I’ll hold my final judgment until next season, because Rome wasn’t built in a day. However, with the NCAA Tournament starting next week, we’ll be sure to see new Cinderella’s emerge. Like Harvard, Butler, VCU, etc. before them, teams largely off the national radar will achieve success in the Tournament. This will be done by well-coached teams playing with solid fundamentals. They probably won’t have any top-100 recruits, but one thing they definitely won’t have are egos. These teams will move the ball with purpose. They will penetrate, they will box out for rebounds-both on the offensive and defensive ends, they will hustle for loose balls, they will make their free throws, and they will pass the ball to open shooters. When strategy isn’t working, a timeout will be called, and adjustments will be made quickly. They will be the talk of the country not for a slam dunk, but simply for winning games.
This all seems fairly obvious to most fans, but I’m afraid it isn’t to our current roster of Redmen. It appears that the only basketball experience this team of highly regarded recruits has is in playing pick-up games. It’s filled with players that don’t shoot particularly well. They don’t seem to pass, or penetrate either. I’ve spoken with many fans this season that longed to see a St. John’s practice, to find out what exactly was being worked on. The team seems to be under the impression that it’s against the rules to have pre-arranged plays that can be used in order to confuse and defeat their opponent. I really hope that next year they can get back to fundamentals and good old-fashioned hard work. If the team continues to operate as they have, they’ll be watching a lot of Cinderella’s from their dorms, no matter how highly-rated their recruits are.
This all seems fairly obvious to most fans, but I’m afraid it isn’t to our current roster of Redmen. It appears that the only basketball experience this team of highly regarded recruits has is in playing pick-up games. It’s filled with players that don’t shoot particularly well. They don’t seem to pass, or penetrate either. I’ve spoken with many fans this season that longed to see a St. John’s practice, to find out what exactly was being worked on. The team seems to be under the impression that it’s against the rules to have pre-arranged plays that can be used in order to confuse and defeat their opponent. I really hope that next year they can get back to fundamentals and good old-fashioned hard work. If the team continues to operate as they have, they’ll be watching a lot of Cinderella’s from their dorms, no matter how highly-rated their recruits are.
