Value of Assistant Coaches this year: do they fill the void?

[Cougs_Rule]

Maybe Dave Rice got a lot of credit for what Jimmer and Jax brought night in and night out.
But how do our current coaches stack up and what grades do you give and why? Its probably a little early to judge, but what are your thoughts?

Pope: clear improvement in the post and in BDavies game. Seems like a good get and should help with recruiting big guys. B+, maybe A-.

Nashif: Seems serviceable, but hard to estimate. Guard play has not been very good. But how much does Rose play a role in determining guard play? B-, only bc its hard to say and he's been around Rose, so that should be good.

LaComb-seems very active coaching from the bench, when players come off the court, etc. Is he doing the play calling? He's my biggest uncertainty. And if i had to err it would not be on the positive side as it is with Nashif. I know it may be unfounded, but that guy does not strike me as a very good coach. MOre like a trainer. C+

Mike- meh. Is he a coach? No grade.

Overall grade for Assistants: B- maybe a C+

Thoughts?

[Dcr36]

I don't want to judge much on either side.

Looking at UNLV's depth chart, it looks like everyone that mattered except Willis came back, and I always thought Willis was a bit of a burden. Plus, they got their own UCLA refugee stud in Moser. Rice walked into a good situation.

On the other hand, I think most sane individuals expected a drop-off for BYU, as well as some issues at guard this year.

Is there a part of me that fears Rice was accountable for a lot of BYU's success, perhaps more than Rose? Yes. But I think it's too early to put any real stock in those fears.

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[SpiffCoug]

I think Nashif is doing very well. He's taking two unproven and inexperienced point guards and has them playing well enough to have us finish in 2nd place behind a team that could finish in the top 10.

[EM_Puma]

Dave Rose made an interesting comment at the last Cougar Club luncheon when someone asked him about Mark Pope. I'm sure there was nothing behind the words as they could have been interpreted, but he said he hopes he's around here for awhile as he's been at 5 or 6 places in the last 6 years. It sounded more like he had grasped Pope from out of the air and hoped to be able to hang on him and he wasn't going to be heading for other pastures. I went and looked up specifically where these 5-6 places were and actually the statement was incorrect. He finished his NBA career in 2005 with the Denver Nuggets. From 2006-8 he apparently attended Columbia medical school. In 2009 he took the basketball operations job at U of Georgia. In 2010 he joined the coaching staff at Wake Forest and to BYU last summer in 2011. That's really only 3 places in 6 years (before the BYU job), but sometimes we say things from the seat of our pants and they are not actually based on facts. Rose is estatic with his addition to the staff and I hope it is for a number of years. I loved watching some of the time out shots on BYUtv at the game on Saturday and Coach Pope each time had one of the starters in his face giving them instruction. Specifically I saw him once with Davies and once with Hartsock. Just funny to see a coach actually taller than the two.

[SpiffCoug]

If I remember correctly, Pope sought out BYU. I thought he called Rose and said he was interested in BYU and knew they had an opening.

[Gunk]

Very hard to tell. Have to really look at the team to judge.

Post play is much improved.

Guard play is young and inexperienced so it hard to tell. Plus how much of Jimmer and Jax success was coaching and their own doing. In the case of Jimmer, I'd say it was more him.

My understanding is LaCombs handles defense. In which case, I am not impressed.

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[CougarClaw]

Last two years Brandon Davies was a talented center who couldn't stay on the floor due to foul trouble. Hartsock was a fairly good shooter with an odd 3 point shot and also the backup center who had to learn to play with his back to the basket when Davies got in foul trouble.

Add Mark Pope.

Hartsocks numbers skyrocket (also helps when the number 1 scorer in the country graduates) and Davies turns into a monster. nearly a triple double over the weekend? For a CENTER? Both have introduced new moves and are extremely hard to guard around the basket. And Noah's nose got even bigger. We're even seeing some amazing minutes from nate Austin. Basically all of our big guys are playing leaps and bounds better than previous years.

This board complained about big man play for a long time. We added Mark Pope and suddenly no one is complaining. Correlation does not equal causation though...or does it?

Fixed error, thanks dmcougar

[Cougs_Rule]

Its Mark Pope. And i failed to include Mike Hall's last name in OP.

[BBP]

Maybe Dave Rice got a lot of credit for what Jimmer and Jax brought night in and night out.
But how do our current coaches stack up and what grades do you give and why? Its probably a little early to judge, but what are your thoughts?

Pope: clear improvement in the post and in BDavies game. Seems like a good get and should help with recruiting big guys. B+, maybe A-.

Nashif: Seems serviceable, but hard to estimate. Guard play has not been very good. But how much does Rose play a role in determining guard play? B-, only bc its hard to say and he's been around Rose, so that should be good.

LaComb-seems very active coaching from the bench, when players come off the court, etc. Is he doing the play calling? He's my biggest uncertainty. And if i had to err it would not be on the positive side as it is with Nashif. I know it may be unfounded, but that guy does not strike me as a very good coach. MOre like a trainer. C+

Mike- meh. Is he a coach? No grade.

Overall grade for Assistants: B- maybe a C+

Thoughts?

As a freshman, Jimmer was a good backup, but may have been a liability as the starter. He improved immensely year to year. I remember many complaints about Jackson on these comment boards early in his career. We tend to remember the great ones as upper classmen and forget that they had big learning curves along the way. For the amount of playing experience among the guards, I think they are doing pretty well, and will continue to improve. If they were hitting their shots at the present, we would also have a much higher opinion of them. Nashif was not a naturally talented player, but was a game technition. He brought that knowledge of the game with him and uses it to teach the players. I think J and J benefitted from that, and it seems to me that the pups of the present are doing so as well.

As for Coach Pope, thank heaven. He seems to have made an amazing difference. I can remember just about everybody except Craigo complaining about Noah early, and look how he is doing now. When I read complaints about Austin, I always remember Noah right after his mission and think that we don't have much to worry about in Nate.

[kfilly20]

Lacomb was a coach on my high school team, he was more of a rah rah guy than an x's and o's guy. Im sure his role is to run drills and keep everyones head up.