Stranger Things – Chapter 3
Like I said at the top… the Holes didn’t do much better than the PACK with respect to any of this, except Uncle Roy is still running Dean’s 50 year old high / low post play and they can make that work when they choose to use it.
Worth mentioning…
With the exception of 2 or 3 whistles that were honest ‘could be called either way’ plays… yesterday was one of the best officiated games in a while… Didn’t catch their names, but we need those guys back in the PNC…
The one Bright Spot…
Lenard and ABU played like Seniors in their last regular season game at home against the Holes for about the last eight minutes. I’m not sure it’s not because Luke Maye was embarrassing them or not….
The other Spot…
As I said last night in the game thread… All this above, plus Maye’s Career Half plus 78% in the second half by the Holes and we’re still down only 2 pts with 1:34 to play and it’s anybody’s game to win…. which I believe is the prove of the veracity of my analysis…
Our press defense and fast break offense keeps games close. And we don’t quit. We’ve got heart and grit.
But that UN* team yesterday would not beat the worse of Dean’s or the worse of Roy’s teams 2 out of 10 times…
And that Wolfpack team yesterday would not beat the worse of Sloan’s or Valvano’s teams 2 out of 10 times.
All of those teams knew and could execute their fundamentals. All those teams made squeaky shoes noises during games, no squeaky shoes yesterday…
With the exception of Bennett’s ‘hoos and Wisconsin and a small handful of others… it’s the same at every other school…
For this old man who learned and played the game during the ‘Happy Days’ and earlier, it was like watching a basketball game playing in the ‘Upside Down’ of ‘Stranger Things’, except the bright lights turned on….
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Conclusions:
Coach chooses his headaches and buys his aspirin….
Which is to say….
I don’t know if any Coach can correct 6-8-10 years of playing street ball and not learning the fundamentals in 1, 2 or maybe 3 years….
If you recruit the fundamentally sound players, then you’re probably giving up athleticism and raw talent.
If you recruit the MAC5*****’s, you’re gonna half to deal with the head cases…. And all of the above because they’re lacking some or most of the fundamentals too…. Just ask Calipari or Coach Rat….
Regardless of that choice, you still got to have heart and grit and you got to build a TEAM.
And you got to do your best with what you have to work with and the breaks you get – good and bad – with injuries, officiating etc…
Seems to me that in the case where a ‘culture change’ is required and long term results are expected, the correct starting place is putting a Team with Heart and Grit on the court every game comes first. That and doing your best with what you have to work with…
And if we’re harping on fundamentals… it’s understandable, but maybe not as realistic as we would hope…
2018 is a time of ‘Stranger Things’…
Byob — BOTB
