I think that is an excellent point and something I thought about, too.

If you search the usual places (Leach’s site, Sidelines, etc) there were several quotes from players such as Wall and Cousins before the UNC game, but I didn’t hear any from Patrick, either, and it’s curious.

Is it because Wall and Cousins are young and are more likely to give juicy and controversial bits of info and that makes them the obvious choices to get a microphone stuck in their faces whereas Patrick is beyond that at this point in his collegiate experience and no one bothers to try and get his thoughts? Or is it because Patrick just didn’t have anything to say and like Eagle said, he just isn’t comfortable in that leadership role and doesn’t like to be confronted? Hmmm….

adding a bit of “ice” to the blue kool-aid that we are all enjoying right now, right? As long as you are smiling when you are doing it, I think a little “ice” is just fine. : )

UNC looked much more keen on finishing a game than UK. If your policy is too put all your basketball eggs in one basket, we know where that heads .

That’s always been my biggest criticism of Cal…his teams have trouble finishing games. Much of that is due to poor free throw shooting, which he does not emphasize. I think it’s almost to the point of arrogance when it comes to practicing it. It seems he wants to win his way so he can say hey, I told you free throws weren’t important.

To say one coach is better than the other requires so many variables : recruiting, preparation, x’s and o’s…adjustments…. Being better in one facet does not trump the others. Right now I’d say it’s pretty much a toss up between Cal and Williams, but I’d give the slight nod to Williams because he has rings.

UNC’s second-half defensive pressure was about coaching. Now, I give Coach Cal full credit for what he does, and I like it, wineman, see me smile- :-))? On the other hand, changes in strategy and tactics that produce changes in the way the team plays, now that’s coaching.

Hey, look. Cal is a hell of a coach. He is having the opportunity of a lifetime now, and I, for one, think he’s gonna make the most out of it. I look for a national championship out of him sooner than later, but give me an example of a major shift in tactics that changed the way the game was going late in the UNC game. I looked but didn’t see it. I’m like you in that I don’t remember much of anything, but I just didn’t see a major coaching change on UK’s part in the second half. Now, I’m sure that he was telling them to let the guards, who were shooting FTs well, to do most/all of the ballhandling, and for that, he gets credit, because it worked.

Mights and mites are both small things.

This is really a good discussion and I can see the points on both sides.

It just seems like you can be the best defensive team in the world, but you would still need to be able to put points up on the board in order to win the game. If you played perfect defense and no offense, your score would still be zero.

If you’re hitting wide open shots

Right?

Btw, no 3 ball in 1975….big difference between now and then.

That’s what I was talking about with the eggs in one basket. Freshmen are going to look that way sometimes, that’s when you have to find your upperclassmen…mainly ppat. Wall hasn’t done a satisfactory job of getting him the ball thus far and that’s going to have to change to realize the full potential of this team.

but I believe what we’re seeing is a team learning how to think. Cal is still trying to get the offense instinctual so there isn’t that “think” delay. Some of the delay in getting this instinctual play may be from Cal deciding how to run the DDMO with this team’s skill set.

This team is a little bigger and has more teamwide ability than what he’s had before. He has to mesh a tremendously talented team into what will be a hybrid of DDMO and post sets. It’s how to get the team to realize when to switch that will be the major stepping stone.

29 in November, but I feel it in the mornings…:)

your appreciation for the finer points is exactly why I enjoy your comments so much. And I suspect you have the same opinion regarding the power drives for distance, vs. a player who knows how to control his shot in golf. Course management is fast becoming another sadly lost art as young golfers concern themselves only with how far they hit it off the tee. Yet for all the gains in distance that new equipment yields, Tour tournament scores have only dropped by an average of one stroke over the years. And in my humble opinion, that could be as much attributable to the high standards of modern day course maintenance as to equipment.

I presume you already know that he is the most fined professional player in the history of the game for his use of profanity on the course…a greater number of fines than players who have played decades longer than he has. I would not personally care one way or the other about his mouth, other than how it makes the Tour look, except that when you accept the mantle to be a role model to children, THEN you have to take responsibility for controlling your public use of language and your temper tantrums.

My personal opinion was developed some ten years back following the Bay Hill, at a restaurant when he was told he could not be seated immediately, and he responded with “do you know who I am?”

But he missed some steps that might have been very beneficial in the development of character. The ‘old’ dudes— the seasoned ones— who sometimes drink tea around my kitchen table, have a special bond. It never got in the way of their burning desire to beat each other on the course, but it exists the rest of the time. They played without the financial safety net of mega dollar endorsement deals. Instead they were a band of brothers playing for enough money to get them to the next tournament. Driving all night, sleeping in cars; no private jets, personal trainers, nor an entourage to take care of their whims. These are not the stories of bottom feeders on the Tour; this was the reality of the top money winners; men who played for the love of the game. Every time I hear the media cooing over the idea of winning the US Open with a broken bone in your foot, I can only presume they have never heard of Ben Hogan …But I am saying things that I am sure you already know and am no doubt preaching to the choir.

The good news is that last week we had several days of heavy rain here, which grounded the media helicopters and afforded the rest of the residents of this hamlet a little peace and quiet.