I’ll confess that as a pretty middling basketball mind, even by rec standards, I tend to trust the coaching staff on playing time decisions. But I cannot understand how they spent all of last season benching Cam Tongue only to be shocked (shocked!) that he deserved starter minutes and then to replay the same experiment at the beginning of this season.
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Femme…not the result that we all wanted, but very happy for both you and Cam on his performance today.
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Yes, Cam played great. A little rough those first 30 seconds, but he settled in and was our best player tonight- BY FAR.
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Agreed - definite rough start. I have ALWAYS said let him at least get warmed up. Today Herb let him warm up. I am grateful.
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Patty-
Coaches aren’t perfect. Like anyone else they are prone to bias, tunnel vision, a belief that you have to play a certain way (their way) for the team to be successful.
A lot of coaches are enamored with the more polished player, the guy w/ fundamentals that look great in practice drills, who make the decisions they want them to make, the players who don’t make them a little nervous. And they end up favoring those guys over the more athletic but less polished players.
Cam is not the most polished of our posts/front court players, but he demonstrated the later part of last season and tonight’s game that there are things he can do that others don’t or can’t. The 3pt shooting and offensive skill set may not be what Sendek prefers in a 4/PF, but Cam has a combination of athleticism and strength that others don’t have, aided by an energy level and toughness that others don’t display on a consistent basis.
Sendek has a lot of work to do, to figure out what to do with this team. A lot of incomplete players…some who are fairly skilled but don’t consistently defend, rebound or play with the toughness needed. Others who make their share of mistakes and are less polished but who have great athleticism or bring the effort regularly.
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To me, it’s HEART. Who’s gonna play with HEART. I can see some of guys just by way they carry themselves are already mentally defeated. Can’t let that happen. Got to dig deep.
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to borrow from Nirvana,
smells like 'noob spirit
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Talented if a bit disjointed team, but saddled with a coach that is completely lost when his singular way to play is unproductive or outright thwarted.
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Maybe we re-engage the firm of Tilly & Tongue to get us out of this mess.
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I’d like to see Tilly, Tongue, Knapper, Bal and Bryan, just to see what happens. Make the other guys earn their minutes back.
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