RE: HUGGS

From: Darryl Gilliam
Date: 02 Aug 2004 - 03:00 PM EST

I also believe it has to do with how the Bearcats won a lot of their regular season games and that is the intimidation factor. Intimidation was a stated goal during the Fortson/Martin era and it worked to perfection during the regular season. This tactic doesnt work as well in the post season because teams have nothing to lose.

The second issue is predictability. The toughest team to prepare for in the tourney is a team with multiple offensive and defensive sets. UC has got to be the most predictable team in the Tournament especially with our reliance on man to man defense.

I just hope Huggins regains the flexibility he had earlier in his career. I believe that over the years he has been afraid to lose and as a result he doesnt take as many chances as he once did.

Brian Johnson <address@hidden> wrote:
Well said, Brent. Bad luck has no doubt played a
significant role, but this has happened far too many
times (7 early exits in 8 years) to dismiss
exclusively as luck.

The thing is, some of these teams have had enough
weapons (especially the 2000 team), so that they
didn't need to depend on just one guy offensively.
That said, last year's early exit was hardly and
offensive problem.

--- Brent Wyrick wrote:

There is something out of Iroq's discussion on Huggs
that I'd like to hash
out here if it hasn't been hit a few hundred times
already; And that's
March. Much has been made of The Bearcats being
underperformers in March.

I don't think it's a March problem. I think it
actually is a coaching issue
with Huggs and while I like Huggs and his style,
there's seems to be a
continuing problem with his teams. The Bearcats have
consistently failed at
any resemblance of secondary offense when the
primary Plan A offense breaks
down.

Go back to the Fortson Era. Can't get the entry pass
to Danny in the post?
Complete loss of organization on offense and an L in
the Loss column.
Kenyon breaks his leg? Complete loss of organization
on offense as a result
(And I'm not including the STL game). There are lots
of examples of this.
Sometimes this happens only for a game at a time
during the regular season
but in March when it happens you're toast.

Bob needs to do a better job of coaching a secondary
offense in practices so
the team is ready if the primary motion offense (or
go-to-guy offense) fails
in a game. You can't go into March with only Plan A.
The other coaches in
the tournament are too good not to figure out how
Plan A works and shut it
down. If they have the personnel to do it, we lose
and it's "wait 'til next
year."

Brent

-----Original Message-----
From: Iroq Gathing [mailto:address@hidden
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2004 11:42 AM
To: address@hidden
Subject: [UC Basketball] HUGGS

Lets talk about HUGS, Rob just seems to be a good
example of a bigger
problem with Hugs system. Huggins and college
coaching is more about
recruiting top tier players than coaching, which
explains why great college
coaches normally make terrible pro coaches. The
reason, pro coaching is
more about managing talent and making a system that
fits the ever-changing
talent and multi-million dollar attitudes on pro
teams. A top draft pick or
free-agent can get a NBA coach fired and a top
college coach can make a top
talent transfer (if he doesnt buy into a system).
Thats the difference.
Furthermore, Huggins/UC cannot compete against the
Dukes, NCs, and Big Ten,
when it comes to recruiting top tier players that do
not have baggage.
Huggins/UC has gained national prominence and job
security by being known as
the program that recruits the best troubled talent
in the country. ITS NOT
GIVING THOSE KIDS 2ND AND 3RD CHANCES; ITS ABOUT
GIVING UCS PROGRAM ITS
ONLY CHANCE TO COMPETE
AGAINST THE DUKES, NCS, ETC. But if the troubled
kid doesnt produce,
throw him out on his back.

The problem is Huggins cannot break Robs
stubbornness, and Rob has yet to
produce under Huggins antics or disciplines. But
let there be NO doubt,
Huggins recruited Rob because Rob was very
successful on the court in high
school and at Barden Community College, and was
ranked by top scouts for
years as one of the nations top players and NBA
prospects (because of his
performance on the court). Big Robs rankings
changed only since he played
for Huggins. However, I would bet he could make an
NBA team after workouts
because no one can question his potential--- and NBA
coaches manage
potential.

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