You know who decides games? (Hint: It's not the coach)

Bone is a great coach, we have some great players, and eventually it will all come together. In the meantime, we just have to deal with beating a team tied for first and then following it up with a loss to (arguably) the worst team in the conference.

Its kinda like football. You see good things coming down the road, but the wait is getting old.

You know what its like and you pump up for the next one.
Go Cougs !

I told myself going into the season that this would probably be one of the most frustrating seasons i’ve seen. I figured we would win some we shouldn’t and loose some we shouldn’t and that has held mostly true i believe. I think Ken Bone is learning just as much as the players are this year. I agree with the point that a coaches influence might be a little overstated. Do you think Roy Williams at UNC suddenly forgot how to coach after winning a NC last year?

The only thing i am a little disappointed in was i don’t feel that this team is really improving as the season has gone on. We’ve shown what we’re capable of, but I don’t think that’s who this team is yet. I think it’s a team of good potential, but not necessarily that good yet.

Here’s to hoping we pull off a couple more fun victories this year! Go Cougs!

Never coached at all during games. Occasionally he did some subbing and designed some plays. For the most part, he coached them in practice and let them play the game. He did alright as a coach.

I remember reading Bill James’ Baseball Abstract one year discussing the influence of managers. The mid-game, tactical decisions are pretty small, even in baseball.

Where managers and coaches really make a difference is on the work that happens long before any game – assembling the team, fitness, etc.

first it was we were playing klay too much. now we lost because he didn’t play him and casto enough?
klay played 16 minutes in the 2nd half. He checked out with about 14 minutes left (we were up by 16) and checked back in around the 10 minute mark (up 11). Stanford made up 5 points in four minutes….is that falling sky material?

casto checked out around the 15 minute mark because he picked up his 3rd foul. bone sat him for the requisite six minutes or so before putting him back in….

what else could bone have done?

-I give Bone credit for one thing and that is our increased aggresiveness on offense that has led to us shooting a lot of free throws. Other then that can somebody tell me what he has brought to the table. (Recruiting Aside)

-It took him until last week to demand some accountablity and teach his team to value every possesion. This should have happened from day one. Every kid wants to play offense, you have to stress defense from the start or it is hard to reign them back in (Reggie).

-The youth excuse is old, you can see on the court that we are not a disciplined team and that is on the coach.

-Basketball is the sport where in game coaching is most critical. You teach in practice but you still have to manage the game. Rotations, defensive match-ups, calling a set play that works for an easy bucket or foul. He was awful in the LSU win by the way.

-Bone has been unable to create set plays that result in easy baskets.

-Coaches are responsible for the execution of their players. That is what practice is for. If the players aren’t listening to the coach or are not transfering the coaching from practice to games then it is on the coach. It’s the coaches job to get his message through to the players.

-It took an illness to Lodwick to get Motum some playing time then he precitably went back to Abe. Why is he so willing to live with Reggie’s piss poor defense but won’t accept a couple flaws by Motum. We need smart basketball players on the floor and Motum is that. Some players are just games.

-Yes we are young but the Pac-10 is awful and there is no way we should not win at least 9 games in this league.

-If we aren’t tough enough then we should be running full contact rebounding and screens drills to create some toughness.

-I will always be a diehard coug, but as a coach and baskeball junkie, I am not seeing good coaching on the floor. I hate undisciplined basketball!!

One of our problems is that we are too slow initiating the offense. You still need to hurry the ball to the front court and get into your sets. Often Reggie walks it up and we don’t even make a pass until inside of twenty, that doesn’t allow enough time. You should have time to run two full sets during any shotclock. That is one of the reasons that teams press, to take time off the clock and make the offense start their offense late. We need to get the ball up and get into our sets.

We get in the most trouble when Reggie and or Klay dominate the ball with the dribble. We stop getting ball movement and instead settle for too much dribbling. Reggie and Klay are very bad about holding the ball at the point. If Klay has to make more then three or four dribbles then he is dribbling too much. He is better off the catch and should focus on attacking off the catch not from the point.

After the game I stopped looking at Cougcenter and stayed away from the other Cougar sites. It gives me a headache reading the nonsense that people write. Unfortunately after a game like that, for every good post you have to read 20 idiotic posts. So, I say away.

So thanks for putting into words what I had been thinking.

Don’t bring the coaches to the games!

Seriously, I would have demanded that our guys attack the basket off the dribble (namely Moore and Thompson)…which would likely either a) draw fouls, b) result in easier shots, or c) a combination of a) and b).

Attack the basket. Attack the basket.

Do that especially when you are struggling from the outside…and good things likely will happen.

Coaches are paid big bucks to make these brilliant tactical decisions. As they say…“it’s not rocket science”.

“Did Bone just suddenly tell his guys to stop driving and shoot jumpers? More likely, they just decided they were going to do what they were going to do as Bone watched helplessly from the sideline.”

That would be, by definition, a sign of lack of discipline. Bone has to DEMAND that they attack the basket. He’s the one making $650K/year….he has the authority to do this.