I am a Nevada Wolf Pack fan and Trent Johnson did some amazing things for our program here before he packed his bags to join the Cardinal. So I was just curious to see what you fans think of how he has done over there...
Trent Johnson doesn't show much facial expression but when he's mad at the ref, or his players he get really mad. lol. He's done a good job this year to lead stanford into the top 10 in polls. But I think he has to get Stanford into the 2nd week in March at least or I think hes in the hot seat. Why? stanford has been in the tournament 2 times in 3 years and both times stanford has been blown out in the 1st round by 20 +. And the year they didn't make it was like the first time in 15 years. Recruiting has been very poor.. He didn't recruited the Lopez twins and got lucky in that Stanford was their dream school.
trent definatly has to learn how to recruit a whole lot better stanford has the potential this year to go deep in the tourney but what about next year when brook is the nba who is going to score any points lawrence hill is not that good very streky player
I think the jury is definitely out on Trent. The team is doing well this year and they seem to be getting better each week, which are obvious positives.
On the downside, there are some areas of concern that could once again limit the team's March potential. The double low post offense that Trent seems to be employing has removed any motion (or even strategy) from our offense and made us pretty easy to defend. But for the tremendous size and talent of the Lopez twins, I'm not sure the offense could produce at all. The substitution patterns and in-game adjustments also seem odd at times (stayed in man-to-man against Arizona State when a zone would have seemed to have addressed some of the late-game issues, kept Fred Washington on the bench in late game defensive stands when he is the best one-on-one defender on the roster, etc.).
And our free throw shooting - especially in clutch situations - has become painful to watch. That, along with continued difficulty in getting off a shot at the end of a half or game, all seem to point to coaching issues which make me wonder what happens down the road when we don't have seven foot twins.
Like I said, the jury is definitely out and I think this March's run (or lack of one) will help sway a lot of opinions.
Trent has done a great job this year as of late. One thing is with recruiting. He had nothing to do with the Lopez twins, and withouth them i can't see us doing nearly as good this year.
If any of you were athletes on the farm, then you know just how few scholarships there are to go around for the players that 'want' to come but can't afford the school. So you, obviously get the math, that when you have a team with so many scholarship athletes choosing to stay beyond their first and second years (unlike most other top b-ball programs) you're going to run out of available scholarship slots. Which has more of an impact on recruiting than you may imagine. Now, if you were Trent and you got handed the Lopez twins in your lap like many of you are shouting, then you already have two scholarship slots taken up there (but to assert that Trent did nothing to make sure the twins came to Stanford and not some other top school is silly). Add in the junior and senior class and then figure out how many more scholarship slots does Trent have and how many other positions does Trent need to fill. So I think for you to criticize his recruiting efforts in such a one-sided way is unfair.
Now, I agree with you that there have been some questionable coaching moments (even in this successful year) that made me scratch my head and wonder what on earth was the coach thinking. But I had plenty of those moments watching a Montgomery or Howland team as well. Trent is going to get better, the more talent he's allow to see and work with. This year is a good example, and if the team does decently in the tourney then we'll forget all about his gaffes. I also think that the team really needs to work on their conditioning (a la 'Coach Carter'), they seem to be fading more towards the end of each game as of late). Thankfully, Trent has a contract extension so now he can focus on coaching the team and help avoid breakdowns like in the UCLA game.
If any of you were athletes on the farm, then you know just how few scholarships there are to go around for the players that 'want' to come but can't afford the school. So you, obviously get the math, that when you have a team with so many scholarship athletes choosing to stay beyond their first and second years (unlike most other top b-ball programs) you're going to run out of available scholarship slots. Which has more of an impact on recruiting than you may imagine. Now, if you were Trent and you got handed the Lopez twins in your lap like many of you are shouting, then you already have two scholarship slots taken up there (but to assert that Trent did nothing to make sure the twins came to Stanford and not some other top school is silly). Add in the junior and senior class and then figure out how many more scholarship slots does Trent have and how many other positions does Trent need to fill. So I think for you to criticize his recruiting efforts in such a one-sided way is unfair.
Now, I agree with you that there have been some questionable coaching moments (even in this successful year) that made me scratch my head and wonder what on earth was the coach thinking. But I had plenty of those moments watching a Montgomery or Howland team as well. Trent is going to get better, the more talent he's allow to see and work with. This year is a good example, and if the team does decently in the tourney then we'll forget all about his gaffes. I also think that the team really needs to work on their conditioning (a la 'Coach Carter'), they seem to be fading more towards the end of each game as of late). Thankfully, Trent has a contract extension so now he can focus on coaching the team and help avoid breakdowns like in the UCLA game.
