I will start off by saying that I paid money and took a day off of work to travel down to the Ford Center to see that pathetic display of basketball. But that's ok, because I still had a good time with friends. Nothing like a crappy football season followed with sorry basketball to help put life back in perspective for you, eh?
Anyway, I was shocked at how different we looked compared to Oklahoma State. And I know UTEP is a better team than La Salle. But OSU had more energy, played much harder, were more intense, and actually looked like a basketball team. Oklahoma is, unfortunately, five individuals out on the floor who happen to be wearing the same shirt and pants.
Capel recruits very well, but when you recruit that well, you not only recruit talent, but you also recruit a whole bunch of ego. And, some of our guys were so good in high school and AAU, I'm not sure they really ever had to work for anything. Capel seemed absolutely exasperated on the sidelines last night. How could you blame him?
TMG is an excellent offensive basketball player. This guy's the real deal. He's getting better. He's still not there defensively, but I think he's working at it. I am really pleased with TMG, and I think he is actually one of the brighter spots on this team.
Willie Warren must have learned nothing from Blake Griffin, which is quite sad. The leadership that the Griffins displayed, and the relationship they had with their coach was very strong. Willie displays no leadership, and then acts like it's because Coach Capel "doesn't trust him" (Willie's words, not mine). What a bunch of bull. Willie is playing for the ultimate player's coach, and he's whining he doesn't get pampered. Unbelievable!
In the closing minutes of the game when Willie scored a meaningless basket, my friend turned to me and said, "Well, Willie doesn't care. He's happy, he's got his 26." Of course, I am sure that's not exactly the case. I am sure Willie does care; however, I am afraid there is a good amount of truth in my friend's observation. Out on the basketball court, it's all about Willie having the ball. Because if you watch him play defense, and you watch him off the ball on offense, it's pretty obvious he doesn't care about much else than having the basketball. For the team's sake, that must change.
Tiny Gallon could be a monster. The guy is so gifted. He's big. His strength enables him to send post defenders flying into the baseline when he posts up. We need to look into him more often and play inside-out. Whatever we do offensively can be disgraceful at times. We jack up a ton of three point shots from 4 feet behind the NBA line without ever considering throwing Tiny the ball down low. Hard to believe, but I saw it numerous times Monday evening.
This team is so bad defensively, I'm not sure if they can improve enough to become a good basketball team. Capel's already gone to a zone, but I think that's lazy. I'd force these young guns to play man-to-man until they learned how to defend a ball screen. Until they learned how to play hard for an entire possession. Until they learned how to contest every shot. Playing zone can help cover up some of your flaws defensively, but it's a cop out. I don't think we're truly going to improve until we learn how to play good man-to-man defense. Right now, we're a bad man-to-man team, and we're a bad zone team. (We become an even worse zone team when our "leader" won't even stick his hand up to contest jump shots)
I was pretty disappointed in the effort last night, but I don't think we have a bad team. We have a bad defensive team that doesn't play with much energy or effort. Those things can be fixed. That being said, we are in the middle of December and have shown little to no progress from the start of the year. That's what concerns me.
One more thing. I would appreciate it if Capel would actually take a few timeouts in the first half when his team looks like a bad AAU team instead of hoarding all of them until the last 2 minutes when we're down by 17 points and have 0 chance to win the game. I'm sorry, but our team isn't good enough to play through anything, and they need to be constantly reminded about how they should play. Capel needs to change behavior, and his lack of substitution and failure to call timeouts communicates to the players their behavior on the floor is OK.
Anyway, I was shocked at how different we looked compared to Oklahoma State. And I know UTEP is a better team than La Salle. But OSU had more energy, played much harder, were more intense, and actually looked like a basketball team. Oklahoma is, unfortunately, five individuals out on the floor who happen to be wearing the same shirt and pants.
Capel recruits very well, but when you recruit that well, you not only recruit talent, but you also recruit a whole bunch of ego. And, some of our guys were so good in high school and AAU, I'm not sure they really ever had to work for anything. Capel seemed absolutely exasperated on the sidelines last night. How could you blame him?
TMG is an excellent offensive basketball player. This guy's the real deal. He's getting better. He's still not there defensively, but I think he's working at it. I am really pleased with TMG, and I think he is actually one of the brighter spots on this team.
Willie Warren must have learned nothing from Blake Griffin, which is quite sad. The leadership that the Griffins displayed, and the relationship they had with their coach was very strong. Willie displays no leadership, and then acts like it's because Coach Capel "doesn't trust him" (Willie's words, not mine). What a bunch of bull. Willie is playing for the ultimate player's coach, and he's whining he doesn't get pampered. Unbelievable!
In the closing minutes of the game when Willie scored a meaningless basket, my friend turned to me and said, "Well, Willie doesn't care. He's happy, he's got his 26." Of course, I am sure that's not exactly the case. I am sure Willie does care; however, I am afraid there is a good amount of truth in my friend's observation. Out on the basketball court, it's all about Willie having the ball. Because if you watch him play defense, and you watch him off the ball on offense, it's pretty obvious he doesn't care about much else than having the basketball. For the team's sake, that must change.
Tiny Gallon could be a monster. The guy is so gifted. He's big. His strength enables him to send post defenders flying into the baseline when he posts up. We need to look into him more often and play inside-out. Whatever we do offensively can be disgraceful at times. We jack up a ton of three point shots from 4 feet behind the NBA line without ever considering throwing Tiny the ball down low. Hard to believe, but I saw it numerous times Monday evening.
This team is so bad defensively, I'm not sure if they can improve enough to become a good basketball team. Capel's already gone to a zone, but I think that's lazy. I'd force these young guns to play man-to-man until they learned how to defend a ball screen. Until they learned how to play hard for an entire possession. Until they learned how to contest every shot. Playing zone can help cover up some of your flaws defensively, but it's a cop out. I don't think we're truly going to improve until we learn how to play good man-to-man defense. Right now, we're a bad man-to-man team, and we're a bad zone team. (We become an even worse zone team when our "leader" won't even stick his hand up to contest jump shots)
I was pretty disappointed in the effort last night, but I don't think we have a bad team. We have a bad defensive team that doesn't play with much energy or effort. Those things can be fixed. That being said, we are in the middle of December and have shown little to no progress from the start of the year. That's what concerns me.
One more thing. I would appreciate it if Capel would actually take a few timeouts in the first half when his team looks like a bad AAU team instead of hoarding all of them until the last 2 minutes when we're down by 17 points and have 0 chance to win the game. I'm sorry, but our team isn't good enough to play through anything, and they need to be constantly reminded about how they should play. Capel needs to change behavior, and his lack of substitution and failure to call timeouts communicates to the players their behavior on the floor is OK.
