IMO his biggest weakness is not being able to shut down the "outside" voices with his good players.
In basketball every good player by the time he gets to college seems to have an entourage of "outsiders" getting themselves in position for a future slice of the pie. I see it happening every where. Some of those "outsiders" actually do a good job of steering the kid in the right direction but most don't and it is up to the kids college coach to shut down those outside voices and get the kid to buy in to his vision. That takes a strong personality because it isn't easy to shut down those outside voices.
Bruce couldn't do that at Illinois. He was expected to recruit the good players out of Chicago when he was at UI and god knows the good players out of Chicago come loaded with a bus load of "outsiders". Once he got some of those kids on campus he was never able to get them to turn out the outsiders. The kids would still listen to their entourage more than their head coach and that would eventually cause problems in the locker room. Self, Huggins, Martin are coaches that have the personality to shut down the outsiders and get their kids to buy in to what they are selling... and if they don't they get rid of them before they divide the locker room. Bruce inherited teams at UI and KSU where the previous coaches had already shut down the outside voices and the players were ready to listen to Bruce... and the results came. But then those guys graduated.
Bruce does ok when he doesn't have to deal with the entourages. The problem with that is if you have a team that doesn't have a bunch of outsiders trying to get a slice of the pie it means you have a team of "average" players. Last year we didn't have a lot of outsiders to deal with because last years freshmen class did not show up with them but then after doing well some of those guys went home over the summer and came back with entrourages.... and we saw that Bruce was once again unable to shut down those outside voices.
Not sure if Bruce can fix this character flaw of his. Not sure if he knows how to be the tough SOB and tell his best players to hit the road if they can't leave their entourage back home. If he can do that then I think the team will be fine next year. But if he can't we'll see the continuation of the same. I don't see any of the new freshmen class arriving with an entourage but as we saw this year that doesn't mean they can't develop one after arriving.... if Bruce can't stop it from happening.
In basketball every good player by the time he gets to college seems to have an entourage of "outsiders" getting themselves in position for a future slice of the pie. I see it happening every where. Some of those "outsiders" actually do a good job of steering the kid in the right direction but most don't and it is up to the kids college coach to shut down those outside voices and get the kid to buy in to his vision. That takes a strong personality because it isn't easy to shut down those outside voices.
Bruce couldn't do that at Illinois. He was expected to recruit the good players out of Chicago when he was at UI and god knows the good players out of Chicago come loaded with a bus load of "outsiders". Once he got some of those kids on campus he was never able to get them to turn out the outsiders. The kids would still listen to their entourage more than their head coach and that would eventually cause problems in the locker room. Self, Huggins, Martin are coaches that have the personality to shut down the outsiders and get their kids to buy in to what they are selling... and if they don't they get rid of them before they divide the locker room. Bruce inherited teams at UI and KSU where the previous coaches had already shut down the outside voices and the players were ready to listen to Bruce... and the results came. But then those guys graduated.
Bruce does ok when he doesn't have to deal with the entourages. The problem with that is if you have a team that doesn't have a bunch of outsiders trying to get a slice of the pie it means you have a team of "average" players. Last year we didn't have a lot of outsiders to deal with because last years freshmen class did not show up with them but then after doing well some of those guys went home over the summer and came back with entrourages.... and we saw that Bruce was once again unable to shut down those outside voices.
Not sure if Bruce can fix this character flaw of his. Not sure if he knows how to be the tough SOB and tell his best players to hit the road if they can't leave their entourage back home. If he can do that then I think the team will be fine next year. But if he can't we'll see the continuation of the same. I don't see any of the new freshmen class arriving with an entourage but as we saw this year that doesn't mean they can't develop one after arriving.... if Bruce can't stop it from happening.
