It's Monday. Coaching Critique Day.

[Kibitzer]

The USA U17 team won the gold, as expected, but I don't think the coaching staff, headed by Sue Phillips, covered themselves in glory. A couple specifics.

1. The team defense vs. Spain was poorly conceived and badly executed. OK, we are spoiled here because one strong characteristic of Geno's UConn teams is their uncanny ability to severely limit their opponent's top scorer. The inability or refusal to cool off the hot hand of Salvadores was inexcusable. And I am mystified as to why they clung to that ineffective zone so long -- then, game on the line in final two minutes, went to man-to-man.

2. The offensive strategy was strange. KLS was designated as PG to bring the ball to the front court. Why? Durr and Ogunbuwale were totally capable of performing this task. Then KLS would simply roam about outside the arc and hope for catch-and-shoot opportunities. Meanwhile Cox would go to the low post (good idea) but the other three had no discernible role (bad idea). They got a few back door passes when Cox got doubled, but there was very little movement and lots of one-on-one (which worked well only against overmatched players). Very few sharp cuts through the lane. Insufficient screening to get shooters open. I only watched about three games and I await the first pick and roll play.
​

But we won and I nitpick. I just think that Coach Phillipswas a bit of a disappointment.

 

[pap49cba]

I agree. My sense is they were in a little over their heads. These teams would develop more if the coaches were college coaches. The decision to stick with the zone was bizarre considering the way Spain was shooting. I can only think that the staff felt USA's help-side defense was so pathetic they had no choice or they were scared to death of getting in foul trouble.

KLS played out of position the entire tournament. This, too, was bizarre given the talents of Durr and some others. Just my 2 cents.

 

[DavidinNaples]

Kib & pap....agree 100% w/ both analysis...I would add that Salvadores (#8) was Spain's leading scorer by over 50 points. "Shutting her down" would have greatly limited Spain's ability to match our offense. She (#8) also led Spain in assists (25) and turnovers (30). Getting the ball out of her hands, or at least giving full court pressure might have further impacted Spain. (Or led to even more turnovers.) Interestingly, Salvadores shot 56% from the free throw line for the tournament. If the full court pressure led to a few fouls, that might not have been a disaster. Finally, she was Spain's leading rebounder (52) by a wide margin (42 was next closest). Smothering her w/ Durr, Ogunbowale, Ionescue or Wilson every minute of the game might have impacted Spain's scoring, assists, turnovers and rebounding. Sounds like a good plan to me....just my opinion....

 

[chrissaran]

I have to agree with all three of you. Poorly planned offensive and defensive game plans. Katie Lou is not a point guard. The zone was absolutely horrible. Shutting down Salvadores with Durr and Ogunbuwale and forcing her to give up the ball should have been the plan. As UConn does: make someone else beat you. One post said they liked how Lauren Cox played better than Katie Lou. I agree. In the last game Lauren Cox was terrific. However, she has no jump shot as of yet. When she learns to shoot a mid range jumper she will be phenomenal. One game and the poster seemed to be jumping off the Katie Lou bandwagon. Even Katie admitted her defense and ball handling need to greatly improve. That's why she is coming to UConn. She wants to be the best. Like Bre she needs to hit the weight room before college so that she can play to contact.

 

[HGN]

You guys are just spoiled........... We know what Geno would have done if he had a point guard killing him like that ( i.e, Sims , Diggins , McBride, etc. ) . He would have put a Mo or a Kelly 'grip' on them . As I was watching the game I had thoughts of .... "why are we letting Salvodores roam free out there, go get on her , go get her !!"....... USA should have won by 20. Especially with Salvodores having over half of Spain's points. We should , and could have shut her down. But give the girl some credit , she can flat out play. Overall better talent and depth won this game for the USA.

 

[MarlboroughMike]

I completely agree with all of the analysis above. I thought I had given up yelling at televisions, but when I saw Salvadores running around with no one within ten feet of her and with the zone being annihilated, I proved myself wrong. She (Salvadores) averaged 15 plus points and was shooting 33% on threes prior to the championship game, so some coaches had a handle on how to slow her down.
I also did not understand or like the substitution patterns; too many, too quick. No way can the players on the floor build a rhythm. I thought a seven player rotation would have worked well for the first half and start of the third quarter. There was certainly going to be opportunities to get everyone playing time after that.
In my minds eye, I see KLS at 16 and TBS at the beginning of her freshman year at UCONN as indistinguishable defensively. Guards going by and trying to block the shot from the back side and being too far away from three point shooters to recover in time. I can only hope that KLS's end of freshman year looks exactly the same as Stewart"s, and expect it will.

 

[wallman]

I agree. My sense is they were in a little over their heads. These teams would develop more if the coaches were college coaches. The decision to stick with the zone was bizarre considering the way Spain was shooting. I can only think that the staff felt USA's help-side defense was so pathetic they had no choice or they were scared to death of getting in foul trouble.

KLS played out of position the entire tournament. This, too, was bizarre given the talents of Durr and some others. Just my 2 cents.

