Tommy Lloyd and Boswell Apologist Thread

[arxpert]

Go ahead, let's hear all of your excuses. I want to hear every single one of them and if anyone can come up with a valid excuse for Tommy or Boswell tonight then I won't come over the top with how fucking stupid that is. I promise you that if you can come up with something intelligent, I will sign off on it and not give my analysis. Just 1 valid excuse for Tommy and Boswell each. So 2 total, but 1 for each. I dare everyone to try to come up with some.

This loss is by far the worst of the season. Washington State is by far the better team and all credit where credit is due. We are the frauds. We are the fake 1 or 2 seed that should be a 4 seed.

WSU took advantage of Tommy being a novice Head Coach yet again and again and again and Boswell being the most worthless starting player in College Basketball.

Whatever Boswell has on Tommy must be enough to cost him his new contract and his marriage for him to keep getting minutes.

[akwildcat]

So if WSU is by far the better team like you state, how can this be the worst loss of the season? The fact that you would state that Bos has something over Tommy is just stupid. I assume you just post this shit because you have nothing better to do.

[arxpert]

So if WSU is by far the better team like you state, how can this be the worst loss of the season? The fact that you would state that Bos has something over Tommy is just stupid. I assume you just post this shit because you have nothing better to do.

Invalid excuse #1.

Keep them coming.

Tommy Lost the Locker Room. The only visibly angry player I noticed tonight was Pelle. The rest seem to be mentally checked out. Tommy's scam with Boswell has taken the fighting spirit out of most of this team. Love is just going to chuck until this nightmare is over with.

Keep posting your excuses and I will provide a reason why you are wrong until someone comes up with a valid excuse.

[akwildcat]

I did not provide you excuses, i provided you with several reason why what you post is idiotic

[arxpert]

I did not provide you excuses, i provided you with several reason why what you post is idiotic

Who's next to make an excuse to defend the honor of Tommy and Boswell? We have 1 failed attempt.

Who's next.

[KansasCityCats]

It's not a failed attempt if you don't respond.  Until you've been in the locker room, you can't say that Lloyd has "lost it".  The players love him and there is a tight bond within the program.  The recruits that visit/committed would tell you the same thing.

Boswell limited Jakimovski to one of the worst shooting performances of his career.  His D has improved throughout the season and he's 4th in Assists in the Pac-12 (plus, Kylan leads the team in steals).

Yes, his shooting has dropped off but unless you have a vendetta against him, Boswell is our point guard.

[arxpert]

It's not a failed attempt if you don't respond.  Until you've been in the locker room, you can't say that Lloyd has "lost it".  The players love him and there is a tight bond within the program.  The recruits that visit/committed would tell you the same thing.

Boswell limited Jakimovski to one of the worst shooting performances of his career.  His D has improved throughout the season and he's 4th in Assists in the Pac-12 (plus, Kylan leads the team in steals).

Yes, his shooting has dropped off but unless you have a vendetta against him, Boswell is our point guard.

The other poster did not provide an excuse for Tommy/Boswell's failure. They tried to come after me for my own personal observation and failed. Teams can be better than us and we can still be a failure. There is no law of nature that says we can't beat ourselves. Tommy's usage of Boswell does damage to this team. I have long identified 1 of the 2 or 3 main problems with the team and Tommy won't fix it. The forum knows this. You just want it to be the opposite.

Now onto your attempt - A noble effort, but playing a little defense on someone who isn't elite is not a valid reason for Boswell's minutes. He didn't do anything that no one else could do if given the role and opportunity. He did far more damage playing the game than if he were benched.

Furthermore, if I were a recruit, I would decommit if Boswell is still on the roster next year. Tommy will never learn and never give players their fair shake. Boswell is the weakest link on the team and a team is only as strong as it's weakest link. There are at least 3 players who sit on the bench that aren't red shirted that could contribute something better than Boswell if given 20+ minutes.

NEXT UP!

[808Wildcat94]

I'm not going to agree or disagree, but wanted to offer my input from where I sit, and believe me, I have swore at the TV many times watching this team.  Boswell, at minimum is inconsistent.  He had a few great games like against Duke early in the year.  However, when he is off, he has a hard time getting back on track.  One possible coaching error is the inability to recognize that Boswell's head is getting in the way of the instruction to "Just keep shooting."  You see him hesitate on his shots, and once you hesitate you lose your rhythm.  Last night Boswell had a nice drive to the basket that should have resulted in a lay up, but instead he opted to pass to someone in the corner for a missed three.

Bradley would be a nice change of pace at this point, and I'd be interested to see how he does with extended minutes.  He doesn't appear to be the total game changer that that Fifita was in football, but if he can play consistently and have occasional games like he did against ASU, we'd be in a good place with him at the 1.

Lastly, I think Murauskas needs to be given more run.  What he did against ASU was fantastic.  He looks like a big time player in the making.  His juke three in the face of the ASU defender was so nice and he looks pretty smooth driving the lane.

