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William Penn Coach Out Coaches Salesianum Haley for the Win

Sep 4, 2015
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49-39 William Penn over Sallies. Great effort on the part of William Penn but one of the most bizarre misuse of talent and substitution patterns I have seen in a while by Sallies Coach. Sallies lead at the half by 10 and basically was a no show in the second half. Ingraham perhaps touched the ball on the inside 4 times in the game, Ali, Alderman, Campbell, Brown, Trerotola, Guthrie taken in and out of the game multiple times. Too much Substitution trying to keep everyone happy. Kempski given underserved minutes, cannot create of the dribble and set others up, he is through politics being pushed into a point guard role which he is not qualified to handle. Stevie wonder can see that Fahmir Ali is a better point guard even as a freshman. Alderman, Ali and Jack Brown talent is not being used property. But the worse of the worse is the misuse of that 6'8 beast they have inside. The offense is the same they ran last year for Donte. Running the ball around on the perimeter all game, no inside out with the big guy. If he touched the ball every time down the floor, game over for 99% of the teams in Delaware. Give someone that kid who knows how to use him property, what a waste. Inside out all day with that kid game over.
 
I think Haley is still trying to feel out the freshman. They looked for Tariq a lot but Penn game planned for him well. They doubled him to start the game. Nothing was easy for him. Penn won because right now they are a better team, by the end of the season I think that will change as sallies gets used to the post Donte era. William Penn will be a tough out for a lot of teams. They are extremely disciplined and play hard the entire game.

I should also add that Haley loves feeding the ball down low. Two years ago even with Donte there game plan was to feed Brian ONeil down low. A guard is going to have to step up as a scoring threat to open things up down low
 
Say what you want about rotation patterns and politics, but the coach can't shoot for the kids. How many open looks missed everything. I can count 6 off the top of my head. This coach knew how to use O'Neil didn't he? Give him a chance to work with all the new kids on this team. Its not about where you start, its where you finish.
 
Haley is a great coach, he just got out coached last night, I think it's parents pressuring him to give kids minutes. These private school parents do that often. But u Cannot keep everyone happy at this level if u wanna win. Shane Clark, donte, had the desire and know how to use Oneil. Those kids could pass & create. Basketball is a game of movement, spacing & angles. So if u have a player that forces double teams & triple teams & kids like kempski, Ali and brown that are knock down shooters why run a parameter motion play for gaurds and bring the bigs up. U welcome the double & exploit this with back door cuts for layups & wide open high post shots, dribble penetration, & quick rotations for wide open shoots. I would put Campbell, Paul Brown, Duncan, Guthrie in the middle to exploit that high post with back door cuts, off the dribble moves, dump down passes, screen roles, or quick ball rotations to open shooters. 90% off my post entries would be made from the high post to take away help side D & limit the use of inexperienced back court to make plays. I would take the ball out of kempski hand as a point gaurd & use him as a knock down shooter, because he can knock them down consistently if put in proper role. Do those things on offense Sallies wins that game by minimum 10 points because Penn had no match for their big kid. I like this team. I think they're one of the most dangerous teams this year come march. But I call um like I see um this was a strategic lost, I am sure Haley will be back in the Lab refining this machine. My next stops is to check out Appo, Sanford and Mt. Pleasant.
 
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Penn got 36 free throw attempts. That was the difference in the game as they converted 20 to the Sals 9. Give Haley a break. He did win two titles in a row and was a semi-finalist in the first year as a head coach. He must be doing something right plus Whittelsey did not play.
 
Dovetail, that was not the difference, the free throws came after William Penn took the lead spread the floor and started running the clock. They made smart plays took good shoots & yes made free throw but they were allowed to do this because sallies did not use good strategy as I explained above. The guy is a good coach but last night he was out coached. I don't care if its dukes coaches coaching sallies last night I'd say the same thing based on what was observed on the floor. But Haley will go down in history as one of the best high school coaches in delaware he just dropped the ball on that game.
 
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Sallies is a young team, so they'll have some bumps in the road, but expect them to be there in the end.

The bigger takeaway is Penn might be better than this board gives them credit for being and this Flight A race (Mount, Appo, Concord, and now Penn) becomes mighty mighty interesting.
 
Gatekeeperrefugee, agreed Penn is a good team. But that's coaching more than talent. Before hiring this new coaches Penn had fallen off. He took over, demanded respect, disciplined and changed the culture over their. I did not see youth as the problem last night. I saw bad strategy. I saw to many rotations, kids not put in proper roles, offense that does not fit the team, & not utilizing the middle of the floor to make plays, take away help side defense on their big. Sallies kids also don't same to have been instructed on how to make post entries and exploit mismatches. Mutiple times gaurds looked at the big kid inside and dribbled away. Thats what killed sallies, simple strategy.
 
Give me this sallies team Penn loses by 30. Either u give the big kid 40 points or the rest of his teamates 20 a piece. Something has to give, he's to big and talented to only get 4 touches a game. That's coaching, basketball 101 simplicity. Do only what is necessary to accomplish an objective, design your strategy to fit your team. Run plays that fit your team. If they just learn to use the middle of the floor to run plays make post entries wp loses this easily. Not the kids fault.
 
