In reading the lobo forums, they make Pitino sound like the second coming of John Wooden.
Prove it. I just looked at The Lair, and I’m seeing a lot of negativity. They are already recognizing familiar patterns. Look through the game thread.
I enjoyed this recent post about “team identity”. I bolded some familiar bits:
This Team has no recognizable Offensive or Defensive Identity it’s like watching an All-Star game.
Once the game starts an athletes skill level and their mental and physical toughness preparedness and maintaining their Best Effort is all a competitive athlete is in control of once the game starts. After that it’s up to the HC to coach and regulate his players and his teams competitive edge.
Rebounding and Defense are all about Effort and Toughness and we got “Out Toughed” in both categories and this is a serious Team issue but it is not complicated.
Both are crucial components to playing Smart Tough Defense and having the ability as a team to effectively Rebound and only allow your opponents ”one shot” at the basket “one possession at a time.”
Rebounding does require absolute effort toughness determination and focus by every athlete on the floor to be a good rebounding team— Not just the Bigs.
When our opponents shoot the ball everyone on the floor has ONE responsibility—Box Out the person you are guarding and then go secure the ball for your team!
At first I thought our Bigs we’re not mentally and physically prepared to compete last night but as the game moved on I noticed the Bigs weren’t getting ANY good touches from the Backcourt. The Backcourt didn’t seem interested in sharing the ball or looking inside for Post play opportunities. Rebounding was not something this team and especially the Bigs could stay focused on because they would get lulled to sleep because they never get any touches as either House or Mashburn play ISO ball taking random shots from all over the court making it difficult for anyone on offense to establish or maintain offensive rebounding position when no one on the Team knows who what where and when the next shot is coming from.
Pitino rarely runs a play for the Frontcourt. His offensive strategy seems to rely on setting a high pick and roll action above the 3 point stripe for House or Mashburn or one at the Free Throw line for a pick and roll action for a Big that Forsling easily scored on twice in a row.
Pitino allows his guards free reign to create playing their “seat of your pants hero ball offense” that keeps any team offense as an alternative which keeps the rest of the team disorganized as a result the team is not be able to get in position to even secure a minimum of 10 Offensive Rebounds per game to rack up easy points at the rim or in the paint and second chance points that actually Win games.
Don’t get me wrong it’s OK to create but that shouldn’t be what a team offense is predicated on. There is No Team in ISO basketball.
Also Defensive Rebounding is a critical part of “team defense” and it requires fighting for and maintaining a solid box out position with grit and determination and when your opponent shoots the ball every player on the floor has a personal responsibility to box out the person they are guarding and maintaining their box out position until our team has secured the ball to limit our opponents excess shot opportunities.
Lastly Pitino and his team defensively doesn’t put a premium on the Helpline or Help Defense as weak side defenders idly watch our opponents score unchallenged buckets in their faces. As a Help or Weak Side defender near the Basket you Have to Move Over and HELP to alter and block shots and Stop and Guard against All Lane penetrations which Pitinos team clearly doesn’t value or understand or both.
This team is very talented with High potential but it will continue to shoot itself in the foot and struggle and will remain more on the wrong side of the Win/Loss category until Pitino establishes a TEAM offensive and defensive identity and stops relying on hero ball offense that left House to the point of complete exhaustion(one reason he fouled out)
At this point if Pitino doesn’t insure team balance offensively demand team rebounding effort and Help Defense improvement and start using his bench to give everyone a short rest this team will remain sporadically unpredictable an inefficient offensively and defensively which would be a complete waste of talent and skill this young team currently possesses and unfortunately these repetitive tendencies we all witness will be completely exposed by our tougher MWC opponents.
This Team has the potential to be much much better with a few adjustments.
Team- Offensive and Defensive Identity Matters!
This topic was modified 1 day ago by
BAD DAWG
