In football, head coaches are leaving their mid-major schools for assistant positions at Power 5 schools, citing the increase in salary and desire to not have to worry about re-recruiting their team year over year and stick to the "coaching" aspect. Does it make sense to try to lure a mid-major head coach away to become our "offensive coordinator" for basketball? I understand the path to the postseason is easier in basketball than it is in football, but Im wondering if there is a chance we could get an offensive mind with proven success to come to the Banks and lead our offense. Might not be realistic as we currently dont project to have an on-court assistant position available, just thinking out loud
Does it make sense...
- Thread starter GreaseTruckCaptain
- Start date
The primary question for me.......does Pike think it is necessary?
You can't fix a problem if you don't know you have one.
I honestly am not sure if our offensive problems are any part coaching. I waffle back and forth depending on the day. It is brutally obvious we have an offensive problem. The question is why.
You can't fix a problem if you don't know you have one.
I honestly am not sure if our offensive problems are any part coaching. I waffle back and forth depending on the day. It is brutally obvious we have an offensive problem. The question is why.
I think there is some coaching impact but the issue this year was 99% players. We had the #72 offense in 2019-20 with Pike as the coach. And while that's not exactly good for a P6 team it's a long way from our current #296 today. And it isn't like we were swimming in 4 and 5-star recruits back then either.
Yeah, I'm pretty much with you on this. This team gets open looks too. It just didn't make them. A number 72 offense with the way the defense usually performs would be more than good enough.
I don't think the Rutgers coaching staff would be in favor of bringing in a offensive coordinator or a big man coach. even though its needed .
Pretty obvious why. We don't put any emphasis on offense. Teams excel at what their coach believes is important. I always thought Pike just coached with such a focus on defense because that's the easiest way to compete when you don't have talent. But even when he has talent he's overly focused on defense. It's what he knows. He's not going to change.
As to post season, it's a lot easier in football to go to a bowl game than make the NCAA tourney in basketball. There are a lot o mediocre 6-6 type teams in bowl games.
What talent is that? Apparently this team was a lot less talented from an offensive standpoint than any other team Pike has had here including his first season.
That is really the crux of the issue. Normally , my thought on Pike was if we get open looks running our stuff , shots will go down and with the way we play defense we should win . He got plenty of open looks but the shots did not go down because of the collective pathetic shooting . Does he chalk it up to epic horrendous outlier shooting this year or does he self evaluate and say maybe we can get even better looks if the offense scheme was tweaked a little bit. More screens, pin downs,curls , staggered screens . Less guards dribbling endlessly into a supposed open jump shot to clank one off the rim .
I am hoping he self evaluates and realizes he could improve the offense. We will have plenty of iso next year with Dylan and Ace but can he make it better. ? It starts with an honest look in the mirror.
This team does not get open looks with any regularity. They miss a lot of the ones they do get but when Pike teams are forced to play half court they almost always are scrambling leading to a one on one or hero ball shot.
We run very poor offense. Our spacing is terrible, ball dies in hands, way too much dribbling, and guys standing around. Our offensive fundamentals are terrible. Passing is often in bad spots on the body and we still don't understand how to feed the post or more importantly, pass out of it.
It's just ugly stuff. And has been for a long time.
Basketball is a very easy game to grasp. The fact we play like an AAU team on offense is very concerning.
This. My impression is that Pike took the recruits he could get, which were athletic but not good shooters. When you are a dreadful bottom feeding program you take what you can get. And he successfully rode those players through D and rebounding, into becoming a good Big Ten Team. I don't think anyone can say what Pike will do with real offensive talent.
But the bigger question for me is, does it matter? This year, with our crappy players, we still generated plenty enough good looks that we flat out missed.
Last year the team had more talent and the year before. Often we still didn't run proper offense with any regularity. We got bailed out a lot by play making when it mattered. We didn't have those players this year nor could they run offense to get guys looks with any regularity. And then we missed a lot when we did.
I honestly am not sure Pike knows what good offense looks like anymore. There was an idea floating around that this team was going to be in the 80 point range. That's preposterous. I could see from the first 5 minutes watching this team that was never going to happen.
Pike played for Calhoun who won games with this defensive first second and third strategy. He was never there when Uconn had the talent to win championships to see how they did it.
This is all he knows.
