Buzz's Best Coaching Job This Year

[icheights]

While I agree that Buzz made quite a few good coaching decisions last night..I also think he made a few bad ones.

I can't remember exactly how much time was left in the game...maybe about 5 minutes.  Syracuse started to do the 2 man halfcourt trap and MU was forced to take 2 consecutive timeouts.  After 2 consecutive timeouts we ended up with Jamil Wilson heaving up a 40 ft. 3 pointer.  This is inexcusable in my book, with 2 timeouts Buzz needs to draw something better than that up.  I believe one of Buzz' only weakspots is his lack of out of bounds plays when we need a quick basket (the shot clock was at 8 seconds after the second timeout).

Also- what in the hell was going on with that dumbass foul by Junior when MU had 1 to give before Syracuse was in the bonus???? Buzz was screaming at him to foul him and Junior lets the inbound come in and touch fouls at halfcourt for our 6th team foul.  What kind of strategy is that?  I understand using a foul but why not wait until Syracuse gets into their offense and foul if the guy gets by you?? I have never seen something like that.

[TJ]

1) On topic: I agree, Buzz did a brilliant job last night.  It was a great game all-around, including great coaching and adjustments from Buzz.  This was good to see especially because I didn't think he did particularly well on Saturday in Philly.

2) Free Throws: I thought the refs allowed a very physical game without calling many fouls last night.  DG just did a great job of forcing the issue so they had to make calls.  On top of that, it was already mentioned that they fouled us a LOT at the end.

3) Boeheim was being a dick, but he's absolutely right in his comments on the Big East breaking up.  "If they had signed the TV deal for $17 million per school... Big East brought it on themselves. Sign the TV deal and nothing would have happened."  He can be upset about it, it wasn't his fault personally how it all went down.  It's also not his fault if PITT was responsible and that the ACC also invited PITT, and he personally was not the one who decided that his school would continue it's conference affiliation with PITT in the ACC.  He also didn't reference the C7 at all, so no reason to bring that up as if he were bashing the C7.

[Benny B]

Yes, as I said, there were many legit reasons for the disparity. But fans (and some coaches) only tend to look at the number.

Here's another reason: MU was giving Syracuse plenty of open looks... kind of hard to foul a guy when you're 5 feet away from him.

While I agree that Buzz made quite a few good coaching decisions last night..I also think he made a few bad ones.

I can't remember exactly how much time was left in the game...maybe about 5 minutes.  Syracuse started to do the 2 man halfcourt trap and MU was forced to take 2 consecutive timeouts.  After 2 consecutive timeouts we ended up with Jamil Wilson heaving up a 40 ft. 3 pointer.  This is inexcusable in my book, with 2 timeouts Buzz needs to draw something better than that up.  I believe one of Buzz' only weakspots is his lack of out of bounds plays when we need a quick basket (the shot clock was at 8 seconds after the second timeout).

Also- what in the hell was going on with that dumbass foul by Junior when MU had 1 to give before Syracuse was in the bonus???? Buzz was screaming at him to foul him and Junior lets the inbound come in and touch fouls at halfcourt for our 6th team foul.  What kind of strategy is that?  I understand using a foul but why not wait until Syracuse gets into their offense and foul if the guy gets by you?? I have never seen something like that.

In your first example, there was under two minutes to play and MU was up 6.  MU didn't need a basket; what they needed to do was run the shot clock down as far as they could without turning the ball over.

In your second example, I'll just say you're grasping at straws to find fault with Buzz.  At most, another 2 seconds would have come off the clock, but before you would have run the risk of fouling during the act of shooting.  Are 3 FT really worth 2 seconds of a game when you have a 5 pt lead with 0:26 remaining?

(Edited)

[MUWarrior11]

While I agree that Buzz made quite a few good coaching decisions last night..I also think he made a few bad ones.

I can't remember exactly how much time was left in the game...maybe about 5 minutes.  Syracuse started to do the 2 man halfcourt trap and MU was forced to take 2 consecutive timeouts.  After 2 consecutive timeouts we ended up with Jamil Wilson heaving up a 40 ft. 3 pointer.  This is inexcusable in my book, with 2 timeouts Buzz needs to draw something better than that up.  I believe one of Buzz' only weakspots is his lack of out of bounds plays when we need a quick basket (the shot clock was at 8 seconds after the second timeout).

Also- what in the hell was going on with that dumbass foul by Junior when MU had 1 to give before Syracuse was in the bonus???? Buzz was screaming at him to foul him and Junior lets the inbound come in and touch fouls at halfcourt for our 6th team foul.  What kind of strategy is that?  I understand using a foul but why not wait until Syracuse gets into their offense and foul if the guy gets by you?? I have never seen something like that.

How are these two things Buzz's fault? So the team didn't execute or get a good look after a timeout and Jamil had to heave one up. A coach can't always "draw up" an open layup, or else they would just "draw that up every time. We were not able to execute.

Secondly, Buzz told the guys to foul to waste some clock. So Junior made a bad decision and fouled too soon, instead of letting 3-4 seconds tick off. Once again, how is that Buzz's fault?

Buzz's best game all season.
dd

[augoman]

So happy w Buzz' s job last night. Makes me more disappointed w nova loss.  IMHO we have the best coaching staff at MU we've had in a long time.

[keefe]

I know Don's name quite well but have never met him. I covered Big East basketball in the early 1980's and Boeheim was one of the friendliest coaches in the league. I think he much rather prefers the old-school journalism, which was "interview and take notes with a pad and pen." Since everything is out in the Internet world as soon as it happens, Jim has become more crotchety. Last night he was unquestionably rude and unusually uninformed about why the conference is breaking up.

