After watching some ESPN 30/30's and thinking about some of the past memorable teams, it became clear to me that the Hawks need to continue as long as they can. This is a style that is fun to play in and a style that will be enticing to recruits going forward. And, hopefully our AD will be all in for future coaches to continue this style.

Anybody ever wonder what UNLV or Houston would be like today if they would have continued to play end to end. Heck, remember Loyola Marymount? Yes, these teams don't play like UNCW, Louisville or VCU, but they did play uptempo and it was fun. If you look around, teams like VCU and Louisville have done pretty good for quite some time. And, VCU hasn't fallen off a cliff without Shaka, but aren't quite the juggernaut lately.

At the end of the day, this style is working and is fun. And, they defend well too now so there's a lot to like IMHO. Everybody should be all in at this point.

It's a playstyle that makes perfect sense, especially when you lack the supreme athleticism of the "big boys". Why concede 46 feet of court space every possession? Use every square foot of the court that you can to win. Period.

UNCW does have some really good athletes right now with killer quicks. The "big boys" have more size down low that also has athleticism. And, the elite programs like Duke have all that with skill already, but then you're talking about 1 and done. Duke is getting about as bad as Kentucky in that regard.

Agree 1000%. Also, we have recruited players who suit this style of play and want to play this style of ball. If a new coach were to come in and switch things up, it could be years in the making to get suitable players. Also, we could suffer a great deal of transfers if we did so.

Why fix something that isn't broken?

He'res to Keatts staying at UNCW as a lifer. We could rename Trask to Keatts Coliseum. But, were he to leave, there is no reason to change from this style. It's a great equalizer for a midmajor.

Read Malcom Gladwells book David and Goliath. There's a whole chapter dedicated to Pitino.

"In January of 1971, the Fordham University Rams played a basketball game against the University of Massachusetts Redmen. The game was in Amherst, at the legendary arena known as the Cage, where the Redmen hadn’t lost since December of 1969. Their record was 11–1. The Redmen’s star was none other than Julius Erving—Dr. J. The UMass team was very, very good. Fordham, by contrast, was a team of scrappy kids from the Bronx and Brooklyn. Their center had torn up his knee the first week of the season, which meant that their tallest player was six feet five. Their starting forward—and forwards are typically almost as tall as centers—was Charlie Yelverton, who was six feet two. But from the opening buzzer the Rams launched a full-court press, and never let up. “We jumped out to a thirteen-to-six lead, and it was a war the rest of the way,” Digger Phelps, the Fordham coach at the time, recalls. “These were tough city kids. We played you ninety-four feet. We knew that sooner or later we were going to make you crack.” Phelps sent in one indefatigable Irish or Italian kid from the Bronx after another to guard Erving, and, one by one, the indefatigable Irish and Italian kids fouled out. None of them were as good as Erving. It didn’t matter. Fordham won, 87–79."

The only person who seemed to have absorbed the lessons of that game was a skinny little guard on the UMass freshman team named Rick Pitino. He didn’t play that day. He watched, and his eyes grew wide. Even now, thirty-eight years later, he can name, from memory, nearly every player on the Fordham team: Yelverton, Sullivan, Mainor, Charles, Zambetti. “They came in with the most unbelievable pressing team I’d ever seen,” Pitino said. “Five guys between six feet five and six feet. It was unbelievable how they covered ground. I studied it. There is no way they should have beaten us. Nobody beat us at the Cage.”

Pitino became the head coach at Boston University in 1978, when he was twenty-five years old, and used the press to take the school to its first N.C.A.A. tournament appearance in twenty-four years."

I read that book also, and remember that chapter. Basketball "purists" hated the press, because it didn't seem like "real" basketball. But now it's widely used, of course. Some teams just do it better than others. And we know it's something we can hang our hats on as a program.

Side note: does that mean Digger Phelps was the true architect of that style of play?

(12-25-2016 07:10 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  I read that book also, and remember that chapter. Basketball "purists" hated the press, because it didn't seem like "real" basketball. But now it's widely used, of course. Some teams just do it better than others. And we know it's something we can hang our hats on as a program.

Side note: does that mean Digger Phelps was the true architect of that style of play?

Sure sounds like it. But, he was one and done with it for some odd reason.

(12-25-2016 07:18 PM)82hawk Wrote:  

(12-25-2016 07:10 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  I read that book also, and remember that chapter. Basketball "purists" hated the press, because it didn't seem like "real" basketball. But now it's widely used, of course. Some teams just do it better than others. And we know it's something we can hang our hats on as a program.

Side note: does that mean Digger Phelps was the true architect of that style of play?

Sure sounds like it. But, he was one and done with it for some odd reason.

If basketball "purists" at the time hated it and gave him enough lip for it maybe that was what drove him away from it. I'd venture to guess someone may have said something to the likes of "if you want to continue coaching... stop cheating with that press." The game may not have been ready for it.

(12-25-2016 07:24 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  

(12-25-2016 07:18 PM)82hawk Wrote:  

(12-25-2016 07:10 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  I read that book also, and remember that chapter. Basketball "purists" hated the press, because it didn't seem like "real" basketball. But now it's widely used, of course. Some teams just do it better than others. And we know it's something we can hang our hats on as a program.

Side note: does that mean Digger Phelps was the true architect of that style of play?

Sure sounds like it. But, he was one and done with it for some odd reason.

If basketball "purists" at the time hated it and gave him enough lip for it maybe that was what drove him away from it. I'd venture to guess someone may have said something to the likes of "if you want to continue coaching... stop cheating with that press." The game may not have been ready for it.

Good call. In some ways, sports embraces innovation as fast or faster than most institutions. But it requires those who come up with those innovations to ignore criticism/threats. Not everybody is willing to piss off the "fraternity" of fellow coaches.