It’s amazing what good coaching can do. Basketball moves to 6-2 and looks better than CR’s teams despite the “lack of talent” we keep hearing about. Maybe effort should be included into the definition of talent? Maybe coach-ability should be included, too? Confidence? All these things are part of the picture. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but you see what I’m getting at. Beavs need to get past Grambling on Monday to setup a good test vs Depaul.
I think we’ll see the same situation play out with football. We hear next year’s team is a 3 or 4 win team. I think it will be more like 6 or 7 wins just due to the upgrade in coaching. At that point talent does become the limiting factor, but a good coach can maximize talent and double win total.
Looking at the schedule, I think the basketball team will win 12 games minimum and maybe even 15 if their skills and confidence continue to build. You can see in the players’ eyes they’re buying in and believing in themselves. Again, I think we’ll see all these patterns with the football team, too, and we’re seeing how it makes a big difference. It’s why I had zero fear about Riley leaving. Talent is a factor, and it become a limiting factor when your coach has maxed out talent. The problem is Riley only got ~70% potential (being generous) out of his guys and didn’t put them in optimal position to succeed, so there’s a lot left to mine.