My perception of Boeheim was that he was rather personable and actually was quite clever in his responses to you guys. In recent times he seems to be much more acerbic. That old group of BE coaches was generally good with the press, were they not? Lou, Pitino at PC, Rollie, JT II, PJ, Paul Evans, Gale Catlett, et al...

The internet is a great thing but I don't like how it has devastated print media. There is not the same degree of accountability and its immediacy in terms of access and dissemination makes it too easy for emotional outbursts to make their way into the public domain. I guess I can see how Boeheim has become prickly with the media after 30 years.

Burke was my RA in McCormick. Funny guy with a skeptic's view of life. Early on we had some idiot vomiting in the drinking fountain. This moron couldn't make it the 5 additional steps to the bathroom. I don't think there was janitorial service on weekends so this guy's puke sat there until Monday. Burke kept up a vigilant watch for this guy and ultimately caught him. He had him moved to a different floor. Burke's stuff in the Journal was good. Funnily enough, when he left to go back to NJ he was replaced on the Journal HS beat by a friend, Bill McKinney. Bill ended up leaving journalism to become a Jesuit. Unfortunately Bill passed much too early.

[icheights]

Here's another reason: MU was giving Syracuse plenty of open looks... kind of hard to foul a guy when you're 5 feet away from him.

In your first example, there was under two minutes to play and MU was up 6.  MU didn't need a basket; what they needed to do was run the shot clock down as far as they could without turning the ball over.

In your second example, I'll just say you're grasping at straws to find fault with Buzz.  At most, another 2 seconds would have come off the clock, but before you would have run the risk of fouling during the act of shooting.  Are 3 FT really worth 2 seconds of a game when you have a 5 pt lead with 0:26 remaining?

(Edited)

2 minutes to go and up 6 a basket right there puts the game out of reach..I am not saying he is at fault for not drawing up a layup, I am saying he is at fault for not getting a better shot than a 40 ft desperation 3.  There was 8 seconds left on the shot clock I don't really think running more time off the clock was the goal, I think he failed to draw up a good inbounds play at a critical moment where a basket almost puts the game away.

[CTWarrior]

In your second example, I'll just say you're grasping at straws to find fault with Buzz.  At most, another 2 seconds would have come off the clock, but before you would have run the risk of fouling during the act of shooting.  Are 3 FT really worth 2 seconds of a game when you have a 5 pt lead with 0:26 remaining?

OK, but then what was the point of fouling and letting 1 second tick off?  That accomplishes nothing except put them on the line the next time we foul them, which is a bad thing.  If you're going to foul in one second don't even bother.  I doubt Buzz told Junior to foul immediately, however, so I don't blame him. 

I will say that with about 3 minutes to go in the first half, I certainly wasn't marveling at Buzz's coaching acumen as we continuously launched low percentage 3 pointers (when we weren't turning it over) and gave up easy shot after easy shot.  I'll bet a lot of you were wondering why we weren't forcing it in to Gardner like I was before we actually started doing it.  But Buzz found the right rotations and coached one great game from that point forward.  I like that he is willing to abandon what isn't working and search for the right mix each game.

[TJ]

While I agree that Buzz made quite a few good coaching decisions last night..I also think he made a few bad ones.

I can't remember exactly how much time was left in the game...maybe about 5 minutes.  Syracuse started to do the 2 man halfcourt trap and MU was forced to take 2 consecutive timeouts.  After 2 consecutive timeouts we ended up with Jamil Wilson heaving up a 40 ft. 3 pointer.  This is inexcusable in my book, with 2 timeouts Buzz needs to draw something better than that up.  I believe one of Buzz' only weakspots is his lack of out of bounds plays when we need a quick basket (the shot clock was at 8 seconds after the second timeout).

Also- what in the hell was going on with that dumbass foul by Junior when MU had 1 to give before Syracuse was in the bonus???? Buzz was screaming at him to foul him and Junior lets the inbound come in and touch fouls at halfcourt for our 6th team foul.  What kind of strategy is that?  I understand using a foul but why not wait until Syracuse gets into their offense and foul if the guy gets by you?? I have never seen something like that.

These are both complaints against Junior, not Buzz.  First one, how did he get himself trapped again less than 10 seconds after we were forced to call the first timeout because someone got trapped?  Crazy.  Second one, it was incredibly stupid to commit that foul so quickly, but that's not on Buzz.

[Benny B]

2 minutes to go and up 6 a basket right there puts the game out of reach..I am not saying he is at fault for not drawing up a layup, I am saying he is at fault for not getting a better shot than a 40 ft desperation 3.  There was 8 seconds left on the shot clock I don't really think running more time off the clock was the goal, I think he failed to draw up a good inbounds play at a critical moment where a basket almost puts the game away.

So Buzz draws up one inbounds play that doesn't work against the defensive set drawn up by a hall of fame coach... you're asking way too much if you want a coach to be perfect.

Stop to consider, for a moment, that Syracuse had a little input on that in-bounds play not resulting in an easy layup.  Give the other team some credit, too... it's not like MU just beat a D-III school.

[MU82]

Just now listened to Boeheim's postgame presser. What a douche. The questions he was asked were innocuous. In fact, Boeheim had talked a few days earlier about their big guy (who has been hurt) possibly playing. So, given what Gardner did to their skinny centers, not asking the coach after the game if that had been an option would have been a failure on the part of the Syracuse reporter.

Instead of giving a good, insightful answer -- or even just a throw-away cliche answer -- Boeheim chose to go after the reporter. Then about 5 minutes later, without even having been asked about it a second time, Boeheim went after the reporter again just to show he's the man in charge. That's what bullies and a-holes do.

One of the difficult parts of being the beat reporter in a college town that has no pro-sport presence at all is the coach is like the king. Except more powerful.