I'm probably going to bore you with uninformed generalities, but here goes nothing/something. Just as a starting point; I'm going to posit several points. First: Coach Ollie had to adapt his coaching to personnel available last season. Second: the abilities of that personnel limited his options. Third: intangibles are very important to Coach Ollie. Fourth: he is willing to revise an adapt his initial opinions of players, styles, tactics and strategy during the season. Fifth: he has a pro style mentality.
The team that played in the NCAA tournament was a maximization of the individual players in the team concept. The development of the team relied not only on correctly identifying individual strengths and weaknesses, but on creating a team dynamic which would maximize their effectiveness. Neils Giffey didn't go to the floor for a loose ball; Coach Ollie chewed him out. The message I took from that was that Ollie expected
maximum effort from Giffey on every play. He knew that Niels wouldn't take this as a rebuke, but as an invocation to step up his play.
Play hard, play smart, play for each other. That is what he wanted from his team and that is what he saw in
the tournament. Coach Ollie doesn't like to lose, but he is more about learning/teaching than winning a particular game until you get to the one and done part of the season.
In preparation for 2014-5 Coach Ollie will sit down with every returning player and assess with him what the player needs to do to play a more important role for the team. I believe that Coach Ollie is honest with the players. He has laid a foundation for these talks. Although Kentan Facey wasn't playing during the tournament,in the run up to the tourney Coach Ollie consistently praised his work in practice. He had been doing the same thing with Terrance Samuel before the end of the season. This played dividends. In my
opinion the big question mark in these talks is Omar Calhoun. I'm not sure what factors were responsible
for his inability to play at a high level. It could be both residual physical problems and a lack of confidence.
The next question mark player is Rodney Purvis. Apparently Purvis showed very well in practices, but how does Ollie see him contributing to the team?
Given the returning players and the additions; does Coach Ollie see the 2014-5 team as very similar to this year's team? This championship team had two point guards offensively, and defensively had two very disruptive quick handed defenders. Defensive ball pressure was so effective as to prevent quality opponents
from getting into their half court offense. Looking at the upcoming roster; playing Samuel with Boatright
for significant minutes would seem to offer the best chance to have stifling backcourt defense. However, this
is nowhere near an offensive match for Boatright and Napier.
If Coach Ollie's optimization plan is to start with a Napier/Boatright template in the backcourt; he may be looking at utilizing 4 guards instead of the 3 he utilized down the stretch. My guess is that Samuel, Purvis are the three top options. The fourth option will come from among Calhoun and Casalle . I don't see Daniel Hamilton playing a lot of two guard. The fifth guard will receive little playing time. We should remember
that Coach Ollie is very matchup conscious and also willing to change his utilization of players based on improvement. The rotation at the beginning of the season is not likely to be the same as that at the end of the season.
I'm sure that Coach Ollie is less sure about how the 3/4 situation will work out. First there is a real possibility that Daniels may not return. If he doesn't return, not only will he need to be replaced in the starting unit, but whomever his replacement is, the repercussions will be felt throughout the entire lineup.
No replacement is going to be the matchup problem that Daniels is for opposing teams.
I believe that the coaching staff would like to utilize Facey a lot more at the 4 this season. Even expecting him of be a solid rotation player (10-15 minutes), is a jump into the unknown. No Daniels, and this is bungee jumping without the bungee.
There are several reasonable options at the 3. Calhoun and Hamilton are likely to see time there early.
If Hamilton is as advertised, and can make some plays for others as well as himself; he could help
the team a lot more than he could by being a big time scorer. This could be particularly important against zones. Hamilton could be a triple threat, pass drive, shoot, from the foul line area. The big question is
his ability to defend in space. This year's team had both Giffey and Kromah who could defend multiple positions, and help stall the opponents offense.
In many ways the 5 is probably causing Coach Ollie less worries than anything else. He has every reason to expect that the combination of Nolan/Brimah will be better than last season. It is not unreasonable to expect that Lubin might have some upside when compared to Olander,
Potentially next year's team may well have more offensive options than this year's team, but I doubt that the defense as a whole will be as suffocating. The loss of the Bazz factor is significant. As an individual his
abilities can't be replaced. His intangibles may be even more important. Offensively this team had two guards who could get the shots they wanted against any D. You could take one of the two out of the game
for long periods with ball denial and swarming D, but that doesn't work for the entire game. Bazz was cerebral enough against Florida to bide his time. It is a lot easier to deal with one such guard rather than two.
