Can't blame the coaching here | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Can't blame the coaching here

Last 4 minutes and especially commentary about the zone, starting score 51-48 us:
  • Hawkins gets called for a ridiculous touch foul at half court that they get sent to the line for. Hawkins had one forearm on the guy for 1/4 second. They did that all game. Stupid anticipatory call by ref. They make 1 FT, get a long offensive rebound off a brick FT. Cole strips Sherman but he gets it back and makes a tough finish. 51-51.
  • Gaffney gets tripped and they call out of bounds on us.
  • Akok is fronting and they make a decent lob over top and we foul. They make 1/2. 51-52.
  • WVU half court trap/ 1-3-1. Kick ball off them. Next possession Jackson makes a great skip pass over the zone. Akok wide open from 3. He pump fakes. Has Gaffney wide open from 3. Drives to his right for some reason, then finds Gaffney who has moved in to help. Gaffney attacks middle of the zone, gets ganged up by 3 guys. Threat of pass to Whaley draws 4th defender in. Gaffney makes good read and passes to wiiiide open Jackson with 2 seconds left on shot clock, but pass is a little low and Jackson is standing on 3pt line instead of behind it. He doesn't shoot immediately, instead goes directly to dribbling. Doesn't realize shot clock and we get a violation. We had 1 somewhat open and 1 wide open shot. This was just an awful, awful play by Jackson in a 1 point game with 2.5 minutes left.
  • Good D by Cole to cut off baseline. Jackson gets caught a little flat-footed. His man gets space and finds a mildly contested guy for 3. He misses, Akok is behind his guy but several feet from the basket. As they come in to the area, Hawkins just moves out of the way and doesn't box out. Their guy is in best rebounding position, but Akok scraps and knocks away and we get the rebound.
  • Jackson gets the rebound, goes coast to coast, a spin move at half court. WVU is back in man to man. Drives into the paint, puts his back to basket, offers the ball directly to WVU, but manage to get a pass off. Cole jacks up a contested, pull up 3 with 19 seconds left instead of running offense. WVU calls timeout, 2 minutes left.
  • Jackson nice d, walls up inside without fouling. But then his man gets the ball back and he's in his grill 25 feet from the hoop and gets blown by. Akok saves the day with block at the rim.
  • Timeout UConn with 1.5 minutes left. WVU back in zone. Another kick ball. 20 seconds. Some trapping, nice cut by Cole but good D by WVU to block him and then recover to Whaley after the pass out. Whaley slips a screen and they double Hawkins, just like we've seen before with Sanogo. Hawkins doesn't or can't due to trap find Whaley on the roll. Now less than 5 seconds and Hawkins has to jack up a 3. Good defense. We get a tip oreb and miss, then another oreb (punishing the zone), Cole gets an absolutely wide open 3 kickout, great rhythm, in-and-out. Jackson oreb, blocked (probably fouled). Polley oreb, hoists a 3 immediately. They finally rebound. 5 shots on 1 possession while down 1 with a minute left - 2 shots at the rim and 3 missed 3's (1 wide open, 1 semi-open, 1 contested). Still 51-52.
  • Sherman draws a foul on Hawkins. Just a half step beat and Sherman is good at drawing fouls. Makes first, Misses 2nd 51-53, Akok doesn't box out and just goes up for rebound with position but instead ball takes extra bounce on rim, guy swoops in and is first to ball in the air. We have to foul. McNeil makes both 51-55.
  • Polley puts up a quick corner 3 after a quick push, miss. Tip, miss. Whaley 2nd tip in. 53-55.
  • We press, they get ball in to McNeil on textbook press break. He makes 1/2, 53-56.
  • We have a shot, but out of timeouts. Cole gets a pretty good look, sudden stop probably draws a foul as defender hits him in body in the air, but they'd never call with 1 second left (but would in other times in game).
Not a lot to criticize on coaching. Couple bonehead Jackson plays, Cole missed three 3's, got the bad end of the whistle on the road, Akok didn't box out, and then we either didn't take or missed 5 open shots on the 2 zone possessions. In general had an open shot on every possession except the one Cole played hero ball.
Nice synopsis, must be Hurley’s fault.
 
