Whenever we lose it's Willard's fault. I don't know how last night can be blamed on Willard, especially when your opponent is exclaiming in their huddle, "They don't want to guard."
Typical
- Thread starter Blue Buccaneer
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If you saw the first CU game, you would think we could play 8 guys, and Watson would tell us what he was going to do, and we still couldn't stop him. But in the second game, he wasn't a factor. So I can hope...
In recent games, you could feel the energy, last night it was clear is was missing.
In recent games, you could feel the energy, last night it was clear is was missing.
The coach is the CEO of the team. His team. His recruits. His strategy. His in-game coaching. His responsibility. Don't want to be accountable for on-court results, get out of high-level coaching.
Part of the game is motivating your kids to play their best. If you see 5 minutes of unfocused play, you adjust.
Part of the game is strategy and opposition research. If you see that the other team is getting anything they want from anywhere they want, you adjust.
If your game strategy isn't working, and you can't motivate your team, you got outcoached. (Or the other team has superior athletes, which I absolutely do not think is true in this case). One of the things that people talk about when they talk about great coaches is who can squeeze the most out of their team based on the talent. Who can elevate? Who can coach up?
Last night I saw an unfocused team, but I also saw no real strategy to counter Butler. I saw no offensive scheme to break them packing the paint. Either way Holtmann got a lot out of his kids last night, and we didn't.
To listen to you, one would think it was a team of horses that just needs to be whipped. That's not what sports is.
I would say that Dunham and Martin were superior to most players on our roster. Jones is a crafty veteran, and has torched us more than once. If you can't concede that a team has better players, it's always going to be the coach's fault.
I'm on the same page with you about the Butler game. These are two talented teams with a slight edge
to Butler?? The difference is in the basketball IQ and experience. You have to praise Butler's ability to get a hoop or or draw a foul when they needed most. Our frontcourt is a work in progress. Besides Desi we do not have one frontcourt player that has a handle or that can score away from the basket. Angel, Ish, Nzei and Anthony get most of their points the same way. On this night their defense and rebounding were subpar.
I'm not sure why you would think that. I made no references to horse racing and that isn't even a team sport or one with a similar coach-player dynamic. College basketball is very coaching-centered. It absolutely means a lot who is on the sidelines, what they say, and what kind of culture and skills they've imparted to their players. I'm fine with letting others decide whether I was comparing our situation to whipping horses.
That's a fair point. I shouldn't make the statement about comparing talent universally. Sophomore Khadeen or IW isn't Senior Dunham. That's a bad match up for us. Martin has greatly improved and won the war last night against Desi. Jones is good no doubt. However, we've got plenty of top level talent in Delgado, IW, KC, and Desi to make it a horse race. This Butler team lost to Marquette and Creighton this season. It's not like they are a juggernaut. We are their best win to date. More important to me is that they looked in control. They got any shot they wanted on the court. Our offense looked lost and was heavily reliant on popping the three after a pick, or running the lane into three guys. We looked like the worse team and it wasn't close.
We would have been run off the court had Whitehead not played like a pro. Butler is good, but not that good. The team simply was not ready to play. Who is that on? I know the players bear a great deal of responsibility. But they didn't know how to defend Dunham, et al. They needed a strategy and adjustments and obviously did not have them. I do not want to hear, at the conclusion of a three-game homestand, that they are tired. The team that traveled from Indiana in the freezing cold looked fresh.
Getting a team motivated is also part of coaching.
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I don't understand how a coach that has gotten these kids to play so hard all of a sudden didn't get them ready last night. Did he tell them to not play so hard? I think IW'S commen about how practice is gonna be brutal with us going over defense constantly, and Derrick's despondency over the loss tell the story of who the players blame.
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Guys, it's okay to say Willard has been great this season. He has. It's also okay to say he didn't have a great night last night. He didn't.
The good has far outweighed the bad from Willard this season. I didn't think we were focused last night and we didn't make many in-game adjustments (there were a few, but not enough).
I trust him to make the necessary adjustments next time and get the team back on the right track starting next week. He has proven he can do it in multiple instances this season. Just move on from this game. Disappointing that we didn't rise up and put some distance between us and the middle of the pack in this conference, but it's not a killer loss. Butler is a good team.
The good has far outweighed the bad from Willard this season. I didn't think we were focused last night and we didn't make many in-game adjustments (there were a few, but not enough).
I trust him to make the necessary adjustments next time and get the team back on the right track starting next week. He has proven he can do it in multiple instances this season. Just move on from this game. Disappointing that we didn't rise up and put some distance between us and the middle of the pack in this conference, but it's not a killer loss. Butler is a good team.
Based on this it sounds like every loss in the country every night is the coaches fault?
Funny you should say that Dick. Usually i feel the vib when Tim McCloone announces the players. But last night there was no energy in the environment.
