[NU Sports]

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Nu forces ot with a 3 pointer with 25 seconds left

Harry
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Roy Lamberton" <rstetson at capps-assoc.com>

Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 15:23:04 
To: 'Eric West'<e-west at northwestern.edu>; <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] The John Wooden myth


The sad thing about the "dump Carmody" idea is that it just might get more
credence from the new administration at the north end of Ryan, but might not
be a good idea.

Whoever comes in will wind up losing half of the players to Div II schools
much the way KON's crowd all bailed out for, and excelled at, lower ranked
schools. (I would make the case that most deserved to be in Div I but that
fight is unwinnable so....).

A new coach will have to make the decision to play a variation of Princeton,
to use the talent assembled, or shift to another style of play, however,
many successful teams are now running variations of the Princeton, and
credit that offense for giving them the tempo that allows victory most of
the time.

NU is running a quicker version of the Princeton now that we have more
shooters.

That said, IMHO, our weakness is in rebounding in the middle, breaking a
full court press, and defending against a team with more than one long range
shooter. (yeah, we also have trouble inside at times, but when the 1-3-1 is
clicking, the inside is pretty well covered.)

Luka, to his credit seems to be picking up more offensive rebounds lately. I
think Rowley, once he stops thinking about what he's doing underneath will
also. On the defensive end, Moore and Coble, and Luka all seem to get their
share of defensive boards. 

A new coach would play with the same guys for a couple of years, and would
probably have a lot of success because the kids are there right now, but
that coach would probably lose Mitch, and Tavaras and lose a lot of the
recruiting contacts in Chicago that are bringing the better middle talent
kids to Evanston.

Personally, I would rather base BC's future on next year's team, than go
through the complete shuffle that we'd see if there was a change this
Spring. Besides, we'd probably get another "coach on the way up" who would
win with BC's recruits for 2 years, then move on to a bigger job elsewhere.

I know it’s a Cubbie Joke [like an Aggie Joke in Texas] but "wait 'til next
year" makes sense to me.

Go Cats - win out and dance

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
-------------------- Also ----------------------
Publisher: Purple Reign (Scout.com/Fox Sports)
Commissioner Delaware American Legion Baseball
Retired Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician [R]
Northwestern University - Sp 1974 - 
Chi Phi: Pi74, KD68
==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========
A Few Basic Truths:
  You cannot Legislate Morality
  You cannot Litigate Peace
  You cannot Tax yourself to Prosperity
  Wealth transfer makes everyone poorer
It's all been tried, and failed before.
================================================


-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Eric West
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 5:02 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] The John Wooden myth

It's hardly a "myth." By 1961 John Wooden had won exactly one NCAA 
tournament game (and that was a consolation game), he hadn't won his 
conference in five years, and the 20-win seasons were long gone. Though 
he was still the most successful coach at his school in decades (like, 
you know...Carmody), there's no doubt quite a few folks on this list 
would have been moaning that he'd lost his touch, he was regressing, he 
couldn't sustain his early success, the program was clearly heading in 
the wrong direction, it's time for new blood, etc., etc.

Beyond that, if our most successful coach since the 1960s -- by FAR -- 
can be called a "failure," then we are simply talking past each other. 
It's great to expect something that has never ever happened, but there's 
zero evidence to suggest that we will get there faster by firing 
Carmody, *especially* at this particular point in this particular season.

I'm starting to repeat myself, so I won't weigh in on Carmody again 
until after the season is over. It will be telling how the team responds 
to this jarring loss; the parallel might be the football team's loss to 
Indiana this year. Will the basketball team fizzle out, or will they 
buckle down, adjust, and get even better? The rest of the season will be 
interesting.


Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu


Dennis W. Brandt wrote:
> Let's put to rest this it-took-John-Wooden-forever myth as an excuse 
> for Carmody's failure.  The Wizard of Westwood's lifetime record at 
> UCLA was 620 - 147, an overall winning percentage of .808, and it was 
> .823 in conference.  He won 22 and 24 games his first two years at 
> UCLA (1948-1950). Prior to his 1964 championship win over Michigan (my 
> freshman year - we blew a game to Michigan at home that season, too, 
> when Cazzie Russell took over late), he won 20 or more games in six 
> seasons, 19 twice, and 18 three times. He never had a losing season at 
> UCLA.  His worst year was 1959-60 when he was 14-12.  By the playoff 
> rules of today, he would have been in the NCAAs the vast majority of 
> times prior to 1964.  He was even 47 - 14 in the two years at Indiana 
> State before he went to UCLA.
>
> We're not asking Carmody to win the NCAA championship at this point, 
> just get us the hell into it!  He hasn't even gotten his team into the 
> NIT with the also-rans, which makes us never-beens.


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