Jump to content

BILLIKENSRG

Members
  • Posts

    9
  • Joined

  • Last visited

BILLIKENSRG's Achievements

Recruit

Recruit (1/7)

  1. Confusion and lack of trust amongst teammates and towards the staff has set in based on what I am understanding. Don't believe minutes are predetermined. I wish I could give a specific example but that would betray a few people so will have to stay away from that one. I to have been disappointed with where the Sophs began the season at. I will give the staff a pass on Agbeko because he had shoulder surgery immediately after the season last year and was not cleared to do ball activity until mid September (6 months is a lifetime away from the game for an active player). Crawford and Tanner is on the staff. But one has to wonder based just on Manning, whom I have not seen any growth from in 3 years. When players regress or are slow in development as a unit, I would begin to look more at what the staff as oppose to the players. Some programs prepare players to play a specific role (I think this can be dangerous because a player can exceed, meet or fail at this and team pays the price), other programs stress versatility in skill development and throw players out there (I prefer this method, which has a greater chance of working even if players struggle early).
  2. @ Chosenone My original post was not meant to say Agbeko's perimeter skills are underutilized. He is a 6'8" 240 lb young man who can score and rebound in the paint. He should be used in that capacity. The concern is when the staff tell/order a player he absolutely cannot use a skill he has learned, you will make him overthink the game. The game is based on reading and reacting, and this comes from repetition. Last thing I would want my player doing is thinking about if the shot he is taking is outside of 6 feet of the rim instead of if it is a good and makable shot. How would we know today if Gillmann were a decent 3 point shooter or not, if he didn't take those open 3s. This is a skill that he has obviously worked hard on. If the player shows during game action that they are not ready to utilize this skill then the staff should by all means prohibit that player. @ C-Tower No, I meant minutes distribution; Not abandoning rotations and schemes that could work if given time to evolve in a game situation. (How many rotations or schemes have we utilized for a minute, a single breakdown occurs and we are gone away from it for the rest of the night). A player going out when they have just had a series of very solid to very good possessions only to replace them with someone who was previously struggling; As well as players playing extended minutes that aren't playing well that night. But you have others on the bench that could be tried at that point (more so troubling when there is not a whole lot of separation between the players ). From a players standpoint, this can cause separation in the locker room due to thoughts of favoritism.
  3. I suspect what Bboy is speaking of is that during offseason nowadays, most players with pro aspirations have their own skills development coaches that have nothing to do with the coaching staff at the schools they are at. For example quite a few players from Duke, UNC, and other d1s in that vicinity work with college and pro skills trainer Marcus Hodges. SLU does have a strength coach that does a very good job building the strength of the players. But players at many d1s are working with trainers that are trained and versed on building strength, lateral quickness, explosiveness and overall core strength needed to overachieve in today's game. Look at Harrell from Louisville, whose body, overall athleticism and explosiveness has increased exponentially since arriving at Louisville 3 years ago. I don't see much explosiveness from kids on our roster, even though I see the kids increasing their strength. Need work on fast twitch, not just slow twich muscles.
  4. Players will have to be held accountable for mistakes they make on the floor. But the staff has to evaluate the job they are doing. Even the most seasoned basketball minds can't really figure out what they are trying to accomplish. Establish your system and attempt to impose your system using your strengths on the other team; Make needed adjustments during the game, but don't go completely in a different direction then what the players are used to. You can say players are not trusting the system, but a player can't trust an entirely new gameplan that is designed in the middle of a game. Heck it has nothing to do with trust at that point, it has more to do with players don't know how to run this complete in game revamping of the scheme. Staff makes wholesale changes to the schemes from game to game, which means continuity is not being established. This may be effective with a seasoned team that players all have established roles but you can't do this with a young team that roles are changing every couple minutes. Players soon stop trusting the staff; Players want to be able to lay it all out there for themselves and their coaches but instability with roles, playing time and coaches second guessing their own schemes after a minute or two creates a lack of trust from players standpoint.
  5. I like Coach Crews as a person. Funny and overall good guy, and am genuinely at a crossroads on what to do at the state of the program. Having spoken to friends on the staff; I would have to say majority of this nightmare of a Billiken season rests squarely on the staff. Big key being that coaches not all being on the same page with playing philosophy and how players are used. Probably the biggest problem I have seen is the limited amount of emphasis placed on overall skill set development. Emphasis should be on players learning to shoot, handle, etc irrespective of position. But from early on in the staff pushed for players to play a specific role within the offense. This is then compounded by running a motion offense which requires versatility to be truly effective. Another huge disappointment is the stunting the growth of individual players by restricting them from doing certain things that are obvious strengths of their's. I will touch on 79s assessment earlier on about Agbeko; He is on point that his game is restricted to the paint and therefore we will have to wait and see what kind of consistency and growth will come from that. Agbeko has started to show because he is finally understanding how to work within the restrictive confines the staff setup for him from day 1 of practice. As I stated before I recently saw this young man shoot the ball very very well from midrange to 3 in a recent practice. Upon inquiring on why we have never seen a shot outside of 4 to 6 feet from the rim. I was told by some very I trust on the staff that Agbeko was not allowed to shoot outside of that area (Was even told he had run quite a bit to get this point across to not shoot unless a shot clock situation) so as create more of a post presence for the team. Same thing was expressed about his ballhandling which I was told is a strength of his. These types of restrictions on a player with those strengths will first and foremost kill the players confidence and decision making; One can only wonder how this affected Agbeko's early season play. One can only wonder how many of Agbeko's own teammates started to doubt his play and would go away from him and other teammates in other restrictive situations. Players have to trust each other; Interestingly it doesn't require a lot of watching to see these players don't truly trust each other. Food for thought going into next season.
  6. Sadly the fake/stunt screens being used by the players is by design by the staff. Read is to be made by player; If defender is overly aggressive to jump the screen. Screener is instructed to break screen off mid screen and roll to the basket. This is a bad base to build on for a young team. Offense will break down at a higher rate then just simply setting a solid screen and ball handler patiently using it.
  7. Manning if I recall correctly has been battling injuries from some time during the summer. Many have had a lot of negatives to heap on the young man, but he didn't have the chance to prepare for his senior campaign the way he and the coaching staff would have liked;
  8. Got a chance to watch the guys practice today. A lot of teaching being done by the staff. Definitely some good talent to build on even if it is difficult to see from seasonal record. Freshmen are pretty solid and Milik, and Davell are going to be very good. Biggest takeaway was how good Reggie A is. Very impressive scorer when gotten the ball in the post. Most shocking and impressive was his ability to shoot the ball (Easily one of the better shooters I saw today irrespective of position). I can't recall many jumpers from this young man in any games I have seen. For a team that struggles to score the ball, this young mans offensive abilities may be underutilized
×
×
  • Create New...