Butler, Sat., Jan. 4 , 2p, FS-1

For a kid that has barely played, I thought Ayo was bizarrely steady. He was calling plays and enforcing spacing on offense. He was communicating on defense and his rotations were as good as anyone.

The missed reverse layup was almost 100% due to the lack of minutes, but he also scorched his man to get a wide open run to the basket. Stat sheet won’t tell the story for him, especially the +/-.
 
Silly Donovan said:
Wilcher missing right now? It’s been the last three Big East games when the competition got better. He was 1 for 10, 3 for 11 and 1 for 8. You can’t depend on him at this point.
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He’s not getting any looks. We love killing out shooters here, but we aren’t manufacturing open looks on a consistent basis. I think we will. It’s correctable.
 
Roamer said:
If this team makes the tournament they will have over achieved. We have no business being in the tournament with our shooting percentage and FTs. This team is worse than last years team. I don’t know how Pitino put together a lesser team. This is on the coach that most posters don’t want to criticise.
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I have to admit I had the same thought that last year's team was better, even though it had less physical ability
 
Marillac2 said:
For a kid that has barely played, I thought Ayo was bizarrely steady. He was calling plays and enforcing spacing on offense. He was communicating on defense and his rotations were as good as anyone.

The missed reverse layup was almost 100% due to the lack of minutes, but he also scorched his man to get a wide open run to the basket. Stat sheet won’t tell the story for him, especially the +/-.
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Ayo has been with Pitino for what, 4 years now? He knows what the game plan is and he knows what the coach wants. And he brings energy. He's the guy the coach loves even though he's unplayable at this level because he's a sixth man on a decent mid-major sort of player.

If he gets more than 2 minutes in any game, you know that the one of two things is true: it's a blowout, or Pitino has reached "throw sh*t at the wall and see if something works" stage.

I will add one day-after positive to the train wreck that was yesterday (which was really just a microcosm of the things that are wrong that IMO stem from the coaching): the veteran aspect of this team should not be underrated. They handled a tough atmosphere at Creighton pretty well and gave themselves a chance to win the game at the end, and they persevered yesterday when basically nothing was going right outside of 5 minutes in the second half when the pressure D was effective and Kadary taking over with a series of winning plays at the end (somewhat offset by the free throw trainwreck, but you could point to moving past that as another sign of mental toughness for this team).
 
lawmanfan said:
Mike since I don't see your telephone pole head in front of me I'm closer to the bench than you are and I'm here every game.

Players have been unhappy with the coaching all year. And from what I see I can't blame them.

There's coaching and there's teaching and then there's pulling guys and screaming at them. Some of those things are productive and some are not. Also some players can handle a certain style and some can't.

Pitino is clearly in the mode of "if you don't like it, that's your problem, you can leave and I'll get someone tougher than you who will do what I want."

Not an awesome way to make players feel valued and get the most out of them. And if you want to win games you're going to need those players.

The proof is in the results: he's gotten the most out of Zuby. RJ is RJ. Who else do you think he has maximized the ability and productivity of? My answer is nobody - and to the contrary he's managed to do a lot of damage to the production of players who should be key elements of his team.

The vibe from my spot a few rows back has been bad all year and I can absolutely understand why.
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From today's NYP:
“Young people today are different. I’m struggling with it. I’m not quitting. like some coaches, but I really am struggling right now with a lot of things,” Pitino said.
 
Rhythm said:
Why should it be behind closed doors?
Because you are worried you are going to upset the person who has shot 5/29 the last three games. Fool around and find out! Everyone on the board said the same thing. Should we not say it either. We get it you will criticize every move Pitno makes.
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Let's separate the two things. If he was 29 for 29 it would still be classless. By publicly dressing Wilcher down, he is saying to sll of college basketball, this is wrong. I'm dure Rick has addressed it and has already moved on.

Has Rick really ssid no more post game handshake line?
 
Sim is a great kid by ALL accounts. The hyperbole some people use to criticize him trying to dunk a basketball is wild. Character assassination for nothing, maybe it wasn’t right but who cares. If you want to critique anyone critique the 5 lazy bums on the OTHER TEAM who didn’t even bother to walk into the backcourt with 15 seconds left!
 
paultzman said:
SJ likely wins today, but you have to give credence to LMF’s and Logen’s recent assessments of Pitino’s sub par performance this season. His guys not being prepared today is on him and as they noted, his decision making w rotations is safely head scratching. How well he motivates this group is another concern.
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Speaking for myself - not a recent concern. Has been a concern from the time he was hired. There's a clear pattern both last year and this year. Short list (since I've posted the long versions already):

1. Lineup Lottery. Who's starting? Why?

2. Rotation Roulette. Lots of impulsive and punitive yanking guys out of the game to scream at them on the spot about one mistake or another. Teaching and correcting errors is part of the job, but you have to pick your spots for that behavior, it can' t be your go-to move.

3. Press Patrol. Criticizing players in the press. What could possibly go wrong?

4. Flexibility? Fuggedaboutit! There are zero evident adjustments to meet players where they are and find tools to teach them in a way that will maximize their productivity. The only approved scientific principle appears to be "if it doesn't work, apply more force." It's the basketball equivalent of "English, spoken loudly and clearly enough, can be understood by anyone." Which doesn't actually work with folks who don't speak the language. Sometimes you gotta learn a little bit of theirs if you want to communicate effectively.

5. F*&k Flexibility (Part 2): The same thing applies to game plans - we have a plan and although sometimes we will adjust it as needed, we really, really hate to do that and as a result are slow to get there.