The point was sometimes teams have bad shooting nights. Had we hit a couple and won, half the whiners on here would be celebrating an undermanned victory over WVU.
Yeah whiners how dare anyone be unhappy losing to a mediocre team who missed 15 FTs because our guys gagged again? Please stop with the whining. As crappy as most played if you watched that game and won by 1 you’d still be nervous about many of the things that happened. Win or lose it was scary that’s not whining that’s the truth.
 
Both Gaffney and Hawkins pinched on the shot resulting in nobody boxing out the shooter. If one of them called shooter before the free throw it would have been an easy defensive rebound. This is basic fundamental basketball.

This play and Akok not even putting a body on the WV player were both crucial mistakes that could have been avoided. Totally unacceptable at this level.

Akoks was huge. Got 10 rebounds but didn’t do his job on the most critical one. Killer!
 
Do I have to be the first one to say that Hurley got here by getting lesser programs to overachieve through passion and will, and that’s not enough to win at high levels at the top of D1 competition? Like, the 6/10 guy throwing himself at every chick in Torrington and getting laid here and there, moving on to New York and falling on his face?

I acknowledge that might be a little hot of a take
Hot take? Not if you were the Torrington guy, in which case it's admirable self-deprecating humor.
 
Leadership is sorely lacking on this team. No one on the court or bench is willing to get in to the grill of players when they screw up. No one holds the players accountable. No Bazz grabbing Boat.
Whaley has earned status to be that guy by being smart and reliable.

He flashed it two years ago, when the same question was asked, and there were no good answers, but it was clear that he made fewer stupid plays than anyone else (by a long shot). Bouknight & Vital notably played better as the season progressed and late game victories finally occurred. We had reason to be excited about the possibility of going to the Tourney before everything shut down.
 
Not concerned. Great learning experience for the young kids. Martin and Sanogo would be our two most important players on the floor in a game against that specific roster in that style of play. Lots of playground-style ball. Martin, specifically, excels at that kind of game.
I agree with you on this but I want add that if Sanogo and Martin were in this game, Uconn wins it handily. West Virginia depends heavily on Taz Sherman's scoring...without him that team would be offensively weak. This team is is being forced to make adjustments quickly following our current injuries to our two top performers.
 
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... seasoned coaches seem to be better prepared late game than us. They also know how to exploit our weaknesses.
Earlier, I admitted to a laziness around looking it up, but I now know that Dan Hurley at Wagner coached a true road victory over #15 Pitt in 2011. However, Pitt finished Jamie Dixon's 9th season 5-13 in the Big East, by far Jamie Dixon's worst year.

Next, while coaching Rhode Island, Hurley bested Johnny Jones coaching LSU in Baton Rouge in his second season (14-18). This has been his ONLY true road victory over a P5 school to date. LSU was a 19-12 team that went 9-9 in the SEC in 2013-14.

As such, it would have been a big deal to beat Huggins in Morgantown last night.
 
Anyone who thinks that bad coaching had nothing to do with yesterday’s loss and other head scratching decisions since his inception is either Dan Hurley himself, his family or someone crying for attention.
Was it the only reason, hell no , the players had a definite involvement, but UConn pays a ton of money for a coach who recruits extremely well (his family name opens doors but he does close the deal) but seems to be a deer in the headlights during crucial moments and does not make adjustments on the run.
While I feel UConn wins with Martin at the least and for sure with both injured starters, this was a winnable game but not getting Cole in when Pitt started to turn the tide late and playing some horrendous offensive lineups sealed the deal.
Everyone has blame in this but the buck stops at the top. Period.
 
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I blame it on three things:

1. Whaley picking up his 4th foul
2. AJ handling the ball in the open floor or in the paint
3. Akok is just not a substitute for either Sanogo or Whaley.

Poor three point shooting aside, any one of the above was worth at least the margin of victory. There were other things, but I consider that noise and variance from a team down two starters and play freshmen more than is optimal in a tough road environment.
 
Agree. Think that Martin is the much bigger loss to the team than Sanogo at this point, and realize I'll take flak for it
Not from me. He's a big boy amongst a bunch of fragile psyches.

And back to the OP. Everything we're seeing now was determined when our coach who is being paid well to diagnose and address deficiencies, decided it was unnecessary to go after transfers who could shoot the rock.
 
