"We're going to push the pace. We're going to play fast and attack."
That's a quote from LJ per the JS. Sound familiar to anyone? I love how new young coaches so often say stuff like this. The casual fans lap it up, as though it is either 1) a good idea or 2) actually likely to happen.
Now don't get me wrong -- I know it's necessary for new coaches to play to the crowd at events like this, and I'm sure he's smart enough to have taken his cues from his new boss -- someone he will be looking over his shoulder for constantly, if he's half as smart as he appears. And I have come to see that his new boss understands men's basketball about as much as the beer-battered amateur coaches who make the most noise in every arena. So I don't fault him for this. But here's an idea: let's look at the facts. And the facts very, very strongly suggest that unless our utterly dysfunctional administration just hired a new coach who not only has no head coaching experience but also plans to coach a style completely different than any he has ever played or coached previously, this is just fiddle-faddle.
LJ has been on three staffs: Butler, Iowa and Michigan.
Here's the tempo (out of 351 D1 teams) played by those three teams while he was on staff, courtesy of Ken Pomeroy:
Butler
03-04: 324
04-05: 327
06-07: 326
06-07: 332
Yikes.
Iowa:
07-08: 333
08-09: 341
09-10: 321
Double yikes.
Now, admittedly, he then went to coach with John Beilein, who as we all know plays up-tempo, run and gun, racehorse basketball. Amirite?
Michigan:
10-11: 323
11-12: 329
12-13: 210
13-14: 334
14-15: 341
15-16: 299
Yep, those maize and blue weasels motored at an average tempo of 306 out of 351 teams, making them all sorts of faster than Butler (327) and Iowa (331)!
By way of comparison the slowest tempo any of Rob's teams ever played was this season -- 264. His average tempo in 11 years? 143!
Now I happen to believe that there is nothing as beautiful or effective as an efficient offense played at a measured tempo, so frankly I hope that LJ coaches exactly in the same style as he has learned in his years as an assistant. Those Beilein offenses are slow, slow, slow -- just like Wisconsin's -- but they are also nearly as efficient. And by the way, do you know what Rob's best offense was, by far? Last year, when he slowed his tempo more than he ever had. Did that "slow" tempo bother you or did you appreciate the efficient scoring?
But if you are looking for a return to anything resembling the Pearl style, the evidence says it's not happening.
