re: Rime or reason to this Jekyll and Hyde basketball team?

At that level, you need a HC who's a master motivator. Remember that these kids are students and often are playing with school issues in the backs of their mind. They're not professional athletes and should not be expected to perform as such. Watch Calipari. Watch Pitino. Watch old clips of Dale Brown, Dean Smith, or John Wooden. Those guys all mastered the art of finding a way to ignite the passion in their teams. JJ seems to struggle with that this season which is a bit of a mystery. At UNT and in his first two years at LSU he often got his teams to over-achieve. Certainly not the case with this team. Other than Hornsby, they do not always give max-effort and that's on the players but also on the Coach.