So in the light of a new day:
1. There is such a thing as "overcoaching' and IMHO that is what Pitino did with some of his "strategic" decisions at the beginning of the game.
2. It was encouraging to see the team come back from the deficit by combination of better coaching decisions, some heart and toughness, and water finding its level WRT Providence shooting.
3. I disagree with most posters about the game Luis played. I thought that he took away almost as much as he contributed with this game's batch of bonehead plays. A bit more on this in #5.
4. I disagree with most posters about Soriano, generally. I do not completely absolve Joel of responsibility but from a practical standpoint nobody other than Dunlap and sometimes Ledlum seems interested or capable of actually getting him the ball in the post. Nor is there anything designed for that - again a bit more on this in #5.
5. It is clear what Pitino wants - a team that presses, gets turnovers, has a rim-protecting center, plays tough man-to-man or help defense, and shoots a ton of 3s. In his effort to play the game he wants to play with the team he actually has, he has hitched his wagon to Jenkins and Luis who he views as athletic creators. This also probably accounts for the lack of consistency in playing time and rotation as he keeps reshuffling the cards he has to find a hand he likes.
IMHO the insistence on trying to play the hand you want instead of the hand you have has (like RJ Luis) hurt more than it has helped. You have a team with a top-3 center in the league, but you dont' play through him and make little effort to get the ball into the post. The 3 point shooters you have are not athletic, so you don't play them or dont' run anything to create open looks for spot-up 3s. You overutilize a PG who is disinclined to pass, exacerbating the problem of your non-athletic shooters. You rely on Luis who has undeniable ability but makes unwatchable mistakes. You can't stop anyone on the dribble, but keep pressing anyway. I could go on, but the point is that the coach is trying to play a game that his current roster does not match. It works well enough to be consistently competitive, but not well enough to consistently win.
6. I remain of the opinion that the team has been about what I expected. The at Providence and at Butler games were the only remaining margin for error, and now it is only the at-Butler game. They have to beat Seton Hall and Creighton at home, win the other DePaul game and the 2 Georgetown games, and they will remain a bubble team, which is what they were always going to be. But clearly I was never as high on the Pitino Factor as most, so that probably accounts for my lack of surprise at how the season has played out.
1. There is such a thing as "overcoaching' and IMHO that is what Pitino did with some of his "strategic" decisions at the beginning of the game.
2. It was encouraging to see the team come back from the deficit by combination of better coaching decisions, some heart and toughness, and water finding its level WRT Providence shooting.
3. I disagree with most posters about the game Luis played. I thought that he took away almost as much as he contributed with this game's batch of bonehead plays. A bit more on this in #5.
4. I disagree with most posters about Soriano, generally. I do not completely absolve Joel of responsibility but from a practical standpoint nobody other than Dunlap and sometimes Ledlum seems interested or capable of actually getting him the ball in the post. Nor is there anything designed for that - again a bit more on this in #5.
5. It is clear what Pitino wants - a team that presses, gets turnovers, has a rim-protecting center, plays tough man-to-man or help defense, and shoots a ton of 3s. In his effort to play the game he wants to play with the team he actually has, he has hitched his wagon to Jenkins and Luis who he views as athletic creators. This also probably accounts for the lack of consistency in playing time and rotation as he keeps reshuffling the cards he has to find a hand he likes.
IMHO the insistence on trying to play the hand you want instead of the hand you have has (like RJ Luis) hurt more than it has helped. You have a team with a top-3 center in the league, but you dont' play through him and make little effort to get the ball into the post. The 3 point shooters you have are not athletic, so you don't play them or dont' run anything to create open looks for spot-up 3s. You overutilize a PG who is disinclined to pass, exacerbating the problem of your non-athletic shooters. You rely on Luis who has undeniable ability but makes unwatchable mistakes. You can't stop anyone on the dribble, but keep pressing anyway. I could go on, but the point is that the coach is trying to play a game that his current roster does not match. It works well enough to be consistently competitive, but not well enough to consistently win.
6. I remain of the opinion that the team has been about what I expected. The at Providence and at Butler games were the only remaining margin for error, and now it is only the at-Butler game. They have to beat Seton Hall and Creighton at home, win the other DePaul game and the 2 Georgetown games, and they will remain a bubble team, which is what they were always going to be. But clearly I was never as high on the Pitino Factor as most, so that probably accounts for my lack of surprise at how the season has played out.
