The great HN basketball minds

Every once in a while lately I've been thinking that Gabe should start in place of Woodbury since he's been playing so well lately. Then I start thinking about it more and I like his energy coming off the bench. Can't really argue with his use of TO's since he knows the players waaaaaay better than any of us.
 
I see what you are saying I think you are just putting too much emphasis on the platoon idea and its benefits. Basketball is a game of starts, stops, and runs. With TV timeouts and things these guys are not playing for huge stretches if time. The conditioning and platoon this is really not a huge factor in the game.

Conditioning: You may want to look at a close up of a player after a couple of minutes on defense. I don't think all that water pouring off of them is from a roof leak.
 
Some coaches prefer to let their players play through another team's momentum. One, I remember in particular who refused to call timeouts was Robert Montgomery Knight and he only won TWO national championships....

For some reason I trust Fran's judgement, and despite the unjust criticism he receives, look at the results he has attained....

Remarkable, I say.....

Surprised that some people still have no idea how good Josh is and what he does for the team.....

Oddly enough, the Iowa Basketball Coach seems to like him as player. I think I am going to go with his expertise and assessment....

COACH McCAFFERY: I think it's a combination of a lot of things. You have to start with recruiting toughness. Toughness doesn't mean a guy's going to square off and fight. It's controlling your emotions at crunch time, and really competing in a way that enables you to be successful. It can manifest itself in a lot of ways. You look at the game film, the offensive rebound and the jump shot by Josh that is a game winning play right there, and that is something that over time he's figured out how he can impact the game that way.
First, he's got to be on the floor at crunch time. Now he's got to figure out what can I do? The fact that he went and got it because he had to go out of his area, and then had he to go dribble it out and don't shoot it, and make them foul us again and use as much clock as possible.

:cool:
 
Some coaches prefer to let their players play through another team's momentum. One, I remember in particular who refused to call timeouts was Robert Montgomery Knight and he only won TWO national championships....

For some reason I trust Fran's judgement, and despite the unjust criticism he receives, look at the results he has attained....

Remarkable, I say.....

Surprised that some people still have no idea how good Josh is and what he does for the team.....

Oddly enough, the Iowa Basketball Coach seems to like him as player. I think I am going to go with his expertise and assessment....

COACH McCAFFERY: I think it's a combination of a lot of things. You have to start with recruiting toughness. Toughness doesn't mean a guy's going to square off and fight. It's controlling your emotions at crunch time, and really competing in a way that enables you to be successful. It can manifest itself in a lot of ways. You look at the game film, the offensive rebound and the jump shot by Josh that is a game winning play right there, and that is something that over time he's figured out how he can impact the game that way.
First, he's got to be on the floor at crunch time. Now he's got to figure out what can I do? The fact that he went and got it because he had to go out of his area, and then had he to go dribble it out and don't shoot it, and make them foul us again and use as much clock as possible.

:cool:

That's one of the things I love about our current team. They are not a demonstrative bunch. They don't go nuts after making layups and pound on their chests and when things are going bad, they stay calm and collected.
 
Those you who think this guy should start or that guy should start. Name one player that has not had a bad game? They all will get a chance to play on every night. They all have a chance to prove how much they should be out there. Its like some of you dont understand how great it is to be this deep.

Ever wonder why Fran has some games where he doesnt use timeouts? He doesnt want to give the other team a break.

If you dont think McCabe should play then you dont understand the game. Hes not perfect but he brings a lot to the lineup.

If you dont understand that JO is one of the most important players on the team then you dont understand the game. JO isnt quite there and the team doesnt quite understand how to play with shooter but when they do they will be able to beat any team in the country. Right now they are on the edge of being very dangerous.



Its really easy to pick out those of you who have not played the game. Dont worry you could kick my butt in vidya games though.


I gave up trying to convince others how important it is for Fran to play all 10 guys and not pare down the rotation. For many of the reasons you stated, but said another way, I'd rather use all five 6th-men, as they're all capable of being in the rotation of every other B1G school, to have more chances of someone having a hot hand. Play them all, go with the hot hand. None of the 10 are liabilities, at this point.
 
What I find entertaining is the same people who spend all football season harping on every playcall in the football game are now the one's telling everyone that the coach is smarter than them so we should just trust what Fran's doing.

I think the OP's sig says it all.
 
If you are going to really try and tire a team out the payoff is going to be in the last 5 or 10 mins of the game or overtime. So you have to sell out to that game plan. That means the team needs to work through parts or the game where they struggle(see illini game). You may have to play players that are not playing as well to keep tempo up. If that really is what you want to do you wont know if it works if you bail out from that game plan. With how many tv tos there are you really have to limit the ones you call if that is the plan.

