BigJack85 said:

---

I'm with non tournament team. To many holes, no cohesion, lack of improvement (IE "sorting things out" the list goes on. This team has some (I repeat some) of the attributes of the Derek Alister coached teams of the late 90's).

Please don't come back at me that I'm making a direct comparison with Allister. There are some comparisons though.

Given the comparative resources and facilities we have a two year slump (6th or worse in SLC) is recoverable. It will just be painful to miss the tournament and be non-competitive next season.

---

I think the whole "lack of improvement" thing is where I'm seeing things differently than you. I see the improvement every time I watch this team practice. It just hasn't translated to games yet, for some bizarre reason. I'm not saying they're a razor sharp offensive team in practice, but improvement has been obvious to me.

I'm baffled as to why the progress has been so slow to show when it counts - but it's why I keep believing they're on the verge of breaking out.

MasterAxe said:

---

Isaac,

I appreciate all you do, and maybe there is improvement.

But, WHERE?

Shooting percentages last 5 games:

34%, 48%, 42% ,31%, 41%

That's not progression, that REGRESSION.

Turnovers:

11, 23, 20, 14, 21

Again, awful.

Assists per game (NCAA STATS) - 11.1, Good for 311th in the nation.
Assists/TO ratio (NCAA STATS) - . 58 Good for 344th in the nation (PUKE)
Turnovers per game (NCAA STATS) - 19.1, Good for DEAD LAST in AMERICA

Seriously, I could go on. So, again, Isaac, appreciate your optimism, but spare us all with the "They are good in practice." They can't be.

Zero way this team is good in practice and literally one of the worst in America come game time.

---

Hold on just a minute. I didn't say they are "good" in practice. What I said is there has been definite improvement. To be clear, as recently as a month ago this team was so bad offensively there was almost zero game planning done because players weren't grasping the basic offense. Now there is some actual opponent-specific scheming involved.

Can you tell during game day? No, not really. I am mystified by the results. I expect at least some tangible evidence of the progress being made each week in practice and, like you, I'm seeing very little.

So once again: IN PRACTICE there is notable improvement offensively between what this team looks like now versus a month ago. During the games? Not so much.

I cannot tell you with any level of certainty why that is. It's enough to keep me on the optimistic side of things, though.

And to be fair to Isaac, practice performance not translating to games is fairly common. Plenty of coaches on all levels and all sports have gone through this. Charlie Strong said that all of the time. Not giving them any excuses, just saying.