Louisville Postgame Thoughts

[rrlbees]

Another way to look at Browns stats.

 

[Cuseball]

JB always said initial contacts were made with his assistants and that he was the 'closer' once his assistants convince him that we needed to get that kid. It wasn't JB making all the decisions and sending his minions out.

Exactly. Like or not Red had a hand in recruiting these players, keeping these players and then who he brought in and who left in transfer portal. He is not simply absolved from this team's makeup because he is a first year head coach.

Cuse

 

[tee1222]

Another way to look at Browns stats.

 

[OmahaCuse]

I must be an idiot, but I need somebody to explain to me why Taylor gets 24 minutes and Cuffe zero.

I liked the look of Carey and Brown out there together, but why was that done with JJ, Cope, and Taylor as the other three ? Need to get Taylor out and another shooter/scorer in - Judah or Bell. With Benny gone, we need to see if we can bring Carey along, but he has to do something when given a shot. His line was all zeros except for PFs.

Bell had a really great game shooting and actually hit the glass, shows maybe he can do that.

FT shooting nearly cost us the game - cant be below 70%.

As others have mentioned. just cant have only 2 boards from starting guards. I was surprised Cope didnt get more than 2, usually he is solid off the glass, but man can he see the court !!

Because he is 6’7” 215lbs instead of 6’0” 185. He probably stands a better chance to get a rebound, box out and set a pick. I don’t think we have much of a choice at F anymore. I think Cuffe should get minutes at guard but comparing the 2 is mutually exclusive

 

[IthacaMatt]

Defense is atrocious. We can't continue to let teams score at will on us.
But a win is a win. On to Clemson. I don't think we are close to tournament but play the games and see. Maybe we can get rolling

Since the beginning of the season, we've lost 3 of our 4 biggest guys. The roster has an impact on this inability to play defense.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I was on a morning panel at an SU law event where Seth Greenberg was on the afternoon panel. A truly great guy, really kind and enjoyable.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Not true at all.

The only guys that were brought in entirely on Red's watch were:

Westry, McLeod, Starling and Cuffe. The first three were very high potential with low floors along with injury risk. We knew they weren't perfect coming in. But even then, nobody really anticipated Westry being out of the season, that McLeod would have a season ending injury and that Starling's shot would be off for much of the season. I haven't seen enough of Cuffe to say... He's played in 22 games, but is averaging 3 minutes. He's been good and bad, but also is coming off two years of injury. Red's fault?

Everybody else on the roster is from JB, even though Red was the lead recruiter, the recruits were JB's final choice in the end.

As for the holdovers:

It's hard to say if Red blew it with Williams, but maybe it was time to find a replacement last season? I personally was very excited that he stayed, I thought he was going to turn the corner and become a star. Is that on Williams or Red Autry? We won't know till we see him with 10 more difficult players. Right now Williams is a sample of one.

If Red deserves blame for Williams, he deserves credit for the amazing evolution of Brown's game. Brown's play is absolutely the highlight of this season.

Red has done a pretty good job with Bell, Mintz, and Copeland. They are all better versions of themselves this season. All flawed, but doing pretty well for who they are... This team would be really good if Copeland and Mintz could shoot and if Bell were a lockdown defender/rebounder. But those players are all top 10 recruits if their flaws didn't exist. Is it Red's fault we couldn't recruit top 10 recruits? I don't know, it's looking like he recruited a top 20 one in Freeman in his first attempt.

Taylor's shooting is busted... He had a reputation as a shooter in high school, now he's an undersized PF who isn't asked to shoot. Is that the player's limitations or bad coaching? I suspect they figured out that Taylor couldn't ever get his flatfooted push shot off and tried a higher release jump shot. Maybe Taylor eventually starts making shots.

Hard to know what's going to happen with Carey. Redshirt last year, injury the year before that, COVID the year before that. And he's shown flashes of being good. We'll see. Red's fault?

Hima can barely move. Red's fault?

Patterson was recruited to be a redshirt. We have no knowledge of what he can eventually be. I'm glad Red didn't run him off, even if he doesn't think he can ever play. You shouldn't do that to a guy before he even gets here.

I think Red's biggest failures may have been running off Girard and failing to keep Edwards.

If we had Girard in the rotation instead of Cuffe, how many more games do we win? Girard had some frustrating moments, but he's a good to great shooter who could help handle the ball.

Edwards goes without saying. Trade him for McLeod and we'd have been competitive in Maui and a lock to be top half of the ACC (assuming he didn't get injured here, a big if).

Good post. And even if you knew a bunch of those portal guys were coming off injuries, well you're making a bet that out of the four of them, a couple will work out.

