I agree we got lucky in 2016. Baylor probably would have beaten us in the second round. We barely beat Yale. 2 Elite 8's in a row is tournament success. Yes it hurts and Final Fours are better but that is elite to be knocking on the door of the FF every year. Sweet 16 or Elite Eight sounds right for next year's team. Hopefully if guys step up we can make it further this year. Dunleavy stepped up, Dawkins stepped up in 2010, Tyus stepped up in 2015 and so did Matt. That is usually the difference in march between good and great.
Coach K and Pick & Roll?
- Thread starter ASAPKrzyzewski
- Start date
Let's not get too emotional about this. By Coach K's standards this was a piss poor year. Coach K's scale is much higher than your average coach. He's an all time great coach so his bar is set very high. He failed to make any adjustments and there were too many times he didn't create was for Zion to get the ball in endgame situations. Running the play where we got Bagley/Jabari/Tatum/Ingram isolated at the elbow would've been perfect for Zion. He would've been unstoppable at that spot. WE NEVER RAN IT. This wasn't the roster to run the 5-out with. We had 2-1/2 shooters out there. I'm being generous with that number. We rarely ran pin downs. No pick and rolls. Good thing this past squad took pride in playing defense. There's no way this past team doesn't make it at least to the championship. It's basketball...one generational talent can get you to the championship. I think Coach K miscalculated how good Zion really was. Like I said, I believe this is Coach K's worst coaching job especially since 2010
Finally a decent response to this. I wholeheartedly disagree, but I like the thought you put into it.
No adjustments? Are you sure about that? Just because you didn’t agree with his adjustments, it doesn’t mean he did NOTHING.
At this point, the main argument is that, no, this wasn’t K’s best season. But I do think he did a decent amount with less than what you’re selling. And now we have those same role players this season. I’m not sure they’ll be exponentially better than last season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this team doesn’t end up finishing around the same place. Would that be a failure of a season as well?
If the 2019-20 team makes the elite 8 and lose I wouldn’t call that a failure. We don’t really have that superstar talent. We will have to be great as a collective to be a final four team this year. Last year when you have two players like that, losing before the title is unacceptable.
Everybody knew but K I guess (Besides HOF coach boy toy Roy Willams)
That’s the problem, you have two talents and that was about it after January. I think blame is being misplaced in this situation. This was a shared problem and the elephant in the room, the inability to space the floor, was never fixed, but to say or act as if it was never addressed, is wrong unless you were there with them in practice and on the bench during games.
K isn’t standing and yelling at players every play anymore, but I’m not sure him sitting on his butt not doing anything is an accurate assessment.
If you say so. Like I said he ran the office through RJ instead of Zion. Made no sense. Zion scored majority of his points because he hustled. Poor Tre was exposed because of this offensive style. He made a terrible choice with this 5 out system. Wasn’t the team for that.
It wasn’t for that team, I agree. But maybe there was a greater plan. Maybe he sacrificed that team who he felt could handle it, to make preparations for future squads. That isn’t unheard of.
I do know running the offense through Zion wouldn’t have worked and proved so for a number of games. Syracuse I, Gonzaga, Texas Tech, and MSU were all games where teams keyed on him and put him in forced shot situations. He wasn’t the world’s best dribbler, and those teams did a good job of forcing that action (Hartford actually did for stretches as well).
Zion is a great secondary option. Drive and dump, pick and roll, right elbow action, offensive rebounding machine. Today, he isn’t the number one option. He will be that one day, especially when he tightens his handle and learns a few counter moves other than the in and out dribble.
Running the offense through RJ WAS the best option and Tre should have had the ball more often post injury. But force feeding Zion would have been no better than what we had.
To your point, Zion would be the first person to tell you how much he benefited having RJ being there.
Coach K came From one of the best pick & roll Coaches that’s ever been. Coach knows the system but I feel like it’s a hard style to teach in only a few months of having a team before you are bringing in a new group
