Hoops

Message to Mal

Dana - to a point, there has to be some blame at the players, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the coach.

Who has to motivate the players?
Who has to organise player matchups?
Who has to call what offence and defence to play?
Who is charge of practise to ensure peak performance and minimal injuries?
Who manages the players and knows when they are getting frustrated?
Who has to find ways to get peak performance out of there players?

Voldermort's attitude of basically go out and have fun might work with some players, but others need more structure - take for example Dench and Chappell, both brilliant players at other clubs, yet totally useless here.

To put it in perspective, I have been luckily enough to have been coached over the years by many different and great coaches.

One was like Voldermort, go out and have fun on the court, make your own decisions - and sure enough we won a lot af games, and it was some of the most enjoyable times I have ever had on a BBall court.

Second coach was more like Boy-George, yelling and screaming at players, highly tatical and high pressure, BBall was not a lot of fun, but we won the Championship, making all the pain worthwhile - and my favourite overall coach as much as I hated him at times!

Dana, I wish you had been with me last night at the Brisbane game. The 36ers were just simply embarrassing. Made me feel ashamed to be a supporter. Like you, I will also renew my season tickets because this rot has to come to an end and I want to see a successful 36ers team. I don't entirely blame the coach, its the players that have to show more passion and put their bodies on the line for the game. Copeland in Friday's game got a tech foul for his treatment of a ref. Davidson last night got a tech foul and his 6th for the game after he let out his frustration and kicked the ball. Did he not know he was already sitting on 5 fouls and that point. The frustration did not come from any bad calls from the refs but purely from the team's inability to do anything. Their shooting again was woeful. They got their opportunities but could not convert them to points (this has nothing to do with the coach). I watched Dench just standing on court watching a loose ball or a rebound just go past him without making any attempt to try and catch it. For God's sake he is blessed with a monster body, why can't he use it? Copeland also fouled out. Hodge injured and out for the 2nd half of the game. Maher injured and not in attendance. It was a case of looking around the bench and thinking who in the hell are they going to sub on. The Bullets played an elite team all night, we looked like a bunch of ABA players because that is all that was left. Ng and Ballinger are the only two that worked tirelessly all game. With so many players out, I would have thought that Davidson and Copeland might have been a little more considerate and work towards keeping themselves in the game. Especially a game where Copeland was actually making some shots.

The coach can only do so much. He can't avoid injuries, he can't make them shoot well and he can't stop them from becoming frustrated and earning themselves tech fouls. He also can't control how much money the owner spends to put together a decent team.