Sunday, February 1, 2009

Rainmen drop a winnable game to Vermont, 122-110

Given Vermont inconsistency this year and despite our inconsistency (!), we could have beaten Vermont. From what I gather the officiating was so bad that the webcast announcers were commenting on it, the fact remains that Coach Rick Lewis cannot get the job done. Vermont's coach Will Voigt proved again that he is the superior coach, which isn't too hard. Rick Lewis has decided that the saviour of the team is a guy who flew in on Thursday. He is already Lewis' go-to guy in the crunch, despite having virtually no practice time with the Rainmen. With decent PGs like Hammack and Ramey already on the team, why do we have a new guy who is like Patrice O’Neal from our first season: hogging the ball and taking too many shots himself when all we need is a few more seconds to develop the play? Of course, that strategy only works when we have more than one play.

I gave Lewis the benefit of the doubt last year as a rookie coach with a first-year team, but with the talent on this year’s squad, his shortcomings as a coach are even more embarrassing, not to mention his miscues as a GM, tripling up on a certain position (PG) and leaving others (a true centre) woefully inadequate.

It’s almost like he is not yet finished reading the Basketball Coaching For Dummies book. I think he stopped at the page on PT where it says to make the players run up and down the court and to practice their verts. He needs to skip to the end of the book where it says how to win against teams that are as good as yours or better in order to actually make the playoffs. And eat humble pie and re-instate Eric Crookshank.

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