Nova News agrees on Fisher PT
posted by Pete @ LetsGoNova.com2/26/2009 08:55:00 PM
I have been receiving a lot of heat in the comments section for blasting Jay Wright's mismanagement of his lineup, especially regarding point guard Corey Fisher's playing time.
After every single game, you could find here the drumbeat of criticism, charging that Fisher was receiving far too little playing time. My argument is that as the clearly best player on the team, Fisher should be leading the team in minutes. But he isn't, and in fact, trails behind several far inferior Wildcats in playing time.
I've further argued that Fisher's increase in playing time should not come at the expense of Reynolds, because the team plays best when they are both in there together, and ballhandling requires at least one of the two point guards to be in at all times.
Tim, the Nova News blogger, weighed in on his site tonight in agreement.
In a nice, long piece called Something Smells Fishy, Tim questions Jay Wright's decision to keep Fisher in limited time despite the growing statistical evidence that he is among the most effective Wildcats on the court.
Tim admits that although winning eight of nine games is nice, Fisher still needs more playing time:
Tim wraps up his essay by saying "the bottom line is Corey Fisher is too good to be sitting on the bench for 12+ minutes a game."
Agreed. And Fisher certainly shouldn't be sitting for 16 minutes when the 'Cats struggle to defeat one of the worst teams in major-conference history by a measly two points.
Something smells fishy, indeed.
Of course, this isn't the first time that Wright has refused to play a talented point guard for seemingly no earthly reason, and we all know how that one turned out.
Here's hoping Wright can change his ways before it's too late.
After every single game, you could find here the drumbeat of criticism, charging that Fisher was receiving far too little playing time. My argument is that as the clearly best player on the team, Fisher should be leading the team in minutes. But he isn't, and in fact, trails behind several far inferior Wildcats in playing time.
I've further argued that Fisher's increase in playing time should not come at the expense of Reynolds, because the team plays best when they are both in there together, and ballhandling requires at least one of the two point guards to be in at all times.
Tim, the Nova News blogger, weighed in on his site tonight in agreement.
In a nice, long piece called Something Smells Fishy, Tim questions Jay Wright's decision to keep Fisher in limited time despite the growing statistical evidence that he is among the most effective Wildcats on the court.
Tim admits that although winning eight of nine games is nice, Fisher still needs more playing time:
I don't necessarily believe that Fisher should get more time at the expense of Reynolds because frankly, they are the two best guards on the team. Neither do I believe it is imperative for Fisher to start because he is valuable as a sixth man. What I am simply saying is Fisher should be getting more playing time, period.
Tim wraps up his essay by saying "the bottom line is Corey Fisher is too good to be sitting on the bench for 12+ minutes a game."
Agreed. And Fisher certainly shouldn't be sitting for 16 minutes when the 'Cats struggle to defeat one of the worst teams in major-conference history by a measly two points.
Something smells fishy, indeed.
Of course, this isn't the first time that Wright has refused to play a talented point guard for seemingly no earthly reason, and we all know how that one turned out.
Here's hoping Wright can change his ways before it's too late.
Labels: Blagosphere, corey fisher, Jay Wright, Malcolm Grant, meta, rants
30 Comments:
On a completely unrelated note, Kyle Lowry is doing very well right now vs Lebron and the Cavs on TBS, if anyone wants to watch.
Seriously man; stop drinking the Jay Wright 'Haterade'. I used to be a big fan of this website at its conception. It provided great inside news and logical analysis of games. In the past two years it has turned into a 'Hate on Jay Wright' and 'Every Bench Player is Better Than The Starters' page. There are so many more elements to putting players on the court than just 'who scores the most points'. Fisher doesn't provide the leadership that Reynolds can hide behind in a poor offensive game, or the defense that Redding can hide behind if having a poor offensive game. Jay Wright is a quality coach which any school in the country would undoubtedly love to have. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so either; both FoxSports.com and SI.com have him as a Coach of the Year candidate for making an 'Under the Radar' team a 'Top 10 NCAA threat'. Don't forget, when you were hating last year, Jay was taking the Wildcats to his 3rd Sweet 16 game in 4 years. I think it's safe to say he knows what he is doing.
