After last nights loss and reading some of the posts this morning, it's time to point fingers at one person and one person only. Fred Hoiberg. He's the only person that should be blamed after this loss. He needs to take full responsibility of this loss and every other loss we've had on the road where we've given the game away in the last couple of minutes of the game (@ Kansas, @ Okie St., @ Texas, @ Texas Tech). He continues to show his inexperience, his logic behind his coaching and I'm starting to think he should be coaching middle school athletics instead of college athletics. The players continue to play their hearts out and show that they want to win. Only eight turnovers on the road is unheard of, but to get over the "hump" of losing close games, it comes from your coach and the desire to motivate and win. He needs to show more passion, the type that he had as a player.
Please enlighten me with your thoughts if you have a different opinion...here are mine.
1. Why do you have 3 timeouts with 10.1 seconds left?
This is something I cannot understand, and while I've done my fair share of coaching, it makes no sense to have this many timeouts with so little time left in the game. You can use them to give your players rest throughout the game, to stop a run, to setup an in-bounds play, to save a possession, to see what the defense/offense of opposing team is setting up. He just refuses to use them for any of these reasons and when I'm watching and there are 3 timeouts left with 10 seconds left in the game, I'm thinking to myself, "What is your logic behind keeping timeouts?" This is not AT&T where the timeouts rollover to the next game or you get a bonus for keeping timeouts. It's mind-boggling.
My recommendation would be to sit down and watch the best coaches in America if he wants to aspires to become one. He needs to watch tape of Bill Self, Coach K, Roy Williams, Tom Izzo, Calipari, Jim Boeheim, and others who have won games this year by utilizing their timeouts in close game situations, instead of letting their team "play it out". It seriously makes no sense why you have 3 timeouts at the end of the game that we've lost on the road where we had the lead late and end up losing.
2. Why do you continue to play Percy Gibson over Booker?
Booker played great in the minutes he got during the Oklahoma game. Percy continues to show how weak he really is and how he cannot go to his right hand EVER! The only time I have seen him go right all year was against Oklahoma State when he did and up and under with his right hand, ONCE. He's pathetic on defense and has terrible footwork, plus he lacks the strength and basketball I.Q. that Booker has. Obviously, we don't see what goes on in practice and Booker's attitude is **** poor, but plain and simple Booker is better and gives our team a better chance to win. If you only have a left hand, you have no reason playing or trying to score against some of the best post players in the country. He looks like a middle school-er out there and I cannot take watching him or when he touches the ball. 5 minutes max for Percy. He's plain bad and he has no business playing the rest of the year unless all of our post players have fouled out. Play Booker or continue to get punished in the post area. If we want to play in the NIT, then we will play Percy and if we want to turn this around, Booker must play.
3. What is so hard about understanding the principle of fouling when you're up three on the road?
This has been heavily debated this year in college basketball, not only on this message boards across the country, but after every Iowa State loss on the road. Jay Bilas says to foul, Digger says to not foul. It seems that fouling the opposing team in order to not allow them to shoot a 3 pointer at the end of the game to tie it is not an option for Fred Hoiberg. This is illogical thinking after continually being beat on the road by the same play. Obviously, our defense isn't good enough to roll the dice to see if we can get a stop, because every time we need a stop, we can't get one. If he continues this logic and coaching tactic, he will continue to lose on the road.
The thing of it for me is that if you don't foul and they tie it and you go into overtime, you're going to lose, ESPECIALLY ON THE ROAD. EVERY FACTOR favors the home team in OVERTIME!!! I'm guessing that there hasn't been more than 5 teams in America who have been up by 3 on the road with less than 10 seconds left and have gone onto win, on the road in overtime.
What does Fred not get about this? If you allow them to have a chance to tie, and they tie, then you are going to lose in OT. Overtime is one of the most difficult things to overcome in any sport. This is the 3rd or 4th game where Fred looks like he is clueless in the last minute of the game. He needs to call Tim Floyd or Johnny Orr and ask them what they would do. I would guarantee they would say, "You need to foul. Your defense at the end of the games is unproductive and your utilization of timeouts and game management is pathetic."
