I am finally recovered enough to post something about the game. It literally would have been the most thrilling victory since the days of Pat, so to have that snatched away with a series of extreme situations was so difficult. Two decisions that Coach Harper made were by the books and yet still ended up backfiring: the foul and not taking a timeout. The biggest one to me was the foul we needlessly did at the end of the game. Yes, it is typical to impede the flow in the last seconds if you have a foul to give, but in this case the SC player was already out of control, closely guarded, and in a corner well away from the other SC players with limited vision with just over a second left. I was so upset with the foul when it happened, as I knew it gave SC a chance to calm down and organize a throw in play. Before then, they were completely out of sync. However, that is not on coaching or Jewell as most coaches would have used that strategy. It just was the difference in the game that it was used exactly at that moment.
I like Kellie and thinks she brings a variety of strengths and weaknesses as a coach. Perhaps the most frustrating weakness has been execution at the end of quarters. Even before this game and throughout her career, we have witnessed in almost every game some great last second of the quarter play by the opposing team and/or some really poor execution of the last second play by us (images of Powell bulldozing her way in a crowd rather than giving an assist to an open player is a recurring nightmare). And remember, the crazy ass foul at the end of the half at mid court with less than a second left, which gave SC a gift of two points that ended up being more than the margin of the game. Yes, we have had a few successful quarter endings, but not nearly as much as our opponents.
It is understandable but still dead wrong that the very thing that people are calling for Kellie's head comes at a time when Kellie is coaching her butt off. This team has improved more during the season than any LV team has that I have ever seen. No, there are nowhere near Pat's best team, but it has really been remarkable how much better they have become over the course of the year. Could anyone even imagine this team playing this type of overall defense of the past several games against the best teams in the country? Also, it was Kellie's coaching adjustments that helped fuel our unbelievable comeback. She also made great adjustments in the Alabama game. We almost always do much better if we face a team we lost to a second time, which is in part due to coaching adjustments. So, I know Kellie will need to prove that she can recruit better and also get some high level transfer players with the players we are losing this and next year. However, I think her actual coaching this year actually gave me more confidence in her coaching ability than anything she has done beforehand. A hater can always point to instances that don't support this viewpoint, but no one can argue that this team hasn't dramatically improved during this year.
