Anderson - is he really the guy ?

If O'mar Stanley announced his transfer tomorrow, I wouldn't blame him one bit.

What more does he have to do to get playing time? He and Smith were a combined 12-14 from the field in this game, and neither one of them was in on that possession with 17 seconds to go. Yet Wheeler and Champ, a combined 4-25 at the time, are still there, to say nothing of the Mathis-Wusu combo, which hinders us offensively, even when those two are going well. Why?  Defense?  You're not on defense.  But, that seems to be all this coach cares about.

 I don't care if we do go on a run (and I don't think we will, because you have to make an offensive play at some point), a change needs to be made, either in philosophy, or in who the head coach is.  Sometimes, I think Anderson would rather play good defense and lose, then play bad defense and win.

Something has to be done about the other side of the ball.  Clearly, that's not in this head coach's philosophy, and I think that's partially why the Big 3 on our team (Julian, Wheeler, and Posh) disappear at times (Posh has not been nearly the force he was last year, with the exception of a few games).
 
It’s wrong to say Anderson is a bad coach. You don’t have the longevity he’s had if you don’t know how to coach.

The issue is he is in his 60’s (not like there’s anything wrong than that!) and a transplant. 

There is 0 chance anyone can convince me he is a long term answer here. So after 3 years of failure we are looking at 0 short term success paired with a lame duck coach in the long view.

For the love of God can we take a flyer on a young coach who can grow with the program preferably someone with NY roots?
 
The entire program needs to be flipped on its head if there is a true desire to build a contender vs. being a career utility player in conference.



 
 
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In a word NO

In the game against Creighton, Stanley had 14 points in 12 minutes on 7 for 8 shooting, Why only 12 minutes? Smith had 12 points on 5 for 6 shooting, yet at the end of the game, Wusu at 1 for 6 was in the game and Smith was on the bench? Anderson may have been a good coach in his day but sticking to a pre conceived game plan with little regard for the current situation (even with several assistants to support him} is pure folly. Sure the team looks good when everything is clicking and the team is rolling but when coaching/personnel decisions may affect the outcome of the game, he struggles.
 
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Jermane Attoil post=459863 said:
In a word NO

In the game against Creighton, Stanley had 14 points in 12 minutes on 7 for 8 shooting, Why only 12 minutes? Smith had 12 points on 5 for 6 shooting, yet at the end of the game, Wusu at 1 for 6 was in the game and Smith was on the bench? Anderson may have been a good coach in his day but sticking to a pre conceived game plan with little regard for the current situation (even with several assistants to support him} is pure folly. Sure the team looks good when everything is clicking and the team is rolling but when coaching/personnel decisions may affect the outcome of the game, he struggles.
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I get the impression that, outside of recruiting, the assistants are there, simply to be his mouthpieces, and make sure the players carry out his orders (which, to be fair, is part of what an assistant should do).  It certainly didn't seem like DeMeo was on board with all that went on last year, and he got replaced (we can debate whether or not he was right, but it does sound like Anderson invoked "my way or the highway" with him).

I've said this before, but I wish more coaches would do what Lavin did here, and hire assistants who compliment the head coach, in that they cover up his weaknesses.  Lavin was not the brightest bulb in the shed WRT in-game coaching, so he brought on Mike Dunlap because that was his strength.  After Dunlap left, he did the same with Jim Whitesell.  Didn't work out as well, but it was with the right intentions.  Lavin had his issues here, but staff hiring was not one of them, IMO.

Does Anderson not know anybody who does halfcourt offense well?  And if not, why won't anyone from the administration step in, and force the issue?  Are president, AD, and coach on the same page a little too much perhaps?  It shouldn't be that hard to notice this sideline weakness, and try and do something about it.
 
You have to blame Mike Anderson for not developing his bench properly this year. There aren't any defined roles or substitution patterns. This causes frustration and confusion amongst the players. It's also why the team looks unprepared for stretches of  games. There's no fluidity with these lineups. 

Mike has also been very stubborn with his staff and I think this will be his downfall. There were alot of strong candidates vying for spots and he choose not to go there. Tbh this is one of the weaker staffs in the BE. 
 
 
Barring a miraculous run from here until the BET final this year has been a failure. I’ve been a defender and believer in Anderson (and still am to a degree) but he deserves criticism & to bear the bulk of the responsibility for this team underperforming.

I actually have less of a problem with not playing Smith & Stanley than I did with the play calls/execution. If Anderson said, “I didn’t go to them more because those other guys have carried the team all season so I bet on them.” Even if I disagree, I see the logic in it and he’s not the only coach who would have that instinct. However the designed plays and execution of the team out of timeouts and in key moments was completely inexcusable. They were the opposite of prepared and that’s only on the Coach.

