These BB players are Big Ten types

[chog68]

This basketball team was recruited by Stan Heath to play Big Ten type BB-big on the front line with an emphasis on pounding the ball inside to the bigs from a more half-court style of play. This style is supposed to lend itself to high percentage(close range) shooting and allow the bigs underneath the chance to stick back the misses. Close range shots obviously bound off the rim with less force and distance than longer range shots. This tells us that the players Stan recruited-
1) Would need to be athletes who could jump and dunk as opposed to ones that are great shooters. This explains our HORRID 3pt shooting and overall FG percentage, save our dunks and tip ins.
2) Need not to be "conditioned" enough to run a pressing style defense and an up-tempo offense. Remember the comments made by the staff when they first got here? Something along the lines of the "worst conditioned" team they had ever seen!
3) Obviously are NOT the type of athletes or even basketball players that Pel needs to implement his SEC style that he played at Kentucky or learned from his coaching mentors ala Pitino or Donovan.

The negativity surrounding coach Pel is premature to say the least. Am I saying this is the guy that is going to bring our BB program back to national prominence? The truth is I have no idea at this point. I do know that he does not have the tools(players) at his disposal to build his type of BB program. When building your house, you don't wanna use a crew of accountants with tax books and calculators, you wanna use a construction crew with hammers and nails, don't ya?

Give Pel this year and the next two to see what he can build. If, at that time, the program is not where we as fans expect it to be, it will then be time for a change. I'd be willing to bet that with JFB and JW no longer wielding their "power", change, if it needs to come, will come without all the drama and other BS we have had to endure the past decade.

Just my $.02 worth       

[freethrow]

Agree!! Not one player on this team can consistently generate his own shot. Shoot 3's or dunk. Most have no in between game at all.

[blacksuit]

You mentioned conditioning. Yet another thing that can't be built in 6 months. Give Pel some time.

From a strategy standpoint, my impression is that our dual problem of no pg and no 3 pt shooter cripples us against zone defenses, and the zone defenses cripple our bigs. It's like a house of cards.

[HogNuttz]

Agree!! Not one player on this team can consistently generate his own shot. Shoot 3's or dunk. Most have no in between game at all.

They can all dunk and we have plenty of shot generaters, just no shot makers.

[HogNuttz]

You mentioned conditioning. Yet another thing that can't be built in 6 months. 

How long does it take to get in condition?  I would think 6 months is more than enough time.  It's not like Pel pulled 15 guys out of an all you can eat buffet and is training them to climb Everest.

[HawgAdvocate]

How long does it take to get in condition?  I would think 6 months is more than enough time.  It's not like Pel pulled 15 guys out of an all you can eat buffet and is training them to climb Everest.

Conditioning is fine, except we have no experienced guard depth. Beverley, Welsh, and Ervin are playing more minutes than Pel were normally prefer, and that will wear on them as the season progresses. Deep into games, they're going to lose their legs on jumpers, little by little. Their FG% should tail off, and their TOs should increase as well. We're already seeing the rregression as the season goes on.

Beverley hasn't stopped playing since the summer before his freshman year thanks to his participation in Olympic basketball.
Ervin was showing greats signs of improvement, but has recently hit a wall and has seen his TOs rise, and his FG% fall.

[hawgsav1]

This basketball team was recruited by Stan Heath to play Big Ten type BB-big on the front line with an emphasis on pounding the ball inside to the bigs from a more half-court style of play. This style is supposed to lend itself to high percentage(close range) shooting and allow the bigs underneath the chance to stick back the misses. Close range shots obviously bound off the rim with less force and distance than longer range shots. This tells us that the players Stan recruited-
1) Would need to be athletes who could jump and dunk as opposed to ones that are great shooters. This explains our HORRID 3pt shooting and overall FG percentage, save our dunks and tip ins.
2) Need not to be "conditioned" enough to run a pressing style defense and an up-tempo offense. Remember the comments made by the staff when they first got here? Something along the lines of the "worst conditioned" team they had ever seen!
3) Obviously are NOT the type of athletes or even basketball players that Pel needs to implement his SEC style that he played at Kentucky or learned from his coaching mentors ala Pitino or Donovan.

The negativity surrounding coach Pel is premature to say the least. Am I saying this is the guy that is going to bring our BB program back to national prominence? The truth is I have no idea at this point. I do know that he does not have the tools(players) at his disposal to build his type of BB program. When building your house, you don't wanna use a crew of accountants with tax books and calculators, you wanna use a construction crew with hammers and nails, don't ya?

Give Pel this year and the next two to see what he can build. If, at that time, the program is not where we as fans expect it to be, it will then be time for a change. I'd be willing to bet that with JFB and JW no longer wielding their "power", change, if it needs to come, will come without all the drama and other BS we have had to endure the past decade.

Just my $.02 worth       

I agree with your characterizations except one:  it's not limited to "Big-10" style of basketball.  Conference styles can be characterized in football, but not as much in basketball.  Take UCLA for example.  Ben Howland is a defensive slow-down kind of guy who plays a similar style of ball to the flex offenses and such.  However, he's been successful in a conference that is known for it's offensive production with squads such as Arizona, Washington, and Oregon.  Oklahoma (Kelvin Sampson era) was a team that prided itself on defense and would win ballgames with scores of 59-47 and such and played a strong fundamental half court defense.  However, Kansas has always been good on offense.  They have tons of athletes and scorers.  There's no way to characterize "typical" Big-10 basketball.  The SEC is another example.  People think the SEC is a run and gun and press and full court kind of conference.  Not true.  The characterization comes from the fact that both Pitino and Nolan (the two defining coaches of the SEC during the 90s) played this up-tempo style.  LSWho didn't play that style when they made the Final Four a few years ago.  They had Big Baby on the inside along with Tyrus Thomas.  They had decent guard play with Tack Minor, but he was a bit erratic.  Motion offenses can work but the only problem is that Heath didn't implement his correctly.