I'm very thankful for what Underwood has done to bring us back to relevance, but I think it is about time to accept that we have a ceiling with him as the head coach. There have been far too many mistakes this year that a junior high coach does not make. There has been a trend the entire tenure of lack of adjustments, whether that is game to game, or within a game. We have our stuff, we run it, and hope it works. There's no plan B. Loyola? Ayo PnR all game, just like the entire season. Loyola shuts it down in the first half, so we continue to run it until the final minute of the season. The first two season? I remember after the Michigan game in BU's first year, saying this overplaying defense is insane and will never work. It took two full years of getting our butts kicked to adjust. Booty ball for three games against PSU last year, maybe throw a zone at Pickett for one possession out of 120 minutes? Never a thought.
There's no use of timeouts to stem momentum and get the players calmed down when we get sped up and start making mistakes and letting teams get back into games. The only use of time outs lately, besides end of game, has been after WE make a big basket, to stem our own momentum for some reason.
There's no adjustments on defense. Guess what? Teams have 25 games worth of film on us now. They know we switch everything. We continued to switch everything tonight. Guess what they did? Have Goode's man set screens, just like the last X number of games. Goode trying to guard a quick player will not end well for us most times. Why do we auto switch with Goode then? Change the dang coverage when Goode's man is screening. The stats in the Maryland game for Young when TSJ was guarding him vs. not were night and day... so why let them get a matchup they want? The coaching staff is putting Goode in a position to fail with this scheme.
Domask clearly struggles bringing the ball up the court. This is not MD's fault, but the fault of the coaching staff for not coming up with any other option to bring the ball up the court. Aside from when TSJ was fouled and turned it over during the press, the couple times TSJ got the ball, PSU backed off of him and did not pressure him. Anyone can see this, yet our coaching staff cannot? Others have suggested just letting CoHawk bring it up... also fine option most likely. Domask is best on the wing in the triple threat position, with the ability to back his man down, or do his little side to side ball fake and drive the ball. He has a quick first step, but not so quick after that. Let him play to his strengths.... additionally, walking the ball up gives us less time to actually run some offense.
I could not believe what I was watching tonight, when up by 2 and shooting a free throw, Goode was not subbed out of the game for Ty. That is 100% inexcusable to have your worst defender (at least of anyone that plays) in the game with 20 seconds to go and in a must-stop situation.
I unfortunately do not expect much in March this year. I expect us to get out coached in the game again, out schemed prior to the game, and go down dying on the same hill we laid on all year, rather than seeing what happens if we have plan B and C ready.