Calhoun's gotta get some system kids in there along with his 1st rounders to be successful. Kids like Okafor and Gordon, who are lottery talents but also team players, are extremely hard to come by. He's probably realized that after this season. "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians" is an apt description of UConn this year. Thx rouge.
Re: More random hoops musings... that's too simplistic hornland. in general i agree with your point that cjb did a good job, but lsu was a young team and would not be expected to have as many drafted as other teams. the real measure will be in several years when we'll know how many from these teams went to the nba. besides we all know nba potential doesnt always equal college potential. unfortunately glen davis may be one example of this. if he doesnt loose weight his nba potential (and draft #) will be much lower than his college potential---in cases like this, college coaches may get too much credit for doing a lot with a little. the opposite is also true with examples like marvin williams from unc last year
im from the school of thought that a guy like john treloar deserves much more credit for this team's success than brady.
Re: More random hoops musings... Perhaps the comparison is a little simplistic, but I'll say what other "objective" measures can you look to to assess talent vs. coaching? Presumably the NBA is assessing talent at every level and the kids are motivated to get evaluated and leave if they're NBA ready. The fact that UConn had 5 draft picks, in my mind, certainly suggests that UConn had a more talented team than LSU, yet we played them to a point and went farther than them in the tournament. As for the youth statement, remember, "youth" in college is misnomer these days. If you're 19 and draftable, you presumably go out if you think you can get drafted. So, I don't get your comment with that. Youth didn't stop Melo from winning it with Syracuse, UNC with it's sophomores and juniors, and the list goes on. If your point is that LSU is young, and so, they weren't "draft" statistics, well, I still don't think that matters because I'm presuming that that is consistent across all teams. All teams have players like Glen Davis who aren't "NBA prototypes" but still help their team. Darrell Mitchell's another example. I guess you'd argue D.Mitch was a great "college" player but not a good NBA player. But, Duke has Sean Dockery (not drafted), Illinois had Dee Brown (late second round)--so, it's hard to get down to that level. So, I choose to make some characterizations... more NBA draft picks probably means more senior leadership and more talent. As for watering down Brady's accomplishment, which I think is implied by your post, that's fair, it's impossible to attribute it all to coaching. So many factors came into play this season, like team chemistry, team leadership, and overall "talent". But, coaching's definitely part of it--which was my point--UTexas and Duke were arguably more talented and we beat them both. I'll be the first to say, I'm watching for consistency from Brady's staff. If he can prove that he can do this year over year, create a system like the one at Duke, UNC, etc., where we lose players like Tyrus but fill in with players like Darrell Arthur, DeAndre Jordan, Greg Monroe, etc., then we should all be ready to sing his praises.
Re: More random hoops musings... there is still too much to consider. i dont think its fair to say "brady is better than calhoun" because lsu lost by 1 on the road to a team with more nba draftees in 2006. uconn won, marcus williams had just gotten back, motivation (lsu was disrespected dogs and uconn was the best ever--granted coaches play a role in this), matchups, luck, hype. the "youth" angle just referred to the fact that if a player is a senior he will go to the nba (if they want him), but if there is eligibility left, he may not. if glen would have been a first round pick in 06 but came back to lsu, then you conclude that lsu had less talent on the 06 team because their was one less first round draftee. honestly, i think cjb is similar to 60% of coaches out there--10% are better, 30% worse. but you factor in the specific group of players on the team on a given year and luck, and every once in a while he'll make a run. now, recruiting throws a wrench into this (i guess i consider it a separate skill) and that's why i think LSU is a top 25 program.
Also, the NBA draft has practically become a crap shoot. Most draftees are picked according to what they MIGHT become 3-5 years from now. Sure you have guys like Lebron who have an immediate impact, but for the most part that doesn't happen. So using draft picks from a school, can be misleading.
Re: More random hoops musings... You make some fair points. I don't think that my grading was to say that Brady is a better coach than Calhoun, just that Brady did a better job this year than Calhoun. I'd liken Calhoun's job this year to Dale Brown's job with Shaq, CJ and Roberts--an underachieving year. A team with 3 NBA lottery picks (or so) that did not meet it's potential. I think you could say the same about Calhoun's team and that's why I graded him at C+. I still think you're playing too much into the "youth" factor. When a player thinks that he's first round NBA draft material, I'd venture that 3 times out of 4, that kid's going to go. And, at a draft age of 19, basically any kid that's played one year of ball is draft eligible. And, the NBA spends $Ms assessing talent. So, to say that Glen stayed and that affects our statistics is right to one degree, but remember that teams like Duke, Memphis, etc., presumably had guys that are doing the same thing. There might be guys on those teams that "could" be drafted but were advised by the NBA they should wait. That all gets factored into implicitly. Sure enough, you could debate whether LSU really had 2 guys, not one, who were NBA "draftable", but then you really should say that Florida had 3 guys who were draftable. Getting into distinguishing between teams at that level is very hard to argue. No argument on the assessment of John B. It may be true that he's similar to many coaches out there and perhaps the "circumstances" were right this year, but I think this year with this talent, he adjusted to do a better job of coaching than he normally would have, so he gets a A- for this year. To truly be in the top 10%, as you put it, what would he need to do to get into that criteria in your book? IMO, Brady would need to show that he can do this consistently like all the great ones do. So, that's where you can get into whether Brady ever moves into the upper echelon of coaching success.
it isn't like i haven't said this before. brady's track record belies such a great season. all the camraderie and friendship on this team? kids being together since age 7? you gotta be kidding me. just one short year ago there was a freaking bus mutiny. o yeah, and of course, the blind luck of picking up a lottery pick who went basically unrecruited. treloar's been there and done that with IU. not a coincidence in my mind. some of you say i just hate brady and are full of it, but i speak facts, sir.
Re: More random hoops musings... yes. i doubt it will happen, but his track record over the second half of his career should be better than the first. for me, a true measure of his abilities could only begin several years after the sanctions were over. that's about now, i guess.
