The New Improved DK

Roadtrip · Post by **Roadtrip** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:11 pm

There seems to be a lot of concern with coach Kellogg's abilities. My main concerns are an apparent lack of discipline, and his unwillingness to adapt an offense to his players strengths. Both of these are within his power to change, and 29 games into his second season he seems unwilling, or unable to affect these changes. I'm not an X and O type, so i'm sure the more astute hoops minds on this board see things I don't. What should he do to improve this team, and how does he accomplish this?

Old-School · Post by **Old-School** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:17 pm

http://umasshoops.com/board/index.htm

xlgman · Post by **xlgman** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:25 pm

The list of concerns has been growing longer and longer unfortunately. This should be interesting.

kdogg8173 · Post by **kdogg8173** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:55 pm

One mans opinion and it goes completely against what DK obviously believes in but I wouldn't mind seeing some flex run, especially with TV who's got a nice little jump hook and I think could do some nice things catching it facing the basket from the top corner-in.

There are a lot of different things but the only glaring thing I've seen changed is a few more high screens for the point man. And think about it, how many guys can take their man one on one right now off the dribble? Ricky sometimes, Gurley can get into the lane (after that is another story), and ?????. Thats really all I got. My biggest concern is really how unmotivated they look.

Good thread Roadtrip. I hope it stays civil because pretty much any opinion is warranted and no one wrong for a 10-19 squad.

kd68 · Post by **kd68** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:01 pm

If he hasn't figured something out after 29 games ,I believe it is hopeless. Giving up 89 points to a team that had lost 8 straight is unacceptable. I think he only knows one system, and I fear that DT may get swallowed up in it.

kdogg8173 · Post by **kdogg8173** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:05 pm

agreed kd, nothing has changed really from the first day he stepped on campus as coach.

R&G · Post by **R&G** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:32 pm

Well, he played D1 for 4 years and coached for something like 8 years before Cal started using the DDM offense at Memphis. He obviously knows other systems. While I hate the offensive scheme (or what appears to be a lack of a scheme), I personally think they need to improve the defense as the first priority. They are allowing about 78 points per game which is 13th in the A10. Temple, who is first in the A10, allows 58 per game

Wheeler · Post by **Wheeler** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:43 pm

How a couple of couple of talented players will make the DD work and all of a sudden the coach is a genius.

Plano Minuteman · Post by **Plano Minuteman** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:38 pm

Kdogg wrote:

And think about it, how many guys can take their man one on one right now off the dribble?

Right now, no one.

It'd be a lot easier to penetrate if more teams respected our outside shooting. Our shot selection sucks, but we miss a lot of them that we should make.

I think all the freshmen have the potential to do this on a consistent basis, especially Farrell and Riley. Gibbs has the potential to do so as well.

shovelhd · Post by **shovelhd** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:27 pm

I agree with R&G about the defense but I don't consider it #1. Here are my top five.

#1) Fundamentals, things like following your shot, rebounding, transition spacing, heads-up in the lane. This team seems so preoccupied with whatever offense they are running that their fundamentals, which they should have learned a decade ago, have fallen apart. Everything starts with fundamentals. Bring in a consultant if you need to. Anything that makes sense.

#2) Defense. It has to be the main focus of attention in the offseason. Like TF did with conditioning for his teams, DK must make defense a priority and mean it. He talks a great game but I don't see the results. We need to get to the point where we own the time of possession for the majority of every game.

#3) Scrap the DDM as an offense and make it into a called play instead. Introduce the basic offenses that they should be familar with. Pick and roll, hi-lo, screen, cuts. The way they play the DDM it is so focused on the player with the ball that they don't take advantage of cuts and seams as well as they could. Simplify this thing. Put the DDM on and off when you can. If they had a better secondary offense when teams played zone against them we would not be where we are today. So make the DDM the secondary and a more traditional offense the primary. With the speed of the younger players, run and gun should be one of those options.

#4) Dump Vance Wahlberg. As long as he is on the bench, he will be an advocate for all DDM all the time, and that needs to be surpressed. He has way too much influence on the sideline and in the huddle.

#5) Focus whatever resources we can find on improving the ballhandling and scoring skills of our big men. All of them. I think this will take strength and conditioning as well as technique. We can own the boards all we want but it's useless if we can't finish. Our putback percentage is terrible. Teams need to fear our inside game.

UMassFan99 · Post by **UMassFan99** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 5:22 pm

Wheeler wrote:How a couple of couple of talented players will make the DD work and all of a sudden the coach is a genius.

Yeah, but I don't think we'll ever get the "talented players" we need. John Wall is great, but he nor Bledsoe are ever coming to UMass. . . we can get talent, but probably are not going to compete often against the Duke's and Kentucky's of the world, which are the types of players we may need to run this offense effectively.

UMASS06 · Post by **UMASS06** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:45 pm

I hate to wish bad things on people, but I agree with the Wahlberg statement. DK obviously didn't feel confident coaching the DDM without someone helping him coach it. It's time for him to take his lumps and gain confidence in his own play-calling so he can become a more complete coach. I believe in his recruiting and I hope he learns from this difficult season.

xlgman · Post by **xlgman** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:31 pm

I don't understand why you guys can't just say you want DK to take complete control of the offensive decisions, practices, substitutions, and play calling. Why do you think he has to fire VW to do that?

Telling DK to fire VW is giving DK a free pass on the head coaching decisions he has made.

You'd think you guys have access to some internal performance reviews. Have you ever considered that VW is doing EXACTLY what DK wants him to do?

Quann · Post by **Quann** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:40 pm

Xlg, you don't think Wahlberg has a pretty big influence on what DK does? No one is giving him a free pass but Wahlberg is basically a co-coach on this team. If DK fails on his own, then it will be time to move on.

xlgman · Post by **xlgman** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:17 pm

Quann wrote:Xlg, you don't think Wahlberg has a pretty big influence on what DK does? No one is giving him a free pass but Wahlberg is basically a co-coach on this team. If DK fails on his own, then it will be time to move on.

Of course VW has some influence but you can't assume it isn't well received by DK. Everything I've heard DK say and do indicates he condones everything VW does. When you see evidence to the contrary, let me know but until then, calling for VW to be fired is giving DK a free pass and making VW the scapegoat for all of our offensive problems.