Ben Jacobsen is 10 times the coach that McD or Lickliter is

[HawkI101]

His sub patterns are also right on the money.

I'd like to see him at Iowa with a couple guys who have strong Chicago and AAU connections.

GlidingHawk

He did do a good job. The one thing I didn't understand is why he didn't leave Egleseder in or get him back in quick when Aldridge rolled his ankle cuz all they did after he went out was jack up threes with a 11 point lead and let KU right back in it.

 

[BlackGold57]

Funny, Lick was national COY and in Sweet 16 three years ago. Where will Ben be in 3 years? Fired somewhere? Its a tournament.

Coaching is a career.

Congrats to UNI.

 

[Clonehomer]

I'm sorry, but what UNI is running today against Kansas is nothing that I've seen ISU run. That isolation dribble drive with Ahelegbe is just killing Kansas as he can either draw a foul or kick out to a shooter (Ali). Maybe Mac can't run stuff like that because Garrett is a turnover waiting to happen, but I'm seeing a lot of good things, offensively, from UNI.

On the flipside, what they are doing defensively against Kansas is a thing of beauty. Any time it comes to the post, they are doing an automatic double-team and Kansas is completely befuddled. Neither Lick or Mac would have the ingenuity to come up with something like that. Lick would just play straight up man, switch all screens, and end up with Bawinkle on Collins and get burned all night.

Well, I'll eat some crow on that game. That was not at all what I expected. UNI played their game and Kansas couldn't or wouldn't speed it up on them. KU pressed the hell out of the Big12 conference this year and I thought they'd keep it up in the tournament.

As far as ISU running those types of plays, they've tried. Garrett can't pass out of a drive so that doesn't work for him even when Lucca was standing out there. But, I guess I was referring more to the fact that Jacobsen is playing the same style at UNI that McDermott did at UNI. For some reason that style hasn't worked at ISU. And when ISU played Kansas we doubled Aldrich every time he got it too. Unfortunately, Collins wasn't a turnover machine when we played them.

 

[clicheusername3]

Funny, Lick was national COY and in Sweet 16 three years ago. Where will Ben be in 3 years? Fired somewhere? Its a tournament.

Coaching is a career.

Congrats to UNI.

Good post. Don't be a jerk just because our coach sucks...Ive seen a lot of people saying things like this and "Its just one game". No one knows what is going to happen. Jacobsen could be winning B10 titles at Minn. in 3 years and then you will be whining about how we could have gotten this guy. Just give credit where credit is due right now, not every rising mid major coach is Todd Lickliter.

 

[Raziel]

for the following reasons:

1. His in-game coaching is much better than either of those two. It's obvious he knows the right buttons to push and how to handle match-ups and mismatches.

2. He is a much more "player friendly" coach. His players love him, he obviously knows how to assemble a TEAM of players that like each other and want to play for him and their teammates. He is definitely more of a "Leader of Men", than either of those two put together.

3. His OFFENSIVE style is not as deliberate as some might think. Sure, he's a defense first coach (because defense wins championships), but he knows how to mix it up offensively. I like how he uses big men (as opposed to having them 25 feet from the basket setting screens), I like how he'll spread the court and allow the point guard to dribble drive and then dish. He'll give the players freedom to fast break when it's there, but not to push it at all costs.

4. He actually understands how to break a press.....I'm still convinced Lickliter is incapable of figuring out how to do that.

Having said all that, though, I don't think there's any way he gets hired unless all the other "splash" hires turn us down. Between McD, Lickliter and Alford, I think Barta would get run out of town on a rail if he hired Ben. However, I do get tired of people just spouting off and dismissing him (Jon, this includes you) because of pre-conceived notions you might have about the man. And please, stop with the "If Jacobsen's the best we can do, we should have kept Lickliter". Lickliter would have had a player mutiny on his hands had we kept him.

Bottom line is that there's more to being a good coach than just knowing basketball.....I have no doubt that Todd and Greg have forgotten more about basketball than I'll ever know, but I still think Ben is 10 times the COACH than either of them are.

The bolded point is blatantly false.....watching the KU/UNI game, it seemed as though UNI hadn't even practiced against the press. If UNI could have broken press coverage, they would have won by 10-12 points last night easily. KU only had a shot last night because of UNI's inability to break the press.