OneKeg said:
I said I didn't see Cal winning this one, so no surprise there. But being blown out by 29 (before garbage time started and USF brought in their scrubs for McNeil to finally get some 3s on) was not good. You could sense the utter apathy in the stands, except from a handful of USF faithful.
Sure there was an experience gap. But mostly, it was a coaching gap.
It's almost comical watching us dribbling ourselves into trouble against a zone. I think it was three quarters of the way into the game and we had only got it into the high post to collapse the zone once. Not that we did much better against man. On The other end, not blocking out on rebounds... USF getting catch-and-shoot in-rhythm threes at will.
Sure it was the players making these mistakes but I feel for them. Some of them were trying hard (Kelly). But these are Jones' players, and the coaches have not been able to instill basketball fundamentals in this team. For a counter-example, just look at the Dons. They have some sophomores too. But they run an effective offense given their skills. Which means the only way they were going to lose to us was if they missed all their wide-open threes. Oh well.
This doesn't all boil down to a "coaching gap." With all due respect, that is way too simplistic. This is a bit more complicated problem. If the teams were similar in age, size and experience and this is the way they looked playing each other, I'd say yes, there is a coaching gap.
Also, you have played a little loose with some facts. Yes, it is true that USF has some sophomores, but they started two juniors, Lull and Ratinho, and two seniors, Ferrari and Renfro. The only sophomore who started was Minlend, who is a redshirt sophomore. He had a good freshman season, got hurt and had to sit out all last season. So he has been in the program for over two years, learning and growing mentally at least. The USF 6th man, Bouyea, is a soph. USF ran basically a 6 man rotation getting most of the minutes, with senior McCarthy and junior Retainen getting an additional 11 minutes each. Three others played 3-4 minutes in garbage time, including a soph and two freshmen. The point is that USF is a very experienced veteran team for the most part. The only true soph who plays is Bouyea, and he comes off the bench. Cal starts two freshman, two sophs, and one redshirt junior. USF's freshmen and sophomores (except for Bouyea and the redshirt Minland) played only in garbage time.
USF coach Kyle Smith was a very successful head coach at Columbia and an associate head coach in charge of offense at St. Marys. He already knows how to be a head coach. He has had all the players in his rotation for over two years, so it should be no wonder his offense looks good and is effective. Wyking Jones was hired at Cal with no offensive coaching or head coaching experience that I know of. He has to learn on the fly. Jones has had only 6 players for one season, and of those only three, McNeill, Sueing, and JHD (who wasn't at full strength) played any substantial minutes for Cal. Austin was practicing only, and Anticevich and Davis seldom played any meaningful minutes. And two of these players, McNeill and Sueing are forced to learn and play new positions, due to Cal's lack of big men.
Looking again at the disparity of the two rosters, the glaring difference not only players with experience and a coach with experience, but also height of the players in the front court. USF has 6 players 6'-8" and taller, while Cal has three. Of the bigs who start and play significant minutes, USF has two, a senior and a junior, while Cal has one, a freshman. Of the bigs who play minutes, USF has four, two seniors and two juniors, while Cal has two, both freshmen.
It was just the men against the boys in the USF-Cal game. Cal does not look good playing, and other teams can easily get Cal off their game with defense or offense. But it isn't fair to render final judgment on Wyking Jones based on the first few games. Some people who write here think it is easy to train players with few fundamentals and some bad habits into good D1 players on a good D1 team overnight. Jones is playing two freshmen, and he has only a fe weeks to teach them fundamentals, along with teaching them everything else. It is not, and probably any coach will tell you that. It took three full years and two coaches to break a very good player, Jerome Randle of trying to split defenders by tossing the ball between them and then trying to catch up to it before a defender did. He loss the ball every time, but he insisted on doing it. As a senior, he stopped doing it, and we all know what kind of player he was that year. Wyking Jones may be a terrible head coach, and what you see is all you are going to get from him. But until his players become juniors and seniors, and he no longer has any excuse, then you will truly know if he has the stuff or not.
SFCityBear