Additionally, good teams beat the teams they are supposed to beat. Score differential does not matter. Wins and Losses do. This year, Jay Wright is yet to lose to a team he should've beaten (despite the rank, WVU is not a team we should have beaten since we never win at WVU). On the flip-side, #4 UNC has lost to BC and MD; two bad teams that this godly pre-season unanamous National Championship team should have beaten.
We're 23-5, #5 in the Big East, #10AP in the Country. Far better than anybody would've expected. Stop dividing the fans by hating the team and the coach; instead, start rallying our fans around the team by applauding their success. Please, get back to writting quality articles.
I love how some commenters will justify Coach Wright's decision any way they can, with ridiculous intangibles like "leadership."
I prefer to look at the facts. Look at the numbers. Fisher can play, and Wright is making a mistake.
And also, you're trying to say I am biased? Is Tim at Nova News biased too? Maybe we are the same person... maybe it's a conspiracy.
One more thing:
"Don't forget, when you were hating last year, Jay was taking the Wildcats to his 3rd Sweet 16 game in 4 years. I think it's safe to say he knows what he is doing. "
Do you remember how we got there? We were the veryyyy last team in. The 65th team in. That is a matter of public record. Jay Wright was a millimeter away from going back to the NIT. Then we got a really nice draw in the tournament. It was great that we got from the S16, but I wouldn't use last year to defend Wright.
"This year, Jay Wright is yet to lose to a team he should've beaten (despite the rank, WVU is not a team we should have beaten since we never win at WVU)"
Ha ha ha ha ha can you spell irrational j-u-s-t-i-f--i-c-a-t-i-o-n? You're seriously arguing that we were supposed to lose at WVU despite our ranking because "We always lose at WVU" -- and you're using that to DEFEND the coach??? Isn't that an argument against the coach?
If you have ever played a team sport you obviously stopped playing about the same time parents stopped bringing sliced oranges and Ecto-Cooler to halftimes. Intangibles are what makes good players great players. Lets look at other facts, it's a team sport, Jay Wright's strategy has us 23-5 (which by the way, we ended the Foye/Ray/Lowry Elite 8 season 28-5...we could defintely get 5 more wins to match that win total). Fisher's stats might be better than last year, but the most important number in this TEAM sport is 23-5.
Jay Wright's Coach of the Year attention by national, REPUTABLE, sporting outlets is an unbiased view. They have not polled 'Tim at Nova News'. They are concerned with the Ws and Ls...not the score against Depaul.
And were we the last team in to the tournament last year? I did check the 'Public Records' located at NCAAbasketball.blogspot.lastteamintothe2008tournament.com and the public records did in fact confirm this. However, drop your hatred for a minute and think back to whether or not we were expected to be an NCAA tournament team at the beginning of last season..NO. But we were and regardless of our draw, we BEAT THE TEAMS WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BEAT. That is a coaching success in anybodys books.
Again,
"We beat the teams we were supposed to beat, but not texas or wvu or ville or uconn or marq because we were not supposed to beat them" -- what does that even mean.
And stop trying to use success as an argument. I admit we are having success. What I am saying is that it's valid to criticize decisions made even during success.
To use a crazy example, what if you quit your job tomorrow morning and bought a $160m mega millions ticket, then you won. That is a perfect result, best that could ever have happened. But I could still say it was the wrong decision at the time to quit your job because you bought a lotto ticket.
One might say that Pete's argument is that Jay Wright, as a coach, could be better. I think, Pete, that you should concede that he is a good coach.
Corey Fisher is a very good player. We are better when he is on the court. The key in Pete's post is that he brings up the idea that Corey could, possibly, entertain the idea of transferring if he thought he deserved and would get more PT elsewhere. We don't want that to happen.
I've never heard somebody beg for success to not be used as an argument. Are teams/coaches ranked and graded on their W-L record (success rate) or how many points, assists and steals their PG had? If, god forbid, layoffs get more intense in my sector in the future, I'll be sure to tell my coworkers to not use their 'successes' as arguments for defending their jobs.
What I am saying is that those teams are of equal or better talent than us and entering the game we were as much expected to win the game as we were to lose the game. None of the 5 losses were considered 'upsets' or even surprises. While some of those games were tough to swallow ('Ville) they were not losses that we will look back at and say 'How did we lose to _____!!!'.
