With Lewis's performance over the past two games, it does make me wonder why he got basically no playing time until now. Granted he did pretty bad in the UNC game but he barely had a chance prior to that.

2/7/2013 11:23:30 PM

Quote :

"it does make me wonder why he got basically no playing time until now"

short answer: because Brown is a baller

2/7/2013 11:24:41 PM

because he was fucking horrible all season prior to the miami game?!

2/7/2013 11:26:05 PM

Everybody wants to move Brown to the 2 now so idk, you'd think there could have been some use for him.

If we're not going to play him when Brown is back it doesn't really help us much except in foul trouble situations (not to say that's not helpful).

2/7/2013 11:26:12 PM

you people

2/7/2013 11:34:58 PM

So, cool story, me and tower zeroed-in towards the end of the TOB era. And this is by no means giving up on Gottfried, because, like I said, it was towards the end that I finally said "fuck TOB" (not in a boobs "u mad" way, just in a "i'm done with this bullshit" way), but this is spot fucking on.

Quote :

"gott isn't a good defensive coach. this year is a bit of an extreme yea, but so is the level of talent and offensive performance. unless we hire an assistant who is an elite defensive coach we're just not going to be good on that side of the ball. it doesn't change. like TOBs recruiting"

2/8/2013 12:26:27 AM

dean and k sucked after 2 years

so, yeah

2/8/2013 12:29:50 AM

damn are we really back to the sidney lowe excuses already

gott isn't that bad. i'll take him for 10 years. i don't want to watch the same shit for the rest of my young life, though.

2/8/2013 12:32:03 AM

Gott is a fine coach. It's the psychology part he's struggling with.

2/8/2013 9:48:24 AM

Is that another Lowe "headcase" excuse? Pls elaborate. Because coaches usually deal with teams that go through losing slides, injuries, etc.

2/8/2013 9:53:04 AM

Quote :

"dean and k sucked after 2 years so, yeah"

Yeah, b/c K came here from another major conference team that had won the SEC.

2/8/2013 9:53:55 AM

In his post game presser, he went out of his way to praise specific players and the team for not giving up.

2/8/2013 9:54:35 AM

Quote :

"Is that another Lowe "headcase" excuse? Pls elaborate. Because coaches usually deal with teams that go through losing slides, injuries, etc."

Nope, but I think certain players would play better if they came off the bench - CJL

2/8/2013 9:58:09 AM

Just trying to understand the criticism about Gottfried and his defensive expertise. Clearly, something is wrong but what is it? He doesn't spend enough time on defense in practice? He's teaching them wrong in practice? His assistants know less than he does about defense? These same players were pretty terrible defensively under Lowe too (although him being a terrible coach factors in there as well) so part of it has to be a personnel issue. Then again, Gottfried's teams have never been very good defensively - does he just put more emphasis on recruiting offense over defense?

I thought we read a ton of stories last year about how he's delegating so much more to his assistants than he ever did in his prior jobs. But we're also hearing about how we have a staff of "head coaches." Are they ALL terrible defensive coaches? Is this all somehow Levi Watkins' fault?

Just asking questions.

[Edited on February 8, 2013 at 10:04 AM. Reason : astuteness? wtf]

2/8/2013 10:00:19 AM

We are horrible with screens. Most of the time, IMO, we go under the screen on good shooters. And if we go over the screen, the big man doesn't hedge enough to deter a quick shot. Howell will is probably our best big man at hedging on screens...but a lot of times he takes it too far and gets a stupid foul 30 feet from the basket.

Normally, I'm against switching on screens. However...we absolutely blow at defending screens AND our big men are fairly athletic (sans Vandy, of course)...so I'm starting to think that's what we need to do. Howell, Leslie, and Warren can all keep guards in front of them and are long enough to contest shots if the guard decides to pull up. Our guards (sans Lewis) are also pretty strong, so they can handle a mismatch with a big man somewhat adequately...or at least long enough to get weakside help or switch back to the original offensive guy.

