Chris Williams the Time has Come

[AuH2O]

The thing that bugs me more than blowing a 15 point lead in Hilton is the lack of accountability.

I didn’t hear the postgame but from the accounts given here, it’s more just players not working hard enough. Is the coach ever going to acknowledge that some of his decisions may not always be perfect? I guess I am used to coaches having their players’ backs instead of throwing them under the bus.

It would also be nice to be able to discuss the problems without being labeled as a hater, or bad fan, or Steve Prohm.

It also might be as simple as people that don't understand how college basketball works, and last year being so historically bad plus missing the horrible teams on the schedule that they have no realistic standards. We had people preseason thinking if we won 8 games it would be a great job by the staff. No, unless you are taking over a situation like Scott Drew did where you have players murdering each other, you should never win fewer than 8 games at a power conference school. Never. Year 1, Year 20, complete new roster, doesn't matter. Now, clearly this staff blew reasonable win total expectations out of the water.

These threads are starting to remind me a little bit of the football offense discussions, where people would be (correctly) appalled at harsh criticism against Purdy, only to trash our guys playing OL as the rationale.

A lot of fans have no problem trashing our players to defend TJ. I will have to disagree that ISU has lost games because players on the other team "wanted it more." Our players play harder than any ISU team I have ever seen, and by a considerable margin. They have serious offensive limitations and the staff has not quite figured out how to offset these limitations enough to win.

 

[AuH2O]

What kills me about "effort" and "they want it more" is:

A) I don't see that. I still see a team that plays very hard, and

B) That's just as much on the coaches as the players. I remember many people early on questioning how long we could sustain playing as hard as we did. I know a few commenters even commented on how hard we go in practice. Part of your job as a coach is to know how to gear down a bit too, as it's a very long season.

Not just gear it down in practice, but having Jackson and Enaruna have a DNP Coach's Decision in the last couple of games is odd. I'm not saying it wasn't warranted, as I don't know the details, but if guys are worn down I would be hesitant to give a major rotation player 0 mins.

 

[carvers4math]

Another thing that worries me about shifting all blame to the players’ effort is potentially losing players because of it. Why would someone like Hunter, who has so much ability and puts in so much effort, stick around for another year of that?

 

[randomfan44]

I look at it like it’s a business. If I did something poorly at work (day one or one year in) - I would get asked questions about it. Why shouldn’t we do the same for publicly funded coaches? What’s wrong with asking questions about making adjustments/why none were made? (You can ask questions and still be professional… it happens 1000s of times a day).

If they are soft and get offended - that’s on them.

We as a society should do this more often… There is nothing wrong with candor.

If the person asking questions about my performance at work understands my work and is in the industry then it is a reasonable, even beneficial, activity.

If it is just some random person who doesn't know anything about my job then it has no value at all and should be ignored.

Uneducated candor is just stupid people giving opinions about stuff they don't know anything about.

 

[Rabbuk]

If the person asking questions about my performance at work understands my work and is in the industry then it is a reasonable, even beneficial, activity.

If it is just some random person who doesn't know anything about my job then it has no value at all and should be ignored.

Uneducated candor is just stupid people giving opinions about stuff they don't know anything about.

I mean fans are the consumer and I feel like in most businesses ignoring the consumer isn't a winning plan.

 

[rochclone]

1. You were an assistant under McD, Fred and Prohm and you can't come up with any better offensive sets than putting the ball in Georges or Roberts hands 20 feet from the basket?

2. Our half court offense isn't the most efficient so why don't we push the tempo more like we did in the first half of the KSU game in which we build a lead?

3. Why do you keep trying the 1-3-1 zone? Every time it is run it is leaving corner 3's open that opponents are knocking down?

4. When we double, why do we over play it and allow the opponent to split the double team?

5. Are you afraid to yell at the officials for obviously bad calls?

6. Please explain your rotations and don't give me the urgency and effort on defense excuse.

I need a press pass

But you want him to give honest answers which cannot include discussing the short comings of some of the players.

I will give you #5 and #6 but I doubt they are being coached on #4. As to #5 neither Fred or Steve or even McDermott got after the refs early in their tenure. I think that is something young coaches grow into as they have more experience with the specific crews they see on a regular basis. The 1-3-1 has its weak spots but it can also produce live ball turnovers above the free-throw leading to easy transition buckets.

I’m not sure how you can honestly answer #1 or #2 without speaking about the challenges that some of the players have on the offensive end of the floor.

 

[Raywswartz]

Another thing that worries me about shifting all blame to the players’ effort is potentially losing players because of it. Why would someone like Hunter, who has so much ability and puts in so much effort, stick around for another year of that?

I will say his poor play in last 10 minutes of game led to loss. Good pg play in last 10 minutes. we win that game sat. Hunter shouldn't be pressed into this in his freshman year. Will be good, but should be learning watching another experienced pg . And, this roster is limited. Low number of good shooters and virtually zero inside scoring makes it hard to win. I don't care how good you play defense.

 

[madguy30]

I truly hope all of our teams succeed in every way. I also wonder how long this coach’s decisions cannot be even questioned in any way because of who he knows and the vitriol towards his predecessor.

Things I've seen questioned in the forums that are legit imo:

-time out usage.

-perhaps leaning on defense too much instead of compromising to let the offense loose.

-not many attempts at getting the ball inside/out.

-uneven substitutions.