Makes you wonder but if you watch some of the other games she struggled to get the team into their offense, leads me to believe she doesn't know all the offensive schemes or was freelancing!

 

[wallman]

I have to agree with all three of you. Poorly planned offensive and defensive game plans. Katie Lou is not a point guard. The zone was absolutely horrible. Shutting down Salvadores with Durr and Ogunbuwale and forcing her to give up the ball should have been the plan. As UConn does: make someone else beat you. One post said they liked how Lauren Cox played better than Katie Lou. I agree. In the last game Lauren Cox was terrific. However, she has no jump shot as of yet. When she learns to shoot a mid range jumper she will be phenomenal. One game and the poster seemed to be jumping off the Katie Lou bandwagon. Even Katie admitted her defense and ball handling need to greatly improve. That's why she is coming to UConn. She wants to be the best. Like Bre she needs to hit the weight room before college so that she can play to contact.

To put players on another player and shut them down requires playing every possession both Durr and Arike took plays off, they were also guilty of playing poor defense throughout the tournament and the spanish guards were much quicker than them. To play someone you have to not only understand team defense you also have to understand scouting reports and the tendencies of the player you are guarding, in other words you have to have defensive smarts, which are probably more important than the speed. The spanish guard liked going to 1 side and this was not exploited by USAs guards defensively.

 

[lynn b]

The USA U17 team won the gold, as expected, but I don't think the coaching staff, headed by Sue Phillips, covered themselves in glory. A couple specifics.

1. The team defense vs. Spain was poorly conceived and badly executed. OK, we are spoiled here because one strong characteristic of Geno's UConn teams is their uncanny ability to severely limit their opponent's top scorer. The inability or refusal to cool off the hot hand of Salvadores was inexcusable. And I am mystified as to why they clung to that ineffective zone so long -- then, game on the line in final two minutes, went to man-to-man.

2. The offensive strategy was strange. KLS was designated as PG to bring the ball to the front court. Why? Durr and Ogunbuwale were totally capable of performing this task. Then KLS would simply roam about outside the arc and hope for catch-and-shoot opportunities. Meanwhile Cox would go to the low post (good idea) but the other three had no discernible role (bad idea). They got a few back door passes when Cox got doubled, but there was very little movement and lots of one-on-one (which worked well only against overmatched players). Very few sharp cuts through the lane. Insufficient screening to get shooters open. I only watched about three games and I await the first pick and roll play.
​

But we won and I nitpick. I just think that Coach Phillipswas a bit of a disappointment.

Thank you. Thank you Thank You. I rarely ever post, however, watching the game against Spain was so frustrating that I was tempted. The coaching was pathetic and it was noted by posters.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I had never watched the U17 Tourney before this year. What I saw surprised me. Saw a lot of athleticism and graphic illustration of the frequent criticism that the kids are playing too much with too few fundamentals instilled in their play. I also wonder if the coaches were handed a mix of players they found they could not mold into a cohesive offensive/defensive unit in the time allotted - so they simply wore down opponents with wave after wave of athleticism. There wasn't a point guard in the bunch, though who needs one if the offensive strategy is to mill around the key until someone is inspired to take a shot or kick it out for a three.

 

[wallman]

Last years team had more speed at the guard position, but both of those players were cut, probably in hindsight that was a mistake.

 

[alexrgct]

Geno should have had another post in the fold in time for the 2011 national semis...damn him!

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I personally think you folks are forgetting the immense gulf between high school basketball and college basketball.

I think you got the best you were going to get for the age group and the way they play basketball. Rather than assuming the coaches were incompetent (and, much as I dislike her, Chris Daily's old teammate, Mary Coyle Klinger was one of the assistants and I know she isn't incompetent) I think it should be assumed that they either were not the best group of coaches for the talent, or it wasn't the easiest group of talent to work with, or they did the best that could be done with them.

I do agree that a college coach "might" have done more with them, then again, perhaps they would have had trouble working with that undeveloped (compared to what they usually work with) but significant (possibly better than they are used to) talent.

 

[RadyLady]

I personally think you folks are forgetting the immense gulf between high school basketball and college basketball.

I think you got the best you were going to get for the age group and the way they play basketball. Rather than assuming the coaches were incompetent (and, much as I dislike her, Chris Daily's old teammate, Mary Coyle Klinger was one of the assistants and I know she isn't incompetent) I think it should be assumed that they either were not the best group of coaches for the talent, or it wasn't the easiest group of talent to work with, or they did the best that could be done with them.

I do agree that a college coach "might" have done more with them, then again, perhaps they would have had trouble working with that undeveloped (compared to what they usually work with) but significant (possibly better than they are used to) talent.

It's also true that at times the best player isn't always shut down but that the rest of the team isn't allowed to score and at that point the best person can get all the points they want, they likely will not get enough to beat their opposition single handedly. I also wonder about that three point prodigy on the Spanish team and what her stats were leading up to this game.

 

[Zorro]

I will be very surprised if KLS spends any time at the one spot at UConn.

 

[j66kicker]

I will be very surprised if KLS spends any time at the one spot at UConn.

No she seems a little fidgity