02-14-2005, 09:22 AM
I'm not making up my mind about Pooh being the next Tulsa coach, strictly on our won and loss record. The team may not be that good to justify that kind of measurement. I look more at the game plan for specific teams, and yes, they are probably all a little different. Specifically teams like Rice and Nevada as examples. How does he gameplan to stop their very, very good inside men!! Any team that relies on an inside player can be slowed down with the right defense and by slowed down, I don't mean 26 points by Harris. Good players like Harris are going to get some points if nothing else by putting back in offensive rebounds. Make the guy fight for any kind of position every time down the court with a sagging zone, 3 guys around him. Make it almost impossible for the ball to get into him. Let him get worn out and pis$ed off just trying to get the ball and yes, if they are hitting a high percentage of 3-pointers ,you lose but you play the odds!! Also, when you have the lead near the end of the game, it never hurts to screw up the other teams offensive plans, throw in a half court trap defense one time, switch from a man to man to a zone. It also keeps your players heads in the game. There's nothing any coach can do about players missing open shots but they can do things to mess up the other teams chances of scoring. On this particular test, I'm afraid I would have to give Pooh a C- for coaching!!