Knight used to say, and it happened to his teams too at times, that players don't concentrate on the court as much as they need to. He also said that players think they are playing hard but that they're not. IMO it wasn't the substitutions as much as once getting the big lead they didn't play as hard or stick to the switching that was effective at the start on D, made terrible turnovers and took bad shots. How many times watching basketball have you seen a team jump out to a big lead to start a game, and the other team, probably not focused at the start or ready to play a big game, be flat as a door. Then suddenly, they raise their game, while the team ahead goes flat. It's mental. Yes, the coaches can't let this happen but the players have that responsibility too.
All of these things can be true. And even the best coaches (RMK included, per your examples), can't get their guys to play consistently hard, focused, or clean basketball ALL the time.
But they can nip the L O N G E R stretches of lower energy and focus, sloppy play, etc... in the bud, by focusing on it early and often, and not allowing his teams to get away with the highs and lows in practices. 3+ years in now, it sure doesn't seem like Woodson has made consistency, in much of anything, a priority in his program. In nearly every single game they play, his teams have long, prolonged lulls and stretches of poor or uninspired play.
Of course some that responsibility is on the players. But he's had 4 pretty different casts of characters now, and we're seeing the same traits in all his groups. I think there's enough evidence to make a pretty good, educated call, that Woodson isn't very good at establishing consistency in his teams.
I think its a larger problem than just his substitution patterns. But it is a VERY well established...basically fact at this point...that his teams efficiencies fall off the map when he takes multiple starters out of the game at the same time. I get the need to tinker early on in the season, to see what guys can do playing with different teammates, in different situations. His mass subbing style doesn't really accomplish that though...and its very proven and established that it destroys our performance and our efficiency metrics. Which, unfortunately, are important.
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