Something needs to change...because we give up way too many open threes.

2/8/2013 10:08:19 AM

I can see on the court what the problems are. I'm just wondering why Gottfried isn't doing something about it, why he's failing, what responsibility our assistants have, how much is just the players' defensive ability, etc.

We've been bad in the same areas on defense almost the entire season. Doesn't seem like any adjustments are being made.

2/8/2013 10:11:53 AM

Also...the zone last night was a pretty bad idea.

Although I almost can't fault him for going to it. He had to try something and our guys were starting to get into foul trouble. But you don't go to a zone when the opposing team is hitting 80% of their threes.

2/8/2013 10:16:23 AM

Why is our offense good? Why does Andy Reid suck at clock management? Why can't Howell jump?

Coaching is a talent. There's 340+ teams in college basketball. Some of them are going to suck at defense. We're one of them.

I think we use the zone at horrible times but it doesnt really matter because we're terrible playing man too. Worth trying I guess. Scott Drew, a horrible coach, has made the Elite 8 a couple times thanks to it.

2/8/2013 1:52:28 PM

I dreamed last night I was a walk-on and Gott taught me man defense. I only remember the phrase "you have fouls to give" being thrown around a lot.

2/8/2013 1:59:21 PM

I think Gottfried likes to a coach certain style of defense, but we just don't have the personnel for it to be effective this year. Namely strong on the ball perimeter defenders and weakside help when a guard gets into the paint. Unfortunately our guards consistently get torched on the perimeter and the help is always too late.

Next year we'll have Barber who looks like a great defender, year two of Purvis, and no more old man Wood. Combined with Anya cleaning up around the rim, we have the potential to be great defensively.

[Edited on February 8, 2013 at 2:14 PM. Reason : :]

2/8/2013 2:12:21 PM

I try to not hold the lack of depth against Gottfried and it is a huge issue. He has us relevant way sooner than I expected(especially in regards to recruiting), and has gotten more out of CJL than it looked like we were going to get originally(both on the court and the fact he stayed another year).

With another top class coming in, and hopefully a 3rd to follow it up we'll actually be on cycle of having both talent and depth mixing in early grads with 4 year guys which is what you need. When was the last time we even had a rotation of functional players that was more than 6-7? I found it pretty funny last night when the announcer said, "Duke is a little short tonight with only 8 scholarship players available." I'd love to have 8 functional scholarship players that sounds terrific right about now.

2/8/2013 5:49:45 PM

Team adds 3 mcdonalds all-americans, gets worse

-10000

[Edited on February 10, 2013 at 1:36 PM. Reason : H]

2/10/2013 1:36:41 PM

Remember the first week of the season that drunk announcer that kept talking about how we can't stop penetration and it would be our biggest weakness. He was on point.

2/10/2013 2:12:15 PM

Wearing a purple shirt/tie at Clemson

-37 credibility

2/10/2013 2:29:44 PM

Oh FFS Gottfried. How often do these timeouts work for us.

2/10/2013 2:55:49 PM

Haha. Gott has us relevant? Yeah, we're so relevant we're not even ranked! Consider yourself officially called out, Gott.

2/10/2013 3:01:47 PM

*crickets*

2/10/2013 3:11:06 PM

I know you were expecting a train wreck coming out of that timeout just like the rest of us. I just want him to let the players play and I think we would have more success late in games.

2/10/2013 3:12:28 PM

i was expecting a play for wood

but i was expecting clemson to realize we were looking for wood and deny him the ball / contest the shot

2/10/2013 3:13:26 PM

You know damn well if he hadnt called a timeout that play would have ended with a leslie turnover. I celebrated that timeout

2/10/2013 3:29:13 PM

I was thinking it would be Lewis with an ending like Atsur against Vanderbilt in the tourney a few years back, so glad it wasn't


+10

2/10/2013 3:31:20 PM

the way leslie was handling the ball +100 credibility for not giving him the opportunity to fuck things up

2/10/2013 3:32:31 PM

^^^ I agree that a timeout in that instance was a good call, but you guys know damn well he would have called timeout regardless of who had the ball. 3/4 of the time, its a shitty play that happens afterwards. Tons of coaches do that shit--not just Gottfried--and I think it's dumb most of the time.

