Instead of saying the players had a lo BBIQ, I would rather say they demonstrated a low BBIQ with the previous coach. BBIQ is usually developed by repeatedly being in high stress situations. Most D1 players were never in those situations in high school. The good ones just dominated with their athleticism and were never required to develop a BBIQ. Their coach has to have them in difficult, high stress situations in practice over and over again before a typical freshman develops the court awareness considered a BBIQ. To me that is the primary difference between the top tier programs. The coach can not be afraid to push the players beyond where they think they can go.
I find it difficult to put Holly's coaching anywhere near what I have seen for Harper's coaching. For the first time in 6-7 years , I have seen a coach who has taken charge of her team ant taught the principles of he game. There are a couple of areas wher improvements need to be made,such as team strength and conditioning and controlling turn overs. I also realize that when you play an uptempo game, you will have more turn overs. Harper's success will depend on how well she can recruit elite basketball players. I think that the improvement of the team this year will open the recruiting door in the future. Off season teaching and conditing will result in a better tam next year. We just need to recruit, recruit, and recruit.
I'm sure some want agree but Holly had a lot more to work with as far as players and experience than Kellie has this season. Westbrook, Green, Collins, and Jackson with two of those players being upper classmen and one a sophomore should've been more help than a freshman center and point guard that are doing so much of the work this season.
You really have a game only focus when you read my post. Games are usually not places for development. Timeouts in games are for reminding what has been taught and having the players use what they learned in practice and ingame strategy changes. Coaches Coach/teach in practice. Time outs during games is not what I am talking about. At UConn, the team for years has registered a string of 30 point blowouts. There is little stress in those games. But, Geno's team rarely wins in scrimmages because of the situations he puts them in situations where they have to overcome. First he uses men to scrimmage against who are better players than his team. He puts the players in situations of high difficulty like making them play 5 against 7. Little time at UConn is devoted to skill drills, which you seem to stress in your posts. this is what I am referring to when I say coaches must put their players under high stress over and over again to develop a BBIQ.
I would also say that just because a recruit is 5 or 4 stars doesn't mean she will be successful in college. Most 5 and 4 stars have little real competition in high school, so when they get to college, there's a huge learning curve, including how physical the game is compared to high school. I would take a coachable 3 star over a 4 or 5 star that doesn't want to improve her play and conditioning.
I really don't see any evidence that Harper is in over her head. She's been at UT one minute. But in that minute, our players and team have made tremendous improvement. In a presser, Davis said, "When we listen to Kellie and do what she wants us to do, we're a lot better than when we try to do stuff on our own." So, the onus to improve is not only on the coach. If players don't follow the coaches instructions and/or don't execute, well, failure unless they learn from it. A team needs one unselfish high level player who understands playing as part of a team. The other players obviously need to be good, but they don't have to be Holdsclaw or Parker.
Not entirely. Fundamentals are necessary. I would also say that under Summitt, the best teacher in sports, period, the schedule was deliberately difficult in order to prepare the team for the SEC and NCAA tournaments. Harper didn't schedule this season and has stated that she prefers a tougher pre-conference schedule like Summitt did. Summitt pushed players in conditioning and fundamentals, and the result was championships.
