A couple of thoughts on last nights game but more on the season to date.
Last night was typical of this season. A slow lethargic start, not much energy as usual. I'm not sure if the kids come out tight or what the story is but I don't think we have had more than a game or two where we have started strong. Why? who knows. As to the game I thought that Hima and Sy and Brown brought energy and effort to the floor. Joe was Joe good and bad but mostly good. I hope he comes back next year as we need him. Taylor needs more minutes. He should be on the floor as he can score and seems to understand the game of basketball considerably better than Bell. Would like to see Copeland get some run not sure what the story is there as Jim praises the kid but doesn't play him to the extent that he should. Judah is a baller sure out of control part of the time, but he plays hard and its obvious he wants to win at a level which I do not see out of Jesse who is a major disappointment. He should be leading this team, yet he continues to play most of the time like he is not really into the game. Not sure how you light a fire under his arse but at this point I would seriously go with Hima as much if not more than Jesse as he plays with an attitude and aggressiveness that this team sorely needs.
Missing Benny was I guess a big deal depending on which Benny shows up. I guess he would have made a difference as according to Jim he is our best forward so maybe we do better with him in the lineup.
Jim says that this is his best class and I take him at his word. I personally can come up with a few that are better but let's assume this is his best and to his point they are pretty good.
Each of these kids from the minute they started playing organized basketball until they arrived as Syracuse have for probably for 90% of their entire lives played man to man. At the beginning of practice, it was mentioned by many including our HOF coach that man to man had a chance to be added to the toolbox. So instead of letting kids who have played man all of their lives play a D that they know and understand if nothing more than a tool to change the tempo of a game. To try and get an opposing team out of a rhythm. Jim instead decides to force them to play his signature D. A D that was successful when the 3-point line was new. When teams didn't have 10 kids on the roster that have grown up shooting it. When Jim and his staff had the time to develop over multiple years his players into executing his zone vs today's world of 4 weeks in the fall.
No instead of using a D that every one of these players have been trained in and played in their entire lives Jim our HOF genius decides to go exclusively zone or in the event we fall behind by a quarter of 100 points, press.
As the girls screams on the Dr. Pepper advertisement. Hes Lost it!
If Jim wasnt so GD stubborn and more worried about trying to prove everyone wrong we would most likely have won 2 to 4 more games. Colgate would have been crushed if we had gone man. Same with Bryant. Pitt VA and who knows on the others.
So, Jim is correct he does have talent unfortunately his stubbornness is preventing him from using it properly. Man to Man is a tool that he should be using and should have been using since Os caught up with the 3-point game.
We don't have a talent issue we have a coaching issue. It isn't that Jim isn't a brilliant coach because he is. It's that his stubbornness is precluding him to use his brilliance.
This team has the tools to make the dance, but it won't because of a head coach who refuses to change. We don't need a new head coach. We need the current one to use his mind, set aside his stubbornness and adapt to today's game.
