HaRdWoOd wrote:Chicagojayfan wrote:
What will be interesting is to see how far we are willing to go in order to add the right amount of physical toughness to the team for next year. We suffered through a couple of years where we lacked shooters, and last year seemed to have a more balanced offense/rotation, but still lost to SD State, and then this year, we beat some knock-down drag out physical games, but also lost to Tennessee (I think it's a bit of bad luck that, IMO, we played the 2 most extreme physical D style teams in the tourney the last 2 years also and both were games where the refs ignored their whistles)
Why are we continuing to harp on the whistles or lack of whistles? Some fans think Creighton would have been undefeated last year, if refs would just call the game the way it was meant to be called. Every loss has been littered with posts blaming the physical play. Bro - its not called that way, hasnt been called that way and wont be called that way anytime in the near future. When was the last time you watched a college basketball game and thought- wow, they are calling everything tonight. Never. So, if you arent adjusting to physical play during the off-season, then its on you. If you arent making in game adjustments, in regard to physical play, then its on you. During the game, if you arent adjusting to how the refs are calling moving screens, defending with hands, contact on the perimeter and in the paint, then its on the players and coaches. Stop blaming the refs for everything.
College basketball is a physical game. Get used to it. The coaches and players arent complaining about it. Just certain fans looking for a scapegoat.
RollJays covered a lot of this, but:
- where on earth do I say we'd be undefeated without the refs?
- Were there any teams in last year's tourney that were more physical than SD State? If so which ones?
- Were there any teams in this year's tourney more physical than Tennessee? If so, which ones?
- Did the refs ignore the whistles for San Diego state in any game more than they did for ours in the Tourney last year (we had by far the fewest fouls called on them - 11. Same for Tennessee
I mention this because it's f'ing relevant. If you think that the style of play called doesn't matter, then maybe you need to go watch a simpler game than basketball
And the Coaches and players know that complaining about it has repercussions, so, yeah, they don't do that publicly
Anyway, my point was more straightforward -- we KNOW we want to add physical toughness, but how far do we go in roster construction.
We aren't getting perfect players and we won't want to go away from our style too much. Cooley was a great example of someone who put the premium on physicality and toughness for his rosters at Providence, but they also lacked shooting and skills. They rarely had a roster to stretch the floor. We won't do that, but how far can we go is the relevant question