It is time for leaders to step up. The coaches can try their best to help the team regain its confidence...beginning with preparing the team with a sound game plan and demanding focus in practice. Not punishment but hard practices that have built-in consequences for avoidable unforced errors, repetition until execution reaches desired levels, and rewarding effort through increased time with first team. It's a tricky thing...don't want to build resentment toward teammates (a certain level toward coaches is normal and acceptable if channeled appropriately) or break trust or spirit, but sometimes a team needs to have a hard reset.
I liked Lucy's ideas about focusing on small segments...winning the next few minutes, getting a certain number of stops, etc. I had to learn that as a coach. It can be very effective in getting over a slide.
What do posters think about pressing against the high-pressure teams and giving them a taste of their own medicine? Do we have the speed to do that? Would it disrupt the opponent enough to affect their defense? Of course, we have to hit shots or convert their turnovers into points in order to set up our own press.
We also need to use bigs in the middle of the floor to break presses and pass out of pressure instead of dribbling into traps. Puckett, as mentioned, is a good safety valve who receives the ball and passes well. Burn them a few times, and the press comes off.
Not sure why we are not setting good, hard screens. Our players often just hand off the ball and trot past the defender when we could have freed up a teammate or rolled to the basket or open space if the defense gets caught up in the switch. If we emphasize that in practice, it ought to help our own defense in not leaving their shooters wide open, which happened repeatedly Sunday.
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