All of these things point to a coach that - as he himself has now said - has a lot of trouble relating to today's players, and it is worse this year than it was last year. It has been obvious on the bench this year from early on. You could see the friction on the bench even before the Bahamas and it got worse after that. A bit better now, but not awesome.

There's no arguing about the resume, but that was built in a different environment with different kinds of players, and there was a significant gap in what Pitino was doing between then and now. I also don't dispute that if the players drank the Kool-Aid exactly the way he wants them to then they would be a good team. But you can't just tell today's players "drink this because I said so and if you don't drink it exactly right I'm benching you" and expect that to work.

I had hoped that winning would be the best disinfectant and maybe it will yet. Fingers crossed.
 
lawmanfan said:
Speaking for myself - not a recent concern. Has been a concern from the time he was hired. There's a clear pattern both last year and this year. Short list (since I've posted the long versions already):

1. Lineup Lottery. Who's starting? Why?

2. Rotation Roulette. Lots of impulsive and punitive yanking guys out of the game to scream at them on the spot about one mistake or another. Teaching and correcting errors is part of the job, but you have to pick your spots for that behavior, it can' t be your go-to move.

3. Press Patrol. Criticizing players in the press. What could possibly go wrong?

4. Flexibility? Fuggedaboutit! There are zero evident adjustments to meet players where they are and find tools to teach them in a way that will maximize their productivity. The only approved scientific principle appears to be "if it doesn't work, apply more force." It's the basketball equivalent of "English, spoken loudly and clearly enough, can be understood by anyone." Which doesn't actually work with folks who don't speak the language. Sometimes you gotta learn a little bit of theirs if you want to communicate effectively.

5. F*&k Flexibility (Part 2): The same thing applies to game plans - we have a plan and although sometimes we will adjust it as needed, we really, really hate to do that and as a result are slow to get there.

All of these things point to a coach that - as he himself has now said - has a lot of trouble relating to today's players, and it is worse this year than it was last year. It has been obvious on the bench this year from early on. You could see the friction on the bench even before the Bahamas and it got worse after that. A bit better now, but not awesome.

There's no arguing about the resume, but that was built in a different environment with different kinds of players, and there was a significant gap in what Pitino was doing between then and now. I also don't dispute that if the players drank the Kool-Aid exactly the way he wants them to then they would be a good team. But you can't just tell today's players "drink this because I said so and if you don't drink it exactly right I'm benching you" and expect that to work.

I had hoped that winning would be the best disinfectant and maybe it will yet. Fingers crossed.
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Spot on post Lawmanfan! +1000
 
Marillac2 said:
For a kid that has barely played, I thought Ayo was bizarrely steady. He was calling plays and enforcing spacing on offense. He was communicating on defense and his rotations were as good as anyone.

The missed reverse layup was almost 100% due to the lack of minutes, but he also scorched his man to get a wide open run to the basket. Stat sheet won’t tell the story for him, especially the +/-.
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I respectfully disagree He played horrendous …and the stats show …he got beat consistently on defense ..made 1 3 and then he thought he was the vocal point shooting 6 times!? and the 2 minutes he played in 2h he did not rotate on the last layup and he let brooks get open for 3 that he hit. Those were the last two baskets they scored until the last 2 points to end the game…Then was pulled
 
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lawmanfan said:
Speaking for myself - not a recent concern. Has been a concern from the time he was hired. There's a clear pattern both last year and this year. Short list (since I've posted the long versions already):

1. Lineup Lottery. Who's starting? Why?

2. Rotation Roulette. Lots of impulsive and punitive yanking guys out of the game to scream at them on the spot about one mistake or another. Teaching and correcting errors is part of the job, but you have to pick your spots for that behavior, it can' t be your go-to move.

3. Press Patrol. Criticizing players in the press. What could possibly go wrong?

4. Flexibility? Fuggedaboutit! There are zero evident adjustments to meet players where they are and find tools to teach them in a way that will maximize their productivity. The only approved scientific principle appears to be "if it doesn't work, apply more force." It's the basketball equivalent of "English, spoken loudly and clearly enough, can be understood by anyone." Which doesn't actually work with folks who don't speak the language. Sometimes you gotta learn a little bit of theirs if you want to communicate effectively.

5. F*&k Flexibility (Part 2): The same thing applies to game plans - we have a plan and although sometimes we will adjust it as needed, we really, really hate to do that and as a result are slow to get there.

All of these things point to a coach that - as he himself has now said - has a lot of trouble relating to today's players, and it is worse this year than it was last year. It has been obvious on the bench this year from early on. You could see the friction on the bench even before the Bahamas and it got worse after that. A bit better now, but not awesome.

There's no arguing about the resume, but that was built in a different environment with different kinds of players, and there was a significant gap in what Pitino was doing between then and now. I also don't dispute that if the players drank the Kool-Aid exactly the way he wants them to then they would be a good team. But you can't just tell today's players "drink this because I said so and if you don't drink it exactly right I'm benching you" and expect that to work.

I had hoped that winning would be the best disinfectant and maybe it will yet. Fingers crossed.
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This is a great post.

I know people have a love hate relationship with Hurley but his stated coaching philosophy is spot on for this generation: he is his players biggest cheerleader and fan during games. Their harshest critic in practice.

And it’s clear from the on court interactions. Even the yelling at refs is part of that. It’s why his players will run thru walls for him.

Pitino is old school. And to be honest some of the yelling at players is a bit cringe at times. The slapping the board out of the assistant’s hands during the NM game was uncalled for.

I once heard a wise man say: nothing changes if nothing changes.

Perhaps it’s time meet players half way.
 
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