Mitch Henessey said:
IvanBear said:
Quinton said:
I get what you mean but I don't trust the staff to be able to pull some raw out talent type scheme.
That strategy would call for us to go all out for the Seton Hall transfer, pick up a filler guy and just roll the ball out there. Don't love that option.
This is of course assuming we run a scheme like the last few years which who knows if that's the case with Jakus gone.
I don't understand this part of your post. What makes you think we were running Jakus's system, rather than Jakus was responsible for implementing Drew's system? This isn't football, where the HC is often a CEO and the OC/DC run their own distinct systems and often call the plays. The HC in basketball determines the system and style, and is calling the plays on both offense and defense the vast majority of the time.
And this is not a criticism directed at you, specifically. I've noticed this fairly often with our fanbase when referring to basketball strategy (Tang being the defensive guy, McCasland calling plays, etc., etc.). It's weird and, frankly, disrespectful to Coach Drew.
What you're suggesting here is that assistant coaches don't have major responsibilities. The absolutely are more involved in certain aspects of the team than the head coach is, that's why the role exists. Elite college head coaches are elite CEOs who have great staffs around them that let them delegate so they don't spend all their time implementing one aspect of their team and neglecting another.
It's not disrespectful to Drew to say Tang was in charge of defense and we've struggled to figure out how to get similar results so far without him. Or credit the guys who have been running our offense overt the years.
Offensive and defensive systems have to be implemented, the head coach is not doing all that work, and most are not developing every aspect of the offense or defense that's why you have assistants. In the picture you paint assistants are just there to be, idk, glorified GAs? You're too tied up on comparing it too football for an analogy, just because the head coach is calling plays and sets during a game doesn't mean he's developing all the plays and sets himself. Also he's absolutely got his assistants in his ear at timeouts making suggestions and watching for different aspects of the game to help him know what to call in the game. Ever notice how when we take timeouts some of the time will be spent just Drew and his assistants talking before he goes and gives plays? That's the assistants coaching the coach.
All you ever hear about Jakus is what a genius he is for the guard position and how much he really gets and understands running offense. All you have to do is look at when he was promoted to an assistant in 2017 to mark in time when we started taking a noticeable shift towards a different style of offensive sets and offensive philosophy. Doesn't mean Drew wasn't involved, but it's totally fair to say Jakus was a major part and deserves a lot of credit for the new system implemented. That system won us a natty. We know Jakus was in charge of guards. He did a lot of the teaching and coaching there specifically. Now he's gone player development will look different too. Jakus will be a big loss which is good. That means Drew is doing something right with his staff.
So next year, guard play is going to look different here without Jakus. I'm sure it'll look similar at first because the system isn't going away Drew has final say on what kind of offense and defense we run, but I'm also positive it'll evolve into something new in the next couple years as the game continues to evolve and new coaches will be tweaking the system.
It's like when Drew decided to finally switch back to man to man defense, he didn't implement that defense all by himself. Drew is ultimately the guy responsible for changing the team over to no middle, but why would you ever discredit the hard work of the guys on his staff to develop the defensive sets and players to the point to get them there.
If you want another great example outside of Baylor, look at Danny Manning and KU. Dude was one of the elite big men developers and KU hasn't looked the same in developing big men since he left. That doesn't mean KU isn't a great place for big men, but it does mean they had to change things when he left. In the inverse look at Kenny Payne who was an elite assistant and a terrible head coach. He couldn't manage all the aspects of the CEO role that comes with being a head coach so his teams sucked. But he sure is good at player development.
Assistants matter a lot in college, especially ones with development roles and scheme responsibilities. I think you're underrating the CEO role in basketball just because in game management looks different than football.