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(03-20-2018 02:07 PM)jarr Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 01:51 PM)OKIcat Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 01:14 PM)Marcus Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 01:03 PM)bearcat72 Wrote:  I agree with many comments on this board. My belief is that the teams "fear character" is instilled into them the entire season looking over their shoulder and getting pulled for one mistake by Cronin. I coached football for many years in high school and realized my teams took on my feelings. Too emotional, they were emotional, fear of being yanked for a mistake, made them play in hope they wouldn't make a mistake. Teams take on the personality of their coach and I think we saw it multiplied against Nevada. Cronin is uptight and extremely uptight in bigger games and the team plays that way against better opponents; ie; Xavier, Florida, Wichita St.. or against teams on the "bigger stage" NCAA round 2.

It was great season that just ended poorly. In fact when you look back at the last few games on the big stage, @Wichita, ACC tournament Houston, easily could've been loses if shots would've been made on the last possession.

Exactly. They got unbelievably uptight in the Wichita game in the last 3 minutes. It's the same thing we see time and time again against the good opponents. Build a 5-7 point lead and hold on for dear life down the stretch instead of continuing to play like they did for the first 35-37 minutes.

Our problem against Nevada down the stretch was two-fold.

First we played right into their hands when they decided to trap and play us 3 on 4 for several minutes by having our guards who are terrible shooters jack up wide open shots and miss everything.

Then as it got closer and closer both on the scoreboard and in time remaining we tightened up as always and started running down the shot clock with zero offensive movement and threw up contested outside shots as the shot clock expired.

They completely stopped running their offense, moving the ball and getting touches for our bigs over those last 11 minutes whether we were playing into their hands by going fast or when we started trying to play stall ball.

UC needed Leslie Nielsen from "The Naked Gun" in the midst of absolute mayhem on screen telling people, "Remain calm, nothing to see here, just move along."

There is no doubt in my mind when the coach is melting down as a lead evaporates it's neither focusing the players on the task at hand or reinforcing confidence that they can control their destiny rather than the officials or the opponent. Can that be a learned skill for a veteran coach? Not sure; maybe it's innate for some.

I just feel Mick is constantly in October/November mode. I get it when he is yelling and screaming or yanking players in the early games against Savannah State, trying to set a precedent and get them motivated. But in the heat of the battle he needs to cool down and learn how to guide them through this smoothly. I've never served in combat, but have listened and read alot from military people like Patton, Jocko Wilink, and McRaven , and this is generally the principle that is applied when you transition to bootcamp and training to actual war.

He needs to become more aware of situations and the situational coaching and the overall global purpose of what he is doing. 5 minutes to go in a tight NCAA tournament, is it really necessary to be yelling and screaming at 5th year senior that is doing everything he can to advance in the tournament?