[arxpert]

I'm not going to agree or disagree, but wanted to offer my input from where I sit, and believe me, I have swore at the TV many times watching this team.  Boswell, at minimum is inconsistent.  He had a few great games like against Duke early in the year.  However, when he is off, he has a hard time getting back on track.  One possible coaching error is the inability to recognize that Boswell's head is getting in the way of the instruction to "Just keep shooting."  You see him hesitate on his shots, and once you hesitate you lose your rhythm.  Last night Boswell had a nice drive to the basket that should have resulted in a lay up, but instead he opted to pass to someone in the corner for a missed three.

Bradley would be a nice change of pace at this point, and I'd be interested to see how he does with extended minutes.  He doesn't appear to be the total game changer that that Fifita was in football, but if he can play consistently and have occasional games like he did against ASU, we'd be in a good place with him at the 1.

Lastly, I think Murauskas needs to be given more run.  What he did against ASU was fantastic.  He looks like a big time player in the making.  His juke three in the face of the ASU defender was so nice and he looks pretty smooth driving the lane.

I can respect your observations and I will say that many of them are in fact useful perspectives.

I would say a couple of things that I think would be productive food for thought here:

1. I think Boro/Paulius have been given the Adama-ALPHA Bal treatments. Totally overlooked and underappreciated. 2 Players who are not expected to do anything other than play a niche role, but in games like last night would prove to be valuable weapons to deploy. Tommy has reverted to his old way of stacking players only to never use them for any reason. He has every type of weapon in the book and he will not deploy them.

2. Someone mentioned a habit formed where we can't guard "6'6" shooters especially 3pt shooters"... well we could with Boro and Paulius. Tommy doesn't like to do offense for defense subs. While no one would take me seriously, Tommy has had all year to train Boro and Paulius to be 3 and D guys. Not NBA 3 and D, but College level 3 and D. Very simple to be able to play 1 of them at any given moment and have them guard the perimeter, especially a hot shooter, keeping "Love, Pelle, KJ" out of Foul Trouble and then on the offensive end train them to have 2 or 3 spots where they can screen and roll to and pop a shot once in a while. If nothing else, but to make an opponent respect the shot and if it misses (open look) it is more productive than watching anyone else chuck a bad shot. All season the 3pt line has been a problem for Arizona defensively and being able to close out has been a big issue. Most games it is 1 guy who hit 5+ 3's against us and the rest of the team hits a few "in belief". So if we have players who are taller and can close out better/run a 3pt shooter off the 3pt line, then Tommy must be willing to deploy them.

3. I don't really blame Boswell for anything other than his own unwillingness to get to the rim using his natural size, strength, and speed... but outside of that I don't blame Boswell's misusage on Boswell because I think Tommy is a pure control freak even worse than Miller yet people don't want to see it at the moment. Not until Arizona's next massive failure at least.

The way Tommy has things set up, he wants people to believe Boswell is a PG, but Boswell is playing the game like a dribbling SG. The best way to use Boswell for how Tommy runs this team would be like a Gabe York. This means Boswell must come off the bench and sub in when Love/Pelle need out. This means Bradley must takeover ball handling, use his competitive spirit and drive + dish. No one is saying Bradley is an Elite PG, but the fact of the matter is you need to have a WILLINGNESS to drive, create, and get to the line at worst.

-->Tommy has failed Boswell or Boswell has failed Tommy.

Boswell doesn't Run and Gun, he hops down the court casually like a "cool-cat" waving his arm around like he is a "floor general" while literally nothing happens and doesn't go full speed to get downhill quickly. If he were capable of it, I am sure he would. He may be a headcase. I am not going to say he IS a headcase. However, he might have big arms, big body frame and all that, but if he doesn't use it then it is a hinderance --- he is obviously incapable of playing like CP3 where he drives in, gets to his spots, uses his size and IQ to create his own space, fade back and hit shots. He also does not live at the line which is a Tommy Failure - Boswell's FT% looks nice on paper, but it is not in volume. If you give Boswell 10 FT's per game I would actually think he would be around 65 to 70%.

4. People also think we are Run and Gun... well, what about the Keshad chase down block where WSU had 3 guys waiting for the easy put back layup toward the end of the game? Can't run and gun only in 1 direction. Tommy Failure

5. We have an issue at the 4 and 5. It is possible Tommy is married to Ballo. A true liability that does play with effort, but is just flat out limited. Tommy's 1st season became a struggle down the stretch. We had some tough pills to swallow until he chose to play Koloko and Ballo together. Now ultimately it still was a losing strategy, but it did get us to the finish line with a Pac12 Title and Banner. It didn't work vs Houston, but the obvious reason for that is Tommy refuses to let anyone over 6'9" shoot the ball. It has to be gimmick layups, lobs, dunks, or nothing. Koloko was one of the best 3pt shooting players at the NBA Combine. One would think that if Koloko could be amongst the best in the entire Combine at hitting 3s, then he could have stepped out 1 or 2 times per game in a "Run and Gun" system and popped a 3. If he missed, it is more productive than Kerr jacking up 9 3's going 1-9. Or in our current situation Boswell going 2-8 every game.

