Joe Nugent

But this is 4 years later

No, the team lost Rabs, Louth, and Lewis, most of the bigs before the beginning of the league schedule.. That may have caused a change.. Every coach, well almost every coach, saves different things for their league schedule.. Scouting is so detailed now, one needs  extra arrows in the quiver. Defense, BLOOB's. offensive sets.. That is how to be successful, be prepared to do something special...
If you are at a game, notice how the coaching staff is telling their players what the other team will do...what to watch for on BLOOB's..Do something different, make your opponent think, not react!

Yes, that is what they do!  In the 70’s and 80’s there was little scouting done. An assistant or 2 might see a “local” opponent, or a coach might phoned friends, that was about the extent. Today, every team gets dvd’s of the opponents games, and usually 2 assistants breakdown the “films”. Each team knows what their opponent will do. This is why it is important to have something “new” in your bag to use. Offense or defense, make the other guys adapt on the fly.  

This is a big reason Coach Willard was so good at defending. His D changed nightly, depending on what the opposition was running..Every night the D looked different. That was the big reason UConn Coach Calhoun wouldn’t play HC. He and staff couldn’t predict how HC would defend… 

I happened to catch a Nugent game.   Random thoughts from a casual observer

This being prep school and not college, he was basically the biggest kid on his team and played center

I was most impressed with his passing.  When taking the ball down low if things got too congested he consistently made an accurate pass to the open guy outside.   As the big on the team he got a decent amount of defensive rebounds and he was hitting the guard racing down the court with the long outlet pass

I think he took more 3's and 2's.   A lot of time down low resulted in a kick out rather than a shot, but the other guys were doing some doubling when he had the ball low.  He hit about six 3's.   In all fairness, I don't think any would have been a college 3.  The high school line is a little shorter and he was never far behind it

On D he had what I call the swivel head   He was constantly looking back and forth between the ball and his man (man to man D) so that he would never lose track of either

Not very good.   30 point blow out with a little less than 10 minutes to go when Nugent and all the starters (except the PG) called it a day

Advertised 6'6" might be a stretch.  Without bringing a tape measure with me I'd guess an inch or so shorter

Although I really liked his passing, some of his passes that were totally on the mark could get deflected by college defenders.  But I guess  that's why high school studs play like freshmen when they get to the next level