Time to see how the team responds.

#1
T

tvols75

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#1
From all reports it seems Bruce put them through hell this week. We will see if they play tougher or revert back to same form.
 
#3
#3
Why wait until 19 games in to decide that players need to play with effort? This team is what it is. If there is a dramatic difference in performance now, we have a very poor coaching staff.
 
#4
#4
BasketvolsFan said:
Why wait until 19 games in to decide that players need to play with effort? This team is what it is. If there is a dramatic difference in performance now, we have a very poor coaching staff.
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Yeah I'm sure this hasn't be addressed before. If you didn't know coaches try a variety of things throughout the course of a year. The season is still pretty young, and we need a spark. Some of the key players on this team don't take criticism well just like Lofton never did. However, Bruce decided to change his approach with Scotty and a couple of others. We will see how he and the team responds.
 
#6
#6
tvols75 said:
Yeah I'm sure this hasn't be addressed before. If you didn't know coaches try a variety of things throughout the course of a year. The season is still pretty young, and we need a spark. Some of the key players on this team don't take criticism well just like Lofton never did. However, Bruce decided to change his approach with Scotty and a couple of others. We will see how he and the team responds.
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I agree that there is still time for this team to finally mesh and play well. However, expecting effort and focus should be an early season expectation and remain an expectation throughout the season. 19 games in and we have decided we are going to require intensity is not a good reflection on the coaching staff.
 
#7
#7
Now, if only we could SEE the freakin' game tonight. Just found out it's on PPV. Anyone in the Memphis area know if the Fox and Hound has it tonight?
 
#8
#8
BasketvolsFan said:
I agree that there is still time for this team to finally mesh and play well. However, expecting effort and focus should be an early season expectation and remain an expectation throughout the season. 19 games in and we have decided we are going to require intensity is not a good reflection on the coaching staff.
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Yeah I'm sure that the coaching staff just now noticed this problem and is addressing it :loco:
 
#9
#9
tvols75 said:
Yeah I'm sure this hasn't be addressed before. If you didn't know coaches try a variety of things throughout the course of a year. The season is still pretty young, and we need a spark. Some of the key players on this team don't take criticism well just like Lofton never did. However, Bruce decided to change his approach with Scotty and a couple of others. We will see how he and the team responds.
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It's only taken Pearl two and a half seasons to realize coddling a mentally soft floater like Hopson doesn't work. He's a quick study.
 
#10
#10
hatvol96 said:
It's only taken Pearl two and a half seasons to realize coddling a mentally soft floater like Hopson doesn't work. He's a quick study.
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Yeah, Maybe some tough love will eliminate that "I can't" attitude that he has obtained when he gets a talking to
 
#11
#11
hatvol96 said:
It's only taken Pearl two and a half seasons to realize coddling a mentally soft floater like Hopson doesn't work. He's a quick study.
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We will see how this works because I believe this is the first public criticism by Pearl. Usually you aren't hard on a guy that is mentally soft. He got on him hard before the Florida game last year, and he came out strong but then relapsed to inconsistency. I think every approach possible has been taken with Scotty. He is what he is.
 
#12
#12
I think it's time to admit that Scotty Hopson is either the weakest minded human being alive or probably suffers from depression and needs to get it checked out.
 
#14
#14
tvols75 said:
Yeah I'm sure that the coaching staff just now noticed this problem and is addressing it :loco:
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Then why wait 19 games to try to fix it? There is a place on the bench for players who don't focus and play hard. Guess Pearl just thinks they need time to decide to play. We don't have enough 4* players sitting on the bench to really require consistent effort. Hat is correct. Pearl is obviously just a slow learner. I'm sure that the problem is now corrected with the current practice efforts and telling the brilliant Tony Jones that he can sit players who don't give effort. Great move and timely too.
 
#16
#16
You don't want to break their spirit, especially when Pearl says Hopson is crucial to the success of the team and the team will only go as far as he takes them. Guess they won't be going very far then.
 
#17
#17
BasketvolsFan said:
Why wait until 19 games in to decide that players need to play with effort? This team is what it is. If there is a dramatic difference in performance now, we have a very poor coaching staff.
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This. Hopson isn't going to start dribbling now, Tatum isn't going to turn into a better passer now, Williams isn't going to be tough in the paint now. If it hasn't happened by now it's not going to. I'm certainly not ruling out an outside shot of this team getting hot, but I'm not very confident in it.
 
