It's culture as well as coaching as well as recruiting.
It's the Fran way too.
What culture do you want? Does everyone understand the expectations?
Recruiting the right players for that culture, which is going to mean finding kids who are coming from a similar culture. Also finding kids w attributes who match the culture. Gritty, high iq, whatever it is.
Then coaching to that culture, teaching kids the culture, & promoting kids who fit the culture & benching those who don't.
I saw Scheyer play in person when he was a sophomore in HS. He clearly was a Duke cultural fit way back then.
Reds recruited some guys who don't fit in any culture, IMO.
And this was the reason why I wanted them to hire Gerry, instead of Red.
Assuming they had to hire an assistant.
I thought that Red would rely on recruiting players as their friend.
Great for an assistant coach, an absolute disaster as a head coach.
I felt that Gerry would recruit players who would fit in the culture he wanted to instill.
Work hard, never give up, support your teammates, always show sportsmanship.
And that is exactly what he is doing at Siena.
Watch one of their games on ESPN Plus. With the exception of Doty, none of these kids have the raw talent our players have. They only won 4 games last year for goodness sake.
But they play high energy defense, and play like every game is a championship game.
Last week they beat the number one team in their conference by 9.
The same team they lost to by 19 three weeks ago, and they did this without 2 of their starters including the one Gerry said is the leader of the team.
That is how a good coach gets a team that has been a train wreck for years to have some pride in themselves and fight to the end.
And even without 2 starters, they have steadily improved both offensively and defensively.