I think people should maybe stop taking Pike's media statements (especially preseason) at face value.
That's the scary part though. That he actually makes them. Was it he who said this team would be in the 80 point range?
It's scary if you think they're supposed to be objective evaluations of the team. I don't think that. It's not my favorite PR strategy and I don't fully understand why he does it, but "he makes preseason statements he doesn't believe" fits the facts better than "he's completely deluded about his teams" IMO.
Agree we do get a decent number of open shots but we don’t run any sets run no back screens it’s iso and pray
I know Gavin has been shooting poorly but at least run some off the ball action so he doesn’t have to shoot 30 foot 3 pointers i truthfully don’t think Cam would have done all that well this year because we run zero plays to get an open look
Watch Uconn play. They run great offense and get him open looks almost at will.
I will say it again. Basketball is an easy game. It's only 5 guys in a very little contact situation. It's not this hard.
I will say it again. Basketball is an easy game. It's only 5 guys in a very little contact situation. It's not this hard.
Cam shot 43.4% from three last year and we ran the same number of plays
You realize the other team is playing the same game right? This post is akin to saying
"Winning the bowling US Open is easy, all you have to do is roll the ball down the lane"
Many of the offensive problems are more about a lack of skill than coaching. I lost count of the number of layups and wide open 3s that were missed. The biggest criticisms of the coaching would be not making transition offense a point of emphasis. This team plays nearly elite defense. That should be good for a few easy baskets a game. Also, if you're going to play 3 guards, at least 2 of them should be able to shoot.
I've never seen such a football term, passed off as basketball, when it's 100% false.
You have NO offense if you don't have the following.
Players who can take their man, 1 on 1 and score.
Players who can dribble, pass, shoot and playmake (hint, we only have had 3 of these players, in the last 2 seasons)
Players who can then score one on one AND then pass out of a double team, to an open player (none of these players last year and 1 this year (JWill)
Players who make FTs (FTs made impact how defenses guard an entire team, especially one that isn't good from the 3 point line (Simpson and JWill, but neither is considered a 3 point shooter, I would expect Gavin to join this group in 2024-25, TBD
Players who are not just stationary 3 point shooters, but those who can generate their own 3 point shot, 1 on 1.
It's not overly complicated and unless you have players who check ALL of these boxes above, you have no chance to be even average offensively.
It is a lack of skill, talent, size, speed item....there's no level of "offensive coordinator ", that makes Derek Simpson, Mawot Mag, Ogbole, Woolfolk, Chol, Hyatt, JMike Davis, Oskar, Mulcahy, Spencer, Caleb, Mathis, Myles Johnson, Cliff, etc into complete offensive players.....you can get by with partial skills or patch, but none of these players can generate their own shot, 1 on 1, get to the basket and score against most Power 5 defenses AND shoot long 2s or 3s.
Players who are closer to complete offensive players are Jacob Young, RHJ, and Geo Baker....outside of those 3 players and perhaps Corey Sanders, that's the limited list of "offensive players in the Pike era.
Compared to our competition in the B1G, the portal and 2024 kids "should" change this dynamic.
You have NO offense if you don't have the following.
Players who can take their man, 1 on 1 and score.
Players who can dribble, pass, shoot and playmake (hint, we only have had 3 of these players, in the last 2 seasons)
Players who can then score one on one AND then pass out of a double team, to an open player (none of these players last year and 1 this year (JWill)
Players who make FTs (FTs made impact how defenses guard an entire team, especially one that isn't good from the 3 point line (Simpson and JWill, but neither is considered a 3 point shooter, I would expect Gavin to join this group in 2024-25, TBD
Players who are not just stationary 3 point shooters, but those who can generate their own 3 point shot, 1 on 1.
It's not overly complicated and unless you have players who check ALL of these boxes above, you have no chance to be even average offensively.
It is a lack of skill, talent, size, speed item....there's no level of "offensive coordinator ", that makes Derek Simpson, Mawot Mag, Ogbole, Woolfolk, Chol, Hyatt, JMike Davis, Oskar, Mulcahy, Spencer, Caleb, Mathis, Myles Johnson, Cliff, etc into complete offensive players.....you can get by with partial skills or patch, but none of these players can generate their own shot, 1 on 1, get to the basket and score against most Power 5 defenses AND shoot long 2s or 3s.