#18
#18
hatvol96 said:
Bob Knight, Gary Williams, Bob Huggins, and Jim Calhoun, to name a few of many, are all waiting anxiously to see the answer to that question.
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The mental midgets are the first ones to go after.
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#19
#19
NYYVol said:
The mental midgets are the first ones to go after.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
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There is a difference between a mental midget in basketball and a mental midget in other areas too. Scotty is a mental midget in basketball, with his boneheaded decisions. He also take things to heart when he is criticized and let's it affect his game. Those types of players, you don't chastise publicly or come down hard on usually. Lofton was this way. Pearl wouldn't ever get in Lofton's face no matter what he did wrong because Lofton would let it affect his game. The only problem is Lofton didn't make many mental mistakes on the floor. Scotty makes mental mistakes on the floor and is soft when criticized so it's definitely a delicate situation. Bruce has seen that nothing he has tried to do to motivate Scotty has worked consistently since he has been here. So he criticized him publicly and was a drill sergeant in practice. I'm anxious to see how this approach works.

And to the point of the other coaches mentioned by Hat. Scotty would've never committed to those guys because he knows he couldn't handle what they would throw at him.
 
#20
#20
I certainly don't believe in one blanket approach with all players but obviously coddling Scotty hasn't worked so I'm not sure why they continued to use that approach.

It's clear based on his play he needs to be toughened up; it's to a breaking point so at this point as a coach I would be so hard on him he would fold or would man the eff up.
 
#21
#21
JZVOL said:
I certainly don't believe in one blanket approach with all players but obviously coddling Scotty hasn't worked so I'm not sure why they continued to use that approach.

It's clear based on his play he needs to be toughened up; it's to a breaking point so at this point as a coach I would be so hard on him he would fold or would man the eff up.
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Agreed.
 
#22
#22
JZVOL said:
I certainly don't believe in one blanket approach with all players but obviously coddling Scotty hasn't worked so I'm not sure why they continued to use that approach.

It's clear based on his play he needs to be toughened up; it's to a breaking point so at this point as a coach I would be so hard on him he would fold or would man the eff up.
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Yelling at him with no real consequences will have no effect, imo. Challenging him needs to be coupled with the threat that if he doesn't respond, he'll be sitting on the bench.
 
#23
#23
LawVol13 said:
Yelling at him with no real consequences will have no effect, imo. Challenging him needs to be coupled with the threat that if he doesn't respond, he'll be sitting on the bench.
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Totally agree. As a player I never responded to being yelled at (because it made me mad and got me out of my game) but I did respond well to being challenged.

I read a great quote from Huggins which was in response to the question, "how do you get your guys to play so hard?"

He said the bench is a great motivator. Also read where he would, or still does put a treadmill next to the court and if a guy is dogging it in practice he'll turn the treadmill up real high and make them run on it because "you can't cheat a treadmill."
 
#24
#24
tvols75 said:
There is a difference between a mental midget in basketball and a mental midget in other areas too. Scotty is a mental midget in basketball, with his boneheaded decisions. He also take things to heart when he is criticized and let's it affect his game. Those types of players, you don't chastise publicly or come down hard on usually. Lofton was this way. Pearl wouldn't ever get in Lofton's face no matter what he did wrong because Lofton would let it affect his game. The only problem is Lofton didn't make many mental mistakes on the floor. Scotty makes mental mistakes on the floor and is soft when criticized so it's definitely a delicate situation. Bruce has seen that nothing he has tried to do to motivate Scotty has worked consistently since he has been here. So he criticized him publicly and was a drill sergeant in practice. I'm anxious to see how this approach works.

And to the point of the other coaches mentioned by Hat. Scotty would've never committed to those guys because he knows he couldn't handle what they would throw at him.
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Those mentioned coaches wouldn't have went after him, either.

Comparing Lofton to Scotty is crazy. Beyond crazy, actually. But if it has taken Bruce this long to realize his approach isn't working, then his issues are two-fold. One, he needs to question his recruiting ability. Many, many, many people knew Scotty's shortcomings. Pearl should have known what he was getting. And two, he needs to be able to adapt. You can't coach each kid the same. But anyone with a pulse could see that Scotty needed the proverbial fire lit.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#25
#25
LawVol13 said:
Yelling at him with no real consequences will have no effect, imo. Challenging him needs to be coupled with the threat that if he doesn't respond, he'll be sitting on the bench.
Click to expand...

That's the biggest problem today with coaches and players- no accountability.

Players will play to the expectations of a coach and if a coach makes idle threats he's going to lose the player's respect.
 
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