Dakiches rotations

[Globetrotter]

Now I have been very vocal about how unnerving Dakickhes offense is to me. Someone else correctly labeled it the no-motion offense. That is exactly what it is. But the other thing that unnevreves me about Dakich is his strategy or lack there of, of subsititutions. Moten started the game prior and saw three minutes in the first half today. He kept Otis Polk out of most of the game...now he may have not been able to cover the Zips quick bigs but they couldnt cover him either.

I am not sure why he just doesnt go with Hamblet-Samarco-Miller-Marschall-Polk and then go from there. That is clearly our best 5. Guerin and Bland can both play mins at backup PG. Bland when we need D. Guerin for O and another legitimate outside shooter. Moten-Clements and Sims backup the 2 and 3. Radmonivic can sub in for the 3. Larson, Lefeld backup the bigs.

Those 5 are clearly above the other 7. Having Lelfeld, Larson, Radmonivic and Guerin in at the same time at very few instances would serve us well also.

No ones roles are being determined because their minutes are so sporadic.

[kollege stewdent]

GUERIN AND POLK EMERGING
BGSU sophomore walk-on Brian Guerin has tied his career-best with 29 minutes in each of the last two games. He is averaging 9.0 points and a MAC Games Only-best 6.0 assists in the last week. Overall, he has hit nine of 12 three-pointers this season. Freshman center Otis Polk played a career-high 18 minutes against Ohio. He had two points and two blocks after having a career-high three blocks against Buffalo. He is eighth in the league in blocked shots with 11.

Polk gets 7 min





http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /-1/SPORTS

Guerin gets 8 min

??????

[Warthog]

It's rare when I admit this, but I have to agree with Globetrotter's concern over the rotation. I was thinking about this in the second half yesterday. Other than Samarco, Miller, and Marschall, I don't think anyone else has a role on this team. I didn't have a concern with this during the OOC schedule. You use that time to experiment, see what kids can do, understand what they can do in different situations. But now that we our into the MAC schedule, you should have a starting unit identified. You should know how many minutes you want each kid to get. Players should know what they are expected to do when on the court. You should know what lineups work good together.

Perhaps the issue is that we have too many guys that are exactly the same. Does anyone think Sims and Guerin are interchangable? Moten, Bland, and Clements? Lefeld, Larson, Polk? Each of these groups of players seem to have the same limited skill set. You put Lefeld in to play good defense, but you get very little scoring. So what big man can you put in to get some scoring? Well, none. All three are big bodies with very limited offensive skills. So all three end up playing about 5 minutes a game and none of them playing enough to develop.

Sims and Guerin's game seem so similar I can't figure out why we recruited Sims at all. That is not meant as a knock against Sims. I mean, you have the exact same player on the roster already, why aren't we recruiting some 6'7 athletic guys? Do we even have anyone over 6'5" who can run up and down the court? As hammb pointed out during Akron's dunking spree, those guys were having fun. I don't think we even have a guy on our roster that could finish an alley oop.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Dakich's schizophrenic rotations are nothing new. It's always been a point of contention amongst the peanut gallery.

I think Dan bases PT off of effort in practice a lot more than most D-1 coaches. IMO, that's a nice thing to do in high school, but at this level, you need to put your best players in a position to succeed and develop.

I think this has been one of the biggest reasons for all the transfers. Talented guys leave for greener pastures because they don't know if or when they'll ever get consistent PT.

Jerking a player like Polk around from game to game is most likely detrimental to his development. If it's a conditioning thing, wouldn't it be better to gradually increase his minutes?

I've never understood how Dakich approaches PT, and I don't expect to start now.

[Flipper]

I think Dan uses one of these to determine who sits and who plays.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Will we ever see a consistent rotation while Dakich is the coach?

"Not f***ing likely"

[HoustonFalcon]

We lose two games, and everybody is back on the b***hing bandwagon. It's not as easy to make substitution patterns as everyone would like to believe. And yes, a kids work ethic in practice should reflect on his playing time during game situations. If a kid is not a hard worker in practice, and he doesn't show the skill necessary to help you win games when you see a kid most (practice), then how in the heck can you trust a kid in a game situation? With this young team, and the attitude of the fans on here, you're going to have to give up one thing or another. You are going to have to give up possible playing time for some kids to develop, as some of you on here suggest, to have a better chance at winning games. Or, you are going to have to give up wins to develop players. With a very young team, you can't have both.

I don't look at the loss yesterday and say that our offense is inept. I look at the fact the kids gave up almost 40 points in 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, the score was 44-43, someone correct me if I'm wrong. And they ended up with 83 by the time the game was over. Now I will say that the motion offense is a little outdated, but if it is run correctly, it is still effective. Look at Texas Tech, Coach Knight has run the same offense for years, and he is still winning games. And trust me, they don't get the best athletes up there to Lubbock. We have had to play two of the better teams in our conference back to back, what did everyone expect. Let's see how the entire conference season goes before the complaining get's out of hand.

