New Kenpom Stat Shows This Season Is On The Players, Not Shaka

[WhiteTrash]

I'm simply saying that there are certain things in regard to performance that a head coach can't control or account for. 

When your two seniors are performing well below their career norms in certain aspects of the game (3 point %, missing layup/dunks) for an extended period of time and it's impacting wins and losses, at a certain point that's on the players.

I'm really not sure what's so complicated or difficult to understand about that.

Georgetown and Seton Hall were both winnable games.  Chase & Ben went 3/17 and 0/9 from 3 in the Georgetown game. 

Ben played well overall in the SH game but was still 1/7 from 3.  Chase was 5/17 overall and 1/5 from 3, including a missed breakaway that changed the game. 

I don't find what you are saying is totally crazy, I can see the logic but I don't agree with it.

I agree that coaches cannot control or account for everything like injuries or off the court issues, but a head coach should have a feel for who is progressing (or not even BE quality like some of our players) and recruit through transfers or HS to build depth and competition.

Who would know better than Shaka what kind of players MU has? Additionally, as has been documented here, the warning signs go back a year. And based upon Shaka resume, I would be beyond shocked if he didn't see most of this coming, but he had absolute control to make changes, hence he is totally responsible.

I agree he probably dug himself a hole that was to big to dig out of just last off-season, but that is on him.

I will repeat that Shaka should come back, he is great, he will make changes and I very much think he is the best man to fix this. 

[Vander Blue Man Group]

I asked this earlier in the thread, or another thread, but I'm assuming you didn't see it.
What's your theory for why the seniors' play has fallen off so much?

I'm not sure. 

With Kam last year, there was a more logical explanation for his struggles from 3 in regard to all of the responsibility that was added to his plate playing PG, less catch & shoot opportunities, etc. 

I would imagine Chase's usage is up and he does have added responsibility but not to the level we saw from Kam, IMO, considering how much Nigel has the ball in his hands. 

Chase had good games against IU, Maryland, and Oklahoma so I'm not sure it's just level of competition (he didn't shoot well vs. IU but got to the line 12 times to counteract that). 

Starting with Wisconsin, he's just been horrendous his last 6 games:

-20/74 FGs (27%)
-4/24 3pt FGs (17%)
-2 APG (was average 4 APG prior to this stretch)
-4.2 FTAG (8.6 FTA prior - so he's getting to the line half as much)

Maybe it's just a deep, prolonged slump.  Maybe it's something else. 

For Ben, it's primarily his 3 pt%.  Again, don't know. He seems to be getting good shots.  As Paint Touches posted, 0-10 on unguarded 3s.  He seems to be rebounding better and has been fine defensively but maybe there are metrics that say that's not the case. 

He's been streaky before but not to the extent where you would expect him to be 8-10% below what you could reasonably project his % to be halfway through the season. 

I don't have time to do any kind of deep dive into advanced metrics, usage, catch & shoot vs. off-the-dribble %, etc.  If anyone has more insight it would be great to hear. 

And I'll say even if they were both playing better, we'd still be a bad team.  Not this horrendously bad, but still bad. So Shaka certainly miscalculated there in regard to these guys being good enough to lead a NCAA tourney-quality team.

I just don't think Shaka expecting a consistently higher quality of play from both of them is illogical.   

[Vander Blue Man Group]

I don't find what you are saying is totally crazy, I can see the logic but I don't agree with it.

I agree that coaches cannot control or account for everything like injuries or off the court issues, but a head coach should have a feel for who is progressing (or not even BE quality like some of our players) and recruit through transfers or HS to build depth and competition.

Who would know better than Shaka what kind of players MU has? Additionally, as has been documented here, the warning signs go back a year. And based upon Shaka resume, I would be beyond shocked if he didn't see most of this coming, but he had absolute control to make changes, hence he is totally responsible.

I agree he probably dug himself a hole that was to big to dig out of just last off-season, but that is on him.

I will repeat that Shaka should come back, he is great, he will make changes and I very much think he is the best man to fix this. 

That's reasonable - we can agree to disagree on part of this discussion. 

Shaka clearly miscalculated the quality of his team, which is difficult to understand considering the preceding 4 seasons. 

I think the retain and develop model had worked well enough that it's understandable you might start to believe in it too much.  Not that it's necessarily infallible but that you can overcome certain challenges.  That's human nature, to a certain extent. 

Although, I have trouble putting much stock into how these guys play in practice, because based on how this year has played out the level of competition they're facing in practice has probably been pretty low. 

Shaka is a smart guy. He's competitive.  Now we'll see if he's capable of looking in the mirror and being brutally honest with himself in regard to self-evaluation and evaluating the program.

And, as I've said before, I don't think RGV has to be completely abandoned.  You can still follow the Painter model and have it continue to have retention be a core value of your program.  You just have to be honest enough with yourself and your players that you'll need to fill gaps with the portal when needed.

[WhiteTrash]

That's reasonable - we can agree to disagree on part of this discussion. 

Shaka clearly miscalculated the quality of his team, which is difficult to understand considering the preceding 4 seasons. 

I think the retain and develop model had worked well enough that it's understandable you might start to believe in it too much.  Not that it's necessarily infallible but that you can overcome certain challenges.  That's human nature, to a certain extent. 

Although, I have trouble putting much stock into how these guys play in practice, because based on how this year has played out the level of competition they're facing in practice has probably been pretty low. 

Shaka is a smart guy. He's competitive.  Now we'll see if he's capable of looking in the mirror and being brutally honest with himself in regard to self-evaluation and evaluating the program.

And, as I've said before, I don't think RGV has to be completely abandoned.  You can still follow the Painter model and have it continue to have retention be a core value of your program.  You just have to be honest enough with yourself and your players that you'll need to fill gaps with the portal when needed.

It looks like there is way more common ground between us than not. I'm not a fan of turning over 75% of the roster each year. But, I think any coach should use all the resources made available to him including transfers. 3 maybe 4 transfers out of 15 players seems reasonable, but also maybe zero if the HS pipeline is paying dividends.