Toughness of Our Program

[zagsfanforlife]

At what point do we start to question the toughness of our program? Toughness in terms of being able to hang with an athletic, tough nosed, physical team that plays as hard or harder.

WV 2018 (matthews last second winner)
Tennessee 2018
Florida state 2018
Texas tech 2019
Baylor 2021
Duke 2021
Alabama 2021

All teams that were talented, but not as talented as GU, but more importantly in my eyes, were tough, played physical and roughed the zags up a bit. That was 6 losses off the top of my head I could remember. I’m sure there are more.

Allow the zags to run their offense and its often Beethoven on the piano. Pure beauty. Push them around a little bit and problems seem to arise.

Clearly there’s a certain type of team that gives us challenges. Is it a lack of toughness? Lack of motivation to get psyched up before games against these teams? The lack of physical strength that we have compared to these teams? Mental toughness? The type of athletes we are recruiting? Or just coincidence all these types teams have beat us?

[demian]

Count me as one who agrees with you

[GrizZAG]

Toughness maybe but it's more complicated from my view. First as much as I like Timme he doesn't play as big as he is. For a 6'10 big man he isn't getting the rebounds one might expect and regularly is beat at the rim too often. The numbers tell a different story, we should have won this game. Our percentage was better shooting, the rebounds were about equal, turnovers were the same and incredibly somehow our 3 pt shooting percentage was higher. They shot 34 three's to our 23 however and Shackleford had a Steph Curry night. They outhustled us down the floor, played mean defense and we were awful from the stripe. They showcased more talent, speed and quicker hands last night. It was clear they wanted it more. None are toughness issues but rather talent and drive issues IMO.

[ZagsGoZags]

the 3 pt % we had that was mentioned was buoyed considerably by making a number of them in the last couple of minutes when the game was over, compared to the dearth of 3 pt makes during the first 17 minutes of the game when pressure was on. Chucking 3's in the last minute pads the stats sheet but does not reflect how seldom we could make them when the game was close. The only way to get tougher is to play these kind of games which expose our weaknesses, but then learn and adjust.
Every coach that plays us this season will be calling coach-friends on how to play us, and studying how Duke, Alabama and Tarelton played us. This is the way to become tough by learning from how we respond to those types of defenses. These defenses are taking away many of the passing lanes we enjoyed in the first several games of the season, by anticipating them.

[Birddog]

Coach Gentry should know a little about “tough defenses” from his time working with Brad Underwood.

[jazzdelmar]

Coach Gentry should know a little about “tough defenses” from his time working with Brad Underwood.

Which silent one is he?

[zagfan24]

IMO, last night was about being smart more than being tough. Lots of poor shot selection, missed rotations, and ill-timed turnovers. Not mutually exclusive, of course, but across most sports playing smart is even more essential to winning.

[GrizZAG]

IMO, last night was about being smart more than being tough. Lots of poor shot selection, missed rotations, and ill-timed turnovers. Not mutually exclusive, of course, but across most sports playing smart is even more essential to winning.

Bingo!

[zagsfanforlife]

IMO, last night was about being smart more than being tough. Lots of poor shot selection, missed rotations, and ill-timed turnovers. Not mutually exclusive, of course, but across most sports playing smart is even more essential to winning.

Sometimes goes hand in hand. If a team can’t handle on ball pressure or an opponent that Jams cutters, picks up high on defense, etc., than the turnovers will result.

Seems too coincidental the type of team we continue to lose to.year in and year out, fews teams have trouble handling athletic opponents who get up in your face and defend hard

[scott257]

Toughness maybe but it's more complicated from my view. First as much as I like Timme he doesn't play as big as he is. For a 6'10 big man he isn't getting the rebounds one might expect and regularly is beat at the rim too often. The numbers tell a different story, we should have won this game. Our percentage was better shooting, the rebounds were about equal, turnovers were the same and incredibly somehow our 3 pt shooting percentage was higher. They shot 34 three's to our 23 however and Shackleford had a Steph Curry night. They outhustled us down the floor, played mean defense and we were awful from the stripe. They showcased more talent, speed and quicker hands last night. It was clear they wanted it more. None are toughness issues but rather talent and drive issues IMO.

You hit the nail on the head, they could foul us at will because we couldn’t make free throws. Talent and drive were both AWOL last night.

[kyle dixon]

Solution

At what point do we start to question the toughness of our program? Toughness in terms of being able to hang with an athletic, tough nosed, physical team that plays as hard or harder.