Fortunately I believe that Coach Ollie is both intelligent and intuitive. It doesn't hurt that he has a healthy dollup of Charisma. Still, as I opined elsewhere on this board, the players have to hear, understand, and commit to what the coach wants and the team needs. If there is an Ollie system; I think the hearts and minds of the players are more than a compliment to the players basketball abilities.
The team that played in the NCAA tournament was a maximization of the individual players in the team concept. The development of the team relied not only on correctly identifying individual strengths and weaknesses, but on creating a team dynamic which would maximize their effectiveness. Neils Giffey didn't go to the floor for a loose ball; Coach Ollie chewed him out. The message I took from that was that Ollie expected
maximum effort from Giffey on every play. He knew that Niels wouldn't take this as a rebuke, but as an invocation to step up his play.
Play hard, play smart, play for each other. That is what he wanted from his team and that is what he saw in
the tournament. Coach Ollie doesn't like to lose, but he is more about learning/teaching than winning a particular game until you get to the one and done part of the season.
In preparation for 2014-5 Coach Ollie will sit down with every returning player and assess with him what the player needs to do to play a more important role for the team. I believe that Coach Ollie is honest with the players. He has laid a foundation for these talks. Although Kentan Facey wasn't playing during the tournament,in the run up to the tourney Coach Ollie consistently praised his work in practice. He had been doing the same thing with Terrance Samuel before the end of the season. This played dividends. In my
opinion the big question mark in these talks is Omar Calhoun. I'm not sure what factors were responsible
for his inability to play at a high level. It could be both residual physical problems and a lack of confidence.
The next question mark player is Rodney Purvis. Apparently Purvis showed very well in practices, but how does Ollie see him contributing to the team?
Given the returning players and the additions; does Coach Ollie see the 2014-5 team as very similar to this year's team? This championship team had two point guards offensively, and defensively had two very disruptive quick handed defenders. Defensive ball pressure was so effective as to prevent quality opponents
from getting into their half court offense. Looking at the upcoming roster; playing Samuel with Boatright
for significant minutes would seem to offer the best chance to have stifling backcourt defense. However, this
is nowhere near an offensive match for Boatright and Napier.
If Coach Ollie's optimization plan is to start with a Napier/Boatright template in the backcourt; he may be looking at utilizing 4 guards instead of the 3 he utilized down the stretch. My guess is that Samuel, Purvis are the three top options. The fourth option will come from among Calhoun and Casalle . I don't see Daniel Hamilton playing a lot of two guard. The fifth guard will receive little playing time. We should remember
that Coach Ollie is very matchup conscious and also willing to change his utilization of players based on improvement. The rotation at the beginning of the season is not likely to be the same as that at the end of the season.
I'm sure that Coach Ollie is less sure about how the 3/4 situation will work out. First there is a real possibility that Daniels may not return. If he doesn't return, not only will he need to be replaced in the starting unit, but whomever his replacement is, the repercussions will be felt throughout the entire lineup.
No replacement is going to be the matchup problem that Daniels is for opposing teams.
I believe that the coaching staff would like to utilize Facey a lot more at the 4 this season. Even expecting him of be a solid rotation player (10-15 minutes), is a jump into the unknown. No Daniels, and this is bungee jumping without the bungee.
There are several reasonable options at the 3. Calhoun and Hamilton are likely to see time there early.
If Hamilton is as advertised, and can make some plays for others as well as himself; he could help
the team a lot more than he could by being a big time scorer. This could be particularly important against zones. Hamilton could be a triple threat, pass drive, shoot, from the foul line area. The big question is
his ability to defend in space. This year's team had both Giffey and Kromah who could defend multiple positions, and help stall the opponents offense.
In many ways the 5 is probably causing Coach Ollie less worries than anything else. He has every reason to expect that the combination of Nolan/Brimah will be better than last season. It is not unreasonable to expect that Lubin might have some upside when compared to Olander,
Potentially next year's team may well have more offensive options than this year's team, but I doubt that the defense as a whole will be as suffocating. The loss of the Bazz factor is significant. As an individual his
abilities can't be replaced. His intangibles may be even more important. Offensively this team had two guards who could get the shots they wanted against any D. You could take one of the two out of the game
for long periods with ball denial and swarming D, but that doesn't work for the entire game. Bazz was cerebral enough against Florida to bide his time. It is a lot easier to deal with one such guard rather than two.
Fortunately I believe that Coach Ollie is both intelligent and intuitive. It doesn't hurt that he has a healthy dollup of Charisma. Still, as I opined elsewhere on this board, the players have to hear, understand, and commit to what the coach wants and the team needs. If there is an Ollie system; I think the hearts and minds of the players are more than a compliment to the players basketball abilities.