Players who are closer to complete offensive players are Jacob Young, RHJ, and Geo Baker....outside of those 3 players and perhaps Corey Sanders, that's the limited list of "offensive players in the Pike era.
Compared to our competition in the B1G, the portal and 2024 kids "should" change this dynamic.
Calhoun's better UConn teams turned great defense into offense. He also had much better shooters.
If you watch top 10 teams they do run a good offense but also have shooters that make open shots. RU gets open looks but they miss too many open shots.
Now, with many conference tournaments going on, go watch the average teams play. Most of them run no offense at all. Looks much worse than RU.
So you’re saying we weren’t talented offensively this year?
Is this what you are finally saying Hawk?
Yes or No?
One word response!
It wouldn't matter all that much if Fran coached this year's team instead of Pike offensively. Players missed tons of open 3's, mid range, and at the rim. Tons and tons and tons. The offensive talent just wasn't there. Coaches can't make players hit open shots
That's not the offense, its the fact that we have ball sticking guards, with no crispness to the decision making. If this team shot 44% instead of 39% (12th in conference vs 14th) it probably wins a bunch more games. If you don't think there aren't 3 shots a game more we should have made....
Amazing how naive and misguided some are. Pike knows offense just fine, and so does Knight. It’s asinine to think they don’t. There‘s an NBA team last in scoring. Does that coach not know offense either ?
Pike typically brings in top athletes rather than skilled players. it’s his preference. If he traded places with Painter he’d have a much better offense with the Purdue players and vice versa.
This year’s roster failed. That is on Pike. But his knowledge of offense is certainly solid.
Pike typically brings in top athletes rather than skilled players. it’s his preference. If he traded places with Painter he’d have a much better offense with the Purdue players and vice versa.
This year’s roster failed. That is on Pike. But his knowledge of offense is certainly solid.
Yea. And that’s why teams score 70-80 points on the reg. Newsflash. Basketball is a scoring game. Except at Rutgers.
Basketball is about scoring more points than your opponent, which is equal parts scoring points and preventing the opponent from scoring points. Only the extremely simple minded do not understand this.
The even more simple minded don’t understand that scoring more means you will win more games as opposed to being entirely focused on trying to stop them from scoring more. Meathead shit.
If you don’t see there is a problem with the offense, a huge problem, you don’t understand the elementary game that is basketball. If you don’t see how scoring more points helps you win games you may be a slow person. I apologize if that’s the case.
If you don’t see there is a problem with the offense, a huge problem, you don’t understand the elementary game that is basketball. If you don’t see how scoring more points helps you win games you may be a slow person. I apologize if that’s the case.
My post, right above yours, literally states:
Basketball is about scoring more points than your opponent, which is equal parts scoring points and preventing the opponent from scoring points.
I would learn to read and interpret the english language before attempting insults.
We were 298th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 357th in effective FG%
I think everyone understands the problem with this year's team was offense
Or if you just watched the games and didn't look at a stat you could probably figure it out even if you knew nothing about basketball
Right. So the question then becomes why?
It’s partially the players and a lot of the coaching. Pike simply doesn’t have a high value of offense and it either he and his staff can’t coach it or they can’t communicate it properly to the players. I’ve seen enough horrible offense to know this at this point.
He needs a real come to Jesus self reflection this off-season.
It’s partially the players and a lot of the coaching. Pike simply doesn’t have a high value of offense and it either he and his staff can’t coach it or they can’t communicate it properly to the players. I’ve seen enough horrible offense to know this at this point.
He needs a real come to Jesus self reflection this off-season.
It's like 98% the players, as evidenced by the fact that the same coach was able to produce much better offenses when he had better players.
When it's that bad there is plenty of blame to go around. Time and energy in practice spent on defense. Energy on court spent on defense. Not the best offensive sets. Predictable. Movement movement movement
On court...
No true PG
Bad shooters all over the court
Not making shots at rim
Guards not getting Cliff the ball in positions to succeed
Cliff lack of development
Simpson and Davis can't shoot
Gavin very poor shooting season
Wolf not making a jump forward
Noah slow start, too small, couldn't hit non 3's
Hyatt another bad 3 point year
Oskar even poor shooting the 3
#FreeChol
