Originally Posted by
CameronBlue
First let me state that this is not a harangue about how good things were under G and that P is literally Satan in a Blue Dress and wouldn't it be great if a house dropped on her and whatever. In my earlier posts I purposely avoided mentioning P by name to try to avoid making it personal. If it's possible to parse between the two I'd rather talk about the failures in coaching rather than the failures of P. White made his decision and it's well past time--as others have stated on this board months ago--to accept P and support the team, because not to support the team is simply wrong. But that doesn't mean the coaches (and players) should be immune to criticism.
Moving on. Seasonal averages are misleading and IMO your line of logic is specious. Duke has been historically a top tier (and we'll say remains so) Division I program. Any "systemic flaws" in coaching, game preparation etc reveal themselves more often in games when the team is mentally and physically tested, when more is on the line, when the talent disparity Duke enjoys against the Elons of the world is not in evidence. If you stratify those stats by ACC opponent, or Top 10 opponent or NCAA/ACC Tournament games and the relationship still holds then maybe you have a basis for argument. As it stands, again, IMO, you don't. Seasonal averages normalize extreme events and outliers. A top tier Division I program is only going to play a handful of games each year that will truly separate the women from the girls, both players and coaches, when tactics, strategy and ability to perform under pressure, the habits, both bad and good, ingrained through coaching and practice manifest themselves. I freely admit that I'm am relying on a "perception" that Duke performs poorly in those games, extremely poorly for an experienced team, as evidenced by turnovers. (I have not sorted through that stats to see, so go find the stats that nullify that perception--as I said you haven't yet--and maybe you'll have a basis for an argument.) The "perception" is that Duke frequently, with alarming regularity, hits the 20+ turnover mark in those "more important" games. And if you find that the same thing happened in the last two years of G's tenure, so what? Surely can't think 20 or 26 turnovers is excusable and not likely related to game coaching or game preparation? Could it happen once in a while to good teams? Obviously. It happens with such regularity to Duke that yes, you feel something fundamental to game preparation is being missed, repeatedly. It's as temporal as it ever has been. Duke lost the game for a number of reasons. They missed some free throws and that's on the players. For the sake of argument those are not wholly "coachable" mistakes. Getting the ball up court against a zone press, creating space against tight pressure and the sideline, recognizing double-teams and finding the open man (should be the one screaming the loudest), recognizing passing lanes, knowing when to pass the ball on the bounce are all things which are coachable tactics at which Duke seems to fail at repeatedly when it matters most.