-lack of fundamentals/ball control out top on offense.

-1-3-1 zone.

 

[carvers4math]

I will say his poor play in last 10 minutes of game led to loss. Good pg play in last 10 minutes. we win that game sat. Hunter shouldn't be pressed into this in his freshman year. Will be good, but should be learning watching another experienced pg . And, this roster is limited. Low number of good shooters and virtually zero inside scoring makes it hard to win. I don't care how good you play defense.

We could have won in regulation if we had not bricked a wide open three. Not sure if he passed it to our 0-9 three point shooter or someone else did. Blaming him solely for the loss seems harsh.

 

[jsb]

What kills me about "effort" and "they want it more" is:

A) I don't see that. I still see a team that plays very hard, and

B) That's just as much on the coaches as the players. I remember many people early on questioning how long we could sustain playing as hard as we did. I know a few commenters even commented on how hard we go in practice. Part of your job as a coach is to know how to gear down a bit too, as it's a very long season.

Listening to George after the game and he sounded broken. It seems like these guys might need some public support. Maybe TJ will do that today.

When we were winning and I couldn’t understand how we were winning, I referred to our players as a bunch of lovable misfits. And I’m not convinced being so hard on them helps. Oh well.

 

[carvers4math]

Things I've seen questioned in the forums that are legit imo:

-time out usage.

-perhaps leaning on defense too much instead of compromising to let the offense loose.

-not many attempts at getting the ball inside/out.

-uneven substitutions.

-lack of fundamentals/ball control out top on offense.

-1-3-1 zone.

Is it legit to question why two players were benched for entire games with our small tired roster?

 

[isufbcurt]

But you want him to give honest answers which cannot include discussing the short comings of some of the players.

I will give you #5 and #6 but I doubt they are being coached on #4. As to #5 neither Fred or Steve or even McDermott got after the refs early in their tenure. I think that is something young coaches grow into as they have more experience with the specific crews they see on a regular basis. The 1-3-1 has its weak spots but it can also produce live ball turnovers above the free-throw leading to easy transition buckets.

I’m not sure how you can honestly answer #1 or #2 without speaking about the challenges that some of the players have on the offensive end of the floor.

I think it's fairly obvious to anyone watching the game that George and Robert don't need to have the ball in their hands 20' from the basket, so I don't think stating that publicly is throwing them under the bus.

Saying player X isn't a 3 point shooter is drastically different than saying player X isn't working hard and playing hard.

 

[jmb]

I mean fans are the consumer and I feel like in most businesses ignoring the consumer isn't a winning plan.

If you want answers like this is a Subway call into the coaches show maybe? It seems weird to demand answers to something like this. I don't get it.

 

[Rabbuk]

But you want him to give honest answers which cannot include discussing the short comings of some of the players.

I will give you #5 and #6 but I doubt they are being coached on #4. As to #5 neither Fred or Steve or even McDermott got after the refs early in their tenure. I think that is something young coaches grow into as they have more experience with the specific crews they see on a regular basis. The 1-3-1 has its weak spots but it can also produce live ball turnovers above the free-throw leading to easy transition buckets.

I’m not sure how you can honestly answer #1 or #2 without speaking about the challenges that some of the players have on the offensive end of the floor.

I mean 1 is a coaching issue, none of our bigs are Georges or Royce style bigs who can facilitate so 25 games in to still be doing it is maddening. 2 isn't really a limitation of players either Hunter and Brockington have both proven to be good at running fast breaks and pushing tempo, as have our other guards. Only Brockington has proven to be much of a consistent half court threat.

 

[jsb]

Another thing that worries me about shifting all blame to the players’ effort is potentially losing players because of it. Why would someone like Hunter, who has so much ability and puts in so much effort, stick around for another year of that?

And then when the player gets back in, they are really hesitant. It seems like Tre was on Saturday.

In general it seems very odd to bench players as punishment for entire games based on effort. Like I get that Tre sucked against Texas and that was bad. And I get that TJ has issues with Tristan. But I’m not sure what an all out benching accomplishes.

 

[Rabbuk]

If you want answers like this is a Subway call into the coaches show maybe? It seems weird to demand answers to something like this. I don't get it.

You don't understand people wanting to know why odd things happen? Don't know what to tell you man, congrats on being a chill consumer

 

[jsb]

Is it legit to question why two players were benched for entire games with our small tired roster?

The real question is who gets benched tomorrow?

 

[carvers4math]

The real question is who gets benched tomorrow?

I think we all know a few who won’t given past experience

One poster has blamed the loss on Hunter, if it’s him it will just be too ugly to watch. IB will have to do all the dribbling so our offense will be lefty all the way

 

[jsb]

I think we all know a few who won’t given past experience

We do! And I don’t think those players should be benched. Obviously you’d hope TJ would explain to the players clearly why they aren’t playing and why others are being allowed to play through their mistakes.

 

[Stormin]

The collapse of the 1987-88 Cyclones was far more gut wrenching than this. That team had Jeff Grayer as a Senior. Lafester Rhodes. Gary Thompkins. Elmer Robinson. And some talent on the bench as well. This team is struggling. TJ will bring in more talent. And honestly, I think TJ is a better Coach already than either Hoiberg or Prohm. Even McDermott. Kyle Green is a helluva assistant. These Coaches haven’t forgotten how to Coach. The Players are missing wide open shots. Can’t hit the Ocean.