Illini looking strong
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He changed water into wine. So Woody could definitely use him for his wine and cigar parties he has with the coaches after blowout losses.
The difference is less the approach than the quality of the coach. I don't see Woodson having much of a plan. You can make either "school" work if you have a good enough plan and coaching to make it work.
IU doesn't have either.
Exactly.
Some 'experts' have told us for years that Purdue doesn't have either. After last year, they appear to have backed off on declaring the quality of the coach is mediocre, but they continue to claim that the approach is wrong.
Yes, you have read here where people said that he doesn't have "a good enough plan."
This is where I believe a different coach might make a difference. Woodson also has people on is bench and have a hard time believing all share in Woodson's IU team play, but I don't think it is totally on Woodson either. Without adding on to the blame of Woodson, had Matt had these players I suspect things might be different. If true, that would also suggest that when we try to compare stats on a player that might be in the portal it may or may not hold true for Purdue in that Purdue expects a cerebral player within the team.
Now, I'm not suggesting that Leal is a great player, but have no doubt he would have seen more minutes at Purdue than he has at IU. The few times I caught IU over his years, he seems to be perhaps their most cerebral player in that he generally plays inside a team approach and makes good decisions. This IU team has individual talent and that talent has individual stats that look good on paper...and passes the eye test as individuals. However, the few times I see them, it many times is individual play taking place.
I understood this early and thought (and it may still happen?) that as the season went on that talent would become a team. They have enough individual talent that if things change they can get a lot better. They have a rotten culture there as they seem to overlook culture, cerebral play and team unified goals. Perhaps Woodson's success whatever level it was in the NBA was due to the individual talent like IU , but honed by their coaches in college in things outside their individual stats that carried over to the NBA a bit for Woodson? All I know is last night had too much talent for IU to have the results they had. Illinois can also get to individual play at times, but have some shooters and do seem to have some action away from the ball. Can you imagine if Knight had his IU team played like last night?
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They have a lot of off-season championship trophies, but is "the movement" trophy their most impressive one?
I've been thinking some on this. If you get a player who was regarded as good out of HS from a "bad" school out of the portal, is the issue the player has to "re-learn" how to play and "un-learn" bad coaching/habits? Can they? If they've been there for a few years do they now depend too much on their own skill set because they didn't get anything out of their first few years via coaching, and now you can't teach the "old" dog new tricks? I can see a player developing an attitude of "these coaches aren't/can't teach me anything, so I just need to develop myself". I remember a great line from "Hoop Dreams" where Curtis's mother notes he thought he knew more than his coaches did and was going to play HIS way (which didn't work out). Kid may or may not have that attitude going into college, but he could certainly develop it under the wrong coach.