Bottom line is, yes, we are all entitled to critique the decisions of the coaches as well as the play of our players. But for as many great plays as you claim Corey Fisher has made, Jay Wright has made 1000 more. But for each great offensive set called by Jay that gets Dante the ball down low you say 'good call, but the knot in Jay's tie was too loose'. Look at the big picture of the success of the season and/or respective game you blog about, not the snapshot of a poorly called offensive set. Your site is called 'LetsGoNova.com', not 'LetsBashNova.com'. You have developed a fan base which you can use to unite fans to support the team; use that to Nova Nation's advantage.
@ #9, fair comments except you and I both know that Jay Wright doesn't have any "offensive sets" -- Jay loves his "take em" offense.
My site is called Let's Go Nova because I am a fan of Villanova basketball -- not because I think Jay Wright is infallible.
I was a fan of Nova basketball before Jay Wright was the coach, and I will be one afterwards as well.
It’s Peanut Butter Tirade Time…PEANUT BUTTER TIRADE TIME… PEANUT BUTTER TIRADE… PEANUT BUTTER TIRADE…
Alright, so everyone wonders why Fisher doesn't see more minutes and why Redding see's lots of minutes in particular games, etc., etc., etc. I yell at the TV because sports are infuriating and exciting and because Fisher is sick nasty and I want him in 45 minutes a game if it is possible. Like all professional/collegiate sports followed by die hard fans, without fail every game that passes follows with fans questioning coaching decisions. Except with the Patriots...I hate Bill Belicheck but fans don't question him...sorry for the tangent. Point is, fans question every team even while winning but nobody takes it to the degree you do Pete. You find one thing you can’t understand and never let it go while most people question and then appreciate how great things are going with their teams.
I look at Nova right now and notice great things like Shane Clark looking much more consistent and a viable threat against certain (and often the upper echelon) opponents. You basically call him the plague even though he is shooting 60% over the last 9 games. You grouped him with Anderson in the last game, "They shot 1-8 from the field"...he shot 0-1? What are you even trying to say there? You just have a hang up with Clark so you hate no matter the circumstance. You come across as a simpleton when you say stupid shit like this.
I also notice that while Anderson is not nearly as pretty a shot from outside as Stokes, using the last 10 games as a proxy, Anderson #'s are better than Stokes on almost every level (except 3 pointers, 37% to 41%). Anderson gets more rebounds per minute played, less turnovers per minute played, an insanely higher steals per minute played and the exact same FG%. Oh and 32% of Andersons rebounds are Offensive while Stokes is about 5%. Pete you miss soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much of what makes players great and important to there team. You see the pretty Stokes 3 pointer and never want him out of the game. I expect you get enamored by bright lights and butterflies too.
I also notice how when Jay pulls out Scottie or Redding they go straight to the bench, but when he pulls out Fisher he takes him aside every single time. Fisher doesn't look dejected like he wants to go to a different school because Jay is such an asshole. Jay talks and Fish listens, sits down, and gets ready to play again and tear it up. Jay is spending so much of his time coaching him during the games because he knows he is the best player on the team. Jay is literally just looking for an opportunity to give the team over to Fisher. I cannot tell you why that has not happened yet but I can tell you I have seen pretty much every possible scoring scenario from this team over the past 10 games and I’ve also seen them come away with the best possible record I could have hoped for with this team. Fisher is not considering transferring and I guarantee you he will see at least the 2nd most minutes next year and possibly the most. For now he is the nastiest 6th man in the country on one of the top ten teams in the country. Awesome.
Jay preaches hard work and a little patience. Follow this and they know they might just walk away starting for the Timberwolves or Rockets one day. If you were the coach, you would compare the number of stars they received from Rivals in high school and would give minutes accordingly (the Roy Williams, Bill Self approach). And yes I realize they won championships…they also each had 5-7 NBA players on there teams versus Nova’s extremely questionable 1 (maybe 2?) NBA players. Jay has to get his guys playing defense and running the floor the way he wants or they’ll become a team with a fair amount of talent falling short of expectations every year (see Syracuse, Duke, etc.). Have faith you schmuck. And not blind faith, statistical, sensible faith. Faith based on facts that are so insanely obvious it pains me to see you ignore all of them.
I'm gonna go make some pasta...
Just to answer one of your questions before I read this ridiculously long rant, I grouped Clark in there because he was so ineffective offensively. That was clearly my point. Any time you play significant minutes and shoot 0-1, you are probably offensively ineffective.
Good luck on your pasta.
