Wright and Dixon

[Big Papi]

Building on ANotherMU84's topic of coaches not better than Buzz.  After watching the last 20 seconds of the Nova/Pitt game you can add Wright and Dixon to the list. 

Buzz gets blasted for calling a timeout late in the game when the other team didn't have a timeout.  So what does Wright do?  He calls a timeout when Pitt doesn't have the ball.  Than they go for a very risky play and throw the ball away.  Than Dixon plays some full court defense with 5 seconds left and Scottie Reynolds gets a very good look that ends up winning the game.

After this game, I have no doubts that Buzz is just as good and as capable as any other Big East coach.  His success will lie in his ability to attract talent to MU.

[Pardner]

Crean,Buzz.Wright.Dixon.should.be.fired   

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

I'll tell you what, if I was a Pitt fan I wouldn't be happy with the shot of Dixon sitting on the bench wiping his brow while Wright was up coaching his team. Dixon looked panicked and Wright did not. And panic is one of the major reasons Indiana's coach will not succeed there.

[wermarquette]

I'll tell you what, if I was a Pitt fan I wouldn't be happy with the shot of Dixon sitting on the bench wiping his brow while Wright was up coaching his team. Dixon looked panicked and Wright did not. And panic is one of the major reasons Indiana's coach will not succeed there.

Indiana?? When did anyone mention Indiana?

[Tugg Speedman]

Building on ANotherMU84's topic of coaches not better than Buzz.  After watching the last 20 seconds of the Nova/Pitt game you can add Wright and Dixon to the list. 

Buzz gets blasted for calling a timeout late in the game when the other team didn't have a timeout.  So what does Wright do?  He calls a timeout when Pitt doesn't have the ball.  Than they go for a very risky play and throw the ball away.  Than Dixon plays some full court defense with 5 seconds left and Scottie Reynolds gets a very good look that ends up winning the game.

After this game, I have no doubts that Buzz is just as good and as capable as any other Big East coach.  His success will lie in his ability to attract talent to MU.

+ 1

I was thinking of saying the same thing and you beat me too it.

Funny how all these "more experienced" and "more talented" coaches than Buzz seem to make exactly the same mistakes.

Can't anyone coach in the big east?

[77fan88warrior]

I really thought Pitt's offense wasn't very efficient and they made a lot of lazy passes. I also thought Reynolds was out of control while driving to the basket in most circumstances. Sam Young might have been the best player in the BE.

[muPARTY]

.....

Buzz gets blasted for calling a timeout late in the game when the other team didn't have a timeout.  So what does Wright do?  He calls a timeout when Pitt doesn't have the ball.  Than they go for a very risky play and throw the ball away. 

.....

not to rain on the parade.... but buzz called it when syracuse was about to inbound when they were losing.  Wright called it when HIS TEAM was inbounding the ball.  when buzz did it, he set up a defense yet allowed a Hall fo Fame coach to set up an offense which, well, we all know how that turned out.  not quite the same.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Building on ANotherMU84's topic of coaches not better than Buzz.  After watching the last 20 seconds of the Nova/Pitt game you can add Wright and Dixon to the list. 

Buzz gets blasted for calling a timeout late in the game when the other team didn't have a timeout.  So what does Wright do?  He calls a timeout when Pitt doesn't have the ball.  Than they go for a very risky play and throw the ball away.  Than Dixon plays some full court defense with 5 seconds left and Scottie Reynolds gets a very good look that ends up winning the game.

After this game, I have no doubts that Buzz is just as good and as capable as any other Big East coach.  His success will lie in his ability to attract talent to MU.

Didn't Wright call a timeout to get that last play to Reynolds drawn up?  Didn't Wright call a timeout late in the first half to stop the Pitt momentum? 

How do you have "NO DOUBTS" about Buzz when he has yet to coach his own players one single game while Wright and Dixon have done it for awhile?  Wright is now in the Final Four and Dixon got his team to #1 twice this season along with a number 1 seed.

