Next year

[Sweetest OU Girl]

I've wondered if the team situation was hurt by a lack of individual work this past summer. From the first game of the year, we made lots of basic mistakes. It just seemed like they were not ready to start the season. Sherri and Aaryn spent most of their time and energy with international play, and I expect that meant the girls had to depend on their own motivation to work on their individual skills.

Yes, I know the coaches are not allowed to run any kind of organized summer work, but lots of (most?) teams encourage the kids to stay on campus and work in groups or individually. It demands focused leadership and a set of things to concentrate on. Even though the coaches can't even observe this work, if they are around they have means to know who is working hard and who isn't. That creates automatic motivation. Sherri's attention was far away (I was happy to see her get to do that by the way) and we were so young, that I have wondered if perhaps less growth took place than you would hope for last summer for the kids.

I also wondered if that was the reason for dropping the summer camps.

 

[SoonerinNC]

I agree that the pump fake and the fake pass are effective tools but I don't see much of that these days. Bobby Knight was a big advocate.

You will probably find few if any who do not believe that this team underachieved much of the year. Their inconsistency and the level that they showed that they were capable of playing at times are the best indicators.

I am more concerned with the wild shots, the impossible passes and misses on point blank layups. Those things don't happen with most successful teams. Sherri seems to encourage her players to play on the edge but maybe she has to back off the edge a little. They too often went over the cliff this season. Sensational plays if successful but most of the time this year they were unsuccessful.

My biggest concern about Sherri's coaching has nothing to do with teaching fundamentals. She is a very smart person and seems to reach out to other successful coaches to learn more about coaching. She probably pays plenty of due diligence about fundamentals. Most coaches do as a routine.

I have always been concerned about her rotations. Playing your top players 35-40 minutes a game is a recipe for problems late in a close game, particularly late in the season. I never have a sense as to who to expect on the court. Most teams have an established 6th, 7th, 8th or even 9th player coming off the bench.

In one of the most important games of the season I see Kellogg, Wyatt, and I think Edwards and Carter on the court with KayKay. They didn't do all that badly but she had not established that rotation during the season. Kellogg had not played enough to even be on the court in such an important game.

I think she forgets players at times like Kelvin did when he admitted over and over that he forgot Longar Longar and should have had him in the game more.

And like many of you I would have liked to see Gibbs on the court in games where we were getting abused so badly on the boards and in general in the paint.

 

[MisterF]

Hahaha. This thread is funny. It's not about coaching fundamentals. It's about finding better athletes that can play hoops.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Hahaha. This thread is funny. It's not about coaching fundamentals. It's about finding better athletes that can play hoops.

I don't think anyone is saying we don't need better players. But, when you don't have top players, you can still win a lot if games if you are fundamentally better than your opponent. Not only does UCONN have elite players, they are also the best team fundamentally in the country. If it's that important for the best team to be fundamentally sound, think how important it is for every other team that doesn't have 7 McDonalds All-Americans to do the same.

 

[tycat947]

I've wondered if the team situation was hurt by a lack of individual work this past summer. From the first game of the year, we made lots of basic mistakes. It just seemed like they were not ready to start the season. Sherri and Aaryn spent most of their time and energy with international play, and I expect that meant the girls had to depend on their own motivation to work on their individual skills.

Yes, I know the coaches are not allowed to run any kind of organized summer work, but lots of (most?) teams encourage the kids to stay on campus and work in groups or individually. It demands focused leadership and a set of things to concentrate on. Even though the coaches can't even observe this work, if they are around they have means to know who is working hard and who isn't. That creates automatic motivation. Sherri's attention was far away (I was happy to see her get to do that by the way) and we were so young, that I have wondered if perhaps less growth took place than you would hope for last summer for the kids.

I also wondered if that was the reason for dropping the summer camps.

You are correct that coaches are not allowed to coach at all during the summer and at other points during the year. Sherri may have been gone but the rest of the staff would have been around to find out who is working hard or not with whatever means they would have. The Marist and Penn State head coaches were on the US team staff with Sherri and I didn't detect any negative effects of them coaching their teams this year. I don't really think that had anything to do with the problems this year. Consistency seemed like the biggest problem to me (for whatever reason). I can't remember a more inconsistent year. The last year Jenna played was similar although I think there were off the court issues within the team, I think. I don't really think that was the problem here though. I expect improvement next year though.

 

[soonermike22]

I agree with most of what you said. But, let's talk about fundamentals. How many times did you see players executing a pump fake shot the entire year? One? Two? You could certainly count them on one hand. That's as fundamental as you get in basketball. You can also look to our habit of dribble dribble dribble. That was our preferred method of moving the ball as opposed to sharp quick passes. Again, that is basic fundamental basketball. I've even read where some say, "the players forgot". That's complete horse hockey. Players might not play exactly how they practice but there is a very close resemblance.

When players are very fundamentally sound on both ends of the court, it is no shame to get beat because there are days when the ball won't go in the basket. But, to lose games due to poor fundamentals is hard to accept.

SoonerNorm is right about the fundamentals. Basic BB plays like moving when the ball is shot, blocking out, hustling back on defense, pump fakes, rotating to cover for your teammate under the basket, bounce passes that stay below the knee, no look passes to players who WEREN'T looking, strong cuts away from the ball to get open, are things we did not do as well as we should. A coach only has so much practice time, so you choose what you spend time on. And sometimes you (the coach) aren't perfect in those choices.
Or you play good players with bad habits because you think the team is better that way, and the bad habits spread. Every year isn't the best year for a player or coach, and this year seems to be the year that for OU it did not work as planned.

 

[womenssports]

SoonerNorm is right about the fundamentals. Basic BB plays like moving when the ball is shot, blocking out, hustling back on defense, pump fakes, rotating to cover for your teammate under the basket, bounce passes that stay below the knee, no look passes to players who WEREN'T looking, strong cuts away from the ball to get open, are things we did not do as well as we should. A coach only has so much practice time, so you choose what you spend time on. And sometimes you (the coach) aren't perfect in those choices.
Or you play good players with bad habits because you think the team is better that way, and the bad habits spread. Every year isn't the best year for a player or coach, and this year seems to be the year that for OU it did not work as planned.

If you do not do the basics, i.e., fundamental things right, you can forget about the rest. It is like life, if you do not take care of the little things there will be no big things to address. Okay, that is my take anyway.