As for the coaching, i think Willard gave them an earful at the halftime because the team was late coming out. Willard did a good job.This loss was on the players.
We are not their best win to date. They beat Cincinnati on the road. They beat Purdue on the road. Yes, they lost some conf games early but of that was due in part to injury to their point guard and a shooting slump by Dunham who went several straight games without hitting a 3. We didn't play great, Butler shot 56%, and it was a 2 point game with 30 seconds left. Disappointing loss? Yes. But we're not going to win every game. Six to go, let's see how they respond.
I sincerely hope that all these critics were at the game. Attendance was poor and it did not help the team to come out of the runway to a virtually empty arena. Home court advantage? We didn't have it for the Butler game.
We definitely did not have much of a home court advantage. But the geniuses working at our university and in the Big East should not schedule games on days that are holy days for Catholics. Yes, it is true that not everyone is a practicing Catholic and many fans may be of other religions. But a lot of our season ticket holders are older folks who are into their faith. The 6:30 start on Ash Wednesday of all days: genius move.
I'm sorry Catholic man, and I respect your devotion, but as another poster stated in another thread-- there is always an excuse with Seton hall fans for not coming to games: too late, too early, bad day. We have a small but dedicated fan base. We need everybody there. Everyone said they wanted meaningful games in February and March. We have them. Stop with the darn excuses and get out to the games.
1st sacrifice of lent should have been make the 7am mass so you could make the game
It definitely was a factor. But let's look at the other factor: In a metro area where rush hour begins at 4pm (sometimes even 3pm) and the traffic is horrible, 6:30pm starts do not work. Maybe in Omaha or Indianapolis they work, but not here. And, yes these are excuses but what is left of our fan base after sustained losing for so many years, needs to be motivated. The team wasn't up for the game either. When a team starts winning consistently, no matter what the conditions are, then fans start to show up in larger and larger numbers.
I have seen multiple articles stating that Ash Wednesday (and not Easter or Christmas) is the most heavily attended day at Catholic Churches so Catholicman has a point. But TV schedule makers need to fill the slots on a week night no matter what, so Ash Wednesday will never matter in their minds.
With that said I truly believe we just have to win and get into the tourney to get a little momentum to attract the fanbase. It's been a long time since there was any sustained buzz for SHU. If we can get another 1,500 to 2,000 fans each game it would make a huge difference.
To get the students more consistently, we need a close to campus arena someday if we really want them to attend more regularly. They have free busing and all of that but college ball and an on campus or close to campus arena would be so much better in the long run even though it will most likely never happen at SHU. It think that will always hurt attendance personally. And 6:30 games are tough. My niece and nephew go the SHU and they both had classes during the game.
With that said I truly believe we just have to win and get into the tourney to get a little momentum to attract the fanbase. It's been a long time since there was any sustained buzz for SHU. If we can get another 1,500 to 2,000 fans each game it would make a huge difference.
To get the students more consistently, we need a close to campus arena someday if we really want them to attend more regularly. They have free busing and all of that but college ball and an on campus or close to campus arena would be so much better in the long run even though it will most likely never happen at SHU. It think that will always hurt attendance personally. And 6:30 games are tough. My niece and nephew go the SHU and they both had classes during the game.
I noticed that from the beginning of the game they were denying our penetration with smart defensive trade offs between zone and man. No one had done that to that extent before. We came the paintto play our game and they did a very good job of defending against our game. They took Angel out and put it all on Isaiah's back. No one got into the middle and they got into our heads. Ish tried, Desi tried. We played one dimensionally. They out scored us in the paint by taking the paint away from us. We better learn how to respond to that quick or the last teams we play are going to do a deep dive on tape and we will pay without a comeback. This is a team issue, not just Willard, Not just the players, but the whole team has to have a response together. Carrington has to pull it together, Desi has to hit the shots. Isiah didn't try to carry the team on his back, he did and tried to serve up assists which we mostly missed in the paint. We have to fix this quick.
Let's go to the video! EVERYTIME Willard is up, enthusiastic, yelling instructions we play great defense and we rebound. When he opts to be a bystander, we lose. You can count on it. Game night is not a day off from practice. Coaches hate to have to coach EFFORT, but some nights you just have to.
Well, it's not in the Constitution, counselor. Not sure where the "state" comes in here, maybe Butler being a non-affiliated school?
Someone did make a good point, and say that there are several times during the day available to get ashes, at most parishes. SHU could have been creative, and had one of the priests/Eucharistic ministers distributing at the game.
Can't believe we're still talking about Ash Wednesday. Our team is 17-7, 7-5 with two huge home games coming up. Stop the BS. Just get to the games.
Not counting anything. Whether we go 2-0 or 0-2 on the road, those two homes games will be huge either way. My only point is for our fans to make an effort and come out to support the team. So far the team has held up it's end of the bargain. The fans: less so.
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