Maybe this was supposed to be Henri's role and Dylan seems to have refused to play this year and forced a Red Shirt because he doesn't trust Tommy at all from my POV. I think Krivas could hit jump shots. Maybe not 3's, but enough to stretch the floor slightly and enable Ballo the space to mop up on the boards or even Krivas could pass the ball to Ballo.

Point being, Tommy refuses to let bigs shoot. No one respects our 3pt shooting outside of Love. They virtually Beg Boswell to shoot and they just hope Pelle has a Normal game and doesn't score 17-20pts which any "good" team could live with and still beat us if Love and Pelle account for 35-40pts and they only have to deal with Ballo getting 10pts cuz he misses most of his FTs.

Krivas is a GOOD FT shooter. If Tommy played Ballo and Krivas together, Ballo wouldn't NEED to touch the ball to be effective. Screening would be more valuable than just forcing the ball into him, watching him get hammered, then going 1-2 from the Stripe. Lob it into Krivas instead and teams cannot foul him automatically. We can see this with Yao Edey who I think is something like 23/23 in his last couple games from the line. Edey cannot be fouled because of his FT shooting ability. Krivas being able to hit even 70% would make him unfoulable. He may not have all the moves nor the best hands, but Krivas just isn't given the chance either way. He is sent in there to give Ballo a breather and no plays are "natural" for him yet he is able to collect stats just being out there doing his own thing. This is most likely because Krivas has the basketball IQ to get himself involved and I think with ANY form of training he would be able to catch the ball down low, make a play and also create the ability to pass out of the post whereas Ballo is incapable of Inside-Out because he gets fouled too quickly. Nothing can develop after Ballo gets the ball. It is a 1 way ticket for better or worse.

6. Bradley doesn't really need to be the Game Changer. He doesn't really need to be the one who saves us from Boswell. He just needs to be involved in the game. I'm fairly certain over the last handful of games, Bradley was in the game down the stretch to the end in every game that wasn't a pure blowout. If we see a guy finishing just about every game that isn't starting every game, then we have a Coaching issue.

Tell me (anyone) ---> What is the problem with starting Bradley and bringing Boswell in 3 to 4 minutes into the game? The only problem would be if Boswell has something on Tommy that is undisclosed or if there has been some sort of threat that Boswell will leave if he isn't starting.. or Tommy is flat out too scared to make the change. It really doesn't matter who starts a game compared to who finishes a game, but that doesn't seem to work for our team because by the time Boswell melts down, Caleb Love ends up affected and feels he needs to go into Hero ball to make up for the problems that got caused. I would prefer to see Bradley in the game right away and if he is having a Boswellian start going 1-6 from the field, take him out, put Boswell in to steady the ship. Tommy is trying to allow Boswell to get going early every game and it is causing issues for subs because there simply aren't enough shots to go around which is LUNACY in a "RUN AND GUN" system. Love taking 20 shots per game is a pure product of not having the PG position figured out.

Tommy has nothing to lose and everything to gain at this point. Bradley should be starting, getting involved, making plays. Not coming in and playing erratically, doing some good things, doing some bad things, and overall not getting many shot attempts unless he creates his own - which also leads to him being benched if it isn't productive - which is unhealthy. That is not "Offense" that is "Iso Ball". Tommy is turning a blind eye to it because he is so used to talent bailing out his bad choices, but I see no way to win March Madness games by turning a blind eye.

Footnote - Tommy loves to rely on getting teams in foul trouble, but the only team it really works on is UCLA.

The Boswell favoritism needs to stop

[808Wildcat94]

In closing, I want to add, for  item 4, I was upset that no one else helped Keshad.  After such a nice play, it was a shame it led to an easy put back by WSU.  It was as if everyone else decided it wasn't worth it to run down court, ala LBJ.

Murauskas, to me, could be a Markannen lite if given enough playing time.

I loved our near all-foreign team cooking ASU.  I recall, the lead increased with them in the game.  I truly think Martinez is going to be an exciting player.  He surely has the court vision and great handles.  You can also see he has a confidence about him.  I just wish here were a bit taller.  I couldn't envision him guarding "The back up a 6'-6" PG."

I think our success depends on our consistency, which we have lacked this year.  I like Caleb Love as much as the next person, but I feel his play is a bit erratic, which contributes to our inconsistency.  He can shoot us out of games just as much as he can keep us in games.  I also hate relying purely on shooting in the tourney.

Finally, was it just me or was Matt Mulebach irritating last night?  I know he's a Wildcat through and through, but he talked too much and was always overly positive to a fault about everything.  Maybe I was just irritated by the way the game was playing out.  Okay, MM gets a pass this time.