Thank the man above someone said it. Every time someone tries to preface their Hurley criticism with their irrelevant connections to basketball, a small part of me dies. Just say you know more than the coach of a top 10 program and move on.
 
Last 4 minutes and especially commentary about the zone, starting score 51-48 us:
  • Hawkins gets called for a ridiculous touch foul at half court that they get sent to the line for. Hawkins had one forearm on the guy for 1/4 second. They did that all game. Stupid anticipatory call by ref. They make 1 FT, get a long offensive rebound off a brick FT. Cole strips Sherman but he gets it back and makes a tough finish. 51-51.
  • Gaffney gets tripped and they call out of bounds on us.
  • Akok is fronting and they make a decent lob over top and we foul. They make 1/2. 51-52.
  • WVU half court trap/ 1-3-1. Kick ball off them. Next possession Jackson makes a great skip pass over the zone. Akok wide open from 3. He pump fakes. Has Gaffney wide open from 3. Drives to his right for some reason, then finds Gaffney who has moved in to help. Gaffney attacks middle of the zone, gets ganged up by 3 guys. Threat of pass to Whaley draws 4th defender in. Gaffney makes good read and passes to wiiiide open Jackson with 2 seconds left on shot clock, but pass is a little low and Jackson is standing on 3pt line instead of behind it. He doesn't shoot immediately, instead goes directly to dribbling. Doesn't realize shot clock and we get a violation. We had 1 somewhat open and 1 wide open shot. This was just an awful, awful play by Jackson in a 1 point game with 2.5 minutes left.
  • Good D by Cole to cut off baseline. Jackson gets caught a little flat-footed. His man gets space and finds a mildly contested guy for 3. He misses, Akok is behind his guy but several feet from the basket. As they come in to the area, Hawkins just moves out of the way and doesn't box out. Their guy is in best rebounding position, but Akok scraps and knocks away and we get the rebound.
  • Jackson gets the rebound, goes coast to coast, a spin move at half court. WVU is back in man to man. Drives into the paint, puts his back to basket, offers the ball directly to WVU, but manage to get a pass off. Cole jacks up a contested, pull up 3 with 19 seconds left instead of running offense. WVU calls timeout, 2 minutes left.
  • Jackson nice d, walls up inside without fouling. But then his man gets the ball back and he's in his grill 25 feet from the hoop and gets blown by. Akok saves the day with block at the rim.
  • Timeout UConn with 1.5 minutes left. WVU back in zone. Another kick ball. 20 seconds. Some trapping, nice cut by Cole but good D by WVU to block him and then recover to Whaley after the pass out. Whaley slips a screen and they double Hawkins, just like we've seen before with Sanogo. Hawkins doesn't or can't due to trap find Whaley on the roll. Now less than 5 seconds and Hawkins has to jack up a 3. Good defense. We get a tip oreb and miss, then another oreb (punishing the zone), Cole gets an absolutely wide open 3 kickout, great rhythm, in-and-out. Jackson oreb, blocked (probably fouled). Polley oreb, hoists a 3 immediately. They finally rebound. 5 shots on 1 possession while down 1 with a minute left - 2 shots at the rim and 3 missed 3's (1 wide open, 1 semi-open, 1 contested). Still 51-52.
  • Sherman draws a foul on Hawkins. Just a half step beat and Sherman is good at drawing fouls. Makes first, Misses 2nd 51-53, Akok doesn't box out and just goes up for rebound with position but instead ball takes extra bounce on rim, guy swoops in and is first to ball in the air. We have to foul. McNeil makes both 51-55.
  • Polley puts up a quick corner 3 after a quick push, miss. Tip, miss. Whaley 2nd tip in. 53-55.
  • We press, they get ball in to McNeil on textbook press break. He makes 1/2, 53-56.
  • We have a shot, but out of timeouts. Cole gets a pretty good look, sudden stop probably draws a foul as defender hits him in body in the air, but they'd never call with 1 second left (but would in other times in game).
Not a lot to criticize on coaching. Couple bonehead Jackson plays, Cole missed three 3's, got the bad end of the whistle on the road, Akok didn't box out, and then we either didn't take or missed 5 open shots on the 2 zone possessions. In general had an open shot on every possession except the one Cole played hero ball.
It's the least surprising thing ever that everyone blaming Dan is choosing to ignore your post. Maybe he can put Coles jersey on after a timeout and go make the shots for his team too. Or put some puppet strings on Akok so he'll be forced to box out. Great stuff.
 
