Re: Huggins

[bob]

This will sound simplistic, but when you distill the game of basketball down to its very essence, what is the goal?  To put the ball through a hoop.  If this is not your major focus, it's not something you will ever do well.  Defense is, of course, important, but a basketball team's "core competency" needs to be scoring.  Unlike football, where the defense can score, in basketball, only the offense can score (even with a turnover, as soon as you have possession, you're on offense).   Obviously, you need some balance - Loyola Marymount never won a championship - and the only UC teams to win it all (Jucker DOES rule!), were strong defensive teams - but when you hold Illinois under 40% shooting and STILL lose by more than 20 pts. the emphasis needs to shift.  I still think Huggins needs an offensive coordinator!

"richard l. kandell" <address@hidden> wrote:
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bearcat Tom" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 9:42 AM
Subject: RE: [UC Basketball] Huggins


> Jihad has a lot of potential and would be best served to look for the
assist
> first and score second (standard PG role).

**Also, D-1A is not an AND-1 Streetball audition. Possess the ball, make
good decisions.**

Absolutely true - but the trick is to get Jihad to understand that before
the season is "over."

As to the Illinois loss - please don't anyone say with a couple of things we
could have won the game - give us our regular foul shooting percentage, make
an additional open 3 that we missed, along with a couple of missed dunks,
and you know what, we still lose by double digits. Illinois is simply that
much better, at least now.

Interesting - Huggins always says that sometimes your shooting will be off,
but if you play tough defense and work hard you'll be in it - and many times
win anyhow. Well, we played tough defense, Illinois was held to its lowest
shooting percentage of the season; we gave great effort (maybe not
mentally); and you know what - we weren't in it - even from the start. And
why - mostly because we couldn't put the ball in the basket.

For many years some commentators on the Forum have pleaded for Huggins to
spend additional time on the offense - if ever that was needed it is with
this team. They already have one of, if not the best (give the Illini some
credit here), defense in the country - but they are not going to past the
slightly above average quality team until this group figures out a
consistent way to put the ball in the basket. I'm not smart or knowlegeable
enough to have the answer, but Huggins and the staff are - I just hope they
find it.









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