***Please list any teams that have accomplished this feat, if it has been accomplished as it would be beneficial to send the list to Fred in order for him to get in contact with them. Obviously his coaching staff and him are incapable of closing out a game when they have the lead with under 10 seconds.
Fred is a very intelligent person and a coach that I think will be successful as soon as he gets more experience. He needs to look to his mentors and ask other coaches their insight about these road meltdowns and what he must do in order to secure the wins.
Please enlighten me with your thoughts if you have a different opinion...here are mine.
1. Why do you have 3 timeouts with 10.1 seconds left?
This is something I cannot understand, and while I've done my fair share of coaching, it makes no sense to have this many timeouts with so little time left in the game. You can use them to give your players rest throughout the game, to stop a run, to setup an in-bounds play, to save a possession, to see what the defense/offense of opposing team is setting up. He just refuses to use them for any of these reasons and when I'm watching and there are 3 timeouts left with 10 seconds left in the game, I'm thinking to myself, "What is your logic behind keeping timeouts?" This is not AT&T where the timeouts rollover to the next game or you get a bonus for keeping timeouts. It's mind-boggling.
My recommendation would be to sit down and watch the best coaches in America if he wants to aspires to become one. He needs to watch tape of Bill Self, Coach K, Roy Williams, Tom Izzo, Calipari, Jim Boeheim, and others who have won games this year by utilizing their timeouts in close game situations, instead of letting their team "play it out". It seriously makes no sense why you have 3 timeouts at the end of the game that we've lost on the road where we had the lead late and end up losing.
2. Why do you continue to play Percy Gibson over Booker?
Booker played great in the minutes he got during the Oklahoma game. Percy continues to show how weak he really is and how he cannot go to his right hand EVER! The only time I have seen him go right all year was against Oklahoma State when he did and up and under with his right hand, ONCE. He's pathetic on defense and has terrible footwork, plus he lacks the strength and basketball I.Q. that Booker has. Obviously, we don't see what goes on in practice and Booker's attitude is **** poor, but plain and simple Booker is better and gives our team a better chance to win. If you only have a left hand, you have no reason playing or trying to score against some of the best post players in the country. He looks like a middle school-er out there and I cannot take watching him or when he touches the ball. 5 minutes max for Percy. He's plain bad and he has no business playing the rest of the year unless all of our post players have fouled out. Play Booker or continue to get punished in the post area. If we want to play in the NIT, then we will play Percy and if we want to turn this around, Booker must play.
3. What is so hard about understanding the principle of fouling when you're up three on the road?
This has been heavily debated this year in college basketball, not only on this message boards across the country, but after every Iowa State loss on the road. Jay Bilas says to foul, Digger says to not foul. It seems that fouling the opposing team in order to not allow them to shoot a 3 pointer at the end of the game to tie it is not an option for Fred Hoiberg. This is illogical thinking after continually being beat on the road by the same play. Obviously, our defense isn't good enough to roll the dice to see if we can get a stop, because every time we need a stop, we can't get one. If he continues this logic and coaching tactic, he will continue to lose on the road.
The thing of it for me is that if you don't foul and they tie it and you go into overtime, you're going to lose, ESPECIALLY ON THE ROAD. EVERY FACTOR favors the home team in OVERTIME!!! I'm guessing that there hasn't been more than 5 teams in America who have been up by 3 on the road with less than 10 seconds left and have gone onto win, on the road in overtime.
What does Fred not get about this? If you allow them to have a chance to tie, and they tie, then you are going to lose in OT. Overtime is one of the most difficult things to overcome in any sport. This is the 3rd or 4th game where Fred looks like he is clueless in the last minute of the game. He needs to call Tim Floyd or Johnny Orr and ask them what they would do. I would guarantee they would say, "You need to foul. Your defense at the end of the games is unproductive and your utilization of timeouts and game management is pathetic."
***Please list any teams that have accomplished this feat, if it has been accomplished as it would be beneficial to send the list to Fred in order for him to get in contact with them. Obviously his coaching staff and him are incapable of closing out a game when they have the lead with under 10 seconds.
Fred is a very intelligent person and a coach that I think will be successful as soon as he gets more experience. He needs to look to his mentors and ask other coaches their insight about these road meltdowns and what he must do in order to secure the wins.