I'm glad you're so confident, but saying you have "no doubts" that he is as capable as any other Big East coach when two are already in the Hall of Fame and one more, Pitino, will be there very soon is drinking way too much kool aid this early in Buzz's career.  WAY TOO MUCH DRINKING.

[VegasWarrior77]

Can't anyone coach in the big east?

During Patino's presser Friday he stated something to the affect that coaching doesn't matter at this point in the tourney.  It's all about the players.  Coaching at the college level is 90% recruiting.  Calapari is a mediocre coach at best, but look at the talent he has.  However, great coaches (and their staff) need to be prepared for the make or break scenarios that can dramatically affect close games.

[Pardner]

Didn't Wright call a timeout to get that last play to Reynolds drawn up? 

The Wright time out in question came at 11 seconds AFTER Blair made that lay-up to move Pitt to within two, and with no time outs left for Pitt.  Wright set up the break-out play that led to a turnover and Pitt tying the game with 5.5 seconds to go.  I am sure Wright wanted to remind his team to get settled, make sure the in-bounder didn't step on the line, and set up his inbounds play.  I guess for me, why the breakout play when all you needed to do was inbound it and get fouled?  You are guaranteed two FT's...and you were almost perfect all night at the line. 

Seemed like a lower risk play was just to try to quickly inbound it to Fisher, and use your two remaining t/o's if you couldn't.

[ChicosBailBonds]

The Wright time out in question came at 11 seconds AFTER Blair made that lay-up to move Pitt to within two, and with no time outs left for Pitt.  Wright set up the break-out play that led to a turnover and Pitt tying the game with 5.5 seconds to go.  I am sure Wright wanted to remind his team to get settled, make sure the in-bounder didn't step on the line, and set up his inbounds play.  I guess for me, why the breakout play when all you needed to do was inbound it and get fouled?  You are guaranteed two FT's...and you were almost perfect all night at the line. 

Seemed like a lower risk play was just to try to quickly inbound it to Fields, and use your two remaining t/o's if you couldn't.

I know....he called two timeouts in the last 15 seconds.  The first one was to setup a play for the in bounds.  That was pretty poor execution in my mind.  I have to believe the long pass was the third option as your best bet is to get it into a guard.   The second timeout was before the second Fields free throw which he outlined what they would do if Fields missed and what they would do if Fields made it.

[Big Papi]

Didn't Wright call a timeout to get that last play to Reynolds drawn up?  Didn't Wright call a timeout late in the first half to stop the Pitt momentum? 

How do you have "NO DOUBTS" about Buzz when he has yet to coach his own players one single game while Wright and Dixon have done it for awhile?  Wright is now in the Final Four and Dixon got his team to #1 twice this season along with a number 1 seed.

I'm glad you're so confident, but saying you have "no doubts" that he is as capable as any other Big East coach when two are already in the Hall of Fame and one more, Pitino, will be there very soon is drinking way too much kool aid this early in Buzz's career.  WAY TOO MUCH DRINKING.

Oh get off your high mighty horse there chico bonds man.  Your reading comprehension is frankly horrible and either you are DRINK WAY TOO MUCH or just plain dumb.  YOUR DISLIKE FOR BUZZ IS CLEAR TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, I have NO DOUBTS that Buzz can coach.  I have seen a lot of silly strategies and bad coaching mistakes from Dixon, Wright, Calhoun and Izzo just to name a few.  But they can all bring in the talent.  So I will say it again for you a little bit slower so you can understand.   

HIS          SUCCESS          WILL          LIE       IN        HIS          ABILITY       TO          ATTRACT         TALENT         TO            MU.

And if you can't understand that than Chicos Bond man you are dumb. 

