Ok, my first ever post, so be “soft†in your responses. This is only my view and my background is no more than playing in high school and coaching young teenagers.
There were a lot of negatives from the Duke game. No consistent hard block outs on the boards, bigs getting blocks BECAUSE they were behind their player (soft defense), guards trailing the player they were defending on baseline screens (Staiger, Colvin), very soft picks on offense (everyone) and obvious times when players were not running the offensive sets; especially Dendy.
While we made many mistakes, I actually saw many positives from the game. For the first time, we had players fighting to get over screens, at times our bigs showed hard on ball screens, the other big hedged to cover the roll and we quickly rotated back (ok, maybe for only 10 minutes as we made Scheyer look like the greatest guard in the nation, but that is better than other games), Hamilton fought hard under the boards, there was movement in the offense (not all of the time), Garret to me even penetrated well. There also was some fire and leadership. Brackins tried to pull the team together on the court, Garret actually chewed on Dendy for blowing his assignment on the offensive set (again which by the way afterwords it looked like Dendy really worked hard). Not for 40 minutes, but I saw desire from this team.
So, I consider this next 2 weeks the crossroads for our team. If the rift on the team is as bad as described in other posts, then it is really time for these players to step up or not play. Dendy needs to be “in the gameâ€, running the sets correctly and aggressively working on defense, Staiger needs to at least compete on defense, Colvin needs to defend hard when he is not on the ball. We have to fight on the ball screens and set hard picks on offense. For periods of the game, we showed what can be; it is now either dedication to doing it all the time as a team or collapsing and finishing in the bottom 3 of the conference.
I really want this team to come together and believe we could be NCAA bid good. The pieces are there, but the conviction is not. This is ultimately the responsibility of the coach especially in that he recruited these players and I believe that during the recruiting process you will learn what the individual’s mind set is. So, as much as I like Coach McDermott, he is at a crossroads also. We may have stretched on the personal psyche to get talent, but that is a decision the coach must live with. The players make the team, but the coach recruits the players. So, coach and team I am pulling for a second half performance that brings excitement back to ISU mens basketball. If not, Mr. Pollard it is time to move on.
There were a lot of negatives from the Duke game. No consistent hard block outs on the boards, bigs getting blocks BECAUSE they were behind their player (soft defense), guards trailing the player they were defending on baseline screens (Staiger, Colvin), very soft picks on offense (everyone) and obvious times when players were not running the offensive sets; especially Dendy.
While we made many mistakes, I actually saw many positives from the game. For the first time, we had players fighting to get over screens, at times our bigs showed hard on ball screens, the other big hedged to cover the roll and we quickly rotated back (ok, maybe for only 10 minutes as we made Scheyer look like the greatest guard in the nation, but that is better than other games), Hamilton fought hard under the boards, there was movement in the offense (not all of the time), Garret to me even penetrated well. There also was some fire and leadership. Brackins tried to pull the team together on the court, Garret actually chewed on Dendy for blowing his assignment on the offensive set (again which by the way afterwords it looked like Dendy really worked hard). Not for 40 minutes, but I saw desire from this team.
So, I consider this next 2 weeks the crossroads for our team. If the rift on the team is as bad as described in other posts, then it is really time for these players to step up or not play. Dendy needs to be “in the gameâ€, running the sets correctly and aggressively working on defense, Staiger needs to at least compete on defense, Colvin needs to defend hard when he is not on the ball. We have to fight on the ball screens and set hard picks on offense. For periods of the game, we showed what can be; it is now either dedication to doing it all the time as a team or collapsing and finishing in the bottom 3 of the conference.
I really want this team to come together and believe we could be NCAA bid good. The pieces are there, but the conviction is not. This is ultimately the responsibility of the coach especially in that he recruited these players and I believe that during the recruiting process you will learn what the individual’s mind set is. So, as much as I like Coach McDermott, he is at a crossroads also. We may have stretched on the personal psyche to get talent, but that is a decision the coach must live with. The players make the team, but the coach recruits the players. So, coach and team I am pulling for a second half performance that brings excitement back to ISU mens basketball. If not, Mr. Pollard it is time to move on.
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