40 Minutes of Meh

postell25

postell25

Member
It’s gotten to the point now where I don’t believe in 40 Minutes of Hell anymore. Even if Mike Cragg went in to a time machine and brought back Nolan Richardson in his prime to coach this team, I don’t think it changes a thing.

One of our biggest problems is that we leave three point shooters wide open all the time. From the time that Nolan Richardson finished coaching until now, the amount of three point shots has increased over 60%. I don’t think Richardson had to alter his system to account for them all that much, if at all. Teams did start going smaller while he was still coaching but today it’s not just the small guys who hit threes.

Another reason I think it’s an antiquated system is because there are a lot more capable ball handlers on the floor these days. Some teams have guys that are serviceable ball handlers 1-5. It’s not 25 years ago where teams were still rostering traditional centers and power forwards.

Whatever success comes from the system these days is because teams don’t see it anymore. It’s unfamiliar. Like Syracuse’s zone. After a year or two in the Big East playing twice a year plus the BET teams will get used to it and we’ll continue to be a bottom feeder for another few years.
 
[quote="postell25" post=408490]It’s gotten to the point now where I don’t believe in 40 Minutes of Hell anymore. Even if Mike Cragg went in to a time machine and brought back Nolan Richardson in his prime to coach this team, I don’t think it changes a thing.

One of our biggest problems is that we leave three point shooters wide open all the time. From the time that Nolan Richardson finished coaching until now, the amount of three point shots has increased over 60%. I don’t think Richardson had to alter his system to account for them all that much, if at all. Teams did start going smaller while he was still coaching but today it’s not just the small guys who hit threes.

Another reason I think it’s an antiquated system is because there are a lot more capable ball handlers on the floor these days. Some teams have guys that are serviceable ball handlers 1-5. It’s not 25 years ago where teams were still rostering traditional centers and power forwards.

Whatever success comes from the system these days is because teams don’t see it anymore. It’s unfamiliar. Like Syracuse’s zone. After a year or two in the Big East playing twice a year plus the BET teams will get used to it and we’ll continue to be a bottom feeder for another few years.[/quote]

I was the #1 proponent of this style of play (and if we're going to be bad anyway, then this is how I want us to play), but I think for just about any program now, the Belichick philosophy of "who are we playing today? OK, here's what we'll do" has to be the way to go (obviously there are some inherent things you would want to do every game, that would never change).

Pat Riley won with the showtimes Lakers, then won with Knicks teams that were the least athletic I ever saw, at least until he won with even less athletic Miami teams. When Don Nelson tried to play his brand of basketball with a Knicks team that was not suited for it, he crashed and burned.

I know it's tough to ask that out of a college team (and I don't think it can be as extreme as the two examples I just mentioned), but changing things up every now and then into something totally unexpected might not be a bad idea, if only to confuse our opponents.

We need to make sure that the best inside player, and the best outside shooter, of all of our opponents are covered at all times, and we have to make getting the ball to them very hard to do. Maybe a triangle-and-2 is the answer (most games)? I don't know.
 
It seems like every team we play makes adjustments but Mike Anderson just tries to keep doing what he’s doing but just do it better.
 
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