Bear with me on this. When you’re coaching in the NBA you’re playing 82+ games. So, when you get beat by 25 points one night you know the next night you might win by 35. Is Woodson still in that mode where it doesn’t bother him to get beat that badly because he knows there’s another game to play? Or does he just not give a •••t? And it doesn’t seem at times that it bothers some of the players as well. Maybe they’re taking his mentality as well. We all ready know that he coaches like he’s still there since he doesn’t hold his players accountable or instructs them what they’re doing wrong.
Woody/NBA/Coaching
- Thread starter bwcoach
- Start date
I agree and have pitched this same thought a few times. A big loss just doesn’t seem to mean that much to Woody.
I really believe he coaches in NBA mode, yes. It's all he knows. His WHOLE career outside of the 4 years as a player, and now these 4 years as a coach has been in the NBA mindset of just get through the season and flip the switch at playoff time.
When in the past four years has he flipped the switch at playoff time?
He doesn't get modern offense, and his defense is atrocious. His teams literally can't shoot. Effort is awful. There's a reason he gets blown out all the time. It's more of a matter of he isn't a good coach and you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Iowa really isn't a good defensive team, and they looked like a well-oiled Syracuse zone last night. Iowa is way better on offense, and it showed.
The paycheck is all he cares about.
Those aren't really the most direct questions. Try this:
When:
(1) IU has won a couple games impressively the prior week largely because Galloway and Rice were able to drive down the lane repeatedly and either lay it up or lob to Ballo,
but
(2) last night Iowa played a 2-3 zone defense that won't permit Galloway and Rice to drive down the lane and do that,
then
(3) what the hell was Woodson's backup plan?
Our players did not show that they knew what else they should be doing. Shouldn't coaches drill their players in several different playing styles so they can react to unexpected defenses?
Last night's Iowa game reminded me of when Crean's team ran into Syracuse's wellknown, predictable, trademark zone defense in the NCAA tournament and acted like they were surprised that Syracuse played a zone defense and were unprepared for it.
This is what bad coaching looks like.
But he never flipped the switch at playoff time-terrible playoff record on the rare occasions he made the playoffs. If anything his NBA teams underperformed in the playoffs.
I don't think he cares or perhaps understands that bad losses hurt more than close losses when it comes to all the metrics used to seed teams for the tournament. You don't have that issue in the nba. W's and L's and standings only matter. Hence all the bad losses. If you are just focuses on conference standings, losing by 5 or 25 has the same impact. You see it in the preseason games too. They would beat the sisters of the poor teams by a lot more if this wasn't the case - he wouldn't go so deep into the bench. Contrast how Cig ran up the score so many times this year, as margin of victory matters in college.
All of this COULD be true...I generally think that Cig was able to run up scores, though, because he's a very thorough coach that forges good practices in to ALL his players, down to the 2 and 3 deep guys. So when it comes time to get those guys some reps in a game that's already decided, they either hold the lead or extend it.
Woodson tells them things they should be doing. Yells at them for not doing them, I'm sure. But doesn't have the knowledge, ability, or gumption to actually teach them those important things. So, sometimes they can do them, sometimes they can't. The results of that are wild ebbs and flows on the court, often within games...but certainly from game to game.
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