[Big Papi]

not to rain on the parade.... but buzz called it when syracuse was about to inbound when they were losing.  Wright called it when HIS TEAM was inbounding the ball.  when buzz did it, he set up a defense yet allowed a Hall fo Fame coach to set up an offense which, well, we all know how that turned out.  not quite the same.

Question, why would you call a timeout so your opponent can set up there defense when all you have to do is in bound the ball and get fouled.  Instead they draw up a very risky play to in bound the ball and they turn the ball over.  I see way more harm in that than what Buzz did.  Buzz wanted to set up his defense, unfortunately Flynn blew past everyone much like Reynolds did to Dixon's defensive setup at the end of that game. 

[muPARTY]

Question, why would you call a timeout so your opponent can set up there defense when all you have to do is in bound the ball and get fouled.  Instead they draw up a very risky play to in bound the ball and they turn the ball over.  I see way more harm in that than what Buzz did.  Buzz wanted to set up his defense, unfortunately Flynn blew past everyone much like Reynolds did to Dixon's defensive setup at the end of that game. 

because you're calling a timeout to set-up the inbound play.  regardless of the defense thats setup, it still has to react to the offensive scheme.  hard to set up a defense for a play you (probably) don't know is coming.  that's why you see a lot of calling the timeout to set up an offensive, immediatly followed by the timeout to set up the defense.  remember ALL defense is reactionary.  man or zone, it all reacts and adjusts to what the offensive does.

you say "all you have to do" for the inbound, but how many times do you see teams have to call a timeout because they cant (or get whistled for a 5sec call but that happens less)?  i'm not sure what Wright drew up in the huddle, but if it was that play, while it was risky, the defensive would have to react to it... and to their credit, did.

when reynolds blew by (on really the same play as Flynn's hook n ladder) noone called a timeout.  free throw was hit by fields, neither team had timeouts, and they had to go.  really makes the MU lapse more inexcusable since it was coming out of a timeout with a set defense

Syracuse was inbounding the ball without a set play and behind in the score.  it's chaotic, players are scrambling, and their coach is at the other end of the court having to be heard over Buzz, the MU players, not to mention the 19000+ who weren't exactly quiet making communcation even harder.  MU calling a timeout allowed them to avoid all that and the chance to calmly design a play to get the ball in.  what kind of defensive set was dixon going to imploy to confuse 'nova?  "don't let the offense get behind you?  keep the ball in front of you?"  otherwise known as Defense 101.

[muwarrior69]

Isn't second guessing all these coaches fun?

[Tugg Speedman]

Can we fire Buzz and have a grad assistant read this board's chat room to the players during the game? 

[bilsu]

I think one of the problems in these late situations are coaches telling players to be sure not to foul. Then they go out on the court with not fouling on their minds and forget to play good defense.

I think Pitino is right that at this time of year it is less about coaching and is about player execution. I think coaches like Pitino and Izzo understand this. They build their teams to be ready for March. There was a lot of pressure on Buzz to win right away and he seemed to coach his team with the belief only the current game mattered. As a result he did not develope his bench. The less players you play the less likely you get an extra contribution off the bench in a tournament game. We were burned by that Missouri player that came off the bench and shot the lights out. If Missouri only used 7 players he may have never got in the game. In our 2003 final four run we had some key contributions off the bench and we would not have got there without them. Coaches often learn from a bad experience. I am hoping that Buzz recognizes how effective Missouri was using 10 players instead of 7. It will be easier for Buzz to use more players next year, because there will not be such as large gap in talent and experience between the starters and subs. Without doing the work to figure it out, I suspect we will be in the bottom 10 in the country in points returning next year.

[Tugg Speedman]

There was a lot of pressure on Buzz to win right away and he seemed to coach his team with the belief only the current game mattered. As a result he did not develop his bench. ... I am hoping that Buzz recognizes how effective Missouri was using 10 players instead of 7.

