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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 4385720, member: 12088"] Is the game different? I wonder about this a lot. I think the coaching is better than 30 years ago because of the W and because more ex-players are coaching in WCBB. And the higher profile of the game has given HS girls better coaching and summer program opportunities than in the past. But do these changes mean Geno has to change his approach? I don’t think so. As an analogy, the NE Patriots in their glory years were great because of great players, but also because of team culture. In particular, their culture led to a more intense practice regimen — many former players have reported this — which meant sharper execution of plays, but also better conditioning. It was a common pattern in the Brady years that they could close out games in the 4th quarter because opposing defenses were simply exhausted. We win lots of games because we’re in better shape than our opponents. This wasn’t true in the last NC game for the obvious reasons — no need to rehearse that again. But consider the Indiana game - a fine team that played us close in the first half but got blown out in the 3rd quarter and just couldn’t recover. That was part conditioning and part just team culture. The games against NC St and Stanford were against more seasoned teams with cultures comparable to ours. What I’m getting at is Geno’s success is not merely because of game strategy and skills, but also because he knows how to build team culture, and that happens in those grueling practices. But to get players who will grind it out in practice, you have to recruit for character as much as for skills. Lots of skilled players impress scouts but would never have the patience for a UConn season of practices, much less games. I don’t think this will ever change, and the game is not so different today as to render Geno’s methods obsolete. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach