How much does coaching matter?

[ucp990411]

Who wouldn't want to play for this guy?

And I always thought you were a UConn fan.

 

[ucp990411]

Coaching is critical. God coaching goes beyond what you see on the court

 

[Waquoit]

Who wouldn't want to play for this guy?

Reminds me of Bob Diaco.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There are different kinds of coaching skills too. Calhoun is, without question, the best talent developer in NCAA history. How many unrated recruits did he turn into NBA players, and how many non-Top 10 recruits did he turn into college and NBA stars? His ability to pick out a player like Ben Gordon, who I believe only had Gutheridge from UNC, UConn, and a bunch of A10 offers, was amazing. By the end of his career, Calhoun just showing up in a gym would get a player bumped a star and pull 10 offers out of the woodwork. Shabazz was not getting chased by many before Calhoun offered him, and then he got flooded with offers. On the other hand, Calhoun would lose his spit frequently, and he wasn't always the best game coach. UConn/Florida 1994 is one of the worst coached games I can remember.

Carnesecca was a great game coach. He could practically feel the gym, and know exactly which move to make. I can't explain it to people who didn't see him coach. Louie also let a Nigerian 7 footer show up at Kennedy in the winter with no one to meet him, freezing his butt off, and so Hakeem Olajuwon found a Nigerian baggage handler and asked him which place of New York, Providence, Louisville and Houston was the most like Lagos. This has to be the single biggest recruiting screwup in college basketball history. Imagine Mullin and Olajuwon on the same team in New York?

Some coaches make one really big innovation in their careers. Jay Wright was one of the first coaches to adopt an analytics offensive approach together with dribble drive and leaning on really physical players.

I don't think coaches are on a continuum. It is more nuanced.

 

[superjohn]

After Bazz left, Ollie had absolutely no game plan on offense besides iso ball. At least a dozen times a game, the guy who brought the ball down court would throw up a heave without once looking to pass. I'm not sure we can blame that on the divorce.

Ollie looked great that tournament and he should get tons of credit for winning that tournament (also for keeping them together with the previous season tournament ban) but he had the huge benefit of having the best player in the country playing the most important position on the floor.

Bazz was a coach on the court and we had the two best iso guards in the country who could seemingly always create something out of nothing at the end of the shot clock. A lot of our offense was running things down until late in the clock and then letting Bazz (usually) or Boat get a bailout bucket. Once Bazz was gone all the warts really started showing. We really never had a good offense under Ollie and the offense was putrid the last couple of seasons under him.

 

[Rocktheworld]

It was two (mediocre) Big Ten coaches who arrogantly and flippantly dismissed DC last year; not the players.

It was those two Big Ten coaches who did not adjust at all when we were kicking their teeth in; not the players.

 

[djct1999]

If I had to guess, maybe coaching impacts roughly 68.123456789 % of the total result.

 

[Excalibur]

The Ollie title and subsequent downfall still makes no sense to me. He came in and we had this huge exodus of players - Drummond, Roscoe, Lamb, Alex, even Michael Bradley. We basically pulled in Phil Nolan and had to try to win without bigs and go entirely away from the Calhoun model - which had been rolling with Thabeet, Adrien and Sticks across the front line or sometimes Oriakhi and Okwandu playing together with Roscoe at the three.

So Ollie inherited two tiny guards and spent two years (with his staff) reconstructing everything around them and a small lineup and milking everything he could out of Phil Nolan and Tyler Olander. Fortunately he added Brimah, who we needed, but who was raw. Then he got into the NCAA Tournament - and surely if he could be exposed, the gauntlet of Wright, Hoiberg, Izzo and Donovan could have done it. But we were prepared for everything on that tourney run - when we were down 20-10 to Nova and Bazz went to the bench with two fouls, we put a 15-0 run on them. We were prepared for Iowa State and MSU and punched back when MSU went up. We didn’t look prepared when Florida went up 16-4 and were smothering us defensively, particularly getting the ball out of Bazz’s hands, we made adjustments and killed them the rest of the way. Florida went zone in the second half, and we were on it and lobbed them to death to put that game away. We were rolling Kentucky before foul trouble in the first half killed us and turned it into a game, but we played Giffey at center and found a way. Along the way, we exposed bigger guards and didn’t let better front lines expose us.

It was kind of a master class in coaching that year - accomplishing a lot with a little. And then, that was that. He won and it was like he didn’t want to do the job any more. The 2015 team stepped back - and that was fine. DD was an unexpected departure after winning a title and Purvis wasn’t quite ready. But that team two years later with DHam, Shonn Miller, Gibbs, Purvis and Birmah (with Adams off the bench) had a world of potential. And yet they might not have gotten in without the Adams 70 footer and they basically rolled over for Kansas.

The explanation is pretty simple, I think. If all he had to do was coach the players in game (game planning, in-game tactics, and motivation), he would have been fine. But when faced with all of the other aspects of running a major college program (roster construction, talent assessment and development), he was overwhelmed. The best college coaches are relentless micromanagers. He was anything but, so the cracks showed once the existing talent started to thin.

I actually think he'd make a good NBA coach.

 

[Excalibur]

Ollie looked great that tournament and he should get tons of credit for winning that tournament (also for keeping them together with the previous season tournament ban) but he had the huge benefit of having the best player in the country playing the most important position on the floor.

Bazz was a coach on the court and we had the two best iso guards in the country who could seemingly always create something out of nothing at the end of the shot clock. A lot of our offense was running things down until late in the clock and then letting Bazz (usually) or Boat get a bailout bucket. Once Bazz was gone all the warts really started showing. We really never had a good offense under Ollie and the offense was putrid the last couple of seasons under him.

We also ran great sets to get shots for Giffey and Daniels, particularly on inbounds plays. That disappeared after that season.

The 2016 had final four talent and should have been 4-5 wins better than they were.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

We also ran great sets to get shots for Giffey and Daniels, particularly on inbounds plays. That disappeared after that season.

The 2016 had final four talent and should have been 4-5 wins better than they were.

I think Gibbs put a ceiling on that 2016. His wing heat checks used to piss me off bad and in general was just a bad end of game closer. Adams was the better guard that whole year but was a freshman.

If he comes a year early or Ryan Boatright gets an extra year the 2015/2016 squads probably get a lot further than they did in both cases.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

The explanation is pretty simple, I think. If all he had to do was coach the players in game (game planning, in-game tactics, and motivation), he would have been fine. But when faced with all of the other aspects of running a major college program (roster construction, talent assessment and development), he was overwhelmed. The best college coaches are relentless micromanagers. He was anything but, so the cracks showed once the existing talent started to thin.

I actually think he'd make a good NBA coach.

Think this is pretty spot on. His guard development stayed pretty good but he was not great with bigs.

Hurley is pretty much the opposite of Ollie as a coach both good and bad.

 

[Excalibur]

I think Gibbs put a ceiling on that 2016. His wing heat checks used to piss me off bad and in general was just a bad end of game closer. Adams was the better guard that whole year but was a freshman.

If he comes a year early or Ryan Boatright gets an extra year the 2015/2016 squads probably get a lot further than they did in both cases.

I hated Gibbs' game. Guy shot the same % from 2 as he did from beyond the arc. 38.7% on 2 point attempts, most of which were at or near the rim. Worst finisher we've ever had.

He and Hamilton did not fit together. We were best when the offense ran through Hamilton, but Gibbs wanted the ball in his hands all the time.