i will try to explain why i count years, or year counting as you call it.
yes we’ve been to tourney 3 out of last 4 years, not counting this year. will be 3 out of 5 after this year. one year, that bolstered everyones expectations was the year we should have beaten north carolina and gone to sweet 16. would have made a huge difference in perception of the program had we done that, but fact is we didn’t. last year, with a veteran team other than gafford, we get punked as gafford calls it by butler.
after watching for these 8 years, there are certain things you can count on from an anderson team. some good, some bad.
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the way we switch on every screen, often leaving our big man on a guard, and a guard on the opponents big man. over and over again, a mismatch is created and that mismatch doesn’t favor us. i think that hurts in both defense and rebounding.
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our press or helter skelter defense. nolan called it scrambled egg defense. in watching games we seem to be the guys wearing down towards the end of the game. nolan had depth, we do not, which is a direct reflection on recruiting, which to me is andersons biggest shortcoming. we seem to recruit athletes instead of guys that can put it in the basket.
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three point defense, if you have eyes you can see we leave players open for wide open threes.
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turnovers, when its working its beautiful. first half of south carolina game was some of the best defense I’ve seen us play in a long time. because of depth or adjustments south carolina made which we didn’t react to, we lay an egg in the second half. back to recruiting and coaching.
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the 4 position. when the research was done recently on the 4 position, if that wasn’t eye opening i don’t know what is. i watch these games, and bailey, or gabe, or chaney, have the ball beyond the three point line. our offense is set up that puts them out of position to help with inside scoring or rebounding. but this is not something new, we’ve seen it for 8 years. we just don’t have enough bigs, but how can you recruit bigs when you hang your hat on the fastest 40 minutes. a style i wish we had never marketed.
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half court offense, don’t really need to comment on this because everyone sees it every game.
i am not saying fire mike, i really like the guy, but its like aunt bees pickles, what you see better learn to like, or at least stomach, but its not going to change. year 8, why not adjustments. im sure we watch film. if its obvious to me who has no real basketball coaching ability, its certainly obvious to opponent coaches and hopefully our coaches. i love the up tempo stuff, kids like playing that or so i thought. we don’t seem to be recruiting at any high rate of success. msu played what, 7 or 8 players?
in year 8 i just don’t see much progress, my only hope is just making the tourney period, be one of the top 68 teams, i don’t think we’re going to far even if we do make it to the dance. the sec is getting better, better coaches and players. does that include us? i don’t mind having a gabe on the team, he does bring something to the court at times, but 4 of them? eddie and even nolan had a player like them that knew their role and excelled at it. in year 8 i would think most would be looking forward to our success and already dreaming of how far we might go next year. with what we have on the court, and after what we’ve seen repeatedly, is anyone truely imagining that right now. reading this board, some on here cringe when looking forward to next year, rightfully so. by the way, i will differ and say i think they could be better next year than this even without gafford if some changes are made and we have a decent spring signing period.
its year 8, i don’t see much to get excited about, i am not excited about next year. do we have a top recruit coming in to get excited about? other than hill blanked in early signing period. recruiting again. just get to the dance is all i ask, dropping my expectations to only that. its not up to me, but i’m not against giving anderson one more year. everyone says fire assistants, that doesn’t matter much to me, its the head coach dictating how we are to coach and play. its up to him.