I did not say I was calling for a coaching change, if that is what anyone inferred from my post. Please trust me that after all these years I am appreciative of what Gott and staff have done. The teams he has put on the floor are a lot more exciting than what we have seen out of the last 3 coaches. He does so many more things right than LR/HS/SL. His recruiting is as good as you could possibly expect.
However, I stand by what I said about fundamentals and coaching. Doing the little things that make a big difference. I don’t think players are robots who go out and are expected to put up perfect numbers. I know that the coaches can only instruct them and hope for the best. But, coaching makes a difference when you are tired. Not to get off track but, IMO Duke lost to Mercer because K does not coach the same brand of bball he did a few years ago. Mercer is a well coached team that used experience to defeat them.
Don’t you coach breaking the press? At the 8:23 mark the game was in hand. Over the next 3 minutes there were 2 turnovers and a missed 3 pointer. Sandwich 2 layups around a bunch of missed free throws and zero shot attempts from the floor over the next couple of minutes. Over the last few minutes State was out-rebounded 5 to 14. Little things add up over the course of a game and a season. The talent level of these teams is not that different. It normally comes down to match-ups and execution. State was “outscored” by 2.8 points per minute over the last 5:03 of regulation. SL was allowed to score 29 over the last 5 minutes of regulation. That is the same amount they scored in the first 25 minutes. Take a moment to let that sink in. That is a huge fact you cannot ignore.
You can use ESPN (cough) to look at the last 10 years season stats. While I do not believe that State was a better coached team overall at any time during the previous 7 years than the last 3, look at free throw shooting percentage. State has averaged just over 700 FTA’s per season over that time. It is amazing how consistent the number is. What is also glaring is that the percentage made has dropped precipitously over the last several years. These little things make a difference. NCCU made 41 out of 45 FT’s to beat State earlier this year. They took advantage of what was given to them.
“Again, this is complete and total BS. Not only that, it is one of the worst insults that can be said about a team. State didn’t give up in this game and does not do so “regularly.”
First thank you for the personal attack on my opinion. Maybe I was a little harsh about the heart comment but, I believe it’s fair to say that State has lost more games where they had a double digit lead than the reverse over recent history. I am taking a long term view even though that spans several coaches. Take the collapse against Duke a couple of years ago. It was precipitated by a really bad call and followed by a bunch of really bad no calls. But, at some point it got into the players heads that they could fail and they lost an 18 point lead and lost by around 8-10 points if my memory is correct. Or how about the Florida International game during Sendek’s time. There are more but, you get the point.
“You have a short memory if this was your biggest disappointment in the past 40 years of State athletics”.
Again, my disappointment was not over the fact that this was a “L” versus any other disappointment during that span. That would be a short term view. IMO, this “L” was way more preventable than most and that is why I vented. I appreciate it when the people who represent this school go out and give it their all wins/losses notwithstanding. Valvano lost his share but, they were always entertaining. Sometimes somebody else is just better. Sometimes there are blown calls at the end of a game on the sideline where a mugging by someone wearing blue takes place. My disappointment was over the complete collapse of mental focus that caused this. Maybe it’s too much to expect the killer instinct to be instilled in a young team but, when someone spots you 16 over a span of 32 minutes and then takes it back during 8 shouldn’t you look for the root cause? Am I not allowed to ask the question? I don’t believe that St. Louis was better but, they never lost their focus or gave up on themselves even with what would seem an insurmountable lead.
