I remember listening to Dan Hurley on JJ Reddick's podcast over the summer, and he said that a great coach can play any style based on his team's personnel. This is the #1 problem I keep coming back to when watching this team play. Pike's philosophy doesn't match our personnel or his offseason additions and he hasn't shown the willingness to adapt so far. When sh!t hits the fan during a game, Pike still feels the most comfortable putting in our "defensive" lineup, pumping up the crowd, and trying to change the tide on the defensive end. The problem is that we don't have the personnel for that this year. If he was going to play a muck it up and defend style with Dylan and Ace playing iso ball on offense like we all feared, then he should've at least got the best rim protector our money could buy and a bunch of long athletic wing defenders in the portal instead of not playing the offensive guys he got. The staff couldn't have watched Martini/Hayes/Acuff tape and thought they were getting + defenders. They just couldn't have.
I totally understand the rivalry component and glad we pulled it out, but that's a Hall team we should've beaten by 20. I got excited when he went to a Harper, Acuff, Hayes, Martini, Ace lineup for what I think might've been the first time all year, but that ended when Dylan picked up his 2nd foul 10 seconds into that rotation. Pike really needs to lean into the Iowa style approach like many have mentioned and just go all offense. Put our best shooters and offensive players on the floor at the same time and give Dylan and Ace space to operate. Let's win by outscoring teams for a change. A big reason why SHU was able to do a good job preventing Dylan from getting to the rim in the 1st half is because we put 3 other guys on the floor who aren't a threat to shoot. That's going to be a common formula going forward if things don't change. It's really hard to score when Dekack, Davis, and Ogbole are on the floor all at the same time.
I totally understand the rivalry component and glad we pulled it out, but that's a Hall team we should've beaten by 20. I got excited when he went to a Harper, Acuff, Hayes, Martini, Ace lineup for what I think might've been the first time all year, but that ended when Dylan picked up his 2nd foul 10 seconds into that rotation. Pike really needs to lean into the Iowa style approach like many have mentioned and just go all offense. Put our best shooters and offensive players on the floor at the same time and give Dylan and Ace space to operate. Let's win by outscoring teams for a change. A big reason why SHU was able to do a good job preventing Dylan from getting to the rim in the 1st half is because we put 3 other guys on the floor who aren't a threat to shoot. That's going to be a common formula going forward if things don't change. It's really hard to score when Dekack, Davis, and Ogbole are on the floor all at the same time.