Gives the other team a chance to setup defense and takes the offense completely out of their flow to setup some play that typically requires pinpoint execution which college kids are prone to fuck up.

2/10/2013 3:57:36 PM

He is in year 2 with a S16 appearance and wins over UNC/Duke with players that are mostly not his.

Shut the fuck up. Go throw a flag at him aaronburro.

[Edited on February 10, 2013 at 4:05 PM. Reason : VV directed at aaronburro's dumbass not you]

2/10/2013 4:01:17 PM

Quote :

"You know damn well if he hadnt called a timeout that play would have ended with a leslie turnover. I celebrated that timeout"

2/10/2013 4:03:44 PM

that was a bit uncalled for. I am a huge Gottfried fan, just not a fan of his propensity to call late game TOs.

2/10/2013 4:04:06 PM

Quote :

"dude. we're going to lose at least 2 of the next 4. Clemson is a lock "

aaronburro swings and misses

2/10/2013 4:05:41 PM

you're giving him exactly what he wants by responding to him

2/10/2013 4:07:15 PM

Just got back from the bar. Didn't see the game. Still credible?

2/10/2013 4:40:12 PM

+58 credibility for snapping the road and close game losing streaks

2/10/2013 4:46:06 PM

Quote :

"You know damn well if he hadnt called a timeout that play would have ended with a leslie turnover."

2/10/2013 6:21:15 PM

Credible for not putting Vandy in.

2/10/2013 6:33:40 PM

he deserves credibility for the game winning play...but i just watched the last play again...the only thing I'm disappointed in is that we had no one crashing the boards in case of a miss..there was time for a tip in, so -1 credibility for that.

2/11/2013 9:38:07 AM

No need for the rebound. The play was clearly designed for Wood to make the shot.

But seriously, CJ just stood there on the back side of the lane and watched the play. No attempt to get in position.

2/11/2013 9:46:07 AM

probably pouting that Gottfried called a timeout to take the ball out of his hands and drew up a play to put it in somebody else's

2/11/2013 9:48:02 AM

well, he missed the lay-up after going coast-to-coast. it's a good thing he called a timeout.

2/11/2013 9:49:04 AM

it was a great thing he called a timeout.

2/11/2013 9:51:21 AM

I'm glad Gott called that timeout too. He realizes that CJL is a serious liability for turnovers, fouls, and team mentality. If he was selfish with the ball, and scored consistently, no one would care. Unfortunately, he's not that player. Howell is a perfect role model for how everyone on the team should play the game.

2/11/2013 10:04:07 AM

Quote :

"No need for the rebound. The play was clearly designed for Wood to make the shot. But seriously, CJ just stood there on the back side of the lane and watched the play. No attempt to get in position."

Seriously though we could have legitimately missed the shot and could have had a chance at a tip in to tie. CJ just stood there not doing anything. Doesn't even celebrate after it goes in. I am getting real tired of his shit now. At least (hopefully) he will give a shit come tournament time because the NBA scouts will be out there.

2/11/2013 12:24:46 PM

He is clearly a SF in the NBA, or at least wants to be, and he's trying to show off for the scouts. If Painter was still on the team, we could have experimented with CJ at the 3 early in the season and may have helped him develop a better shot.

Problem is, is that we obviously don't need that. I wouldn't mind it if he occasionally tries to do it, but it seems like it's gotten a lot worse in recent games (I guess with Zo being out?). He needs to focus more on post play, going up stronger with layups to draw fouls, and play at least average defense.

2/11/2013 12:43:05 PM