Lastly, and this one is kind of rough…Champagnie has had a bad season. The stats will look fine and he’ll make an All Conference  team but he had a bad year. He feasted on bad/mediocre teams and almost every single time this team put themselves in a position to get over the hump he didn’t just not show up he was actively destructive to the team’s chances. Every key Big East game that could have swung the season he was straight up bad in. Look at his shooting in the biggest games of the year:

last night- 3-16
2nd UConn- 6-16
2nd Nova- 4-15
2nd Prov-4-11
1st Nova- 4-12
2nd seton Hall- 2-10
1st Seton Hall- 3-14
1st Creighton-7-21
1st Prov- 5-19

That’s not mediocre, it’s truly terrible. The team went 1-8 in these games. Great kid, great story, I think he’ll have a bright future when he doesn’t have to be “the guy” but he’s not a clutch player. He’s not reliable and I think he really hurt his draft stock.
 
 
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sirvoo post=459853 said:
For the love of God can we take a flyer on a young coach who can grow with the program preferably someone with NY roots?
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I know a guy at Kansas who checks off all those boxes...

 
 
Ive been hammering the table for Drew Valentine, heck Id even look at Speedy Claxton.  But Anderson's best player has disappeared in 8 big east games this year.  If Champy rises to the occasion we probably win half of those and Anderson doesnt look too bad.

Anderson hasnt been great this year but hes not the #1 problem.  Our best player has cost us the season unfortunately.
 
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CMA is certainly hearing criticism.  Now, it will be interesting to see if he digs in with stubbornness or increases playing time for Stanley and Smith.  I have thought those two, particularly, should have been seeing more time all season.  Watching Stanley last night you have to wonder where he would be, from a developmental standpoint, had he seen more minutes this year. 

Ultimately, next year began at last night's buzzer.
 
QueensBall post=459896 said:
Barring a miraculous run from here until the BET final this year has been a failure. I’ve been a defender and believer in Anderson (and still am to a degree) but he deserves criticism & to bear the bulk of the responsibility for this team underperforming.

I actually have less of a problem with not playing Smith & Stanley than I did with the play calls/execution. If Anderson said, “I didn’t go to them more because those other guys have carried the team all season so I bet on them.” Even if I disagree, I see the logic in it and he’s not the only coach who would have that instinct. However the designed plays and execution of the team out of timeouts and in key moments was completely inexcusable. They were the opposite of prepared and that’s only on the Coach.

Lastly, and this one is kind of rough…Champagnie has had a bad season. The stats will look fine and he’ll make an All Conference  team but he had a bad year. He feasted on bad/mediocre teams and almost every single time this team put themselves in a position to get over the hump he didn’t just not show up he was actively destructive to the team’s chances. Every key Big East game that could have swung the season he was straight up bad in. Look at his shooting in the biggest games of the year:

last night- 3-16
2nd UConn- 6-16
2nd Nova- 4-15
2nd Prov-4-11
1st Nova- 4-12
2nd seton Hall- 2-10
1st Seton Hall- 3-14
1st Creighton-7-21
1st Prov- 5-19

That’s not mediocre, it’s truly terrible. The team went 1-8 in these games. Great kid, great story, I think he’ll have a bright future when he doesn’t have to be “the guy” but he’s not a clutch player. He’s not reliable and I think he really hurt his draft stock.

 
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Very good post. I’ve always believed that stats don’t lie. I wonder if the reason for Champs poor shooting in those games is that he was defended  by better, more athletic players. The better teams tend to have more of them. 
 
This team obviously has no issues scoring points.  The way they do it is probably not the way traditonallists would like it to be, but point total is not the issue.  And I know many are upset with certain players not getting minutes in crunch time, especially if they have been positive contributors earlier in the game.  My big issue is that when we need to formulate or run an important offensive set in crunch or at a critical time, this staff does not have the ability to make it happen.  And this is not just an issue this season; it is an ongoing issue with this staff. It's amazing how poorly we execute in these important times.
 
Beast of the East post=459899 said:
MainMan post=459898 said:
sirvoo post=459853 said:
For the love of God can we take a flyer on a young coach who can grow with the program preferably someone with NY roots?
Click to expand...

I know a guy at Kansas who checks off all those boxes...



 
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Are we assessing this as an absolute value or relative to the members of this website?
 
Jermane

, those  stats are eye opening
Only thing you can say we are pretty bad Thus my point 
coach needs to pick players who can shoot if  he can ,if not he should move on
its killing us
 
 
I've already said my peace on this topic and it stinks because I really like Mike Anderson.  Unfortunately, his age and likely being "too old" and set in his ways (that's probably also attributed to not having a losing season in his career) to change then I'll allot him one more season at the helm. 

My biggest issue is Anderson's inability to have a "feel" what's transpiring in his face.  He has no situational awareness to the game.  We've seen this time and time again.  He's also too "honor-bound," so to speak, to his system.  For instance, last night I didn't mind him sticking with man-to-man but there was a point in the game where a switch to zone may have done us some good as Creighton had gotten comfortable in the second half and briefly carved us up.  We caused Creighton to turn it over on a couple possessions in the first half by going zone.  Then we never went back to it.  

