Is this a trend in coaching?

[EricLA]

I watched the UCONN-Memphis game, and from the camera angle, was pretty much able to watch the Memphis head coach for most of the game.

It seemed that she literally spent the entire game calling out instructions to her team. Many times the player would be getting ready to do something different, and have to look over at the bench, and then follow whatever the coach called out.

I get that with young teams you may have to do more instructing during games, but it's the first time I really noticed this, and I would HATE it if that's how a UCONN team was coached. I love that Geno and co. teach the kids IN PRACTICE the skills necessary to THINK during the game and figure out what the offense, or defense, is doing and to run things from a thinking perspective. Didn't the coach teach her kids in practice how to run offense and defense?

I get calling out plays or defensive schemes (zone, man, etc), but to literally be pointing on the court where you want your players and where you want them dribbling the ball seemed way too much...

I have to imagine it would be difficult for a player with any intelligence to spend an entire career listening to the constant stream of consciousness (metaphorically speaking) from your coach on the sidelines. Do other coaches work this way? Is this a trend for the future? I don't imagine most of the top teams do, but is it necessary for less "talented" teams?

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Well, it is what you will see quite a bit with Coach P ... .

 

[VAUConnFan]

All coaches are different, but what you see some coaches do verbally may be done more subtly by UConn.

 

[huskeynut]

Again, the difference that sets Uconn apart from others. Geno expects his team on the floor to figure it out. They are given the tools and knowledge in practice to do it during the game.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Again, the difference that sets Uconn apart from others. Geno expects his team on the floor to figure it out. They are given the tools and knowledge in practice to do it during the game.

And even then you see Geno giving instructions to Dolson every time out. I assume he is telling her what he wants to do on offense, and she has to then make it happen. Geno may not be as vocal, but he does signal his team as to what he wants them to do. The team is hardly out there doing whatever they want.

 

[Kibitzer]

There is nothing new about this. I recall back in the day when Hubie Brown was coaching the New York Knicks. He constantly called instructions from the sideline. Inevitably, on one unforgettable occasion, he was giving instructions to his PG as he was dribbling slowly in the back court. There was a little confusion, and in the give-and-take between Coach Brown and the PG -- you guessed!

Over ten seconds had elapsed, whistle blew, Knicks lost possession!

I'll bet it will happen again, somewhere, sometime, when you least expect it.

 

[Biff]

Have you so quickly forgotten Harry Paretta? He was constantly yelling out to his players giving instructions. Almost every possession the PG would stop for a conference by the bench before going over half court.

 

[Woof 101]

I watched the UCONN-Memphis game, and from the camera angle, was pretty much able to watch the Memphis head coach for most of the game.

It seemed that she literally spent the entire game calling out instructions to her team. Many times the player would be getting ready to do something different, and have to look over at the bench, and then follow whatever the coach called out.

I get that with young teams you may have to do more instructing during games, but it's the first time I really noticed this, and I would HATE it if that's how a UCONN team was coached. I love that Geno and co. teach the kids IN PRACTICE the skills necessary to THINK during the game and figure out what the offense, or defense, is doing and to run things from a thinking perspective. Didn't the coach teach her kids in practice how to run offense and defense?

I get calling out plays or defensive schemes (zone, man, etc), but to literally be pointing on the court where you want your players and where you want them dribbling the ball seemed way too much...

I have to imagine it would be difficult for a player with any intelligence to spend an entire career listening to the constant stream of consciousness (metaphorically speaking) from your coach on the sidelines. Do other coaches work this way? Is this a trend for the future? I don't imagine most of the top teams do, but is it necessary for less "talented" teams?

Lets make believe you are a division one college coach playing the perennial national champion or at the very least final four contender. Your team is up against a coach that is considerded the cream of the crop at this time and has coached multiple international teams and the USA Olympic team and won.

He is pacing (which I saw today) the side lines up by 20...Would you sit on the bench with your chin in your palm? With a team that moves as fast as ours many need the sixth man (the coach) seeing the floor. Suck it up as you are spoiled, undefeted and worried about how the opposing teams coach runs their team. YOUR freaking team won by 41 points! And you need a post whining about how opposing coaches try to stop it???

I bet others on opposing boards would wonder why Geno still had Steff and Stewie in the game with only four minutes to go, but then again why try to think of both sides of a story.....

 

[EricLA]

Have you so quickly forgotten Harry Paretta? He was constantly yelling out to his players giving instructions. Almost every possession the PG would stop for a conference by the bench before going over half court.

Maybe I just never noticed that. I recall him yelling a lot, but didn't realize it was to that extreme. And maybe the camera angle was more prevalent today, or maybe I just never paid attention before. I think maybe I noticed it because the announcers were sitting right next to the Memphis bench and you could her her constant stream of directions.