I find it hilarious that you use Bill Self and Roy Williams as insults, compared to Jay Wright. Both Self and Williams are ten times the coach Wright will ever be, and I believe that is not even a controversial statement.
Bill Self and Roy Williams, as you said, have won championships at programs a hell of a lot better than Villanova. They are about three or four orders of magnitude better coaches than Jay Wright. They would take our Villanova roster and flat-out win more games than Wright with the exact same players. I know that might be difficult for you to wrap your head around, but it's true. Just like if I were coaching the team, I'd probably win fewer games -- they would win more.
"I find it hilarious" you say results don't mean anything but immediately assume these coaches are better because of results. "I find it hilarious" you actually consider yourself an elite opinion in a sea of misconceptions. "I find it hilarious" you act like a pompous ass on a website dedicated to breaking down your fanatical appreciation for your team among your peers. "I find it hilarious" you make broad based statements like these coaches are ten times better than Jay with zero empirical evidence to back it up.
Have you ever watched Kansas play? Please enlighten us as to what has made Bill Self a better coach than Jay Wright over the last 5 years as opposed to him just having an outrageously stacked group of NBA talent on his team. Same goes for UNC. I'm interested. That would be a good article and an interesting read. It would be a very good way to shut everyone up too but I am 98% sure you wouldn't even know where to begin. Specific examples would be nice. Not sure its possible to even do so, so maybe find a coach in a similar position with talent level and explain how they have better managed there teams, players, etc.
You criticize people who question your irrational statements by posturing as a pompous dick. I imagine you as a small wiry weaselly fellow who doesn't get laid enough. This is what your blog persona comes across as at least. You ignore that guys sensible argument about Anderson being clearly a better all around addition to the team after you have demanded Stokes as your preference for weeks now. You ignore this as you always ignore logic and find something which really had nothing to do with the conversation. The UNC KU thing was not used as insults compared to Jay Wright. Point was made that they take shit loads of NBA talent and they just let them do there thing. The point was that if you were coach you would assume the same thing applies to this Villanova squad...but it does not because they do not have ungodly amounts of NBA talent. That was the point, which you once again missed. God damn you are fucking retarded. Its frustration which brings me back to this site more than anything.
Actually, I have always said I think Anderson is one of the best players on the team. He has always been one of my favorite players, since I started this site. So I don't know how you got the idea that I don't like Anderson or want him to play less.
As for your other comments, I am really not going to waste my time. It's one thing to make an argument about basketball, but you're really giving up the rhetorical high ground by making personal attacks: calling me small and wiry (I wish!!), "fucking retarded," a "pompous dick," etc.
Maybe this is pompous, but in the future, if you wish to be taken seriously, try to stay on point instead of resorting to nonsensical personal attacks.
Best player on the team? I love Fish but Pete...please study some basketball and come back and see us some time. You need to get a grip...
Pete is absolutely right on this one, Jay Wright's mismanagement of the lineup is why we have underperformed the last few games. We got our first glimpse of Jay's "experienced" lineup when we played Seton Hall, and we barely won that game, in OVERTIME! If I remember correctly Stokes and Fisher combined for about 17 minutes of playing time in a 45-minute game. That is unacceptable. Fast forward to the high-profile wins that we had, Stokes and Fisher both played significant minutes and were key contributors. Now let's look at the games that were too close for comfort -- Stokes and Fisher spent too much time on the bench while guys like Shane Clark and Dwayne Anderson and Reggie Redding were putting up stat-lines such as...2 points, 3 turnovers, 4 personal fouls -- some pretty solid production if you ask me, and very worthy of 35 minutes of PT per game......
I think Jay has done a terrific job this year because he has no potential NBA starters on this squad, yet he still has Villanova in position for a #3 seed in the NCAA tournament. But his in-game coaching and lineup management leaves a bit to be desired, and it has become obvious that having Clark, Anderson, Redding all play 30+ minutes per game is detrimental to the team. We need the Coreys in the game, plain and simple.
I would also go as far as saying that we are better with Scottie off the floor at times. His defense is HORRIBLE and I don't care what he does on the offensive end; when he is getting burned by mediocre guards you have to get him out of the game and put in someone that can play defense. Yes, Scottie can score, but he can't play a lick of defense, which is why he will never get to the NBA like so many of you seem to think.
