Reply To: Offseason Hoops Speculation

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Offseason Hoops Speculation Reply To: Offseason Hoops Speculation

#18900

lehigh90
Participant

’08-

I agree with much of what you wrote. We got great PG play and great play from our bigs, TK and JG, but the wing play was suspect all season. Sometimes very good, and sometimes very poor. I thought preseason that the key to the season was going to be consistent wing scoring, and we never really got it. We knew we had a stud in TK, and we basically knew we had a very talented young PG. They both performed, but we could not get that consistent scoring option from the wing. AP had his moments, but he gets lost for long stretches, and lacks that scorer’s mentality, always looking to throw the dagger.

The biggest disappointment for me, for the season, was that we did not win the regular season title or the conference tournament when we clearly had the most talented roster. I watched the 2 semis yesterday, and it is really apparent that those 4 teams do not have the athletes that Lehigh does. Lafayette has a really solid roster (and are similar to Lehigh in that they get a lot from their 1 and 5) but they are far from athletic. Solid basketball team for sure, with a lot of senior leadership, well coached, and I expect them to win PL title, but we should be able to run a team like that off the floor. When you are the most talented and you don’t win, you have to lay a fair bit of the blame at the feet of the head coach.

I think BR has done a great job building a really solid program with increasing longevity. He continues to bring in good talent, with not a lot of fan support. But, his X’s and O’s are suspect. He usually gets outcoached by the better coaches in the league. He seems, from the outside, like a really nice coach to play for, supportive, etc., but he relies on his players and older players to motivate. I don’t see him as a real motivator, or tough task master, and I think college players respond to that type a little better. I am saying this from a distance, so I don’t really know but that is how it appears. When you have athletes, you need to exploit your strengths and we never do that. Put your athletes on the floor, push tempo and dictate to your opponent. Press full court when you have plus athletes, we never do that. We are just so one dimensional, no versatility, suspect substitution patterns, nothing out the box. Man to man, high pick and roll, it is all so vanilla.

I think we are clearly the favorite next season, with Bucknell. They should be 1-2 for the title next year. Anything less than that and 20 wins is a disappointment. We should be NCAA or NIT next season. We aren’t losing much, return 90% of everything, and have talent coming in. So, we are in great shape. No excuses left. Only change I see is a possible BA transfer. He never looks comfortable out there in his role.