Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Darrell Walker - end of the year assessment

I was dubious when we hired Walker to be head coach of the Trojans, and my doubt were confirmed by his performance. To be blunt, he just did not get the job done, and it was not because of a lack of talent. It was because of a lack of coaching. We had an ex-NBA coach, and that is what it looked like. It looked like he thought his job was to make big stars out of a few players, but winning ballgames was purely optional. We had the hyper-athleticism this season, but it did not sell tickets.

Each coach has a different system. Walker's may not prove to be my favorite, but he has a right to install whatever system he chooses. But whatever game he teaches, the Head Coach's job is to make sure the players operate under that system. It appeared that Walker's "system" was to throw the ball to Rayjon Tucker and Markquis Nowell, and tell everyone else to get out of the way and let them play. When you have four players averaging double figures and one player averaging over 20 points per game, you ought to win more than ten games with even a modicum of coaching. We had plenty of offense, and our defensive numbers were not terrible as a whole. We just did not do those little, unspectacular things that make for a good basketball team. We had a group of good basketball players. And the fault for that situation falls directly on the coach. Walker did not do his job.

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