So you are in favor of Buzz arbitrarily sitting NBA prospects to play clearly inferior players?  The reason Buzz did not "develop" our bench is their was no bench to develop.  I've heard this comment time and again and it makes no sense.  It is a only good advice if your goal was to lose more games this past season.  So, you go through it again ...

He tried playing Hazel early in the year and the guy is not a BE player.  Why does giving him more minutes to allow the other team to run up the score make us a better team?  He is not magically going to get better because he cannot play at the BE level.

Outle was hurt and so far clearly does not belong in the BE. 
Fulce was hurt and could not perform.  He is an unknown 
Cube and Acker are clearly inferior to DJ.  Putting them in instantly makes us worse.  Sorry to be harsh but I'll bet even Cube and Acker understand their are not as good as DJ.

He did "develop" Butler and he will be a sold contributor next year.  No credit here?


The way Buzz "develops" the bench is to recruit better players than we have riding the pine now.

[Big Papi]

because you're calling a timeout to set-up the inbound play.  regardless of the defense thats setup, it still has to react to the offensive scheme.  hard to set up a defense for a play you (probably) don't know is coming.  that's why you see a lot of calling the timeout to set up an offensive, immediatly followed by the timeout to set up the defense.  remember ALL defense is reactionary.  man or zone, it all reacts and adjusts to what the offensive does.

you say "all you have to do" for the inbound, but how many times do you see teams have to call a timeout because they cant (or get whistled for a 5sec call but that happens less)?  i'm not sure what Wright drew up in the huddle, but if it was that play, while it was risky, the defensive would have to react to it... and to their credit, did.

when reynolds blew by (on really the same play as Flynn's hook n ladder) noone called a timeout.  free throw was hit by fields, neither team had timeouts, and they had to go.  really makes the MU lapse more inexcusable since it was coming out of a timeout with a set defense

Syracuse was inbounding the ball without a set play and behind in the score.  it's chaotic, players are scrambling, and their coach is at the other end of the court having to be heard over Buzz, the MU players, not to mention the 19000+ who weren't exactly quiet making communcation even harder.  MU calling a timeout allowed them to avoid all that and the chance to calmly design a play to get the ball in.  what kind of defensive set was dixon going to imploy to confuse 'nova?  "don't let the offense get behind you?  keep the ball in front of you?"  otherwise known as Defense 101.

Ok so I am dense because I still don't get it.  Villanova didn't even try to inbounds the ball before calling a timeout.  Pitt was going to foul no matter what.  Its not like Nova was calling a timeout to run a play to score a bucket because they are losing or the game is tied.  They had the lead.  Again, no matter what great play Wright was drawing up wasn't going to matter because they were going to get fouled and they were going to the free throw line.  Nova can always call a timeout if they can't inbound the ball.  In which case, you draw up a play to get the ball inbounds.  Nova made a relatively easy play into a more difficult play and it nearly cost them.  I really think the call there is to inbound the ball while the defense is NOT setup and only call a timeout if you can't inbounds the ball.  Furthermore, that timeout nearly cost them on that very last play, Nova had difficulty in bounding the ball and was close to a 5 second call with no timeouts remaining.

But regardless of what coaching decisions were made, there is usually no definitive 100% right answer.  We fans like to think we know it all but there are so many factors that go into these decisions that its funny that some posters think they are 100 percent right.  And its even funnier when its usually specfic posters that consistently bring up the negatives of a specific coach.  Personally, I could really care less if Wright or Dixon coached the last 2 minutes perfectly.  Obviously from the mistakes that did happen down the stretch, one could easily argue they didn't but it is funny when one of those posters has to defend their actions while bashing our coach once again and than on top of that insults another posters opinion. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

Oh get off your high mighty horse there chico bonds man.  Your reading comprehension is frankly horrible and either you are DRINK WAY TOO MUCH or just plain dumb.  YOUR DISLIKE FOR BUZZ IS CLEAR TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, I have NO DOUBTS that Buzz can coach.  I have seen a lot of silly strategies and bad coaching mistakes from Dixon, Wright, Calhoun and Izzo just to name a few.  But they can all bring in the talent.  So I will say it again for you a little bit slower so you can understand.   

