As much as the coaching and of defense and creating a mindset about the importance of defense has lacked from the staff, it's what you just said... it's more on the coaches for recruiting guys that lack defensive skills in the first place. That's where it starts and that's where it's the most important. When you recruit two-way players, you don't have to teach them THAT much... they've already been taught, through high school and AAU and earlier how to play defense the right way. It's part of their makeup. It's already been instilled in them. They still need coaching and guidance with adjusting to the next level in D-1, but they already largely know what to do and have the heart and will to do it because they've already been doing it long before arriving at college.Polito wrote:I would LOVE to be in the Patriot League. Could really get into those matchups, and really for most all sports.
But trust me, HU wouldn't win that conf much either with this current regime and system. Those guys play sound basketball, not poor mans And1. HU needs a more balanced system...i.e. CHANGE.
I'm with FD on no to Pecora - I know it was just spitballing, but we don't need O or D, we need BOTH lol - not rocket science, and many successful mid majors find a way to do it. Just not this one.
The problem I have going forward is, HU is going to be very talented once again - but the staff has proven they either really don't care about D, or they are incapable of coaching it. Both are highly unacceptable at this level. So what's going to happen next year?
You all already know what's going to happen. No need to fool ourselves - I and some others called this I believe in January (give or take) - said then this team is going nowhere because it's the same old same old. Held out hope of course because at least the talent is there for the most part, the team had depth and experience, but the coaching remained suspect. So NOTHING will change until changes are MADE.
Next year could very well be HU's best and deepest backcourt in decades. HU could very well have another POY (either JWF or Pemba IMO), and others all-conf. And they will do nothing with it again because they have never and will never fix the D issue.
I won't go crazy about the FT's even though that's a big reason for the loss and has been terrible the last few games. It was for the most part a much better year in that category. This was really all about D of course.
I do agree also on the point Wags makes regarding D talent. That's def a real thing. But see that isn't on the players either bud. It's squarely on the coaches who brought them in. And whether they care or not, if your students don't learn from you after 5 years, it ain't the students. It's the teacher.
We'd probably all (or mostly?) agree Coen (as evidenced by this year's COY award) is the best coach and maybe the best defensive coach in the CAA right now. Well, did Coen suddenly figure out how to coach that way only this year and 3 years ago, when he won his only CAA title? And did he not know how to coach that way the two 6th-place years in between (before this year) or during in the 6 years (with 4 losing seasons) prior to three years ago? Or did he and his staff recruit enough two-way players that he had what he needed to work with three years ago and again this year as opposed to what he and his staff recruited in those other years?