How's my Coaching?

[GS II]

I'd like to track the solutions Coach Hewitt directly offers to solve team problems.

After first two games:

Defense - F
This is 80% of our problem. If we decease opponents made shots (by playing better D) in last two games, URI and FIU can't press as much and therefore expose our young team of guards to the mistakes and turnovers we have seen skyrocket. Playing better D will allow you to grow your leads, and control the game better, which we have been unable to sustain. Will Hewitt put more work into the Defense?

[dr. gunnie]

Maybe I'm just not used to it, but I hate seeing us switch so quickly on ball screens and not attempt to stay with our man. It caused a lot of mismatches last night and they took advantage.

Also, we should not have had Mike Mo in the game at the end of regulation. He got the inbound with 10 seconds left at FIU should of fouled him and put him on the line. I would feel much better with Arledge in during that situation.

Having said that, Coach Hewitt knows 100x more about basketball than I do, so I'm sure he has his reasons.

[illayin]

Maybe I'm just not used to it, but I hate seeing us switch so quickly on ball screens and not attempt to stay with our man. It caused a lot of mismatches last night and they took advantage.

I noticed that happening quite a bit in the RI game... I couldn't understand it for the life of me and had me saying repeatedly, "switch back." Copes and Allen/Edwards would switch off on a screen then they'd be like 2 feet from one another and wouldn't switch back.

However, I think I sort of get why they didn't switch back in that particular situation I kept seeing. It was so close to the baseline that Copes was essentially defending the baseline and Allen/Edwards would have collapsed if the ballhandler drove away from the baseline and the perimeter defense would have rotated if the ballhandler kicked it back out. Not sure if it was the same situation last night because I didn't notice it as much, but it sort of made sense in hindsight in that particular situation against RI.

[Mason2012]

Also, we should not have had Mike Mo in the game at the end of regulation. He got the inbound with 10 seconds left at FIU should of fouled him and put him on the line. I would feel much better with Arledge in during that situation.

Having said that, Coach Hewitt knows 100x more about basketball than I do, so I'm sure he has his reasons.

I don't think that is a valid criticism of his coaching last night. You really think they should have put Morrisson on the line fore 2 FT's in the final 10 seconds of a tie game? If they were up 3 points (or maybe even 2), this would have been a no-brainer, but to foul MM in that situation in a tie game would have been an AWFUL coaching decision, so there really wasn't any danger there as far as Morrison's free throws go.

[patriotfan49]

We will see if Defense is a priority in the next few weeks, but at the moment we are trying to be the New England Patriots instead of the GMU Pats.

All Offense no D.

We are all not being paid tons of cash to figure this out though.

[expendable smurf]

While in the short term it certainly seems like an issue, in the long term defense is not something I'm much concerned about. The one thing Hewitt's teams at GT did consistently well was play D. The offense tended towards mediocre, but the D was fine. I imagine that with time it will be fixed.

[patriot lawdog]

While in the short term it certainly seems like an issue, in the long term defense is not something I'm much concerned about. The one thing Hewitt's teams at GT did consistently well was play D. The offense tended towards mediocre, but the D was fine. I imagine that with time it will be fixed.

Agree completely. Even the GT fans would agree with that.

[Scythe]

This is a bit premature at this point I believe. If in the next few games there is no visible improvement then I'll add some fuel to the fire.

[GS II]

Maybe I'm just used to the old coach, but defense wins championships. However, I didn't like how Coach L held back some of his athletic teams on offense. Last year he let go a little bit, but his foundation for wining was defense. What is Hewitts? I really don't know what this guy is selling.

[sigmanorm]

My son started his house basketball practice on Sunday. His coach spent 45 of the 60 minutes on defense...hmmm