[washingtonismoney]

Wait, really? I saw coaching deficiencies as central to that game.

One typical coaching error that hurt Dawkins especially today: coaches love to withdraw players in foul trouble. In general, that should be discouraged: all you're doing is voluntarily fouling people out (in exchange for certainty that you'll get a player for late, yet high-leverage minutes). But given Stanford's struggles to do much of anything when Nastic was absent, and given the large leads, Dawkins should have been electroshocked whenever he withdrew him in the second half, when it was beyond obvious Nastic was the best player on the floor and Dayton had little answers for him.

It took Dawkins far too long to recognize the zone stunk.

Then there are the persistent mental errors by players. I thought an early handoff play that ended in a turnover exemplified it well. On a handoff play you're facing the prospective ballhandler. So you should be able to tell that your toss will end in a turnover but *fllooooopppp* failure anyway.

The depressing frequency with which Nastic (or, to lesser extent, Powell) would establish quality post position and be passed over was, well, depressing. And it was depressing it took so long to figure out that Nastic and Powell would be lethal in the low post in the first place: Dayton is an awfully small team.

So, yeah, maybe Stanford loses with more competent coaching, but I would've liked to run it back with a merely average coach.

[washingtonismoney]

Wait, really? I saw coaching deficiencies as central to that game.

One typical coaching error that hurt Dawkins especially today: coaches love to withdraw players in foul trouble. In general, that should be discouraged: all you're doing is voluntarily fouling people out (in exchange for certainty that you'll get a player for late, yet high-leverage minutes). But given Stanford's struggles to do much of anything when Nastic was absent, and given the large leads, Dawkins should have been electroshocked whenever he withdrew him in the second half, when it was beyond obvious Nastic was the best player on the floor and Dayton had little answers for him.

It took Dawkins far too long to recognize the zone stunk.

Then there are the persistent mental errors by players. I thought an early handoff play that ended in a turnover exemplified it well. On a handoff play you're facing the prospective ballhandler. So you should be able to tell that your toss will end in a turnover but *fllooooopppp* failure anyway.

The depressing frequency with which Nastic (or, to lesser extent, Powell) would establish quality post position and be passed over was, well, depressing. And it was depressing it took so long to figure out that Nastic and Powell would be lethal in the low post in the first place: Dayton is an awfully small team.

So, yeah, maybe Stanford loses with more competent coaching, but I would've liked to run it back with a merely average coach.