Quote Originally Posted by nova1111 View Post
on his offensive philosophy? With the thin bench, it's hard to imagine we'll try to run anybody into the ground -- we'll be the one winding up on the ground. What's he been saying?
I would look for defense to be his overriding philosophy. That was his strongest attribute as a player, its the area of focus he took pride in and he is a defensive-minded coach....Almost entirely man, but a little zone mixed in....I know he wants to use half and full court pressure but im not sure we see an abundance of that this coming season because of the limited numbers and depth...But I would expect that to be a fairly substantial role after this coming year...And I think his defensive philosophy will be to hold players accountable...In other words, if you dont step in and take a charge, he is going to take you out. If you dont fight to get thru and over screens, you might expect to be taken out...Things of that nature, but that is going to be his strongest focus and area of emphasis....

Offensively, I wouldnt look for him to run a ton of sets...We might see 8-10 but not as much as in the past....He is going to run and I mean push the ball extremely hard...Again, will he do that as much as he wants to this coming season because of the depth issues? perhaps not...But moving forward I would expect to see his teams runs hard and run often...Score before teams can set their defense kind of thing...Now we proably arent going to be Loyola Marymount but we will run and push the ball consistently....

Overall, his offensive philosophy is to empower kids to shoot when they have open shots, regardless of how early it comes in the offense....Dont have them loking over their shoulders...If a Jarrell Eddie gets a wide open look very early, you want him taking that shot because he might be the best perimeter shooter...Empower kids to take early shots if they are available and wide open...BUT, and this is important, just like on defense when kids dont get over screens or wont take a charge, if you take bad shots or forced, covered shots then you should expect consequences....Define during pre-season what is considered a good shot, encourage kids to take open shots anytime if they are good shooters, but also define what a bad or poor shot is and hold them accountable for those shots at the same time.....

I think we will get the ball inside much much more to the post in general, and especially Dot...And I think you wont see our kids looking off options early in the shot clock so that they can hold it til the shotclck gets to 10 secs and then have the Big come up for a ball screen regularly like we saw at times in the past....I often thought we had too many instances where our guards did precisely that because they knew we were always going to use a ball screen at 10 secs and they would get almost every late shot attempt inside 10 seconds....I would not expect that to continue anymore....

Mostly, I think what we see this year because of numbers wont necessarily reflect what we will see in year 2 and moving forward....Limited sets, but run what sets you do very well and have every player know the sets, empower players offensively, run like crazy, get the ball into the post consistently, yet also define what a poor shot is and demand kids make good shot decisions....And defensively, you better take charges, you better fight thru screens,you better close out consistently well and you better keep pressure on the ball if you want to play....

Thats just my guess what his philosophy might be..lol