I had noticed, as many have done, that we didn't seem to improve, and in fact actually got a little worse as the season went on. As I reflected back, I noticed a difference in the team around the first of the year. I wasn't sure what the difference was, but it was pretty obvious that the team we all witnessed murder teams in the non-conference schedule, was all of the sudden struggling a little bit against the lesser quality SEC teams, and then even against the NCAA tournament teams that we faced. I watched a few games from both portions of the season, and came up with 3 things that I think lead to ending that none of us wanted.
First, the only physical reason of the 3, Alex's injury. While I think this may have contributed to the other 2 things I noticed, it was a big blow to the team. The team continued to win, so a lot of people tended to believe that it didn't make that much of a difference, and some of the media even stated that we would be better because of it. That was false. Alex was the leading scorer for us in the bahamas, and was the one guy who could actually lock down the bigger and more physical wing players that kentucky faced. He was a match-up nightmare in his own right, mostly because of athletic ability, as it was hard to keep him off the glass, and even harder to keep him from making big defensive plays, as he did in the tournament run last year.
The second thing, was we stopped platooning. Yes, we went back to it from time to time, and looked great doing it, but it largely went away as the season wore on. Now, even without Alex, we still platooned for a bit, but as the season wore on, we moved to a more normal substitution pattern, and often cut the rotation down to really just 7-8 guys. I believe this is why the team which started off on a course to be by far the best defensive team in history saw their defense start looking not as good. The defensive intensity that they played with in the first part of the year cannot be sustained for more than 4-5 minutes at a time. With the platoon system, that wasn't a problem, as the players were getting breathers after 4-5 minutes. They were relentless on the defensive side of the ball, and often that lead to wearing teams out, even teams that tried to play slow down basketball.
And the last thing that I noticed was that this team quit taking the first shot available, and started looking to find the best shot available. In the first half of the season, they were taking the first open look they found, which was usually just 2-3 passes into the offense. As the season wore on, they quit pressing the issue on the offensive side, by not taking those shots, and instead started searching for the best shot available. That often resulted in slowing the pace, and then trying to cram the ball inside. This wasn't the philosophy early in the year. The perimeter players took more shots early, and they crashed the offensive glass. That is easier to do on perimeter shots, but much harder to get offensive rebounds when the shot is coming from around the block areas, as most players are already bunched up, and easily blocked out. The offense was more spread out early on, and because of that, other teams were having to try to block out our athletes that were diving toward the rim. It is why teams like ND and Wisc get a lot of offensive rebounds. They spread you out, then let athletes run to the rim on shots, where they become hard to block out.
In essence, this team tried to become Cal's previous teams, execution style team. That was not what made them unbeatable early on, shear depth and talent did, but they negated that as the season wore on. Now I am not sure whether this change was because of Cal, the players or some other reason, but I believe these are the changes that took this team from possibly the greatest of all-time, to just a really good to great team in a good year of college basketball.
First, the only physical reason of the 3, Alex's injury. While I think this may have contributed to the other 2 things I noticed, it was a big blow to the team. The team continued to win, so a lot of people tended to believe that it didn't make that much of a difference, and some of the media even stated that we would be better because of it. That was false. Alex was the leading scorer for us in the bahamas, and was the one guy who could actually lock down the bigger and more physical wing players that kentucky faced. He was a match-up nightmare in his own right, mostly because of athletic ability, as it was hard to keep him off the glass, and even harder to keep him from making big defensive plays, as he did in the tournament run last year.
The second thing, was we stopped platooning. Yes, we went back to it from time to time, and looked great doing it, but it largely went away as the season wore on. Now, even without Alex, we still platooned for a bit, but as the season wore on, we moved to a more normal substitution pattern, and often cut the rotation down to really just 7-8 guys. I believe this is why the team which started off on a course to be by far the best defensive team in history saw their defense start looking not as good. The defensive intensity that they played with in the first part of the year cannot be sustained for more than 4-5 minutes at a time. With the platoon system, that wasn't a problem, as the players were getting breathers after 4-5 minutes. They were relentless on the defensive side of the ball, and often that lead to wearing teams out, even teams that tried to play slow down basketball.
And the last thing that I noticed was that this team quit taking the first shot available, and started looking to find the best shot available. In the first half of the season, they were taking the first open look they found, which was usually just 2-3 passes into the offense. As the season wore on, they quit pressing the issue on the offensive side, by not taking those shots, and instead started searching for the best shot available. That often resulted in slowing the pace, and then trying to cram the ball inside. This wasn't the philosophy early in the year. The perimeter players took more shots early, and they crashed the offensive glass. That is easier to do on perimeter shots, but much harder to get offensive rebounds when the shot is coming from around the block areas, as most players are already bunched up, and easily blocked out. The offense was more spread out early on, and because of that, other teams were having to try to block out our athletes that were diving toward the rim. It is why teams like ND and Wisc get a lot of offensive rebounds. They spread you out, then let athletes run to the rim on shots, where they become hard to block out.
In essence, this team tried to become Cal's previous teams, execution style team. That was not what made them unbeatable early on, shear depth and talent did, but they negated that as the season wore on. Now I am not sure whether this change was because of Cal, the players or some other reason, but I believe these are the changes that took this team from possibly the greatest of all-time, to just a really good to great team in a good year of college basketball.
