** Several years ago, I really enjoyed coaching my Kid's grade school basketball team.
** During the better seasons back in the day, I would even take some of my kid's teammates to games and use this to show some of the things they could do to improve. Things like passing the basketball, moving without the ball, moving your feet on defense, giving fullest effort, and playing as a team.
** Now that my Kid is a freshman at William & Mary, I've started coaching another grade school team purely for the enjoyment.
'
** Before this season, I even thought I may take some of the kids to a Pitt game so that they might pick up a thing or two.
** Unfortunately, if any of my kids had gone with me to tonight's game, the only thing they may have learned was what not to do.
** Well, that's not completely true. Perhaps they might have been inspired by Jaland Lowe. Here's a kid who has gotten better all season long, and was really the only Panther who played with any passion.
** Will is the only other guy who could have offered an example of a young man making the most of his very limited offensive skills.
** The rest? There's really no one who offered much.
** But the guy who really needs to do some soul searching is Coach Capel.
** I honestly have no idea whatsoever what we were trying to do offensively. It wasn't just bad shooting. It was really bad offense
** Most of our trips showed little beyond a weak ball screen, followed by a pass or two then a weak jump shot. We don't create shots at all. We don't move without the ball or share the ball very much. This leads to plenty of bad shots like we shot tonight. And at times we shot as bad as my grade school team.
** Even the guy who shot at halftime for $100 in Lottery Tickets made 2-3 from deep.
** Sure, Jaland broke some guys down off the dribble leading to layups and most of our points in the paint. But very rarely does a pass lead to points in the paint.
** It's really tough to watch us on the offensive end.
** It's hardest to watch Bub on the offensive end. Most of us, including me, though Jaland's emergence and Bub's move to the 2 would help . But it seems to have hurt Bub. I just don't get it.
** Nearly all of our early season optimism was based on Bub. Even if he wasn't a one and done player, if he is just a guy with a pro future, that seemed like it was really good news for our Panthers. But if you take away Bub's first four games, he's shooting 18-84 from 3. That's 21%.
** I'm not even going to try to break down Blake. Not long ago, he looked like an All-American. Now he'd struggle to make Honorable Mention ACC.
** The very poor performance on the offensive end left the Panthers needing to play some defense to win this game, and they didn't show any passion on that end either.
** So that's about all I can say about our Panthers tonight. But on Thursday night, I look forward to watching my young grade schoolers get better. They don't shoot very well. But I know they will do their best. Maybe I should invite our Panthers to watch them instead.
** During the better seasons back in the day, I would even take some of my kid's teammates to games and use this to show some of the things they could do to improve. Things like passing the basketball, moving without the ball, moving your feet on defense, giving fullest effort, and playing as a team.
** Now that my Kid is a freshman at William & Mary, I've started coaching another grade school team purely for the enjoyment.
'
** Before this season, I even thought I may take some of the kids to a Pitt game so that they might pick up a thing or two.
** Unfortunately, if any of my kids had gone with me to tonight's game, the only thing they may have learned was what not to do.
** Well, that's not completely true. Perhaps they might have been inspired by Jaland Lowe. Here's a kid who has gotten better all season long, and was really the only Panther who played with any passion.
** Will is the only other guy who could have offered an example of a young man making the most of his very limited offensive skills.
** The rest? There's really no one who offered much.
** But the guy who really needs to do some soul searching is Coach Capel.
** I honestly have no idea whatsoever what we were trying to do offensively. It wasn't just bad shooting. It was really bad offense
** Most of our trips showed little beyond a weak ball screen, followed by a pass or two then a weak jump shot. We don't create shots at all. We don't move without the ball or share the ball very much. This leads to plenty of bad shots like we shot tonight. And at times we shot as bad as my grade school team.
** Even the guy who shot at halftime for $100 in Lottery Tickets made 2-3 from deep.
** Sure, Jaland broke some guys down off the dribble leading to layups and most of our points in the paint. But very rarely does a pass lead to points in the paint.
** It's really tough to watch us on the offensive end.
** It's hardest to watch Bub on the offensive end. Most of us, including me, though Jaland's emergence and Bub's move to the 2 would help . But it seems to have hurt Bub. I just don't get it.
** Nearly all of our early season optimism was based on Bub. Even if he wasn't a one and done player, if he is just a guy with a pro future, that seemed like it was really good news for our Panthers. But if you take away Bub's first four games, he's shooting 18-84 from 3. That's 21%.
** I'm not even going to try to break down Blake. Not long ago, he looked like an All-American. Now he'd struggle to make Honorable Mention ACC.
** The very poor performance on the offensive end left the Panthers needing to play some defense to win this game, and they didn't show any passion on that end either.
** So that's about all I can say about our Panthers tonight. But on Thursday night, I look forward to watching my young grade schoolers get better. They don't shoot very well. But I know they will do their best. Maybe I should invite our Panthers to watch them instead.