In Reply to: However... posted by jerseybruin on March 28, 2024 at 07:58:11
Mara and Berke and Mack... are/were all high level players. We can probably add Juzang from the portal.
Hell, last year's class was top 20. That's good enough to compete.
The issue isn't talent, it's that he's GREAT at Coaching Defense, and really, really needs to grow at developing Offense.
Areas he really needs to work on:
1) Passing and Cutting - we NEVER get easy baskets off of backdoor cuts. We always pass to where a player is, not where he's going to be. The reason we don't? Cronin would rather not score than risk a turnover, and so we never get better at this, and Coach players to be conservative with a capital "C". And of course, these telegraphed passes, especially around the perimeter can be easily jumped, as we've seen so frequently.
2) The Fast Break - we FAIL at the fast break consistently. If a fast break opportunity relies on passing, and not just a 1-man straight shot at the basket, we either turn it over, get a bad shot, or pull it out, despite a numbers advantage and our defense actually creating a LOT of such opportunities with deflections and long rebounds.
3) Bench management. Cronin benches players for entire games for a mistake, rather than teaching and putting players back in. He also runs his starters into the ground (see the UNC Tourney loss).
If a player isn't a great offensive player when he gets to UCLA, it is very rare that he will develop into one through Coaching. Bernard, Andrews and Bona are the best jobs he has done. He failed miserably with Watson, as well as just about all of this year's freshman class.