WV 2018 (matthews last second winner)
Tennessee 2018
Florida state 2018
Texas tech 2019
Baylor 2021
Duke 2021
Alabama 2021

All teams that were talented, but not as talented as GU, but more importantly in my eyes, were tough, played physical and roughed the zags up a bit. That was 6 losses off the top of my head I could remember. I’m sure there are more.

Allow the zags to run their offense and its often Beethoven on the piano. Pure beauty. Push them around a little bit and problems seem to arise.

Clearly there’s a certain type of team that gives us challenges. Is it a lack of toughness? Lack of motivation to get psyched up before games against these teams? The lack of physical strength that we have compared to these teams? Mental toughness? The type of athletes we are recruiting? Or just coincidence all these types teams have beat us?

Interested to hear what your solution to this question when calling out the stones of the coaching staff and the players. I am pretty green to this stuff…

[zagsfanforlife]

Interested to hear what your solution to this question when calling out the stones of the coaching staff and the players. I am pretty green to this stuff…

Someone is defensive. That’s expected when you question someone’s toughness… however it’s hard to debate the type of teams and styles of play we struggle with. TarLeton was the same way. Muck it up, be physical, out strength the zags, out hustle.. and they at 1-6 almost beat this squad .

Without knowing the perfect answer why we struggle with these types of teams, tough to know a solution . However, I coached collegiately and hs a few years, so my best guess as far as solutions:

-need a defensive minded coach that harps on in your face, on ball defense day in and day out. Head on a swivel, over communicative defense where you are 1 body, not 5 individuals. Tommy did add to this part which might be missing. The more you practice against it daily in practice, the easier it is during the games.

-overall strength of the players— I was at that baylor and Florida state game. When both teams came on the floor I knew we were in trouble. Their bigs were taller than ours, their bigs were much stronger than ours, their guards looked like college football players and we looked like pop Warner kids. This is enhanced through 1) recruiting different types of athletes, whose body composition has either the room to significantly bulk up or is already mostly there. The Suggs types. The issue is that most of the time the kids with these bodies don’t play as well as Suggs so you have to develop their skills while developing their bodies.

-this group of kids in both the Duke and Alabama games that I was at came out of the locker room in the second half like they were defeated already. Heads down, slow out of the locker room… I want to see the kids running out, fired up, ready to go. You would think if Few is laying into them like some think during half times, they would be a little more amped.

-recruit more east coast kids? Pargo, Suggs, norvell, Chet, probably a ton more I am Missing.. all had some dawg in them. Zach was a chucker who never saw a shot he didn’t like, but none of this kids lacked swag or toughness.

Overall it’s often about the kids you recruit, the way you coach, condition and motivate them, and certainly the way strength training develops their bodies to handle contact, intense ball pressure, physicality when driving through the lanes… all issues we are struggling with.

[demian]

Someone is defensive. That’s expected when you question someone’s toughness… however it’s hard to debate the type of teams and styles of play we struggle with. TarLeton was the same way. Muck it up, be physical, out strength the zags, out hustle.. and they at 1-6 almost beat this squad .

Without knowing the perfect answer why we struggle with these types of teams, tough to know a solution . However, I coached collegiately and hs a few years, so my best guess as far as solutions:

-need a defensive minded coach that harps on in your face, on ball defense day in and day out. Head on a swivel, over communicative defense where you are 1 body, not 5 individuals. Tommy did add to this part which might be missing. The more you practice against it daily in practice, the easier it is during the games.

-overall strength of the players— I was at that baylor and Florida state game. When both teams came on the floor I knew we were in trouble. Their bigs were taller than ours, their bigs were much stronger than ours, their guards looked like college football players and we looked like pop Warner kids. This is enhanced through 1) recruiting different types of athletes, whose body composition has either the room to significantly bulk up or is already mostly there. The Suggs types. The issue is that most of the time the kids with these bodies don’t play as well as Suggs so you have to develop their skills while developing their bodies.

-this group of kids in both the Duke and Alabama games that I was at came out of the locker room in the second half like they were defeated already. Heads down, slow out of the locker room… I want to see the kids running out, fired up, ready to go. You would think if Few is laying into them like some think during half times, they would be a little more amped.

-recruit more east coast kids? Pargo, Suggs, norvell, Chet, probably a ton more I am Missing.. all had some dawg in them. Zach was a chucker who never saw a shot he didn’t like, but none of this kids lacked swag or toughness.

Overall it’s often about the kids you recruit, the way you coach, condition and motivate them, and certainly the way strength training develops their bodies to handle contact, intense ball pressure, physicality when driving through the lanes… all issues we are struggling with.

I think this post is spot on. I am in agreement with you

[hooter73]

Which silent one is he?

Ha!

[zagfan1]

We did recruit Banchero though and I think he is tough. He just picked Duke.