 

[EricLA]

Lets make believe you are a division one college coach playing the perennial national champion or at the very least final four contender. Your team is up against a coach that is considerded the cream of the crop at this time and has coached multiple international teams and the USA Olympic team and won.

He is pacing (which I saw today) the side lines up by 20...Would you sit on the bench with your chin in your palm? With a team that moves as fast as ours many need the sixth man (the coach) seeing the floor. Suck it up as you are spoiled, undefeted and worried about how the opposing teams coach runs their team. YOUR freaking team won by 41 points! And you need a post whining about how opposing coaches try to stop it???

I bet others on opposing boards would wonder why Geno still had Steff and Stewie in the game with only four minutes to go, but then again why try to think of both sides of a story.....

And your point is...?

 

[EricLA]

And even then you see Geno giving instructions to Dolson every time out. I assume he is telling her what he wants to do on offense, and she has to then make it happen. Geno may not be as vocal, but he does signal his team as to what he wants them to do. The team is hardly out there doing whatever they want.

She was calling out instructions to "dribble left" or "dribble right". Not kidding. It's one thing to instruct your team. This seemed a whole different level.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

She was calling out instructions to "dribble left" or "dribble right". Not kidding. It's one thing to instruct your team. This seemed a whole different level.

Harry can get a little specific, but he doesn't do it every play.

The problem today seems to be the lack of "game smarts" by players, i.e. the ability to recognize the defense and game situations and the corresponding appropriate move to make on the court.

A lot of Rutgers issues over the years I put down to this sort of thing, not only because you heard about those sort of issues with players in general, but the comments by coaches at RU only made sense based on recognizing that players were often not on the same page as CVS.

I think the over-coaching and instructing of players on the court is a byproduct of this issue.

 

[Phil]

And even then you see Geno giving instructions to Dolson every time out. I assume he is telling her what he wants to do on offense, and she has to then make it happen. Geno may not be as vocal, but he does signal his team as to what he wants them to do. The team is hardly out there doing whatever they want.

I agree with Huskeynut that Geno generally teaches them what to do in practice, so they can figure it out, but I have noticed his discussions with Dolson. One jumped out at me in the UCF game. They started a long conversation during a break, and were still in discussion when UCF was taking a free throw. The discussion continued, even after the free throw, and in bounds, while Dolson was back pedaling down the court, with one eye on the game, and the other on her continued discussion with Geno. It continued until the ball crossed halfcourt.

 

[HoopsFan21]

I agree with Huskeynut that Geno generally teaches them what to do in practice, so they can figure it out, but I have noticed his discussions with Dolson. One jumped out at me in the UCF game. They started a long conversation during a break, and were still in discussion when UCF was taking a free throw. The discussion continued, even after the free throw, and in bounds, while Dolson was back pedaling down the court, with one eye on the game, and the other on her continued discussion with Geno. It continued until the ball crossed halfcourt.

The team is really going to miss her next year -- on and off the court. Hard to believe her tenure is coming to an end. Seems like just yesterday we were watching this big freshman that no one else wanted from Port Jervis huff and puff up and down the court trying to keep up. She is worthy of being the face of the WNBA with her big personality.

 

[JRRRJ]

There is nothing new about this. I recall back in the day when Hubie Brown was coaching the New York Knicks. He constantly called instructions from the sideline. Inevitably, on one unforgettable occasion, he was giving instructions to his PG as he was dribbling slowly in the back court. There was a little confusion, and in the give-and-take between Coach Brown and the PG -- you guessed!

Over ten seconds had elapsed, whistle blew, Knicks lost possession!

I'll bet it will happen again, somewhere, sometime, when you least expect it.

Candidly, I think that's pretty funny.

 

[Buzzyboy]

I watched the UCONN-Memphis game, and from the camera angle, was pretty much able to watch the Memphis head coach for most of the game.

It seemed that she literally spent the entire game calling out instructions to her team. Many times the player would be getting ready to do something different, and have to look over at the bench, and then follow whatever the coach called out.

I get that with young teams you may have to do more instructing during games, but it's the first time I really noticed this, and I would HATE it if that's how a UCONN team was coached. I love that Geno and co. teach the kids IN PRACTICE the skills necessary to THINK during the game and figure out what the offense, or defense, is doing and to run things from a thinking perspective. Didn't the coach teach her kids in practice how to run offense and defense?

I get calling out plays or defensive schemes (zone, man, etc), but to literally be pointing on the court where you want your players and where you want them dribbling the ball seemed way too much...

I have to imagine it would be difficult for a player with any intelligence to spend an entire career listening to the constant stream of consciousness (metaphorically speaking) from your coach on the sidelines. Do other coaches work this way? Is this a trend for the future? I don't imagine most of the top teams do, but is it necessary for less "talented" teams?