The situational awareness goes for his in-game but more so his substitution patterns (which can be incredibly baffling).  There was no way IMO Stanley and Smith shouldn't have gotten more burn last night.  Zero!  I know Pinzon has missed a ton of time and Anderson may have wanted to ease him back into the lineup, which is certainly plausible, but you find more ways to increment him more time as he was actually making plays when he was in there.  

Mathis was having a solid game last night, so I can see why he logged his share of minutes.  I'm not gonna nitpick much about him being in the game towards the end.  Maybe he drives to the bucket, which he did, and gets fouled.  I probably would've had Stanley, Smith, and Pinzon (subbed for Wusu) in the game during the waning moments.  

As far as Wusu.....  I love the kid as he's tough and has no fear.  He surprised many of us last season as an unheralded freshmen and gave us some really good moments.  Too often this season he has warranted too much time. For every one thing he does good; he'll turn around and do two bad things.  This, of course, falls back on Anderson.  

I don't know how much input the assistant coaches has when it comes to in-game decisions and whatnot, but IMO it's obvious Anderson needs help with situational cognizance and possibly with occasional changing defenses (when to do so based on, of course, situation and/or personnel).  

Like I said earlier, it sucks as I really like Anderson and you don't coach as long as he has and be considered a bad coach.  I just think there comes a time when you may no longer be able to bring the same amount of heat to your pitch regardless what you attempt to do to deliver with similarity.  Is that the case with Anderson?  We'll find out in due time.  
 
It’s now three years that SJU uses its pressure defense to create offensive opportunities and without those the offensive game plan is lacking. In fact it is just as bad this year as it was in year one of Anderson. It’s time for Cragg to step up and demand Anderson bring in a half court offensive coach next season.
Next years team may not have the talent of this years and may not win as many games but watching them collapse in the final minutes of so many hard fought games should be a thing of the past. Both Lapchick and Looie brought in asst coaches to help correct a strategy that was lacking so it shouldn’t be above Anderson.
 
My Anderson criticisms:

100% on Wusu inbounding the ball. We all have been saying this since last season when we blew that game at Butler because he turned over the inbounds pass. Stubborn is the right word. I haven’t liked him as a ball handler all season. It seems like such an obviously bad idea. Just because the guy can pass (except when inbounding apparently) doesn’t mean he should be dribbling the ball and initiating the offense. Wusu has plenty of value (I really do like him as a player) but that isn’t where his value is.

Also, I think Anderson messes with his rotations a little too much. I’ll use Smith as an example. He didn’t have a great year but he should have been playing more consistently. He’s a shooter and an offensive player who needs to get in a rhythm. Having him play 20 minutes one game and 5 mins for the next handful of games and then back up just doesn’t really make sense to me. Let him get comfortable. It must have been a frustrating season for him. I’m not saying play the guys who are consistently crapping the bed but you have to give them a reasonable chance (unless it’s an effort thing.) Don’t tinker. Set your rotation and keep it unless guys completely play their way out or are playing so well in practice you have to work them in. I don’t like the guys being on eggshells. Some may disagree here.

I’ve also come around somewhat on recruiting. They need to at least occasionally land some higher profile guys. I think rankings are overrated and not as important as people think but landing a couple more consensus top 100 type offensive talents would help. Until Storr, Pinzon was the only other guy who was near that level (Posh is a unique situation that I’ll set aside) and I’m not sure what the consensus on Pinzon is here since we saw so little but when he’s on the court I kind of can’t take my eyes off of him. His combination of length and skill stand out. So while I still very much appreciate the Staff’s ability to identify diamonds in the rough I’d like to see recruiting kick up a notch or two.

All of this being said, Anderson isn’t on the hot seat and any firing talk feels silly to me. If they underperform next season I can see his seat getting warm. While I don’t think Anderson is the future of the program I do think he’s been a good (and extremely necessary) “bridge” coach. This program really had become a joke. Now there appears to be a culture, he cares deeply about the job, he’s had some real success here developing certain players and while we’re still unsuccessful overall we’ve been playing close to .500 ball in the Big East which was far from the case before he arrived. And lastly, anyone who thinks this season was lost more because of Wusu inbounding the ball & Anderson not using timeouts wisely than because of Champagnie failing to deliver over & over & over & over again is probably not being entirely fair. A huge part of the reason we had high hopes for this team was because we had Champagnie. He’s a fantastic talent who I’m grateful for but we didn’t have the guy we thought we had. If Champagnie is even just okay in a few more key games this team is clearly in the tourney a year after Anderson won Big East COY and we’re all in love with the guy.

So I’m more critical of Anderson than I’ve been since he arrived & this year WAS a clear failure on his part but that being said, I’m not out on the guy and I do see his value in the short term. Sorry this is so long but I’m a frustrated guy here.
 
From a retention standpoint (assuming Champ is gone) I would like to see the following prioritized.

1. Posh
2. Wheeler
3. Soriano
4. Pinzon / Stanley / Nywie
 
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