BILLIKENSRG
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Posts posted by BILLIKENSRG
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@ 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.
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Not sure what you're asking for here. We have a strength coach. Are you saying each or some players should have their own personal bb coach? What do you think our big coaching staff's for? Plus I rather doubt coach K has a bunch of individual player coaches attending DU practices and being second guessed by some player's personal hoops guru.
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.
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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.
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.... kind of sort of glad on one hand that Davidson took the regular season title over Dayton. Just cannot bring myself to root for the Flyers at all. On the other hand, these upstart refugees from the SoCon should not be able to "upgrade" and waltz all over the rest of us in their first year. Of course, VCU did that too. You think maybe, just maybe, there is a rash of bad teams in this A10 monster that might need some shifts to a lower level? Just maybe.
I am glad VCU dropped out of the double bye and Richmond snuck in. That ought to really piss RamNation off because if there are two teams in one city that really do not like each other, it is these two. And Richmond beat them twice this year. I'll bet the house on VCU if there is a third match up in the four/five game in Brooklyn.
The box score and game showed RA with his first double-double and gives MC eight total rebounds. Those are the positives. That and there is only one more game left in this plane crash of a season to endure. Reggie still missed a few bunnies but there is no need to use those to detract from his overall game. The problem I see is hopefully he can do that early in the games next year so he is available option and we don't have to wait another two years banking on his "potential." MC had an okay game and even with the double-double so did RA but they are still contributing pieces and have no star power associated with them. It tells you a lot about this season when the biggest compliments we can hand out are to role players and no stars. RA is however, extremely limited. He operates in the paint and the paint only. So there is our four guy moving forward. He has no mid-range game. He can play Dwayne Evans to Austin Gillmann's Rob Loe. Providing AG is even on the court because he does need work. Sadly, none of the others, other than Crawford as a first or second guy off the bench type, developed much this year. If RA is the only thing we found this year, we are hurting.
I watched last night's game as if watching a documentary on the National Geographic channel. No oomph. No pizzazz. No nothing. Either for them or for me. Passion has died. And in that regard, I have nothing new to address here. I expected this season to be an odyssey, one fraught with more missteps than anything else. I think what bothers me most is that right now, we should be looking forward to next year and continued development. But the sorry state of affairs has led to a whole lot of negative speculation and we cannot begin on that journey until we close the books on this one and determine who is in and who is out (both players and coaches).
I agree with jbizzle in that anyone thinking Crews is gone is an idiot. Just ain't gonna happen. And if a few coaches move on from under him, I'd say so what. No, the real key is the roster and the expected turnover. I believe it is going to happen but until we know who is involved, we don't know where to start from. The most unsettling part of all that to me is the fact that our current staff (and let me limited that strictly to Jim Crews for now) is going to be the ones deciding who the new pieces are going to be, if any. I don't know if the guy can really identify talent and even if he does, can he actually develop it. Prior to his "inheritance" the last few years, ol' Jimmy peaked with his last NCAA appearance with Evansville in 1998-99. Almost two decades ago! Adding that fact to the colossal fiasco that 2015 has been, count me in the crowd that isn't going to raise expectations much for next year. Yes ---- next year right now appears to be this year all over again with a few changed parts.
So as this season fades into the sunset, my look forward is spying something that is none too bright. Even if I believe as some on here say ---- that players get incrementally better just with age ---- I respond "show me." That can't be done until the court is taken in November later this calendar year.
Staring down the double barrels of another "Can't Wait" season.
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.
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We won the rebounding battle 36 to 32 tonight.
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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.
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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;
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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
Richmond from da' MD couch ....
in Billikens.com Main Board
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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).