HIS          SUCCESS          WILL          LIE       IN        HIS          ABILITY       TO          ATTRACT         TALENT         TO            MU.

And if you can't understand that than Chicos Bond man you are dumb. 

Funny, you state I dislike Buzz which is absolutely not true.  From DAY ONE last April I've said I really like the guy.  He seems like a very nice man, good family man, God is in his life, he's not a self promoter.  Etc, etc.  So you're wrong.  Secondly, you just got done pouting about someone insulting you and then what do you do....go out and insult someone...classic.  You can't make this stuff up. 

And my reading comprehension is just fine.  I agree that his success will lie mostly with who he brings in to play at MU, but Steve Lavin had 3 straight number one recruiting classes at UCLA and still lost.  Recruiting is a big part, but not all of it.   

Now let's examine reading comprehension a little more in depth.  For some reason you took the time and effort to yell at us with what you said without putting in YOUR ENTIRE LINE.    "After this game, I have no doubts that Buzz is just as good and as capable as any other Big East coach."

That was the line I questioned.  I said I'm glad you're that optimistic, but when you make a statement like that with the coaches that are in this league, well it begs the question of how much have you really seen to make such a statement.


And again, I don't dislike Buzz at all and hope like hell he is the most successful coach in MU history.   

[79Warrior]

Didn't Wright call a timeout to get that last play to Reynolds drawn up?  Didn't Wright call a timeout late in the first half to stop the Pitt momentum? 

How do you have "NO DOUBTS" about Buzz when he has yet to coach his own players one single game while Wright and Dixon have done it for awhile?  Wright is now in the Final Four and Dixon got his team to #1 twice this season along with a number 1 seed.

I'm glad you're so confident, but saying you have "no doubts" that he is as capable as any other Big East coach when two are already in the Hall of Fame and one more, Pitino, will be there very soon is drinking way too much kool aid this early in Buzz's career.  WAY TOO MUCH DRINKING.

You could not be more correct.

[ChicosBailBonds]

You could not be more correct.

You clearly hate Buzz and you are insulting MuFanatic with your comments.

[Pardner]

Bobby Knight was on SportsCenter dissecting/critiquing Dixon's defensive set to end the game.  Also said, that the three buzzer beaters in the NCAA's so far ended with an end to end dribble and shot at the basket.  He said that the proper way to have defended that was to keep Reynolds in front (Pitt set up in front trying to force a pass over), make him use time dribbling...to cut off the sideline with a trap and force him to pass to use more time.  Said if that was done, Nova wouldn't have been able to get a shot off.

A coach or ref is exposed at the end of the game as it is sudden death.  If you enjoy the strategy part of the game like I do, discussions about the last minute or two are very worthy for us on any board as it often is critical to the game's outcome.  A ref or coach is right 95% of the time...and the players decide the outcomes.  But, in a tied/close game at the end, the outcome is 50/50...so it is controversial.  As a fan, I really like that Buzz always tells us what he is thinking in these situations or why he did this or that.  It shows he is learning, just like all these guys.

Dean Smith was the best I ever saw at game management...but often times he overdirected things like in the 1977 title game where Al cleaned his clock and tunred the tables on UNC with his own 4-corners.  These are the situations fans talk about for decades.  Dixon might as well take the AZ job  

[muPARTY]

they had Wright and Nova on during halftime of the OU/UNC game.  greg anthony asked about the long inbound pass when up 2 there at the end.  wright chuckled and looked back to who inbounded it, and said with a laugh "that wasn't my first choice (of where to pass the ball)".

[79Warrior]

You clearly hate Buzz and you are insulting MuFanatic with your comments.

With a screen name like that, there is no point in engaging in dialogue.