OK, season over -- time to vent....
The University of Louisville men's basketball team brought its 2009-10 season to a disappointing end with a 77-62 loss to the University of California Golden Bears in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 19. The Cards missed 11 of their first 13 shots in falling behind 22-4, and never trimmed the deficit to less than four the rest of the way.
As had often been the case throughout the season, Cal's smaller, quicker lineup bedeviled the Cards with good ball movement and accurate shooting, burying an open shot to stop every U of L surge.
Time for a few postmortem observations:
Next year's team will be better in part because Edgar Sosa won't be on it. Rick Pitino has made relatively few glaring coaching errors in a soon-to-be Hall of Fame career; one of them was his four-year campaign to make Sosa into a point guard. Sosa never shook his high-school shooting guard mentality; I've never met him, but I'd bet if asked, he'd say the two best games of his career were a 31-point outing against Texas A&M in the 2007 NCAA tournament and a 28-point effort against Cincinnati in this year's Big East Championship second round. U of L lost both those games.
The Cards have a pure point guard in freshman Peyton Siva. In my opinion, the best thing Pitino can do for Siva is name him next season's starter, then send him home with a personal lowlight reel of all the poor judgments he made on the floor in his rookie campaign. If he learns to make his teammates better without trying to make ESPN's Top 10 Plays every night, this team can do great things.
Samardo Samuels could use an attitude adjustment. More specifically, he needs to become more assertive around the rim. When you're 6-foot-9 and carry a well-muscled 265 pounds on your frame, you don't need finesse; your game should be powering your way to the hole and making the other team stop you. And when you have teammates who can hit open shots, learn to recognize the efficient pass out of a double-team.
Summer homework: develop your jumping ability so you can play above the rim. Play pickup ball with good players, and rebound with the mindset that every missed shot is your property. Pick Walter McCarty's brain about the finer points of inside play, and see if you can schedule a session or two with former U of L stars Rodney McCray and Charles Jones -- two of the best I ever saw at influencing a game without stuffing the box score.
Terrence Jennings needs a MAJOR attitude adjustment. Big Fella, don't take the summer off! Work on your game; at this level, athletic ability alone doesn't get it done. Learn to catch the ball and move to shoot without putting it on the floor, and do the same homework I assigned Mardo above. Coach P and Coach McCarty know what they're talking about; learn from them.
This team was capable of much more than it achieved. With the level of effort it displayed in the two wins over Syracuse, U of L could have beaten almost any team in the country on a given night. Without it, they could be very ordinary, as we saw against Cincy and Cal. This squad never bought into the concept that playing hard every possession on defense will win games even on some nights when shots aren't falling, despite what the stats showed about the best offensive performances of the season stemming from disruptive defensive efforts. If you're stopping the other guys, you can overcome subpar shooting and bad officiating.
Rick Pitino might consider an attitude adjustment. Pitino has few peers at taking a scouting report and developing a game plan; however, in watching the Cards play, I've noticed that when the game plan isn't working, he seems reluctant to tweak it, and often burns timeouts in fits of pique early in the game. As a result, at crunch time he deprives himself of the ability to strategize.
You don't have to like a guy to learn from him, Rick -- would it kill you to sit down with Denny Crum? (Why, you ask? Here's a hint: in games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime, Denny's record was 155-108. To date, yours is 80-84.)
The University of Louisville men's basketball team brought its 2009-10 season to a disappointing end with a 77-62 loss to the University of California Golden Bears in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 19. The Cards missed 11 of their first 13 shots in falling behind 22-4, and never trimmed the deficit to less than four the rest of the way.
As had often been the case throughout the season, Cal's smaller, quicker lineup bedeviled the Cards with good ball movement and accurate shooting, burying an open shot to stop every U of L surge.
Time for a few postmortem observations:
Next year's team will be better in part because Edgar Sosa won't be on it. Rick Pitino has made relatively few glaring coaching errors in a soon-to-be Hall of Fame career; one of them was his four-year campaign to make Sosa into a point guard. Sosa never shook his high-school shooting guard mentality; I've never met him, but I'd bet if asked, he'd say the two best games of his career were a 31-point outing against Texas A&M in the 2007 NCAA tournament and a 28-point effort against Cincinnati in this year's Big East Championship second round. U of L lost both those games.
The Cards have a pure point guard in freshman Peyton Siva. In my opinion, the best thing Pitino can do for Siva is name him next season's starter, then send him home with a personal lowlight reel of all the poor judgments he made on the floor in his rookie campaign. If he learns to make his teammates better without trying to make ESPN's Top 10 Plays every night, this team can do great things.
Samardo Samuels could use an attitude adjustment. More specifically, he needs to become more assertive around the rim. When you're 6-foot-9 and carry a well-muscled 265 pounds on your frame, you don't need finesse; your game should be powering your way to the hole and making the other team stop you. And when you have teammates who can hit open shots, learn to recognize the efficient pass out of a double-team.
Summer homework: develop your jumping ability so you can play above the rim. Play pickup ball with good players, and rebound with the mindset that every missed shot is your property. Pick Walter McCarty's brain about the finer points of inside play, and see if you can schedule a session or two with former U of L stars Rodney McCray and Charles Jones -- two of the best I ever saw at influencing a game without stuffing the box score.
Terrence Jennings needs a MAJOR attitude adjustment. Big Fella, don't take the summer off! Work on your game; at this level, athletic ability alone doesn't get it done. Learn to catch the ball and move to shoot without putting it on the floor, and do the same homework I assigned Mardo above. Coach P and Coach McCarty know what they're talking about; learn from them.
This team was capable of much more than it achieved. With the level of effort it displayed in the two wins over Syracuse, U of L could have beaten almost any team in the country on a given night. Without it, they could be very ordinary, as we saw against Cincy and Cal. This squad never bought into the concept that playing hard every possession on defense will win games even on some nights when shots aren't falling, despite what the stats showed about the best offensive performances of the season stemming from disruptive defensive efforts. If you're stopping the other guys, you can overcome subpar shooting and bad officiating.
Rick Pitino might consider an attitude adjustment. Pitino has few peers at taking a scouting report and developing a game plan; however, in watching the Cards play, I've noticed that when the game plan isn't working, he seems reluctant to tweak it, and often burns timeouts in fits of pique early in the game. As a result, at crunch time he deprives himself of the ability to strategize.
You don't have to like a guy to learn from him, Rick -- would it kill you to sit down with Denny Crum? (Why, you ask? Here's a hint: in games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime, Denny's record was 155-108. To date, yours is 80-84.)
posted by Alan at 10:37 PM
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