Miteo

[Bob Chaewsky_rivals]

Maybe you're just not that good a coach. It was instilled in them every year starting in fourth grade by their coach. They always had to know who they had the minute they stepped on the floor and communicate who they had when coming off.

If I was still coaching high school maybe I would invite your fourth grade daughter to come and be a guest speaker at one of my practices.

 

[Bob Chaewsky_rivals]

Everyone, or just you?

You wrote an entire paragraph bashing Geo’s game including emphasis on his poor defense in contrast to proclaiming Powers to be the next thing coming. Help us understand here - were you trying to suggest that Powers frosh D was comparable to Geo’s? If yes, I’m pretty sure you’d be in small company of fans who would share that view. If no, and rather, your instead suggesting that Powers has “potential” to make quantum leaps to easily catch up and surpass Geo’s collegiate starting point on D, then your just going in circles again with baseless bold predictions. Anything’s always possible, of course, but there aren’t many players you could point to in Pike’s tenure who started out awful at D and transformed to servicable in one off season. Caleb made the biggest one season jump by far (though he also wasn’t “awful as a frosh).

It is not a baseless, bold prediction that Powers will make great strides on defense, and as far as very few of Pike's players going from awful on defense to servicable - you just in so many words that Pike is a crappy defensive coach.

 

[-RUFAN4LIFE-]

It would be real easy for you to find that out. Just look up my name online, but yes - one year as a part-time assistant about 25 years ago. We were really good, but you wouldn't have seen me do anything unless you came to practice.

Okay, I thought you were a current coach who tends to be a loud mouth on the sidelines.

 

[-RUFAN4LIFE-]

If I was still coaching high school maybe I would invite your fourth grade daughter to come and be a guest speaker at one of my practices.

She's not been in fourth grade for awhile, keep up.

 

[NBKnight]

You’ll hear guys saying - defense is “just effort” which makes it sound like anyone who wants to be good at it can. It doesn’t work like that, and while it’s not impossible, the odds of an awful frosh defender like Powers was (not an average run of the mill one, but someone who stood out as clueless) suddenly turning the corner the other way as a sophomore aren’t all that high. Some improvement? Sure. But there’s a good long ways to go for him to move out of the horrible category into the mediocre bucket. Conversations of him beating out a 17ppg scorer who was much more efficient than him just don’t make any sense. He’d have not not only improve his defense drastically but also his offense.

But what prevents someone who has the size and is a good enough athlete to make a jump as a defender? I could understand if physical limitations were the cause of his prior poor play on that end. Especially going from bad to average, all you have to do stop doing the stupid stuff.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

It is not a baseless, bold prediction that Powers will make great strides on defense, and as far as very few of Pike's players going from awful on defense to servicable - you just in so many words that Pike is a crappy defensive coach.

Did you not read what I wrote? I said go from awful to serviceable on D in one single offseason. This conversation is about the upcoming season. Not a prediction of what Powers D would look like 2-3 years from now if he’s still around. Oskar and Hyatt improved by their third seasons at RU. But they never became great defenders and after one season were only marginally better than their first years at RU (by way of simple example).

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

But what prevents someone who has the size and is a good enough athlete to make a jump as a defender? I could understand if physical limitations were the cause of his prior poor play on that end. Especially going from bad to average, all you have to do stop doing the stupid stuff.

Struggling to understand when to switch and help has nothing to do with physical athleticism or traits. Guys who suck the most at D usually do so because they either don’t expand enough effort or their understanding of when to do those things isn’t second nature. If you have to think about what you need to do, your likely going to be a step too late even if your lightning fast. It wasn’t lack of effort with Powers. He hustled but was routinely out of position playing catch up in the halfcourt sets.