[hammb]

Couldn't agree more with the basic premise of this thread.

It baffles me the way we leave some players on the bench for long stretches while giving playing time to others. At this time I don't think LeFeld brings anything to this team that Polk doesn't, so I don't know why he'd continue to get so many minutes. Matt was never athletic enough to be a good defender, but he had some post moves. His feet seem to be hurting him so much he doesn't even have that offensive game any longer.

Warthog is dead on with players not knowing their roles. I think Bland is brought in to be the defensive stopper, but what are the roles of Moten or Clements? Towards the end of the game yesterday Clements actually showed some quicks off the dribble to get to the rim; perhaps that was because Akron was already celebrating the win, but why have we seen so little of that in his career? Moten has big shooting days in the tourney at Milwaukee and now he doesn't even get any shots...and yesterday barely even any minutes?

I'm hoping some of this will start to even out as Marschall gets more healthy and can start contributing on offense again, but right now we are way too dependent on Samarco & Miller. They are taking an overwhelming majority of our shots, and defenses know this. There is no reason that we cannot use the attention paid to them to find open looks for our other guys. If those guys are not capable of hitting open shots, then why are they on teh team/floor? You need a couple top notch players to make a good basketball team, but you still need the other guys to contribute and play some roles. Right now most of them seem lost out there...it worked against the lousy OOC competition, but it's not working against the top class of our league.

[hammb]

We lose two games, and everybody is back on the b***hing bandwagon. It's not as easy to make substitution patterns as everyone would like to believe. And yes, a kids work ethic in practice should reflect on his playing time during game situations. If a kid is not a hard worker in practice, and he doesn't show the skill necessary to help you win games when you see a kid most (practice), then how in the heck can you trust a kid in a game situation? With this young team, and the attitude of the fans on here, you're going to have to give up one thing or another. You are going to have to give up possible playing time for some kids to develop, as some of you on here suggest, to have a better chance at winning games. Or, you are going to have to give up wins to develop players. With a very young team, you can't have both.

I don't look at the loss yesterday and say that our offense is inept. I look at the fact the kids gave up almost 40 points in 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, the score was 44-43, someone correct me if I'm wrong. And they ended up with 83 by the time the game was over. Now I will say that the motion offense is a little outdated, but if it is run correctly, it is still effective. Look at Texas Tech, Coach Knight has run the same offense for years, and he is still winning games. And trust me, they don't get the best athletes up there to Lubbock. We have had to play two of the better teams in our conference back to back, what did everyone expect. Let's see how the entire conference season goes before the complaining get's out of hand.

I know you're a coach and have likely forgotten more about basketball than I'll ever know, so I trust your opinion on these things. You are correct that yesterday's downfall was not the offense so much as the defense. For some reason they fell apart completely down the stretch. The offense had issues (couldn't beat the press, stuck on 44 forever), but the big problem was we gave up 40 points in 15 minutes...that SUCKS.

However, the initial part of your post is, IMO, not as black and white as you make it sound. In theory you would think that you must sacrifice winning games in order to develop talent. I would agree with you, but that hinges on the premise that your upperclassmen are going to give you a better shot at winning than your youngsters are, and right now I just don't see that as the case. LeFeld is doing NOTHING on the court right now. I know the guy works his rear off, and I know he's playing in pain; I commend him for all that, but he is nothing more than 5 fouls to give right now. He's never defended, he's never rebounded well, and now he's not even good for that 8-12 points in the paint any longer. Dan even admitted after the Buffalo game that Polk was a big reason for the win. Now I know Polk played a lot in the Ohio game, which we lost, but why does he play so little yesterday?

I realize that this is all more difficult to manage than any of us fans could really comprehend. Most of us are not, never have been, nor ever will be basketball coaches. Still it doesn't take a genius to realize the best 5 on this team is clearly Hamblet-Samarco-Miller-Marschall-Polk. I have no problem rotating for depth but these should be your goto guys down the stretch.

For some reason we have Dusan averaging 24 minutes per game to give us a whopping 5.4 points, under 40% shooting, and over 1 turnover per game. WHY!?

This is nothing new. There were times Cory Ryan racked up minutes with nothing to show for them. John Floyd racked up minutes when the team was better off with him in the stands. Now Dusan racks up minutes and contributes nothing. I'm all for rewarding practice habits, but to continually play inferior players just to get a point across seems like it's sacrificing wins just to make a point...which is much worse (IMO) than sacrificing wins to develop talent.

[BleedOrange]

Dakich's schizophrenic rotations are nothing new. It's always been a point of contention amongst the peanut gallery.

I think Dan bases PT off of effort in practice a lot more than most D-1 coaches. IMO, that's a nice thing to do in high school, but at this level, you need to put your best players in a position to succeed and develop.