Even though it looked bad for 10 mins in the middle of the game it paid out in the end.

Also I think timeouts on the road give more time for the crowd to get crazy. They love it they go nuts.


I disagree with your last sentence. When you call a timeout on the road the crowd gets louder right away. But by the time the game starts up again they are normally more quiet than they were before the timeout was called. That's why in my opinion you should be more willing to call timeouts to stop runs on the road. At home I can see not calling them for the reasons already discussed.
 
Conditioning: You may want to look at a close up of a player after a couple of minutes on defense. I don't think all that water pouring off of them is from a roof leak.

They call it perspiration Doc.....

perspiration.jpg


In basketball games it usually is related to fatigue and extreme physical exertion, as a Physician, I realize you know this.....

I think that is why Fran saved his and Groce wasted his to give the Lads a much needed break....

john_groce_recruit.jpg


Hey, where did my timeouts go.....

:cool:
 
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Yeah. If ANY of us knew basketball that well, we would be coaching a team somewhere, and would have more important things to do than sitting here at our keyboards posting in this thread.

I don't pretend to be a coach or know all that much about X's and O's, etc, and I'm not going to take it personally when another HN user says I don't know the game, because they would be right, but I'm also sure that user is not qualified to coach our team, either.

That said, I'm sure every coach in the history of the game has made an in-game decision here and there that they'd like to have back, or has been second guessed. People like us still have our opinions and are going to debate it. It's a message board.

The "timeout" discussion also doesn't automatically mean that we think Fran sucks and doesn't know how to coach. I personally think he's a fantastic coach and is doing a great job, but I happen to think he was a bit stingy with the timeouts the other night when maybe it would have been a good idea to use one.

Thats really not true at all. Theres probably millions of former players who know the game well but have no interest in coaching.
 
So bottom line you want fran to call a timeout let everyone catch their breath and say hey guys you need to make more points. Shoot better.

All games have been lost due to free throws not timeouts

Most coaches use timoutes to stop the momentum of other teams. Its a very commonly used strategy.

If the other team is on a run their not the ones getting tired.

And as far as make more points shoot better, seriously? Is that what you think coaching is?
 
Most coaches use timoutes to stop the momentum of other teams. Its a very commonly used strategy.

If the other team is on a run their not the ones getting tired.

And as far as make more points shoot better, seriously? Is that what you think coaching is?

I understand coaches do that. Most coaches dont have 10 good players and want to run non stop.

I was mocking somebody by saying make more points as that was what was wrong. No need to stop the game to tell players that they need to score points.

Illini were getting tired when they were on runs. Watch the end of the game they didnt have much left in the tank.
 
I have no problem with letting players play through a funk and not using timeouts because of strategy. But sometimes that doesn't work and the coach needs to call an audible and changes things up...that is called coaching. Letting the team play through a 8 or 10 point run by the other team, I can understand. But 20 points and not trying to break the other teams momentum is just a coach being prideful. His method is right usually but against msu it didn't work and in fact it proved to me that we didn't get beat because of talent but instead because he got out coached as izzo had a more effective game plan. Hopefully Fran will learn there are times he needs to use the timeouts. I like up tempo and not breaking your own teams momentum but you need to out coach the other coach sometimes.
 
Did izzo out coach him when Iowa didnt make a basket in 15 mins? Was that izzo that did that?

Yes izzo saw his guys in a good rhythm so he let them play. Mccaffery should have realized Iowa was in a funk and needed to call a timeout to rally the guys and help them out. I am sure if the roles had been reversed izzo would not have let msu go 15 min without scoring and not called a timeout to try to get them out of the funk.
 
Yes izzo saw his guys in a good rhythm so he let them play. Mccaffery should have realized Iowa was in a funk and needed to call a timeout to rally the guys and help them out. I am sure if the roles had been reversed izzo would not have let msu go 15 min without scoring and not called a timeout to try to get them out of the funk.
Actually if you watch Izzo coach he is a fan of using timeouts to break momentum. Basketball at any level is about runs, and what you can do to stop runs. I have no issues with Fran's philosophy, he will be judged by his BOSS. Izzo was a master that night in Iowa City. Be ultra-physical, use his big "weird bodies" off the bench to play hack a shack. He knew his only chance was keep it close...and hope they miss free-throws. He also flew under the radar with the officials, being calm and cool, which is unlike him. You can hate the guy...but man can he get it done!
 
Didn't we score like 20 points during that 15 minute stretch? That's on pace for a 50 point game. That's far from setting the world on fire but its not like its the horrible stretch that its being made out to be.
 

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