I agree that you want what the players need to do during game situations to be "instinctive" rather than be told from second to second who to guard, how to react. The players need to react to situations but there should be almost no time during any game where something happens on the court that your team isn't prepared to deal with. Okay, so there might be that rare occasion but that would be the only time when your coach might be hollering from the sidelines, not a continuous series of instructions but a set or a strategy that's somewhat unique.

 

[ctkaiser]

Lets make believe you are a division one college coach playing the perennial national champion or at the very least final four contender. Your team is up against a coach that is considerded the cream of the crop at this time and has coached multiple international teams and the USA Olympic team and won.

He is pacing (which I saw today) the side lines up by 20...Would you sit on the bench with your chin in your palm? With a team that moves as fast as ours many need the sixth man (the coach) seeing the floor. Suck it up as you are spoiled, undefeted and worried about how the opposing teams coach runs their team. YOUR freaking team won by 41 points! And you need a post whining about how opposing coaches try to stop it???

I bet others on opposing boards would wonder why Geno still had Steff and Stewie in the game with only four minutes to go, but then again why try to think of both sides of a story.....

I honestly think that Geno wants to be sure that Stewie doesn't get screwed out of some award based on slightly lower stats with less playing time with so many blowouts. I am sure that's a minority opinion.

 

[Phil]

I honestly think that Geno wants to be sure that Stewie doesn't get screwed out of some award based on slightly lower stats with less playing time with so many blowouts. I am sure that's a minority opinion.

I think it is more likely something occurred to him that they should work on, maybe even something they had tried before and it didn't work, and he wanted them to do it in a game situation, not a practice situation. At that point in the game he is almost obvious to the game score, he is simply thinking - what did I want to accomplish in this game have I done it all, oh yeah right the high low between Stewie and Stef, they screwed it up twice, let's do it again, not until they get it right, but until they can't get it wrong.

 

[UcMiami]

Phil and ctkaiser - it also gets down to continuity on the court and the fact the team is still reintegrating the two injured players and trying to get the combinations right for the bench players - if Kiah is out there with the two walk-ons and Chong and Banks then it is bad for her development and bad for Chong and bad for Banks because the offensive and defensive flow will be a disaster and nothing will get accomplished. Replace one of those players with Stewart or Dolson or KML and you can actually work on your game. Add in Bria or MoJeff and drop both walk-ons and that is a line-up that might actually be used in a competitive game for short stretches. This was the just the sixth game in a month and the fifth game with a full team available. He and they need the work.

 

[DaddyChoc]

All coaches are different, but what you see some coaches do verbally may be done more subtly by UConn.

Geno sure does call them over a lot while someone is shooting a freethrow

 

[DaddyChoc]

Lets make believe you are a division one college coach playing the perennial national champion or at the very least final four contender. Your team is up against a coach that is considerded the cream of the crop at this time and has coached multiple international teams and the USA Olympic team and won.

He is pacing (which I saw today) the side lines up by 20...Would you sit on the bench with your chin in your palm? With a team that moves as fast as ours many need the sixth man (the coach) seeing the floor. Suck it up as you are spoiled, undefeted and worried about how the opposing teams coach runs their team. YOUR freaking team won by 41 points! And you need a post whining about how opposing coaches try to stop it???

I bet others on opposing boards would wonder why Geno still had Steff and Stewie in the game with only four minutes to go, but then again why try to think of both sides of a story.....

thats my thinking... some teams need all the help they can get from the coach when facing UConn... bottom line!

 

[alexrgct]

Some of her instructions were weird: "Can I get an echo?" I swear I heard her say that. Her voice is also a bit deep and creepy. Looks a little mean, too.

 

[UcMiami]

The times I noticed her she seemed to be trying to slow the team down. Based on Nan's pre-game, this is a team that likes to run, but the game plan for Uconn was to slow things down and reduce the number of processions so I think it probably led to more active involvement and reminding players to keep to the plan when their instinct was to play faster.

 

[rbny1]

Play calling by coaches is a trend in all sports, for better or worse. I'm old enough to remember when baseball catchers called the pitches. Now (in the major leagues at least) they look to the bench before each pitch for instructions. Football quarterbacks used to call all the plays but now the plays are sent in by the offensive coordinator or head coach. I think this change reflects the high stakes in sports and the inability of coaches to trust their players. Coaches are fired more frequently than they used to be so they want to maintain greater control over the results of games - at least that's my perception.

 

[HGN]

Geno sure does call them over a lot while someone is shooting a freethrow

DaddyChoc, I think Geno is taking advantage of a 'mini-timeout' to have a strategy talk with a player or 2. Nothing wrong with that.