Brilliance in Intangibles

[MarylandHawk]

That is a quote from Nathan Knight after his big game. He said that’s what it takes if you want to beat the best. Wow this dude is special. I hope the whole team adopts this mind set. 

[RedDawg#8]

Knight is very mature, walks and talks like it.

He is older than all of the young guys on the team except Mays who has him by a couple of weeks. Our "rookies" are the age of most young vets. Their play really personifies that.

Mays (Sept 5th-97)- 23, Knight (Sept 20-97) 23, JC-(Sept 23-97) 23 , Dre (Dec-97)-23 , Trae-22, Kev-22, Cam-21, OO-20.

[Dakin]

OO is still a baby. A full 3 years younger than Nathan Knight. Patience. 

[MarylandHawk]

During this streak, this seems to be the key. Guys are doing all the small things at a high level. Everyone seems to be accountable for their role, hustling, happy for teammates, prepared, resilient, and dare I say it, mentally tough. Nathan Knight may be the embodiment of this mentality. 

[RedDawg#8]

5 minutes ago, MarylandHawk said:

During this streak, this seems to be the key. Guys are doing all the small things at a high level. Everyone seems to be accountable for their role, hustling, happy for teammates, prepared, resilient, and dare I say it, mentally tough. Nathan Knight may be the embodiment of this mentality. 

Knight has some swagger that I much appreciate from our big men. John is intense, Clint is just all business. Knight will go at you a little bit. I love it.

[Jdawgflow]

1 hour ago, MarylandHawk said:

During this streak, this seems to be the key. Guys are doing all the small things at a high level. Everyone seems to be accountable for their role, hustling, happy for teammates, prepared, resilient, and dare I say it, mentally tough. Nathan Knight may be the embodiment of this mentality. 

This is well said.  I would also mention that Bawb said on the telecast that he thinks this may be the most deflections he has ever seen the Hawks have.  And he has been doing this a LONG time.

[MarylandHawk]

44 minutes ago, Jdawgflow said:

This is well said.  I would also mention that Bawb said on the telecast that he thinks this may be the most deflections he has ever seen the Hawks have.  And he has been doing this a LONG time.

Yeah, I heard him say that. That’s crazy to think that Nate has this team doing this this fast. I also think Letting LP go put the team on notice that everybody needs to perform or they might find themselves on the short end of the stick. 

[Jdawgflow]

23 minutes ago, MarylandHawk said:

Yeah, I heard him say that. That’s crazy to think that Nate has this team doing this this fast. I also think Letting LP go put the team on notice that everybody needs to perform or they might find themselves on the short end of the stick. 

It is wild that just changing a coach has made this much impact.  I was asking my buddy who coaches high school the other day what % he felt was:

1. New coach

2. Health

3. Player buy in

[MarylandHawk]

1 hour ago, Jdawgflow said:

It is wild that just changing a coach has made this much impact.  I was asking my buddy who coaches high school the other day what % he felt was:

1. New coach

2. Health

3. Player buy in

Player buy in might be the most because they can’t blame anybody else now and they know they are competing for real now.

[TheTruth]

1 hour ago, MarylandHawk said:

Player buy in might be the most because they can’t blame anybody else now and they know they are competing for real now.

Definitely a mixture. Have you seen Gallo's percentages since the win streak/LP's dismissal? Video game numbers. He's healthy and stroking it. [pause] Even Bogi has shown promise as he has finally returned.

Teams are often buoyed short-term by a change in coaching, but Nate is doing real different stuff that is actually maximizing instead of minimizing our chances of winning - which certainly adds to the buoyancy and is a welcome change from you know who.

Finally, the buy-in appears to be real. We have turned into a defensive juggernaut since Nate took over - despite three quality-to-strong defenders being out (Hunter, Dunn, and Cam). And the 4th quarter meltdowns have largely ceased, too.

So yeah.

[RedDawg#8]

It's not like we are playing way over our heads. I mean this has always been considered an extremely talented and deep team. Even with the injuries, being 14-20 was always considered as us underachieving, way more so than 22-20 is overachieving.

The 8-0 thing, yeah, we will lose games eventually. But this team is performing at a modestly high enough level that it is definitely sustainable even when the new car smell wears off of the new coach.

We had a lot of make up work to do but we are finally where we had always thought we should be at this point of the season. 

[JeffS17]

I think there a lot of factors but I agree buy-in is the largest one, particularly on defense.  In-game coaching has been a huge upgrade too.  I know its probably sacrilege to say this, but I think a relatively small factor has been not having Cam take 10 shots a game.  I think he's a great defender, but his offense has been SO bad.  I trust he'll work that out though