totally agree with the OP. TMiles doesn't deserve a coaching job like NU. He charmed and twittered his way into the bigtime and NU's Men's basketball team is no better for it. He is just not a great coach. the x's and o's displayed by this team are pitiful. there are so many things that can be pointed to as indicators of poor coaching....i'll give you 3.....if anyone actually cares enough to read them at this point.
1. standing around on offense. i hear people say this alot as if its the players fault. As if the players have been given an objective and instead choose to just stand. Standing around on offense is a symptom of NOT KNOWING WHAT TO DO. This is a direct result of the rudderless offense Tmiles employs. he doesn't have a plan. there's no system or structure. no punch, punch, counter punch. its just all concepts and theories. you can look pretty good when the energy is up, TPetteway is scoring 30 a game and Walter pitchford is hitting tons of 3s. But when that doesn't happen, you get the garbage we had last year. Why would you run around aimlessly with no purpose when the alternative is to just stand and watch Shavon Shields do everything? Answer - you wouldn't. thus the reason everyone is standing and watching because the offense is nothing more then "be really awesome and just make plays". Thats why you see this black hole mentality. it happened with Tpetteway his entire career and its starting to happen with Shavon. Thankfully, Shavon isn't the Dbag to his teamates that TP was, but the same thing is happening. When the offense has no plan, 1 player takes it upon himself to do it all. That 1 player gets frustrated with his teammates upon realizing he can't do it all. the teammates get frustrated because they want to help but don't know how or where they fit. there aren't enough balls to go around in an offense that has no identity, so the whole thing just falls apart. thats NU in a nutshell on offense.
2. floor spacing. i mentioned in the CU game how many times i saw NU players guarding the same player. and it wasn't because they were employing a doubleteam, it was because 1 guy didn't know what he was doing. Did anyone happen to notice the post players movements tonight while NU was on offense against the 2/3 zone? its embarrassing. they have NO idea what to do, or where to go, or more importantly, WHEN to go there. i watched this over and over with my handy DVR. numerous times there are players just standing 2 ft from someone else....or flashing too late when the ball is swung to the opposite side. the poor timing and spacing is a direct result of not being TAUGHT what to do. this is coaching 101. NU looked absolutely clueless against the 2/3 zone. and thats against athletes of Samford caliber. Jeepers creepers....if any big10 team wants to hold NU to under 40 points, just employ a simple 2/3 zone. game over.
3. Press break. I remember in year one screaming at the TV because NU had no idea how to break a press. well here we are in year 4 and we still don't. it didn't look as bad because we were playing against Samford caliber athletes, but it was still effective enough to reek havoc. the players still don't know where to be or what the PLAN is to break the press. no one flashes to the middle of the floor. what really bothered me was that everyone in the gym knew the press was coming, yet Webster looks completely surprised that the press is here. During the inbounds, he nearly steps on the endline, balancing on his tiptoes, hoping benny can get open against 2 guys, while the rest of the team stands and watches. The result was a 5 second call.
so there it is again....guys standing around, cause thats what happens when players don't know what to do.
