This is what I am most pleased about. As a high school coach, I could never understand how our previous staff would not coach up their players through the season. When I study coaches, I feel that the biggest indicator of a good coach is how much their team and players improve over the course of a season and their career. I can't wait to see what happens with the returning players next season.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see on this site. How many players got better from the beginning of this year compared to the end? Look at EE's stats, Dre's stats, Smith's stats, Oto's stats, Wally's stats. They got worse by the end of the year or they quit. Of course, people are going to say it was caused by injury, or B1G play, or lack of heart, or they did not get along with the coaching staff, but they ignore the fact that happens every year (remember when Big Mo blew out his knee, Trevor blew out his knee, Al Nolen went out with an injury, etc.). For every player that improved, there is one that got worse. Happens every year, so I am not sure what it proves. People use Mo as an example of someone who improved, but I remember how good he was playing in the brief period of time before he blew out his knee. So, is it coaching, or finally recovering from a really bad injury and maturing? Maybe it is because Trevor graduated, so it is next man up and he played more minutes? Mo went from averaging 2 pts a game to 8 pts a game and from 7 minutes a game to 19 minutes, but his rebounds are identical at 4.5, despite playing more than double the minutes. He had some moments this year, but frankly, I was expecting more out of him. He disappeared for long stretches.
I think we were worse at the end of the year, our typical late January and February swoon, blowing games to Purdue, Northwestern, Illinois and then getting absolutely pummeled by Wisconsin in the B1G tourney. Those things are inexcusable. We were not even competitive against Wisconsin and the loss to Illinois at home was embarrassing. The prior staff would get roasted, because we would start the season hot, beat some good to teams in OOC play (remember wins over North Carolina, West Virginia, Memphis, Louisville), start out the B1G season hot, and then fade down the stretch. The exact same thing happened this year, but somehow Pitino "coached up" his players?
Don't get me wrong, I love Pitino and I think he did a very good job this year, especially with it being his first. However, we have to remember the level of competition in the NIT is not anywhere close to the NCAA.
