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Memphis has been bad defending the three. Hopefully this is the game that gets LS and CF back to their normal ways.
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I just don't see Landry struggling for much longer. We know what he's capable of and there's no way he continues to play this far below his expected play. I'm hoping this is the game he gets it right. I have a good feeling about this one.
Shockers - 86
Tigers - 65Comment
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"Memphis Tigers need help, but not the type that Tubby Smith is giving them" - USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
by Geoff Calkins
Published 4:13 p.m. CT Feb. 4, 2018
"After Memphis suffered its worst loss to Cincinnati in program history, Tubby Smith said of his players, “Hopefully, they have learned their lesson and do it the right way and do it the way we say it.”...
To which I say: The Tigers need help, alright. They need serious reinforcements for the roster. They need at least two new assistant coaches. And they need a head coach who understands that the current state of the Memphis program — including the historic loss to UAB, the unprecedented blowout loss to Cincinnati and the program-low humiliation against East Carolina — is entirely his doing.
That’s the way it works in college basketball. The head coach is responsible for everything. He picks the players and he calls the plays. He schedules the games, he hires the assistants, he draws up the schemes, and he prepares the players to give their best effort.
That’s why the head coach makes millions. He gets the credit when it works and the blame when it doesn’t. Unless, of course, he tries to shift that blame to his players.
This is not unprecedented territory, of course. Mike Krzyzewski was sharply critical of his players after Duke lost to St. John’s Saturday. Of course, Krzyzewski has a top 10 team, the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class and the credibility that comes with years of unprecedented success at that program.
Josh Pastner used to criticize his players, too. That didn’t go over nearly so well. Remember when Pastner used to shrug and ask what he was supposed to do when his players didn’t make shots? Pastner was ultimately run out of town for that and other missteps. But even Pastner never suggested his players need psychological help because they didn’t listen to him.
Here’s the truth: If anyone needs psychological help, it’s the people who thought Smith could lose his best players to transfer, replace them with a collection of junior college players and a mixed bag of freshmen, and then live up to the historic standards of Memphis basketball.
Some will say this is just another example of Smith’s “tough love." Just as it was tough love when Smith recently said, of potential transfers,“You’re going to toe the line, you’re going to play the right way, or you just leave. I hate to say it.”
But doesn’t real toughness involve personal accountability? And isn’t the current condition of Memphis basketball less the fault of the players than the man who — with the notable exception of Jeremiah Martin and Jimario Rivers — hand-picked each and every one of them?
I’ve yet to hear Smith say his assistants have to do a better job of recruiting. I’ve yet to hear him say his stubbornness might have caused him to mishandle the Keelon Lawson situation. Instead, I hear him saying that everything would be fine if those dang players would just do exactly what he tells them to do.
That, in itself, may be a dubious claim given that Smith hasn’t had a team finish better than .500 in conference play since he left Kentucky, and given that Smith’s last 10 teams have assembled a regular-season record of 36-59 in February and March.
It’s fashionable to blame last season’s collapse on the Lawson brothers, but the Tigers 3-6 finish was actually fairly typical of recent Smith teams. Did all those teams need psychological help, too? Or does Smith’s tough-love coaching have a way of wearing on players?
It will be fascinating to see how this group responds. Memphis faces a stretch of five games — against Wichita State, UCF, SMU, Tulane and Houston — that could define both the season and the offseason. Maybe the players will be motivated by Smith’s searing words.
Maybe they’ll put together an unexpected winning streak. Or maybe they’ll check out emotionally and start planning their own transfers.
Either way, it’s on the coach. That’s the way it works in this business. And if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, some psychological help may be in order."Comment
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Hopeful that at the end of this season, we can point to this game as the one which turned the Shocks back to their winning ways.
And if we lose, well, there is no point in going there.
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Style points are out the window, just give me a win please.
Robert George 79
Penny Hardaway 68Comment
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Anyone else think Tubby will get axed soon and Memphis brings in Penny Hardaway as their coach? He'll make sure no Memphis high school kid leaves the city to play for another program.Comment
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So what. With the three Top 2021 recruits in the City League, mixed with the kids Sunrise Academy brings in, local Wichita recruiting is not taking a back seat to almost anywhere.Originally posted by Shox The Revenant View PostComment
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I think we’ve had more success in Memphis than Wichita these last two years.Originally posted by Shockm View PostComment
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If there are six games each year the team plays excellent and six games they pooh the coop, how many of each have we used up so far?
We know we've had stinkers, @Houston, OU. Others you'd put in this category?
We played pretty well @OSU, @Baylor. Statistically USF and @ECU (consider the competition). Others?
"I not sure that I've ever been around a more competitive player or young man than Fred VanVleet. I like to win more than 99.9% of the people in this world, but he may top me." -- Gregg Marshall 12/23/13 :peaceful:
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Remember when Nancy Pelosi said about Obamacare:
"We have to pass it, to find out what's in it".
A physician called into a radio show and said:
"That's the definition of a stool sample."Comment
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Basically, this is asking "Who did we play better than expected" and "who worse than expected". Of course this is now hind-sight. Some wins looked better then, some loses not as bad now.Originally posted by im4wsu View PostPooh the coop doesn't necessarily mean a loss and a win doesn't mean we played a good game.
I agree with @Houston, not sure about OU now, but it was at home and we just weren't it most of the game. Could add the Notre Dame collapse (and it looks worse due to their injuries now), home against SMU, home against Ark St (even though we won), @Temple (lack of finishing), getting down by 14 in the 1st half against Cal, maybe home FGCU, and maybe @Tulsa.
I'll do the easy one first. Houston here was better than expected. If OSU can make a run, that may be another. That's pretty much it.
Stinkers: @Houston, SMU (even though they could have beaten a lot of very good teams that night), the way we lost to ND. I'll leave the rest as not-so-honorable mention.Comment
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We open as 9.5 point favorites - not that it means anything.
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Loading the car, headed out to MemphisComment
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IT'S GAMEDAY, BITCHES !!!Comment
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Originally posted by pinstripers View Post
(•_•)
<) )╯ IT'S
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> GAMEDAY
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> BITCHES!!!
/ \
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