Gatekeeperrefugee, agreed Penn is a good team. But that's coaching more than talent. Before hiring this new coaches Penn had fallen off. He took over, demanded respect, disciplined and changed the culture over their. I did not see youth as the problem last night. I saw bad strategy. I saw to many rotations, kids not put in proper roles, offense that does not fit the team, & not utilizing the middle of the floor to make plays, take away help side defense on their big. Sallies kids also don't same to have been instructed on how to make post entries and exploit mismatches. Mutiple times gaurds looked at the big kid inside and dribbled away. Thats what killed sallies, simple strategy.

Love to hear good b ball convo
 
Its not how you play in December. What really matters is how you play in March.

Dovetail, It should matter how u play every time you step out onto the floor if you are a competitor. This is not rec league. This team played in the B & G fall league since September, the kids have been in school since August. They also have open gym in the summer. So the coach has had an opportunity to observe his prospects for the team and develop a plan for months. Like I said above, as a Coach at these private schools you gotta decide if you wanna win under pressure or lose trying to keep everyone happy with playing time. Private school parents are the worse because whether it be pressure through friend ship, donations, politics, or status they demand that their kid who may not be as talented get minutes. Plus you gotta consider for the first time Sallies has a lot of talented black kids on the team, more than I have ever seen in the history of that school. That alone can put pressure on a coach, now the question becomes does he say to hell with it and develop the best strategies and play whom ever is the best talent or does he fold under the pressure and lose trying to keep everyone happy. Only time will tell. Me personally I'm playing the best talent and winning even if I have to lose friends, this is not the 1960's, and whomever does not like it could kiss my ##s. I am a white guy to if you'll wondering.
 
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I love the coaches in the stands! It's really easy to coach from there. Haley has proven that he is an excellent coach and knows how to handle his players. Look what he did last year. It took half the season for that team to come around, and then they only won a state title! They probably had no business doing so based on talent alone. Watch them develop and progress this season just like last.
 
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Apboy big difference between me and most fans is that I have played the game on all levels including professional and coached for years. I hold clinics for guys like Haley who I believe is a good coach but just needed to do a re-evaluation on his strategy. I believe this team will be a final 4 contender in march at minimum with a changed strategy. Apboy the Coach himself admitted he was surprised at the championship. I think they had some internal problems and struggled for an identity for a while last year but in Delaware if you have a player like Donte and a good cast you can be very successful with good coaching. Appo, St. Georges, Mt. Pleasant and even Polytech coaching staffs committed fatal errors by not exploiting situations when Donte was on the bench and boy oh boy he made some big plays. The big move Sallies made in the championship game against poly tech was to go to the 2-3 zone which caught poly tech not prepare. Sallies plays 99% man to man defense and poly tech had only practiced to take them on in Man to Man. Now that was brilliant on the part of Haley. The thing with me Apboy is I call it like i see it. I give credit where credit is due but i aint giving anyone a pass for bad basketball strategy. Haley is a professional he knows how to take criticism, especially the truth and anyone with BB iq and experience knows I speak from a position of knowledge. See Apboy I am a sportsjunkie, and Basketball is my heroin and if you put some bad stuff out there I am going to let u know u ruined my high. Haley is going to lab and coming with something good next time I can feel it.
 
Dovetail, It should matter how u play every time you step out onto the floor if you are a competitor. This is not rec league. This team played in the B & G fall league since September, the kids have been in school since August. They also have open gym in the summer. So the coach has had an opportunity to observe his prospects for the team and develop a plan for months. Like I said above, as a Coach at these private schools you gotta decide if you wanna win under pressure or lose trying to keep everyone happy with playing time. Private school parents are the worse because whether it be pressure through friend ship, donations, politics, or status they demand that their kid who may not be as talented get minutes. Plus you gotta consider for the first time Sallies has a lot of talented black kids on the team, more than I have ever seen in the history of that school. That alone can put pressure on a coach, now the question becomes does he say to hell with it and develop the best strategies and play whom ever is the best talent or does he fold under the pressure and lose trying to keep everyone happy. Only time will tell. Me personally I'm playing the best talent and winning even if I have to lose friends, this is not the 1960's, and whomever does not like it could kiss my ##s. I am a white guy to if you'll wondering.
 
You dont have Politics at Sallies. I Had 2 Boys play sports there. If they can Play theyll play. This aint your "Fathers Sallies". The Academics Alone are worth the price of admissions. Be patient , the cream will always rise to the top, sometimes it just takes a min.

Nice statement!!
 
DSJ - you make some legit points. Everyone, no matter how good, gets out-coached once in a while. I too have much experience, having played many years in some quality adult leagues while also having been a high school head coach for 17 years (albeit a while ago!). I just believe that Haley will experiment some early to find combinations and flow to his offense, and will have his team playing very well by crunch time of the season. I also do not believe that the "desires" of the parents will affect his coaching.
 
Good Win WPHS, sometimes you just have to credit the winner. Haley is a good coach but I agree that he is searching for a solid rotation. Plenty of games left to play.
 
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