Kim's press appearance strikes me as a totally in character. Honest and direct without a lot of embellishment. I love the way she caught herself being too negative about their mental resilience and going back to observable behaviors in the Stanford game. I was concerned about the comment of not having had to face bad teammate behaviors around sharing the ball and running the offense this late in the season. That's not coaching; that's player character. And I agree with her about Stanford. To me, something switched late in that game and the ball started moving on offense, plays started clicking, and they looked better. Had they played the entire game that way, they'd have beaten Stanford soundly. That alone would have had many of us thinking better about this team.
I agree Kim seems frustrated. And, frankly, if she's having to work on players, especially experienced players, to just do the basic things like running the offense and passing the ball before looking to create their own shot this late in the season, then frustration is understandable. Everything about her, from presentation to what she's done in her career suggests she is a VERY competitive, bright, basketball-savvy coach. Watching attitude flaws cause her team to beat themselves has to be hard.
When asked about Florida wanting to go fast (and the games they have lost have been when they were slowed down), she said:
Uh, wait. What? I mean, she's right, but think about it. There's been a lot of talk about the quality of players on this team -- elite, 5-star, McDonald's AA, etc. -- so what's the problem with executing transition defense? And, no, it's not the scheme. Kim's coached this for years. She's seen it work against teams who had athletes competitive or even better than her own. What she clearly has said she doesn't see is players executing as they have been coached and as they do in practice. Again, that's got to be frustrating. I get that a lot of these players may not have had as much coaching or experience on running a press defense, especially pressure off misses, ever before as they've had this year. But defense is a big chunk effort, another chunk of court awareness, and a final chunk of communication and teamwork. Those things are way more about desire than ability. They're not like having the "touch" for three-point shots. There's just no excuse for players not executing transition defense better at this point in the season.
Transition offense may be a little different issue. I'm not sure whether it's a matter of talent, skill, rushing things, confidence, or what, but there are a lot of drives to the basket that end up with the ball simply thrown in the direction of the goal. Not by everyone. Talaysia can finish, and nearly always does. Janiah can but sometimes seems content with just drawing contact. Robertson seemed to be a chunker early in the season, but she's getting better. Mia can finish, and seems to be figuring out how to get to the rim with a chance to get her shot off. This is also an area where being unselfish comes into play -- make the pass when it needs to be made, not after you've decided you can't score yourself. Again, I'm going to give props to Talaysia. Several players have had there scoring stats boosted off her steals and subsequent assists. Deniya seems to be finding her stride. Kaniya can perform.
Other than how they finish, I'm not knowledgeable enough to see things like whether they are filling the right lanes, pulling up for a three when the numbers favor that, or whatever it is beyond just finishing when they get to the basket. But, there have been enough blown layups to make this team's transition offense results look bad.
Finally, there was this concerning quote:
Melting down? Are you melting down? There's no melting down in basketball!
I mean, seriously, what?! And, no, I'm not inclined to give much credence to suggestions this is somehow the fault of the coaches. Kim's been coaching this for over a decade. Jenna's been with her for years. Players haven't been melting down. Last year's team wasn't melting down in practice as far as I know. To me, this sounds like it connects with being a bad teammate, not running the offense in games like in practice, not sharing, etc. Maybe there are some players who don't think they're getting to shine as much as they thought they would. Well, too bad. You knew what you signed up for. One of Kim's Glenville State players described Kim's approach as "real team basketball." So, go out there and play like a team.
I agree Kim seems frustrated. And, frankly, if she's having to work on players, especially experienced players, to just do the basic things like running the offense and passing the ball before looking to create their own shot this late in the season, then frustration is understandable. Everything about her, from presentation to what she's done in her career suggests she is a VERY competitive, bright, basketball-savvy coach. Watching attitude flaws cause her team to beat themselves has to be hard.
When asked about Florida wanting to go fast (and the games they have lost have been when they were slowed down), she said:
Uh, wait. What? I mean, she's right, but think about it. There's been a lot of talk about the quality of players on this team -- elite, 5-star, McDonald's AA, etc. -- so what's the problem with executing transition defense? And, no, it's not the scheme. Kim's coached this for years. She's seen it work against teams who had athletes competitive or even better than her own. What she clearly has said she doesn't see is players executing as they have been coached and as they do in practice. Again, that's got to be frustrating. I get that a lot of these players may not have had as much coaching or experience on running a press defense, especially pressure off misses, ever before as they've had this year. But defense is a big chunk effort, another chunk of court awareness, and a final chunk of communication and teamwork. Those things are way more about desire than ability. They're not like having the "touch" for three-point shots. There's just no excuse for players not executing transition defense better at this point in the season.
Transition offense may be a little different issue. I'm not sure whether it's a matter of talent, skill, rushing things, confidence, or what, but there are a lot of drives to the basket that end up with the ball simply thrown in the direction of the goal. Not by everyone. Talaysia can finish, and nearly always does. Janiah can but sometimes seems content with just drawing contact. Robertson seemed to be a chunker early in the season, but she's getting better. Mia can finish, and seems to be figuring out how to get to the rim with a chance to get her shot off. This is also an area where being unselfish comes into play -- make the pass when it needs to be made, not after you've decided you can't score yourself. Again, I'm going to give props to Talaysia. Several players have had there scoring stats boosted off her steals and subsequent assists. Deniya seems to be finding her stride. Kaniya can perform.
Other than how they finish, I'm not knowledgeable enough to see things like whether they are filling the right lanes, pulling up for a three when the numbers favor that, or whatever it is beyond just finishing when they get to the basket. But, there have been enough blown layups to make this team's transition offense results look bad.
Finally, there was this concerning quote:
Melting down? Are you melting down? There's no melting down in basketball!
I mean, seriously, what?! And, no, I'm not inclined to give much credence to suggestions this is somehow the fault of the coaches. Kim's been coaching this for over a decade. Jenna's been with her for years. Players haven't been melting down. Last year's team wasn't melting down in practice as far as I know. To me, this sounds like it connects with being a bad teammate, not running the offense in games like in practice, not sharing, etc. Maybe there are some players who don't think they're getting to shine as much as they thought they would. Well, too bad. You knew what you signed up for. One of Kim's Glenville State players described Kim's approach as "real team basketball." So, go out there and play like a team.
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), but I have my suspicions about what might be going on and which player might be a bit of a powder keg and kinda shooting herself in the foot.