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At the end of the day.. The players have to perform on the court to make winning plays and finish games. In two games this year. They lost winnable games against teams that were coached by HOF coaches and are probably playing in the Tournament.

Could Dan Hurley/staff have done things differently to affect outcomes. Sure

But if the ball isn't going in the hoop and the kids aren't using their BB IQ to finish games. You're going to lose some games.

Let's see if they learned something in practice this week so they can start closing games out when they have leads with five minutes to go.
 
It's the least surprising thing ever that everyone blaming Dan is choosing to ignore your post. Maybe he can put Coles jersey on after a timeout and go make the shots for his team too. Or put some puppet strings on Akok so he'll be forced to box out. Great stuff.

I hope not everyone is “blaming” the coach for the loss, completely. I mean so many things happened by the players no doubt as well as some calls to make it a tough game for coach to adjust to. Akok as I said in another thread, totally missed that assignment and it was huge. We had multiple out of control 3 on 1, 4 on 2 fast breaks we didn’t finish because guys try to make it prettier than it needs to be. They shot like a group of free masons.

But he’s part of it and to deny he’s not is crazy. The pattern even in wins against the better teams is the same. 5-7 point leads down the stretch only to go to overtime in one game, get lucky against VCU and lose to MSU. It’s not just this year either it happened last year often. This team needs to figure out a way to take leads in the last 3-4 minutes and extend them not puke them away. Does he need playmakers and shooters, yep obviously not enough as we speak. But no matter this isn’t just a player issue he as well as Gaff, Polley, Hawk, AJ has to get better at the end of the game.
 
Can we look at the opposition?

What did Huggins do to (strategies, adjustments, countering, substitution, etc.) to snatch our victory from us?

Its not like they were shooting lights out, in fact they missed way too many free throws. I'm no coach but it does appear Huggins beat Hurley late in the 2nd half.

Its a curious coaching question.
 
Yeah whiners how dare anyone be unhappy losing to a mediocre team who missed 15 FTs because our guys gagged again? Please stop with the whining. As crappy as most played if you watched that game and won by 1 you’d still be nervous about many of the things that happened. Win or lose it was scary that’s not whining that’s the truth.
I hear you and I clearly know there are issues with this team, but some folks on this forum will complain after every loss as if we should be undefeated every year. My perspective was not to get too bent when looking at this team missing 2 vital cogs. Missing them affects every aspect of the game.

General issues I see include:
Need a 2nd PG (Diggins someday)
Loose handles on numerous players (AJ, JH & JG particularly)
inconsistent outside shooting
Offense needs more inside out to get better looks (Sanogo needs to learn to pass out of double and triple teams)
Team goes through stretches of playing out of control

I'm not blind to our deficiencies, not that you said I was, I just have a different perspective on the WVU game.
 
Can we look at the opposition?

What did Huggins do to (strategies, adjustments, countering, substitution, etc.) to snatch our victory from us?

Its not like they were shooting lights out, in fact they missed way too many free throws. I'm no coach but it does appear Huggins beat Hurley late in the 2nd half.

Its a curious coaching question.

Switched to a 1-3-1 zone and doubled Cole in the corners since no one else was playing well. Pretty basic adjustment, but obviously effective.
 
Can we look at the opposition?

What did Huggins do to (strategies, adjustments, countering, substitution, etc.) to snatch our victory from us?

Its not like they were shooting lights out, in fact they missed way too many free throws. I'm no coach but it does appear Huggins beat Hurley late in the 2nd half.

Its a curious coaching question.
I believe Huggins going to the 1-3-1 was so key for them and put us in a more panicked situation at that stage of the game. We did not deal with it well, along with the other noted deficiencies that have been posted.
 
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Can we look at the opposition?

What did Huggins do to (strategies, adjustments, countering, substitution, etc.) to snatch our victory from us?

Its not like they were shooting lights out, in fact they missed way too many free throws. I'm no coach but it does appear Huggins beat Hurley late in the 2nd half.