I think this has been one of the biggest reasons for all the transfers. Talented guys leave for greener pastures because they don't know if or when they'll ever get consistent PT.

Jerking a player like Polk around from game to game is most likely detrimental to his development. If it's a conditioning thing, wouldn't it be better to gradually increase his minutes?

I've never understood how Dakich approaches PT, and I don't expect to start now.

I whole heartedly agree with every last word of this post.

It's my impression that DD has great difficulty trusting young players. He seems extremely reluctant to play youngsters who might be a bit more mistake prone. Also, by benching a starter early, for a mistake or some other reason, throws his incentive system completely off.

Overall, young talent has not developed well under DD. McLeod, Almanson, and Matela are the only guys that really developed over 4 years. Marcshall is showing signs, but his progress remains to be seen. NOBODY ELSE in our current FR or SO class has proven anything at all.

HoustonFalcon, it's been close to 40 years since we've been to the NCAA tournament. The last several years of Falcon hoops have been throw-away years where the program hasn't progressed at all. Now, after playing the 334th best OOC, we've been pounded badly by two good-but-not-great MAC teams. Is this the fifth throw-away year in a row? Are players like Polk, Moten, Clements, Larson developing? I will not hesitate to b*tch if I see something to b*tch about.

[falconfan1999]

From the limited action I've seen this year, I think that we have too many guys standing around on offense. We don't have anyone outside of Samarco who can get off a shot quickly. Our big's are a lot like Zydrunas Ilgauskas for the Cavaliers, big and slow. Unlike him, they do play good defense. We do have some athletic players who defend well, but many of the mistakes made yesterday were compounded with poor communication on the court by some players. When your guy beats you off the dribble down the middle, shouldn't there be somebody there to help?

And yes, Akron hit a lot of clutch shots. Their jump shooters did a good job of sticking the open j's!

I am not giving up on this team, but I do see a lot of room to get better. We are not heading for the cellar this season, but I also don't see us challenging Ohio, Akron and Kent for top tier status either.

[Warthog]

Our big's are a lot like Zydrunas Ilgauskas for the Cavaliers, big and slow.

We have bigs? Rebounding leaders yesterday: Miller (6'4" at best) - 7, Sammarco (a guard) - 6, and Hamblet (PG) - 4. The biggest thing that this team is missing is a 6'7"/6'8" guy or two that is lean, can run the floor, and grab rebounds. Look at our roster, we only have four guys listed as 'Fowards' and two of them are 6'4". The other two are caucasian, if you catch my drfit.

[HoustonFalcon]

Look, I admit that I can't physicall see what's going on. But what I do know is that Dan Dakich is not the only reason that we haven't been to the NCAA tournament in the last 40 years BO. He has been on the wrong end of the bubble once or twice. So don't give me that. What was alarming to me was the fact that he would go from a 18 or more win season to a 10 or below win season like every other year. But with all of the new blood on this team, the transfers that are gone, he should be given one more year, in my opinion. Let's all be honest with ourselves, NO ONE expected this team to compete for an NCAA berth. So I'm not sure how this would be another throw away year when everyone realistically new that this team would be up and down with growing pains.That's what is happening right now. I have said, that I am willing to give him the whole MAC season to see how this thing goes. I am not able to see what he has on the floor, and I am not able to see how they play together. I understand that. And maybe I'm a little out of line in some of the things that I have said. If this MAC season goes like the football team, then I will join the rest of you and say that new blood is probably in order. I will then say that Coach Dakich is a good coach, but probably needs a new place to be, for his own good and ours. But until that time, I am going to analyze what I can from a coaches perspective, and I hope that everyone understands that.

[hammb]

I will then say that Coach Dakich is a good coach, but probably needs a new place to be, for his own good and ours.

This is where I have been for the past couple years. I think the guy is a decent coach, but I think he needs a change of scenery, and we need a change, if for no other reason than for change's sake.

We've had 10 years of Dan Dakich. He's won approximately 54% of his games. That is mediocrity, and I'm not into celebrating mediocrity. I'd rather take the risk and try to find someone that I think can do the job well, than stick with the status quo, just because, "Things could be a lot worse."

[Warthog]

... he should be given one more year, in my opinion.

Are you saying a one year extension? I have thought about that. I agree that we have many young guys playing and he should be given a chance to succeed with this large group of FR/Soph that we currently have. But as it stands, Dan is a lame duck. I think that really hampers the ability to recruit. How can players commit to BG when they don't know who the coach will be? If you give him one more year, that just makes it another lame duck recruiting process. I don't see how that could be beneficial. I think if an extension is given, it has to be for 3 years minimum. Now, I am not saying I am lobbying for that, or for DD to be let go. Just saying if he does get a new contract, you have to show the commitment is for more than just one year.