Watched on BCSN. I am absolutely dumbfounded. OH has no business beating CS but they did it.
Stritch appears to have some real identity problems at the moment. Holifield is mature and good obviously but it looks as if the Cardinals have lost all concept of team and continuity. It almost appears as if Holifield cannot wait to get to Oakland and I would not really blame him. Stritch has zero post presence. OH battered them on the glass with a 6'3" 165 post player. Many times you see four guys standing around the 3 point arc watching one guy do his thing. The PG (Wilson) has some really nice skill but he needs reigned in. He has a nice shot but has zero filter. As the game wound down I saw some finger pointing and arguing (losers code). Defense is even worse. Stritch has the best athletes in the TAAC and they lose their guys. How many back-doors did OH get away with? Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Fool me 5 or 6 times fire someone. Last years team was obviously more talented and had more size but they had some great team players that are obviously missed.
For all of the great Coaching McWhinnie does, and he is extremely good, Lindsey at OH takes a back seat to no one. I'd really like to see both of these guys coach some real high end talent some day (nothing against the kids they have or have had).
Holifield is a smart kid/player who understands the game, the effort and the teamwork it takes to be successful. He may be looking forward to Oakland, but it has not impacted his defensive effort. On the offensive end he is averaging 22+ ppg while shooting efficiently. I am sure he is frustrated with the lack of discipline, toughness and team play that this team shows. Last year's team had 3 guys scoring 13-14 ppg who all could have scored 20+ ppg and 3 other guys who could have scored 10+ ppg, but for the most part they all put their egos in check for the betterment of the team. This year.....not so much. At times it looks like bad open gym ball and if I am not mistaken in all 5 games that they lost they had the lead with under 5:00 min. to go in the 4th. So they are close.
The Ottawa Hills loss was just flat out terrible and a 30+ point swing from the 1st game. Ottawa Hills has been running the same 2 plays for 20 years (backdoor cut and back screen lob). Like you said it is ok to get beat back door one time, after that you should have a feel for them trying to set you up. A coach can remind them, but the players are old enough and have seen it enough to not allow it to repeatedly happen. So that is on the players.
Defense - You hear about their quickness, but they struggle to keep guys in front or turn them to keep the ball out of the lane. Rotation is slow, no one protecting the rim, not getting on the floor for 50/50 balls and I am not sure I have seen a charge taken by someone stepping in and taking it in the chest. Might get a charge from an on the ball push off, but not from rotation. They look like a bunch of guys who don't have trust in each other and have not gelled. Which made sense early, because of all the new guys in the program, but it seems like they take a step forward and then two steps backwards.
Coach Kachmarik's strengths are media/social media, organization, making basketball important to the school and community, motivating guys to work.
Stritch has not been great at making adjustments or with x's and o's because they are stubborn to a fault. They have run the exact same stuff for 5-6 years. With that said I am pretty sure last year's team shot over 45% from 3, over 55% from 2, 75% from the foul line and only had 7-8 turnovers per game. So while I would love to see more variety in their offense it is tough to argue with the numbers. Heck, they had a shot to tie the game last year in the final 4 with 20 seconds to go vs Lutheran East. That same Lutheran East team (minus their best player) who had 3 D1 and 1 D2 guy, just beat one of the top teams in the state in Akron St. Vincent St. Marys.
I would love to see them run an offense like Archbold, Ottawa Glandorf or even Toledo Christian where all 5 guys have the green light, are equally developed and a threat to score, but the dribble drive offense has worked for the most part, with the exception of when they fell in love with the 3 and made the game a horse competition instead of using their superior overall talent to beat lesser teams on their schedule.
There was/is the potential for an improvement in the x's and o's, but who am I to argue with the results/outcome. He is a smart guy and probably has hundreds of plays, but may choose to keep it simple because every basket is only worth 2 or 3 points regardless of how pretty the play. They have been pretty darn good running that basic/simple offense the last 5 years.