Its a curious coaching question.
Opposing coaches know they have to keep the ball out of Cole's hands in the last five minutes of close games if they want to beat us. Until we can adjust to that scenario with execution from the other guys on the floor at that time.. It will be tough to finish. Another benefit for the opposition is that he's not on the foul line icing the game with his FT proficiency.

So far-- No other guard has shown that they can consistently help Cole manage end-of-game situations in our losses. BTW- BE teams know this about us as well. We need growth from others and offensive schemes to help us. Having TM/AS in the lineup also opens things up for everyone.

Ironically-- In both of our losses making an "OK" percentage of our three pointers may have contributed to wins but it would still not eradicate our current end of game challenges that we need to resolve heading forward.
 
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Last 4 minutes and especially commentary about the zone, starting score 51-48 us:
  • Hawkins gets called for a ridiculous touch foul at half court that they get sent to the line for. Hawkins had one forearm on the guy for 1/4 second. They did that all game. Stupid anticipatory call by ref. They make 1 FT, get a long offensive rebound off a brick FT. Cole strips Sherman but he gets it back and makes a tough finish. 51-51.
  • Gaffney gets tripped and they call out of bounds on us.
  • Akok is fronting and they make a decent lob over top and we foul. They make 1/2. 51-52.
  • WVU half court trap/ 1-3-1. Kick ball off them. Next possession Jackson makes a great skip pass over the zone. Akok wide open from 3. He pump fakes. Has Gaffney wide open from 3. Drives to his right for some reason, then finds Gaffney who has moved in to help. Gaffney attacks middle of the zone, gets ganged up by 3 guys. Threat of pass to Whaley draws 4th defender in. Gaffney makes good read and passes to wiiiide open Jackson with 2 seconds left on shot clock, but pass is a little low and Jackson is standing on 3pt line instead of behind it. He doesn't shoot immediately, instead goes directly to dribbling. Doesn't realize shot clock and we get a violation. We had 1 somewhat open and 1 wide open shot. This was just an awful, awful play by Jackson in a 1 point game with 2.5 minutes left.
  • Good D by Cole to cut off baseline. Jackson gets caught a little flat-footed. His man gets space and finds a mildly contested guy for 3. He misses, Akok is behind his guy but several feet from the basket. As they come in to the area, Hawkins just moves out of the way and doesn't box out. Their guy is in best rebounding position, but Akok scraps and knocks away and we get the rebound.
  • Jackson gets the rebound, goes coast to coast, a spin move at half court. WVU is back in man to man. Drives into the paint, puts his back to basket, offers the ball directly to WVU, but manage to get a pass off. Cole jacks up a contested, pull up 3 with 19 seconds left instead of running offense. WVU calls timeout, 2 minutes left.
  • Jackson nice d, walls up inside without fouling. But then his man gets the ball back and he's in his grill 25 feet from the hoop and gets blown by. Akok saves the day with block at the rim.
  • Timeout UConn with 1.5 minutes left. WVU back in zone. Another kick ball. 20 seconds. Some trapping, nice cut by Cole but good D by WVU to block him and then recover to Whaley after the pass out. Whaley slips a screen and they double Hawkins, just like we've seen before with Sanogo. Hawkins doesn't or can't due to trap find Whaley on the roll. Now less than 5 seconds and Hawkins has to jack up a 3. Good defense. We get a tip oreb and miss, then another oreb (punishing the zone), Cole gets an absolutely wide open 3 kickout, great rhythm, in-and-out. Jackson oreb, blocked (probably fouled). Polley oreb, hoists a 3 immediately. They finally rebound. 5 shots on 1 possession while down 1 with a minute left - 2 shots at the rim and 3 missed 3's (1 wide open, 1 semi-open, 1 contested). Still 51-52.
  • Sherman draws a foul on Hawkins. Just a half step beat and Sherman is good at drawing fouls. Makes first, Misses 2nd 51-53, Akok doesn't box out and just goes up for rebound with position but instead ball takes extra bounce on rim, guy swoops in and is first to ball in the air. We have to foul. McNeil makes both 51-55.
  • Polley puts up a quick corner 3 after a quick push, miss. Tip, miss. Whaley 2nd tip in. 53-55.
  • We press, they get ball in to McNeil on textbook press break. He makes 1/2, 53-56.
  • We have a shot, but out of timeouts. Cole gets a pretty good look, sudden stop probably draws a foul as defender hits him in body in the air, but they'd never call with 1 second left (but would in other times in game).
Not a lot to criticize on coaching. Couple bonehead Jackson plays, Cole missed three 3's, got the bad end of the whistle on the road, Akok didn't box out, and then we either didn't take or missed 5 open shots on the 2 zone possessions. In general had an open shot on every possession except the one Cole played hero ball.
WVU half court trap/ 1-3-1. Kick ball off them. And they didn't reset the shot clock, which is why we had a violation.

