[burger]

If there's one defining feature of the Haase years, it's that the team never seemed to play up to their talent level*.  Several future NBA guys came through, and we never even sniffed the Tourney.

Small sample size, and who know how this year will play out, but under Smith, we seem to overperform.   He seems to really get the maximum out of the roster.  And so far that's mostly with a ragtag bunch of transfers and Haase leftovers.  I'm very excited to see what Smith can do with a fantastic class of freshmen coming in next year.

*the other defining feature of the Haase year was a Stanford player dribbling into a thicket of defenders in the lane and getting a turnover

Haase is what Jungian analytical psychologists would refer to as a "feeler."  This manifested itself in small ways like his handwritten notes to recruits and his doing laundry for players when they were quarantined on Hawaii.  I claim without irony that Haase may have been one of the most emotionally intelligent individuals to set foot on the Stanford campus in this millennium, which would lend some explanation for how he got the job and how he was able to hold on to it for so long.  The pandemic pandemonium didn't hurt, either.

However, feelers are exceedingly rare in coaching.  Upwards of 95% of revenue sport head coaches are thinkers, and for good reason.  Haase's in-game coaching was wanting on logic.  Eventually you have to win.

Within the great spectrum of thinkers there is variation, with Kyle Smith more toward the dividing line between thinkers and feelers and the likes of Sean Miller and Dan Hurley at the opposite far end.  I would like to see Smith demonstrate that you don't have to be a fanatical, fearsome dark lord in order to win.

It seems like half the time that they cut to Smith on the sideline during games, he's smiling or joking around with Jim Shaw.  I don't know if that means he's a feeler or not, but he definitely doesn't seem like a dark lord.

[burger]

If there's one defining feature of the Haase years, it's that the team never seemed to play up to their talent level*.  Several future NBA guys came through, and we never even sniffed the Tourney.

Small sample size, and who know how this year will play out, but under Smith, we seem to overperform.   He seems to really get the maximum out of the roster.  And so far that's mostly with a ragtag bunch of transfers and Haase leftovers.  I'm very excited to see what Smith can do with a fantastic class of freshmen coming in next year.

*the other defining feature of the Haase year was a Stanford player dribbling into a thicket of defenders in the lane and getting a turnover

Haase is what Jungian analytical psychologists would refer to as a "feeler."  This manifested itself in small ways like his handwritten notes to recruits and his doing laundry for players when they were quarantined on Hawaii.  I claim without irony that Haase may have been one of the most emotionally intelligent individuals to set foot on the Stanford campus in this millennium, which would lend some explanation for how he got the job and how he was able to hold on to it for so long.  The pandemic pandemonium didn't hurt, either.

However, feelers are exceedingly rare in coaching.  Upwards of 95% of revenue sport head coaches are thinkers, and for good reason.  Haase's in-game coaching was wanting on logic.  Eventually you have to win.

Within the great spectrum of thinkers there is variation, with Kyle Smith more toward the dividing line between thinkers and feelers and the likes of Sean Miller and Dan Hurley at the opposite far end.  I would like to see Smith demonstrate that you don't have to be a fanatical, fearsome dark lord in order to win.

It seems like half the time that they cut to Smith on the sideline during games, he's smiling or joking around with Jim Shaw.  I don't know if that means he's a feeler or not, but he definitely doesn't seem like a dark lord.