Re: Whaley and Huggins

[jon breiner]

Let me start with the Payton comment.  Payton was a great defender and
scorer due to his speed.  Now that he is at best equal in speed (but mostly
slower than the fast PG's now) he can no longer do the things he used to do.
He can whine about it being the lack of the ball going through him, but he's
wrong.  I'd be shocked if he can get back to 20 points a game while shooting
high 40%.

Now, if Whaley was putting up double-double's, 3/4 of the arguments would no
longer be valid, but since he does not have one to his credit, all of those
arguments are still valid.  Even in his one "standout" game at Houston, he
shot 33% from the field and had only 5 rebounds.  And that was his best
game.  Trust me, I'd like to see Rob get his stuff together, be allowed to
come back and average 15 and 8 this year, but there is absolutely NO reason
to believe it can or will happen based on his history.  I hope I am wrong.

I think the Huggins in March argument is a bit stale also.  Yes, I wish his
teams would have consistently done better, but he does have 3 elite 8's and
I have no doubt the 2000 team was the best in the country and at MINIMUM a
final four team.  There are only a couple of teams that consistently win in
March every year, so by your standards there are only 2 or 3 good coaches?
I disagree.  Was Calhoun a good coach 3 years ago?  What about Olsen before
97?  What about Roy Williams now?  I thought they were good coaches BEFORE
they won, just like I think Huggins is a good coach now.  Duke fans wanted
to fire Coach K during his first few years.  In football Tom Osborne was a
hated man among many Nebraska fans for "have(ing) never excelled against
real competition " for many years before guess what happened.  There are
countless other similar stories, but those are the most prominent.  I fully
believe Huggins has as much (or more!) of a chance to bring a title back to
Cincy as any other coach would and based on what he has done for the
program, he's the one that deserves the opportunity.  I don't know what
Whaley has done to earn the opportunity other than continually screw up.

One final question, how many NCAA tourney games has Huggins pressed at least
25% of the time?  Not many outside of 92 and 93.

Jon


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Iroq Gathing" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2004 10:08 AM
Subject: [UC Basketball] Whaley and Huggins


> Okay, lets get down to the nitty-gritty.  The facts, Huggins have never
excelled against real competition in March.  I believe that's largely
because the way he coaches; not because of his talent.  The press and just
plain ol' playing hard do not beat good teams!  Great coaching and playing
in the right system for the talent you have beat good teams.  Whaley is a
scorer, and if you do not give scorers the opportunity to score they want
impact the game, period.  Gary Payton, for example, is a great defender and
scorer, but without the ball going through him--- look at how his game
looked in LA.
> Whaley forced shots a lot, and his field goal percentage was low because
he had to shoot out of his element because of the system (again a free
shooting system for the guards).  Huggins has never had a player like
Whaley, a shoot first big man.  About Whaley academics, there is no excuse
there.  Whaley needs to work a little harder in the books to stay eligible.
But to be real there's not one pro-prospect going to college for an
education; likewise, there is not one school recruiting a pro-prospect to
educate them.  College is a big money business, that's why Coach "K" can
turn down $40-plus million from the NBA's best franchise to stay at Duke.
Furthermore, I do not here Goin talking about putting Whaley on academic
probation and making sure he graduates.  He's talking about giving up on him
because of basketball.  The people on this board are saying "forget Whaley"
because of basketball.  If Whaley was putting up a double-double, which he
is capable of this year, the messages on
>  this board about his eligibility and from Goin would be different.
>
>
>
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