I heard a discussion on CBS Sports' weekly(sometimes twice a week) college hoops podcast(available on iTunes) from much earlier in the season. The two guys involved were Matt Norlander(who is the week to week host) and Doug Gottlieb(formerly of ESPN). Now Gottlieb takes a lot of flack here; but I happen to be a fan. No, he's not always on the money but he is experienced(PG at ND and Oklahoma State) and, imo , extremely knowledgeable about the game both in terms of the technical and tactical aspects but the history and the fine points re: the skill set and potential of what seems like every college player on the planet.His experience and the fact that he is very thorough in his day to day prep, makes him,again imo, very enjoyable and educational for me to listen to.
At any rate the thrust of the discussion was the impact of current NCAA transfer related regulations on program stability and player development. Apparently there were 450 transfers last year alone. As part of the discussion, Gottlieb was outlining what happens within a typical program that "may" lead to any player exploring the possibility of transfer. However, and he would like to see players stay in school as long as possible, he, unintentionally, provided some insight re; player development that I think is very useful in looking at the current state of our team. A lot of the comments critical of the team spring from our historical success and, as the result, our collective lack of patience( to one degree or another). He was saying that during the first year,for a typical(not phenom) D1 scholarship player, what is going on from a coaching standpoint is more circumstantial evaluation rather that the coaching of skills and tactics. It is not to say that that doesn't happen but the emphasis is not there. Most first year players don't even get spoken to by upperclassmen on the team(I'm sure there are multiple variations of this).
The second year the coaching gets dramatically amped up(based on the evaluations of the prior year); and this is the time when players are likely to react positively or negatively to attempts to change the way they play(from shooting technique to defensive positioning etc.,etc.,etc.). This is also the time where any playing time that has been achieved is most likely, again, positively or negatively, to be be increased/reduced. It is the time when new first years can be perceived as a threat. And, depending how a player reacts to becoming more of a focus by the staff, this is the time when a player(especially mid-season and beyond) either "buys in" or starts looking around at other options. His opinion was that, for both the player and the program, this is the time when the really serious growth of the player will start or the player will pull away(up to and including transfer). His opinion was that changes in regulations making transfers tougher(obviously other changes like the NBA making players stay longer also help) would be a great help in the player transitioning to the 3rd and 4th years where the serious skill and tactical growth are more clearly evident.
So I'm not posting here in terms of commenting one way or the other about transfers but to help us all to change the way we look at, specifically, this team; and I think both Bazz' and Boat's comments post-game about the composure of this year's team, despite the talent gap, and last year's are very telling in that regard(both with regard to the game last night and the season with no post season that they are dealing with). They have "bought in" so to speak, and that, along with the wonderful ability and leadership of Kevin Ollie, is laying the foundation for another special chapter in the history of Husky basketball. A bit long-winded but I hope it makes at least a little sense. It certainly is helping to get me off the ledge from game to game. At least if I get nervous now it will be because of the circumstances of the game and not because I'm thinking that "this team sucks" which is totally unfair to this wonderful "team".
GO HUSKIES!!! BEAT THE BULLS!!!