Anyone need a ticket for the Georgetown game on Saturday? Email me: atmonz22@yahoo.com
^^^^^^^^^
Looks like somebody missed their naptime.
Another example of Pete's inanity ...
In other posts he attacks Wright for going with the hot hand - e.g., playing Clark more lately because he has been playing (very) well - yet if one of the players who Pete doesn't like has ONE bad game, and Wright doesn't IMMEDIATELY bench said player, that is somehow evidence that Wright is a horrible coach. On the other hand, if it's a player whom Pete likes, it's just the opposite. I still recall earlier in the season when Fisher wasn't playing particularly well, and Pete managed to argue that said poor play was evidence that Wright wasn't giving Fisher enough playing time.
I will say that Pete does have a consistent point of view in one sense, though. Offense over everything (well, except when he uses perceived poor defensive play as an excuse to bash a player that he otherwise dislikes). Defense & rebounding mean nothing to him. My seven year old daughter has a far better understanding of the game than Pete does.
I'm really hoping to see Wright win coach of the year, which looks quite possible. Pete's head will probably explode.
The only player that plays the same position as Fisher is Reynolds... When they both are on the floor together it creates a HUGE size disadvantage. Also Corey is a phenomal ball handler but he is not one of the top defenders on the team, which is why Redding is getting a lot of minutes. You can't say take out dwayne or clark b/c they provide the size and the inate ability to grab boards. Plus I feel like Dwayne in the leader of the team. Not only was he the spark that drove us to the Tournament last year but you can also see on the floor how he coaches other players out there and motivates them if they mes up somewhere. Dwayne is one of the most important peices to the team. If I had to rate the players on skill its would be.
1) Cunningham
2) Fisher
3) Reynolds
4) Dwayne
If I had to Rate on importance to the team.
1) Cunningham
2) Dwayne
3) Fisher
4) Reynolds
Personally, I would love to see Corey in there every second of the game. But understanding Jays philosphy: Leadership (with experienced players) and Defense.
Though I must say that Pete's headline on this post is perhaps the biggest proof of his dementia yet. Or, at least, most succinct proof. Anyone who can take that Nova News post - measured, reasoned, respectful, listing all the reasons why Wright's making the playing time decisions that he is making - as actually agreeing with Pete is .. disturbed to say the least. It like ... a crazed person who goes around killing supermodels reading an article mildly criticizing the modleing industry, and saying, hey, here is someone agreeing with my approach to supermodels.
And I would encourage sane people to continue and even intensify their abuse of Pete - let's try to make him give up his insane ramblings. Fuck you Pete, fuck you.
@23 -- All this headline is saying is that Nova News agrees Fisher should get more playing time -- Are you having trouble reading?
@18 "My insane hatred of Wright"??
As I have said many, many times. I like Wright. He is a very nice person. He is a good recruiter. I just disagree with a lot of his coaching decisions. Doesn't mean I hate him.
Too much talent on the bench is a good problem to have. Could we see the return of the 4-guard lineup next year...?
This is getting tiresome first Malcolm Grant last year now this. Fisher is a sparkplug much like Lowry during his freshmen year. Next year Fisher will start at the point. We are 23-5 in one of the best conferences of ALL TIME!!! This website use to be a place where I could get Nova news now it is just a bitter website that completely goes against all that is Villanova Basketball! You should just make this a Miami Hurricaines Blog because your precious Malcolm Grant plays for them.
Well, 27, at least you can still get the bitter news here... I'm good for that at least.
Great article posted below. Take some notes; its the type of postings that you could use to excite our fans about our great team, great coach and great program.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ap-t25-villanovasrun&prov=ap&type=lgns
Oh yeah, the "AP" is world-renowned for its insight.
I am sorry as we cannot compare Jay to a Roy Williams or a Bill Self. Both have coached at two of the best programs of all time where you don't even have to be able to coach or recruit as Micky D players want to go there like it's a birth right. Even if Jay were to win a national title you would still say well we would have won last year to if Malcolm started or we would win one for every year that malcolm grant played or fisher started. Fisher is undersized and so is scottie but scottie is more experienced and fisher tends to get out of control with his handle when he is out there for long minutes if you have ever noticed. Everyone knows Jay is a good coach, and last time I checked he was human so he is bound to go with the lineup that he feels comfortable with. THAT'S WHY HE IS A COACH AND YOU ARE NOT PETE!
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