[scorecard]

Stanford basketball is definitively better this time than last time. The trouble is, how much of that improvement is due to underlying change in Dawkins's ability, and how much is simply the maturation (in relative terms) of his centerpiece recruiting class? When you have a team as experienced and highly-recruited as Stanford's, it'd be weird if it weren't improved.

I wonder how much of this is improvement in Dawkins' ability versus that of his new assistant coach Tim O'Toole.  In recent years, our end game always seemed to be a one-on-one isolation and unless you have a dominant player, this is most often a losing proposition.  At least we installed the triangle this year, and are just now starting to show some competency running it.  Our zone defense also looks more passable as of late (which it should given the relative length of our players).  I have no inside information about how the dynamics of the coaching staff works, but is that O'Toole's influence (who used to have head coaching experience at Fairfield)?  Does Tara have anything to do with the triangle being installed? 

Dawkins has shown the ability to recruit reasonably well (considering the limitation of the one-and-done rule).  So do we have something similar to the Golden State Warriors situation?  Dawkins' might be akin to Mark Jackson, a head coach who players appear to love playing for, and the assistant coaches can just handle the X's and O's (like Mike Malone used to do for Golden State).  If we are going to keep Dawkins, having a great assistant coach might be the next best move. 

Does anyone have more insight into our current coaching staff?

[scorecard]

Stanford basketball is definitively better this time than last time. The trouble is, how much of that improvement is due to underlying change in Dawkins's ability, and how much is simply the maturation (in relative terms) of his centerpiece recruiting class? When you have a team as experienced and highly-recruited as Stanford's, it'd be weird if it weren't improved.

I wonder how much of this is improvement in Dawkins' ability versus that of his new assistant coach Tim O'Toole.  In recent years, our end game always seemed to be a one-on-one isolation and unless you have a dominant player, this is most often a losing proposition.  At least we installed the triangle this year, and are just now starting to show some competency running it.  Our zone defense also looks more passable as of late (which it should given the relative length of our players).  I have no inside information about how the dynamics of the coaching staff works, but is that O'Toole's influence (who used to have head coaching experience at Fairfield)?  Does Tara have anything to do with the triangle being installed? 

Dawkins has shown the ability to recruit reasonably well (considering the limitation of the one-and-done rule).  So do we have something similar to the Golden State Warriors situation?  Dawkins' might be akin to Mark Jackson, a head coach who players appear to love playing for, and the assistant coaches can just handle the X's and O's (like Mike Malone used to do for Golden State).  If we are going to keep Dawkins, having a great assistant coach might be the next best move. 

Does anyone have more insight into our current coaching staff?