Good write up. Hate the blame the refs, but they really were atrocious, especially late in the game after UConn took the lead.
 
I am getting a little annoyed at AJ getting himself out of control so often. Speed is great but...
 
I am getting a little annoyed at AJ getting himself out of control so often. Speed is great but...
You! Can you imagine Coach? He does get out of control at times however he does so many different good things within a game. It is what it is for now. Needs to tune it back a bit.
 
Hurley has tons of excellent qualities that bode well for the good guys. As many have indicated, he's not entirely formed yet; he sorely needs to improve (offensive sets) game and late-game management skills. The great ones win more than their share of close games: Izzo, Huggins; they steal games. We found a way to lose both. Hurley wins less games...and seldom steals one. Yeah, players miss shots and officials botch calls, but this systemic pattern crosses over years.

A smart leader bolsters their effectiveness by surrounding himself with people that have strengths that augment areas of weakness.
 
The bottom line is, at this point, Dan Hurley isn't beating Bob Huggins in a rock fight without two of his best players. He just isn't at that point yet. There is a wisdom that comes with coaching for a long time and the greats are a few points better than Dan at this point. He'll get there. He's lost to Izzo and Huggins by a few points in real grind it out games. He needs to figure out how to win them and he's got the undivided attention of one of the best of all time right now to counsel him in JC.

He'll learn, but he needs to realize his mistakes. Resting Cole too long in the second half is what lost this game. Everything else is secondary imo.
 
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Hurley has tons of excellent qualities that bode well for the good guys. As many have indicated, he's not entirely formed yet; he sorely needs to improve (offensive sets) game and late-game management skills. The great ones win more than their share of close games: Izzo, Huggins; they steal games. We found a way to lose both. Hurley wins less games...and seldom steals one. Yeah, players miss shots and officials botch calls, but this systemic pattern crosses over years.

A smart leader bolsters their effectiveness by surrounding himself with people that have strengths that augment areas of weakness.
But the leader has to be willing to bend a bit with the people he surrounds himself with.
 
I believe Huggins going to the 1-3-1 was so key for them and put us in a more panicked situation at that stage of the game. We did not deal with it well, along with the other noted deficiencies that have been posted.
We’ve been unprepared against the zone the last few years. That one is on the coaches
 
I think all issues come back to the same thing we've discussed ad nauseum. Our guards just aren't good enough. I like Cole and Gaff, but they just aren't good enough. When good D clamps down our guards can be stopped. Limited dribble penetration or the ability to get off their own shot really hurts when good D is dedicated to stop us. Good D clamps down late in the game.

The reality is we are a good team. A competitive team. But not a great team. Games against tournament level competition will be tight. West Virginia may be an exception because of our injured players, but I would expect more games like West Virginia, Michigan State, Auburn and VCU. The score will ve close. The results will be a coin flip. That's who we are this year.
 
We’ve been unprepared against the zone the last few years. That one is on the coaches

Eh, we're running decent enough plays against the zone. You don't beat zones unless you can shoot, plain and simple. And we sure as hell weren't shooting well against WVU. Vs Auburn we would have smashed their zone.
 
We’ve been unprepared against the zone the last few years. That one is on the coaches
We are beating a dead horse here regarding coaching. (including myself) I agree regarding not handling zones in general, now and in the past. I would think that they go over it in practice. How much time is spent on it? Many teams have issues with it, hate to say this but why do you think Cuse does well when they are in the tournament. It hides many difecintcies within a team athletically defensively but on the other hand not many teams see it within the year imo that's why teams struggle with it. What I don't see a lot is the guard coming near the sideline of our bench to get instructions on the fly by the coach when there is a change defensively or offensively or simply call a time out to settle things and make sure all are in board of the new change.
 
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