Nobody's making them play in college. If they don't like it go somewhere else." Well, they're going somewhere else now so be careful what you wish for.

I think this is a good thing, but it's going to take some time for the sport to adjust. But fundamental skills development still needs work. The physicality of the game and the response by officiating is a problem. Finally, the college conferences still need to find a way to maintain some roster continuity.

To the last, I don't see much college basketball these days but watched a lot of Providence-Nova two weeks ago when the SU-Pitt game apparently wasn't televised. Wow. That wasn't high-level basketball by any stretch, but it was a lot better than the average SU ACC game that I usually see. The game is better when kids play together for several years.

 

[UpstateSM]

They have been somewhat overrated with the one and done. The lack of shooting usually does them in. I'm more scared of Duke when they can kill you from the outside.

They've been able to compile talent but have not been able to build a well-structured team. I'm not a Calipari fan but to me he does a better job of recruiting in that aspect.

 

[SmilinBob]

Curious on how much games on TV have slowed the interest. So many games on and to add to that so much stuff on TV with Netflix/Hulu/Prime that short attention spans and overload of games may have just turned off interest to a %.

 

[RandygoCuse]

Will there be a talent hit? Sure. The top factories won't have as many monster players. Boo Hoo. I'd rather watch real student athletes competing (and going to class) than pretenders using college as an NBA audition. Let K bemoan the failing Kentucky/Duke model. As a college hoops fan I'm not shedding any tears.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. But will the fact that the best players leave mean there are that many more student athletes competing or just players that aren't good enough to leave?

 

[Horn88]

I think this is a good thing, but it's going to take some time for the sport to adjust. But fundamental skills development still needs work. The physicality of the game and the response by officiating is a problem. Finally, the college conferences still need to find a way to maintain some roster continuity.

To the last, I don't see much college basketball these days but watched a lot of Providence-Nova two weeks ago when the SU-Pitt game apparently wasn't televised. Wow. That wasn't high-level basketball by any stretch, but it was a lot better than the average SU ACC game that I usually see. The game is better when kids play together for several years.

I agree and am all for these kids exploring other avenues outside of the NCAA. I'm pretty down on college basketball as a whole but agree the officiating is embarassingly bad at times.

In terms of player development, one of the bigger "secrets" is that most NBA guys don't really think all that highly of the basketball IQ and teaching skills of college coaches. They think most college coaches are basically salesmen (recruiting) who coach basketball as opposed to being great basketball minds. Which makes sense because college sports success is really about getting talent into your program more than anything.

 

[SU2NASA]

This seems far fetched to me. I mean there were seasons when, for example, the Big East was insanely good getting like 10-11 teams in the tourney and the Pac-12 was a borderline one-bid league. Sometimes P5 conferences are awesome and sometimes they’re awful. This just happens to be a great year for the Big Ten.

I think the idea that a conference can have a 5-37 record for road teams is far-fetched. The stats bear out that the officials are providing home teams more calls and more free throws, and that doesn’t account for what isn’t called.