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Message: [QUOTE="mikemorg, post: 4185799, member: 775"] I have been watching SU intently since I was a freshman in 1989. I honestly don’t think that JB has ever been vastly superior in Xs and Os to other elite level coaches. He’s had his moments, but he’s had plenty of bad ones too. His end of game play designs have been mediocre at best, perhaps because he doesn’t really have an offensive system to rely on. Many of our worst tourney losses - Richmond (first 2 seed to ever lose to a 15), Vermont, Butler, Marquette - can all be chalked up in large part to poor Xs and Os. Anyone remember stall ball against Vermont? That’s coaching and there are myriad other examples. And those are becoming more frequent in recent years. Just this year: 1. Having Benny box out that All American on Indiana in that late foul shot. 2. Putting Jimmy at the center of the zone again at Wake. 3. A staggering number of failed inbounds plays especially when taking Timeouts at the end of the first half that did not need to be taken. Some of which turned out to be huge momentum shifts. 4. Grinding Cole and JB into the ground and putting them against more athletic frontlines, when there are more athletic options on the bench. We saw what happened when he finally went more athletic against Duke with Benny and JBA - we were able to at least look like we belonged on the court a little bit with them. Not saying Benny and JBA should be getting more minutes than the starters but there have been plenty of times where we needed an injection of athleticism and yet they were glued to the bench. The 100% reliance on the zone is Xs and Os. It all goes back to the run in 1996 - JBs reputation in the national media changed from “Can’t win big with great talent” to “Defensive genius because of the zone.” He lapped it up and convinced himself that being a zone-only team was the way to go. And he has stubbornly stuck to this as the game changed and when his personnel were not always best suited to playing exclusively zone. Add to that consistently playing players out of position - remember the Stevie as PG disaster? - and I just am not sure I see what everyone else sees that he has always been a genius. None of this is new. It’s just plainer to see when we don’t have great players to hide some of this. Pitino dominated him. Calhoun (once he got UConn going) had the upper hand Jamie Dixon dominated him. Coach K has dominated him. I’m not trying to tear down his entire legacy, and watching SU basketball has been one of the great joys of my life. He is a deserving HOF coach. But in the past 8 years, the weaknesses that have always been there Al have been magnified even more and it has gotten to the point where mediocrity is the best we can hope for. [/QUOTE]

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