Calhoun is no longer an X's and O's coach

[willie99]

For a guy who once diagrammed aggressive presses and utilized the most brilliant double-teaming strategy ever concocted in a championship game, Calhoun has utterly abandoned in-game strategy. It's clear we have none.

Calhoun is still great at imposing a philosophy of toughness on his teams (see our defense in last year's Tournament), but his ability to adequately coach in-game, or to develop offensive sets over the course of a season, deserves some serious criticism.

LMFAO, where do there come from?

 

[Kitaman]

Why are we justifying Coach?

 

[freescooter]

I honestly have no idea what is going on this year, except that sometimes I feel like I'm watching re-runs of 2007. But whatever is going on, I have to say that this team was badly overrated, as was this talent. the idea that any of these guys might be considering going to the NBA is a sad commentary on that league. And I serioulsy do think that this has not been one of Calhoun's best jobs coaching. Watching Georgetown players move without the ball, make crisp passes, set hard picks, fight for rebounds and lose balls, it was painfully obvious that this team is just not getting it. And Calhoun seems almost as confused as to what they are doing as they are. At times, you would think our forwards had roots instead of feet.

 

[hoopsknowitall]

Why are we justifying Coach?

Made all the more amazing by the fact less than ten months ago everyone was praising Calhoun as perhaps the greatest coach outside of Wooden ever.

 

[ruskin]

Long ago gave up on the idea that a Jim Calhoun team is going to excel in a half-court offense. The man has three rings on a defense creates offense philosophy and the results speak for themselves. But it does get frustrating to watch people standing around while Bilas/Wetzel/etc. scream about flashing a guy to the middle etc.
That said, this current stretch is not so much about Xs and Os as it is about heart and hustle. We're getting buried in Tommy points.

 

[SubbaBub]

i'm totally serious though.... I feel as though I know basketball very well; have coached, played, etc. I have always thought JC was not a great in-game coach and I think there are several here and elsewhere that agree w/ me. I AM NOT diminishing his overall coaching ability; he is masterful at motivation, recruiting, game planning. Seriously, we have been struggling for the last 4-5 games. Name me one major IN-GAME change he has made.

NCG 2011. While the game was mostly about defense. It was the offensive change after halftime that put the game.away.

Anyone care to guess?

(Hint: It was mentioned during the broadcast. So much so that the tag was how the HoF'er schooled the young genius.)

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[caw]

Calhoun is obviously searching for something with this team and not finding it. It's not X's and O's. It's not even at that point. The team just isn't meshing well right now for some reason.

This team, when it runs plays properly, looks good. They just often fail to run plays properly by either setting screens poorly, setting up the screen by the cutter poorly, delivery of the ball off the screen on time poorly, etc.

 

[blackbird]

Calhoun got spoiled with Price, and then spoiled again with Kemba.

He's flat out said he used to let AJ decide what the team was going to do on offense. And if you'd watch closely, Price was not only deciding what to do, but pointing/screaming at his teammates to do it.

If I remember a Calhoun quote "AJ used to tell Kemba to 'go over there and set a screen'" Sounds like a point guard..but wait, shouldn't the rest of the guys on the team know what to do during a certain play? etc..In the infamous "in and out" move against Marquette, people thought AJ was pointing at the dude that fell. He wasn't. He was telling Stanley where to go.

Calhoun didn't have to teach offense, AJ was doing it for him.It's no wonder '10 struggled, because they didn't have anyone telling them what to do on offense any longer.

Then came Kemba. Kemba wasn't like Price in terms of directing traffic, or organizing structured play and structured offense. But he could break down a defense individually. We went through a harsh time in the Big East because teams figured out how to stop Kemba, and we won in the tournaments because Lamb figured out how to help Kemba out. (And we always played excellent defense.)

Now, Calhoun is just giving the ball to Napier or Boat, and saying "Go." Or at least that's how it appears. Only two other people have a clue what to do on offense (Giffey and Lamb), the rest of the guys just sort of stare at him.

 

[nomar]

Are you fcking kidding me?

You know, I've gotten in fights with fans of other teams who believe this...but to see a UConn fan say it is unbelievable.

Yes, he's a good in-game coach. It's easy to think otherwise, I guess, when we're in the midst of a bad streak, but he's outclassed opposing coaches for 2 decades at UConn.

That's why it's so shocking that the team came out so flat in the 2nd half against ND and crapped the bed against Gtown.

 

[Fishy]

The guy has undressed Coach K in the biggest of games and now he doesn't know how to coach X's and O's.

Alrighty.

 

[Inyatkin]

Even if you have a short memory, re-watch the second half of UConn-Arizona from the tournament last year. The Circle? The Cage?

 

[freescooter]

You know, I've gotten in fights with fans of other teams who believe this...but to see a UConn fan say it is unbelievable.

Yes, he's a good in-game coach. It's easy to think otherwise, I guess, when we're in the midst of a bad streak, but he's outclassed opposing coaches for 2 decades at UConn.

That's why it's so shocking that the team came out so flat in the 2nd half against ND and crapped the bed against Gtown.

I agree with you that he is a very good game coach. Over the years I've seen him make adjusments, substitutions and so forth that are just right. But it isn't all that shocking to see bad teams or teams that come out flat and play dismal basketball, either. Anyone who has followed UCONN for any lenght of time has seen these head-scratchers. Even as early as 1989, when expectations were sky high after the NIT title in '88, the team became the first NIT champ in over a decade to fail to qualify for the NCAAs the following season. And there have been others where you just shake your head. More recently, the end of the 2006 season saw a hugely talented team essentially quit by tournament time. The 2007 team came out flat regularly after they got their heads handed to them by Pitt...it was almost as if they panicked when they discovered just how tough Big East basketball was after blowing out a bunch of patsies. the 2010 team reminded me very much of the current crew. the seemed to like stnding around and getting muscled out of position by lesser opponents, and on more than one occassion they were simply awful. I don't like seeing the Huskies play this way, but it isn't the first time I've seen it.