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Message: [QUOTE="Ceerqqq, post: 3782951, member: 6702"] I just don't understand why you guys don't wait til the end of the season to offer your judgments of Jim Boeheim's coaching ability. [I]How many times do you have to see it[/I], Jim developing his team [B][I]his way[/I][/B], turning a group of players into a supremely competitive unit by the end of the season? Lesson #1: This team is [I]not [/I]playing better because Jim Boeheim "listened" to his fan base critics. He thinks nothing of your opinions, at least as far as them having any useful value as analysis (but he definitely doesn't like to hear his coaching criticized). He wasn't awakened to the value of Kadary & Jesse & Robert because he heard some fans say that they thought he should be playing them more. He wasn't failing to play them because he didn't see their potential. [I]He was the first to see their potential[/I], but he also saw the [I]mistakes [/I]they were making in practice. The only reason they didn't play more earlier is because [I]he didn't think they were ready to play more [/I]without jeopardizing the team's chances of success[I].[/I] The [I]only [/I]reason they are playing more now is because [I]he believes they are ready now [/I]to make an important contribution (in practice, they've been making fewer mistakes). Lesson #2: Jim Boeheim is a Teacher of Basketball. Not just the fine points of player skills--he's got assistants to work on that--but how to continually teach a bunch of athletes to play together, how to play his innovative approach to Defense. It takes time. You've gotta stop practice to tell everybody where they need to be, what they need to look for. It takes time because it take repetitions. So if you see failings in the team earlier in the season--even mid-season--you can't extrapolate that the season's gonna be a disaster...[I]cuz we're talking about Jim Boeheim[/I]. Please, guys, you don't have to have open-ended faith in Jim Boeheim working miracles. All you've gotta do is look at the record, the trend, and understand that his teams--especially in an era where you don't keep your best talent very long--are always in a period of continuing instruction toward an ultimate goal. No, you're not smarter than the guy who snarls at his critics. Just try to accept that and you'll enjoy his amazing accomplishments a lot more...:) [/QUOTE]

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