Edwards leaving was not Red's fault. He thought he had a deal with Edwards' dad, and his dad changed the terms. Yes, Girard was his call, but looking at our roster, I understand the gamble. Among Taylor, Starling, Benny (who shot fairly well from 3 last year), Bell, Judah and even Cuffe, you would have thought that, just by the odds, out of the 6 of them, a couple would have turned into dependable threats from three. It's all a numbers game, in the end.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Yeah and nobody but SWC75 pointed out how hard this schedule has been. There were so many cupcake games in the past. This was not a year of that at all. The criticism is wild. And when they win “they don’t win by enough”. If they lose “red can’t coach and is in over his head”. Why is it always something ? Why can’t we be happy for wins when they win? I’ve said this before- if they finish as a .500 team this year I treat that as a success. Anything about that is a major success. And they have a chance to do that.

Yes, a tough OOC schedule. We started out 5-4, and barely won our exhibitions. People wondered if we would win 10 games.

Then we went 8-2, and maybe we were turning the corner, and could make the tournament.

Then, we lost 3 out of 4, and fell apart. Glad to get back on the winning track. I think this stabilizes us for the stretch run. I don't think we are making any tournaments this year, but I think he salvaged the season, and I think he has one more good chance at the portal and recruiting. Better make hay this summer, though!

 

[Bulldog04]

Exactly. Like or not Red had a hand in recruiting these players, keeping these players and then who he brought in and who left in transfer portal. He is not simply absolved from this team's makeup because he is a first year head coach.

Cuse

Def not absolved. He took some gambles with Taylor and Benny and they backfired. Westry being hurt also not good. He was supposed to be back in December. Lot of things not going the right way and they are hanging in there

 

[IthacaMatt]

Def not absolved. He took some gambles with Taylor and Benny and they backfired. Westry being hurt also not good. He was supposed to be back in December. Lot of things not going the right way and they are hanging in there

Yes. Red has certainly learned a lot so far this season as a coach.

 

[SarasotaPaul]

SarasotaPaul

Did you like the zone tonight or not? I can’t tell what your take is by frantically liking my zone posts in the game thread

It wasn't played very well. But it was much better than it had been. Louisville hadn't a clue many times on how to attack it. It worked better than our m2m was. So, Yes it was the right way to go last night. I seriously doubt it might work this way again, but kudos to Autry for using it and staying with it last night. I know I would not have. Probably one of the multitude of reasons I am not a coach.

 

[CousCuse]

I think it is a great win for the coaches and the team. They hung together and gutted it out.

 

[crv1728]

Then how come when Hopkins was here the recruiting was so much different.?

Maybe because the program hadn't yet grown stale and the head coach wasn't 78.

 

[atlanticuse]

Maybe because the program hadn't yet grown stale and the head coach wasn't 78.

Not entirely agree... but unlike many here, I've got zero 'inside baseball' on recruiting.
I think - but unsure - that basketball recruiting (ability/difficulty/success) is different from football. Players spend (on average) less time in college (look at the top-20/25 NBA Draft picks); we have great facilities; etc.

Hopkins was (is) a good recruiter, and yes, things have changed with NIL. But talent/potential > execution has stalled.

And, as an assistant coach, Red deserves some responsibility there. (plus Gerry, etc)

 

[SU94]

First off, starling's shot was off all of last season, if you didn't see that coming then you were watching a different player. McLeod struggled on a terrible Florida state team and was never going to be a good fit for a man-to-man defense, that should've been enough to scare us away from him, even before looking into the fact he had 1 good offensive game last year.

Not true: Starling shot 35% from 3pt-land for ND last season (decent sampling: 22-for-63) before he injured his shoulder at the Dome in mid-January. Not legendary, but strong for a true freshman. That includes 6-7 ACC games and ND played a requisite non-conference slate last year (Marquette, Georgia, Michigan State, Bonaventure, etc.).

 

[Cuse181]

Not true: Starling shot 35% from 3pt-land for ND last season (decent sampling: 22-for-63) before he injured his shoulder at the Dome in mid-January. Not legendary, but strong for a true freshman. That includes 6-7 ACC games and ND played a requisite non-conference slate last year (Marquette, Georgia, Michigan State, Bonaventure, etc.).

and now, after the injury, he doesn’t

 

[NorSyr66]

After his scoop layup he had consecutive bonehead turnovers trying to drive. They were elementary type turnovers. Selfish, out of control turnovers.

He surely has his share of bonehead plays. My point is he is the only one that has even taken a step towards showing any leadership skills. He is vocal, walks the talk though often slips off the log! We need someone, anyone to get the team communicating and playing together. This is a team game, not a bunch of one on one individual players. As long as they each go their own way with out a TEAM effort we will conti nue to be hit and miss team. Recently more miss than hit!

 

[IthacaMatt]

and now, after the injury, he doesn’t

He doesn't what? He's shooting 40% over his last 15-16 games.
That's half a season, after a very poor start in November.