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Message: [QUOTE="SaltineW, post: 5753695, member: 11014"] The SU team that beat Tennessee this year and should have beaten Houston gave whatever that maximum effort stuff was all about. We all saw it. SU was playing ferociously on defense. From there on though, they stopped trying. If a team doesn't give effort, it really limits what buttons a coach can push during a game. One button that Red could have pushed a whole lot more often, would have been the Boeheim Post Immediate Substitution button. Scream at the person you just yanked from the game for xyz. Then sit them. Assert yourself as the head coach. Demand effort. Autry was too nice. Too soft. Love him though and respect all he's done for the SU program as both a player and a coach. I wanted to see Pitino level fire on the sidelines. Players need to be coached up tough if you want to them to play defense. Defense is about effort. Almost any player can become a good defender, if they truly want to be. One quote that slipped under the radar from the GMAC Introductory Presser was when he said his teams were going to, "Dive for Loose Balls." I thought that to be a very interesting statement, because I know what that means in Syracuse Basketball Nomenclature. Think back to Mike Hopkins, the player. Not the coach. The player. Who here remembers how hard nosed Hop was as a player? He dove for lose balls. He sacrificed his body nightly. He played true in your face defense. He attacked the glass hard and he was smart too. Not a good shooter. Not a talented offensive player. But a good athlete, and a player who gave it everything he had. So why is Hop important in this analogy? Because he instilled a drill at Syracuse, one that Boeheim embraced and one that became a standard SU drill under Boeheim. Coach Hop named the drill Psycho, after how he preceived himself and the way he approached playing defense. Picture the team on the baseilie. A player steps up, under the basket. Hop blows the whistle, kid starts shuffling his feet, palms up, in the crouch. Coach blows the whistle and thows out an arm, left or right. Player shuffles in that direction, never crossing his feet. Coach flings the ball at the player. Player secures it, zips it back to the coach. This goes on for at least 90 seconds. Then, Coach blows twice on the whistle, turns and flings a bounding ball toward mid court or further, usually towards one of the sidelines. Player must then race down court and dive on the ball before the ball goes out of bounds, or, scoop it up and attack the glass if possible. Shot blocker is stationed at the far foul line. Then, two walk ons are placed on each sideline, same side of court as players start from. Now, when coach blows the whistle, they sprint towards the ball too. Only catch? They can't dive. Only the player who is shuffling can dive. GMAC was a player when this drill was in it's heyday. He knows the value of diving for a loose ball. His 2003 team won a Natty by playing all out - every game. Now, re-watch the Duke vs. Siena game. Note how Siena played. Granted they went cold vs Duke's zone and lost, but look at Doty racing towards balls and diving out of bounds. I was screaming at the TV during that game, "YEAH! LET'S GO!!" I loved the brand of basketball I was watching. Will GMAC install the Psycho drill? You bet he will. At the end of the day, GMAC wants to allow as few points per game as possible. If SU can pick up a ball here or there that the other team can't get, it equals extra possessions. That's what will often separate a middling SU team from an opponent. Extra Effort! It might even lead to helping SU learn to win again. [/QUOTE]

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