bawitdaball said:
Mitch Henessey said:
In my experience, people who don't give Coach Collen her propers do it because of reasons unrelated to her prowess as a basketball coach.
Imagine not basing your opinion of a basketball coach on her ability to coach the game of basketball.
In your experience? That's weird wording given that there are very valid reasons that CNC has struggled in many games late. She is knowledgeable but she has struggled in both time management and player substitutions on several occasions throughout the season.
"In my opinion" or "I feel" would be a much better way of phrasing your comment. "In my experience" has you losing immediate credibility in anything that follows.
"In my experience observing and interacting with Baylor fans, most of whom are generally clueless..."
I didn't think I had to elaborate, but I spelled it out for you. You feel better about things now?
In the experience I have with our fanbase, the vast majority of criticisms of Nicki Collen come down to three things, none of which have anything to do with her coaching on the basketball court:
1) Collen's not Kim Mulkey. Much like a former president who won't seem to go away, Mulkey had/has a cult of personality, and people who fall into that cult are not easily extricated. No amount of on-court success will measure up to what they've built Mulkey to in their minds, and no amount of unseemly behavior by our former coach will be enough to dissuade them of their affection and pining for her. This is the number one reason with a bullet.
2) Collen's a player's coach. She runs an offensive system that players like, and she cares about the things that her players care about, whether on the court, or off of it. Our former coach was a hard ass, and it got results. She gave tough love, was pri.ckly towards the media, opposing coaches, and opposing fanbases, and a lot of people ate that up. It's hard to argue with the results, but the methods used to achieve those results weren't always pretty. Because we course corrected pretty hard with our subsequent coaching hire, many fans who liked having a real hardo as HC dislike Coach Collen because of her demeanor alone.
3) Collen is seen as "woke" (whatever the hell that word means anymore). This is related to point #2, but there's a bit more nuance to it, as well. Coach Collen joined our program at a pretty volatile time in our country, politically and socially. A lot of players in WBB are outspoken about political and social issues, and a lot of fans don't like that. Collen hasn't shut down her players from speaking up and speaking out, and the fans who would prefer their team's players "shut up and dribble" do not appreciate that. She also immediately embraced Brittney Griner, and was unabashed in her support of Griner when she was unjustly imprisoned in Russia. There are many who felt that, because Griner made several mistakes (some minor - like allowing an author with an agenda to inaccurately portray her view of her time at Baylor - some major - like getting into a domestic altercation) that she didn't deserve any leeway from Baylor fans. There is also a strong undercurrent of homophobia in this camp, as though everything else may have been overlooked, if she just hadn't committed the cardinal sin of being gay. Although people who are opposed to Griner won't often voice this publicly. If people are of a certain political persuasion, Collen's support of her players speaking up and her support of Griner are unforgivable, and no amount of on-court success will ever win them back.
#1, as I mentioned, is the overwhelming majority of the criticism. It's difficult to follow a legend, and Mulkey is a legend, regardless of your feelings about her. #2 is probably the closest to a tactical basketball criticism, and it's similar to the fans we have who criticize Scott Drew for not being tough enough on players. #3 is a small minority, but those people are very vocal in their disdain for Coach Collen.
So, yes, "in my experience," people who don't respect Nicki Collen as a basketball coach do it for reasons that are generally unrelated to basketball.