March 31, 2002

coaching. sure dixon was incredible and gooden had an off night, but kansas lost (and maryland won) last night because of the guys in suits. as one of the broadcasters (don't remember who it was) pointed out at the end of the game last night, maryland's gary williams was absolutely brilliant when it came to managing his bench. baxter got into such serious foul trouble so early that he was barely a factor last night. but g.williams rotated his bench players so efficiently that he could still gave baxter enough minutes to be active yet keep him from fouling out until the very end. maryland always seemed to have the 'right' combination of players on the hardwood at all times last night. roy williams, on the other hand, severely mismanaged his team. both strategically and motivationally. baxter's copious minutes warming the bench should have dictated the jayhawks' strategy from the get-go: pound the ball in to nick collison and watch him score at will; if they double or triple team collison, kick it out to boschee and kill the terps with the trey. oh yeah, and play stifling defense, too. i watched the my new york knickerbockers have great success with this program back in the heyday of patrick ewing. instead of choosing to exploit this obvious advantage, however, it appeared that r.williams' strategy was not to have one at all. the jayhawks looked disoriented and confused throughout most of the first half, settling for middling jump shots and breaking down on defense (particularly on terrapins' inbounds plays under the kansas bucket). r.williams then failed to motivate his players during the break, and the jayhawks started the second half looking and playing flat — which allowed the terps to open up an all but uncloseable lead. and then the boys in blue played even flatter. they looked like losers and played like them too. but still, r.williams did nothing to motivate his team. he could have pointed out that all they had to do was get close and then watch maryland crumble as their fears of a repeat of last year's loss to duke became a self-fulfilling prophecy. but i never saw him let his players in on this pyschological advantage. miraculously, kansas did mount a comeback. and, boy, did they ever get close. but i don't credit r.williams with orchestrating the comeback...and i do accuse him of derailing it. i noticed kansas' mood start to pick up with the energetic play on both sides of the ball by freshman guard aaron miles, right around the time that hinrich fouled out. this, of course, is the same kid whose traveling violation at a crucial moment in the comeback hurt kansas. but it wasn't that turnover that killed the comeback, it was r.williams' terrible clock management. there was the obvious situation of the technical foul for calling timeout when none were left. i blame the coach for that because mere seconds had elapsed since he last had the boys huddled around him to discuss a set play. considering the importance of every point and every possession at this time, it probably would have been a good idea for r.williams to let his team know that he had just used the last timeout and that they shouldn't call one. but he didn't...and they did...and it cost them. the other time management point i take issue with was r.williams' decision not to foul maryland when they inbounded with about 50 seconds left, waiting instead until there were only 30. this seemed a pointless waste of precious time — i believe that the missing 20 seconds might have given the jayhawks an opportunity to tie, especially with the way the terps were clanking their free throws. but that's not the way it went down. (fwiw, i like roy williams. a lot. i thought that this was going to be his year. i believe in "players' coaches". i think his performance last night is no indication of r.williams' true coaching ability. but it does make me wonder: 'can he win the 'big' game?' i thought he could three weeks ago; my (now useless) bracket has kansas beating duke to win it all. but after watching and thinking about last night's game, i'd hesitate to trust roy williams again.)

posted by mlang at 12:25 PM on March 31, 2002

good CYA move, my friend.

posted by bcb2k2 at 12:46 PM on March 31, 2002