I've been saying "dogs", but there's more to it than that. Too much of the talent in the program has been "show dogs". Their games look pretty. They love the spotlight and will play to potential when the game's on national tv or against a big opponent. If it can shine the light on them, they are motivated and perform.
You never get consistency with show dogs. Also, you never build the chemistry and mindset to deal with adversity or handle pressure in the big moments. The team may cruise in those types of games and then hold on, but it has trouble even in those games when the opponent is used to fighting and will scrap to the final whistle. So we see Buff teams that seem to turtle when opponents refuse to stay down, giving up late leads or letting inferior teams claw back into games. Show dogs don't like to fight.
What Tad needs to emphasize in recruiting is junkyard dogs. Their games aren't always pretty. But they find ways to win through extra possessions. The entire program philosophy is built upon this. Control the defensive glass so that opponents get 1 shot and done. Don't give up easy baskets on primary and secondary breaks. Don't commit fouls. Force contested shots in the mid-range as the "soft spot" in the defense. In short, make the opponent earn every point the hard way. And on offense, avoid turnovers while understanding that if you fight to get offensive rebounds then, no matter how ugly it might be to watch, taking 3 shots on a trip in order to get 2 points is just as effective as making the 1st shot... and much more demoralizing to the opponent. Tad's offense is designed to attack the glass and then overwhelm teams with weakside rebounding (or wide open 3s from kickouts) off of the resulting defensive breakdowns. It takes junkyard dogs to attack like that while stopping runouts when the defense gets a rebound.
When I look at the roster we've had, I'm seeing too few guys willing and able to play that style of basketball. Being a junkyard dog is not something a coach can instill in someone who hasn't been like that but was still successful enough his whole life on the court to parlay his talent into a D1 scholarship to a major conference program. Being a junkyard dog is either in your DNA or it's not. And the main failure in recruiting hasn't been a talent problem - this program has as much depth of basketball skill as it ever has. The failure has been that the coaches, for all they may pay lip service to it, hasn't put a premium on the body language they see from recruits or on the insights they get from coaches & others on how the recruit deals with adversity or on how they practice or on how they conduct themselves away from the court/spotlight or how they take care of responsibilities such as academics.
As I have preached with football, so with basketball. Don't compromise on competitive character. Get the best players you can from among the players who have that character. Fill the roster with junkyard dogs and they'll beat teams, more often than not, that have more raw talent. And, as the wins pile up, the talent level of the junkyard dogs you can get will also increase.
As a stark warning about going the other way, look no further than Lorenzo Romar. After a ton of success at Washington, he became enamored with talent in the recruiting equation and started taking show dogs instead of junkyard dogs. The result? He started putting the most guys in the NBA while not being able to make the Dance and it eventually got him fired. Fans stopped filling the arena because it's not all that interesting to watch a summer league type exhibition where super talented guys show off their skills but don't win because they can't be bothered with getting dirty.
My belief is that no one will work harder than Tad to analyze what's gone wrong and right within his program. He will come to this same conclusion. And he will fix it by getting show dogs and head cases out of the program while putting the right emphasis on bringing junkyard dogs in. When you look at it, the inescapable conclusion is that success is built on having a roster with the right kind of dogs. Tad's mis-step was that he moved away from that, compromised, as he saw that his teams didn't have enough firepower to be a real threat in the Dance. Hopefully he has now learned that you can't shortcut that because in doing so you lose the very thing that put you in the Dance in the first place.
You never get consistency with show dogs. Also, you never build the chemistry and mindset to deal with adversity or handle pressure in the big moments. The team may cruise in those types of games and then hold on, but it has trouble even in those games when the opponent is used to fighting and will scrap to the final whistle. So we see Buff teams that seem to turtle when opponents refuse to stay down, giving up late leads or letting inferior teams claw back into games. Show dogs don't like to fight.
What Tad needs to emphasize in recruiting is junkyard dogs. Their games aren't always pretty. But they find ways to win through extra possessions. The entire program philosophy is built upon this. Control the defensive glass so that opponents get 1 shot and done. Don't give up easy baskets on primary and secondary breaks. Don't commit fouls. Force contested shots in the mid-range as the "soft spot" in the defense. In short, make the opponent earn every point the hard way. And on offense, avoid turnovers while understanding that if you fight to get offensive rebounds then, no matter how ugly it might be to watch, taking 3 shots on a trip in order to get 2 points is just as effective as making the 1st shot... and much more demoralizing to the opponent. Tad's offense is designed to attack the glass and then overwhelm teams with weakside rebounding (or wide open 3s from kickouts) off of the resulting defensive breakdowns. It takes junkyard dogs to attack like that while stopping runouts when the defense gets a rebound.
When I look at the roster we've had, I'm seeing too few guys willing and able to play that style of basketball. Being a junkyard dog is not something a coach can instill in someone who hasn't been like that but was still successful enough his whole life on the court to parlay his talent into a D1 scholarship to a major conference program. Being a junkyard dog is either in your DNA or it's not. And the main failure in recruiting hasn't been a talent problem - this program has as much depth of basketball skill as it ever has. The failure has been that the coaches, for all they may pay lip service to it, hasn't put a premium on the body language they see from recruits or on the insights they get from coaches & others on how the recruit deals with adversity or on how they practice or on how they conduct themselves away from the court/spotlight or how they take care of responsibilities such as academics.
As I have preached with football, so with basketball. Don't compromise on competitive character. Get the best players you can from among the players who have that character. Fill the roster with junkyard dogs and they'll beat teams, more often than not, that have more raw talent. And, as the wins pile up, the talent level of the junkyard dogs you can get will also increase.
As a stark warning about going the other way, look no further than Lorenzo Romar. After a ton of success at Washington, he became enamored with talent in the recruiting equation and started taking show dogs instead of junkyard dogs. The result? He started putting the most guys in the NBA while not being able to make the Dance and it eventually got him fired. Fans stopped filling the arena because it's not all that interesting to watch a summer league type exhibition where super talented guys show off their skills but don't win because they can't be bothered with getting dirty.
My belief is that no one will work harder than Tad to analyze what's gone wrong and right within his program. He will come to this same conclusion. And he will fix it by getting show dogs and head cases out of the program while putting the right emphasis on bringing junkyard dogs in. When you look at it, the inescapable conclusion is that success is built on having a roster with the right kind of dogs. Tad's mis-step was that he moved away from that, compromised, as he saw that his teams didn't have enough firepower to be a real threat in the Dance. Hopefully he has now learned that you can't shortcut that because in doing so you lose the very thing that put you in the Dance in the first place.
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