Ceerqqq
Scout Team
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- Mar 16, 2018
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What was it? The middle of January this year? When we lost to Pittsburgh for the 2nd time?
The feeling of panic among the fan base back then was loud and labored. Endless talk about JB's failings as a coach on every level...gloom & doom reigned supreme.
And you know what? I wasn't throwing hopeful talk at the hurricane of negativity because there was nothing I was seeing in the team's game performance that led me to believe JB would be able to do anything with last year's group to turn it into something resembling a successful season.
But I did not leap to the conclusion that improvement was impossible, that some kind of turnaround was absolutely not in the cards. I didn't go there because I had seen The Old Man do it too many times before: coach the hell out of his players, shore up their weaknesses, make them aware of how they could succeed against their toughest opponents.
So even though I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, I had seen Boeheim turn lemons into lemonade too many times in the past to simply assume that this time he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop the bleeding. He had displayed his coaching magic too many times for me to not wait until the final horn sounded to pronounce judgment on his coaching abilities. His history had demonstrated that he deserved that benefit of the doubt.
And wonder of wonders, didn't he do just that? I don't know what he said to his players last year to make them believe that they had the ability to defeat Virginia Tech & North Carolina & Clemson & play Virginia down to the wire in the ACCT and play themselves into the Sweet Sixteen. I don't know what he said to them in practice to eliminate the mistakes they were making that were costing them wins. Whatever it was that he said, it worked.
He turned a season around that looked utterly hopeless to many into a season of pride for the program. No matter what you might think about JB--that he should have better recruits on the roster, for example--you have to admit that he knows how to coach the most challenged of teams into success stories. It wasn't the rotation decisions he made; it was whatever he & his assistants told the players in practice to turn them into winners on the court.
Given this demonstrated strength that JB has as a coach, you might think that self-proclaimed fans of his basketball program would just wait until the end of the season to start hurling their stones of accusation at him. If at that time he has failed as you expect, then you will have plenty of time then to paint as gloomy a picture as you want.
So my simple advice to all of Boeheim's critics out there: do yourself a favor and remember how wrong you were last year in your dreary expectations. This year's team is flawed, but you get no points for noticing that. Show that your brain can operate on a level other than "Boeheim Sucks!" and acknowledge that he may yet be able to make this team successful by doing things you can't even imagine in his practices.
If you do that, and keep your powder dry, you will still have all those negative criticisms in your pocket to hurl at Boeheim after all the games have been played. If you can just restrain yourselves for now, you'll lose none of your ammo, but by god it will spare the rest of us the extreme unpleasantness of your panic attacks, at least for a while...
Pretty please?
The feeling of panic among the fan base back then was loud and labored. Endless talk about JB's failings as a coach on every level...gloom & doom reigned supreme.
And you know what? I wasn't throwing hopeful talk at the hurricane of negativity because there was nothing I was seeing in the team's game performance that led me to believe JB would be able to do anything with last year's group to turn it into something resembling a successful season.
But I did not leap to the conclusion that improvement was impossible, that some kind of turnaround was absolutely not in the cards. I didn't go there because I had seen The Old Man do it too many times before: coach the hell out of his players, shore up their weaknesses, make them aware of how they could succeed against their toughest opponents.
So even though I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, I had seen Boeheim turn lemons into lemonade too many times in the past to simply assume that this time he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop the bleeding. He had displayed his coaching magic too many times for me to not wait until the final horn sounded to pronounce judgment on his coaching abilities. His history had demonstrated that he deserved that benefit of the doubt.
And wonder of wonders, didn't he do just that? I don't know what he said to his players last year to make them believe that they had the ability to defeat Virginia Tech & North Carolina & Clemson & play Virginia down to the wire in the ACCT and play themselves into the Sweet Sixteen. I don't know what he said to them in practice to eliminate the mistakes they were making that were costing them wins. Whatever it was that he said, it worked.
He turned a season around that looked utterly hopeless to many into a season of pride for the program. No matter what you might think about JB--that he should have better recruits on the roster, for example--you have to admit that he knows how to coach the most challenged of teams into success stories. It wasn't the rotation decisions he made; it was whatever he & his assistants told the players in practice to turn them into winners on the court.
Given this demonstrated strength that JB has as a coach, you might think that self-proclaimed fans of his basketball program would just wait until the end of the season to start hurling their stones of accusation at him. If at that time he has failed as you expect, then you will have plenty of time then to paint as gloomy a picture as you want.
So my simple advice to all of Boeheim's critics out there: do yourself a favor and remember how wrong you were last year in your dreary expectations. This year's team is flawed, but you get no points for noticing that. Show that your brain can operate on a level other than "Boeheim Sucks!" and acknowledge that he may yet be able to make this team successful by doing things you can't even imagine in his practices.
If you do that, and keep your powder dry, you will still have all those negative criticisms in your pocket to hurl at Boeheim after all the games have been played. If you can just restrain yourselves for now, you'll lose none of your ammo, but by god it will spare the rest of us the extreme unpleasantness of your panic attacks, at least for a while...
Pretty please?
