Every coach has strengths and weaknesses.
The common denominator in all coaches is stubbornness. Most are inflexible in their styles. BG runs the exact same system as Tom Izzo, yet Izzo gets away with it.
I think it is more than OK to question coaches, their strengths and weaknesses. To look at AG's resume and want him fired right now with the talent of this team is plain silly. For those who don't believe that the Neil and the committee did NO vetting on AG and hired him simply because he is a UD alum, you are flat out misguided. Neil was looking for head coaches every year AM was here. Why? because AM was a great coach and hot commodity. Neil was aware of ALL of the coaches that were available for several years.
Some criticism for AG is deserving. Other is not. The criticism for substitution is one that I think is not deserving. He has a short inept bench and perhaps one injured player. Crosby, Svoboda and Kostas have all played themselves out of minutes. At the same time, the team lacks defensive heart. What do you do? Who do you play? You send a message and play a walk on for 7 minutes. That won't win you any games today...
Not calling timeouts at St. Louis is very questionable. Not sure it would have made a difference, but college players can use a breather and settling down.
The offense would look inept at times, yet ironically their offensive efficiency is good, very good. I saw Anthony put some back door cuts in the
Rhode Island game because of the way Rhode Island overplays on defense. The team could execute them in practice, but folded in the game. Poor coaching? Poor execution?
To blame Anthony on the drop in the standings from last year to this year shows a lack of understanding about college basketball.
Finally, Anthony protects his players. He won't say anything bad about the players in public. I like that. Very in Bobby Knight like. I guarantee in private he is not happy with this team.
This has become a throw away year. Very disappointing. Anthony played lineups to win every game this year but it has not happened.
The real evaluation of Anthony as a coach begins with the recruiting this offseason and what happens the next 2 years.
Originally Posted by Smitty10
Okay, I'm going to set the record straight. I posted the gist of this in the game thread but I'm going to put it here so that I can't be accused of wanting AG fired and taking pleasure in failures.
I'll start by quickly reiterating what I think are his weaknesses and then get to why I have hope. I think he's lacking in the flexibility of creating an identity for the players he was handed. He's going to emphasize his way only regardless if he's trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. I think he has a difficult time getting players he inherited to buy in to his system. When it comes to coaching up, I think he is lacking there also compared to his predecessor. There are others but I'm going to stop here.
I believe that the only way for AG to succeed is to successfully recruit better players that are ready to contribute immediately. And I think this is his strength. He's got a knack for drawing better, ready to play recruits. I think his past coaching jobs have shown that. Now, here's what makes me think that there's a good chance that will happen here. In AM's 6 seasons, only one player was able to crack the starting lineup their freshman season. Dyshawn Pierre. The others played small roles except for Scoochie who had to play more of a role due to Khari Price's knees. Scoochie wasn't that impressive but he was stable with the ball and could eat up minutes. Next on the list would be Baby D who was forced into a major role due to a short team both physically and in availability. So nothing real impressive.
So far in one season with only one eligible recruit, Jalen Crutcher, AG is one for one. This is impressive especially since he was a desperation late recruit. Now we know our roster is short on both new and experienced talent so it was probably easier for him to crack the starting lineup, but if that was all there was I'd use that as an excuse for it happening. But Jalen Crutcher has been as impressive with the many minutes he's getting as anyone I can think of in recent history for the Flyers and that includes Dyshawn Pierre.
I can't be sure but it certainly makes me excited to see Obadiah Toppin and Dwayne Cohill take to the floor next season along with a few more that AG will bring in the next couple seasons.
So there you have it. Yes, I'm still going to blame AG a lot for the failures of this season because I think those weaknesses I mentioned above have a lot to do with them. If I look at one game and say it was Josh Cunningham's fault we lost that in no way means that I'm not thankful Josh Cunningham is on the team. If I look at a season and say Kostas was a disappointment that in no way means that I don't believe that Kostas will get better and please us in the future. I'm just dissecting what went wrong and what caused it. I'm looking at the small picture which is what we do on a topic about a game or a topic about a season.
So go ahead and keep attacking me and accusing me of not giving AG a chance, I'm not going to sugar coat single game or single season failures. I can't do it, it's not in my nature. But again, I'm real excited to see how this team performs as we get more of AG's recruits in here because after only one very successful freshman in 6 seasons by a very successful coach, I can't help to believe we could be in for some future great times with a coach who is one for one so far.
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