State of the Basketball Program

[Shockm]

Oh yeah, and we didn’t chase them all off at all, remember?

Londo said we chased them off. I have no inside information, but think the coaches had enough of ES's attitude. He had been talking back and arguing with coaches for half of the year. I doubt we intentionally chased any others off but to say that the remaining players were unhappy with roles (probably would include MU, JB, and GS) and playing time (would have been the rest) would probably be fair. They would probably say they were chased off. In the end, imo, it was a cancer from within that caused most of the misery. Players have been unhappy with GM before, and only an average of 1 or less each year have left. As I've stated before, it wasn't just him that caused the problem. Our team had an attitude problem and even winning didn't solve it this year. No leaders, negative leaders, and selfishness were the culprits for this year being different.

[WstateU]

Oh yeah, and we didn’t chase them all off at all, remember?

[wichshock65]

[Stickboy46]

While this makes perfect sense due to the Pandemic .. this would have been a great year to have a summer trip with all the new faces coming in.

[JVShocker]

[OregonShocker]

I think if anyone knows the potential of a player over the course of 2-3 years it's the coaching staff. As far as rebuild/reboot, we saw that a couple years ago when he realized his squad over 3 yrs wasn't going to cut it in the AAC. I want to believe that he saw a) not enough progress in players b) bad chemistry somewhere c) potentially better players on the horizon. This led to tough decisions, but not necessarily decisions totally made by the players. For instance, GS was probably told to shape up (benched) and he didn't want to do it. Why have him around?
Lots to digest this off season, but I remain highly optimistic for our future.

[1972Shocker]

I think if anyone knows the potential of a player over the course of 2-3 years it's the coaching staff. As far as rebuild/reboot, we saw that a couple years ago when he realized his squad over 3 yrs wasn't going to cut it in the AAC. I want to believe that he saw a) not enough progress in players b) bad chemistry somewhere c) potentially better players on the horizon. This led to tough decisions, but not necessarily decisions totally made by the players. For instance, GS was probably told to shape up (benched) and he didn't want to do it. Why have him around?
Lots to digest this off season, but I remain highly optimistic for our future.

Not sure what you are implying about the situation 2-3 years ago. In that case, he had 6 seniors use up their eligibility, Shamet heading to the NBA, Reaves heading to OU and Keyser flunking out of school. I guess the total rebuild went okay especially the 2nd half of year 1 and the 1st half of year 2. A successful run in the NIT in year 1 and a decent 23-8 season in year 2 with a top 4 AAC finish and shot at the NCAA seems like decent rebuild but having that all fall apart at the end of year 2 to get back to square 1 kind of trumps that.

I do agree that 3G and staff have done a pretty good job in putting some nice pieces to the puzzle in place. Not sure I can say I am highly optimistic but I am on the optimistic side at this point.

[pogo]

Through all of what has happened over the last few weeks one of the things that bothers me the most is the lesson that these young men did not learn. Something in the make up of their character building here was literally thrown away. When faced with adversity strong character will usually resist and try to resolve it. Quitting teaches you nothing and just gets easier to quit the next time one deals with adversity. They all probably think they got out of a bad situation and everything will be better for the next phase of their life but they missed a great opportunity, I realize that there may have been a few that saw that they would never be the part of the team they envisioned and left to find better opportunities but the others lost out. Anyway that's the way our Platoon GYSGT explained it at OCS

[ShockerPrez]

For whatever reason, I feel like we are starting from a higher step on the ladder this off-season then where we were 2 years ago. I think the talent level is much better and capable of winning sooner. Having Gilbert will go a long way IMO. 2 years ago, we had McDuffie. I loved McDuffie, and he carried our team, but he couldn't do it alone. His previous 3 years were night and day compared to what he was asked to do in his 4th year. And it's a shame cause he deserved 4 years of NCAA tourneys after what he gave this program.

But I think that these guys are gonna come in with much less 'deer in the headlights' and more swagger. At least that's my hope. Yes, they need to get with the program and there is definitely some humbleness to be had. But we need a team that won't be intimidated and believe in their ability. I think this year's team started getting gun-shy in certain games when they attacked the rim and didn't finish, or got rejected. I'm hoping for that to turn around.

[OregonShocker]

Not sure what you are implying about the situation 2-3 years ago.

I was thinking about the situation that led him to say something along the lines of "I recruited for the MVC; now I need to get ACC players" when explaining a large exodus.

[pie n eye]

For whatever reason, I feel like we are starting from a higher step on the ladder this off-season then where we were 2 years ago. I think the talent level is much better and capable of winning sooner. Having Gilbert will go a long way IMO. 2 years ago, we had McDuffie. I loved McDuffie, and he carried our team, but he couldn't do it alone. His previous 3 years were night and day compared to what he was asked to do in his 4th year. And it's a shame cause he deserved 4 years of NCAA tourneys after what he gave this program.

But I think that these guys are gonna come in with much less 'deer in the headlights' and more swagger. At least that's my hope. Yes, they need to get with the program and there is definitely some humbleness to be had. But we need a team that won't be intimidated and believe in their ability. I think this year's team started getting gun-shy in certain games when they attacked the rim and didn't finish, or got rejected. I'm hoping for that to turn around.

Agreed, and I also hope I say this without disrespecting McDuffie, Samaje, and Asbjorn but...

Dex/Etienne/Wade/Poor Bear/Bilau is a much better starting point.

[molly jabali]

Speaking od Poor Bear, saw him running by CRESTVIEW YESTERDAY............looked to be in good shape....

[Wuzee]

Speaking od Poor Bear, saw him running by CRESTVIEW YESTERDAY............looked to be in good shape....

That's a good sign. At that point in his career Shaq Morris was tooling around on his hoverboard.

[Ashockalypse]

Why hammer former players? Asking for me.

[Shockm]

That's a good sign. At that point in his career Shaq Morris was tooling around on his hoverboard.

When he was at 285, the hoverboard couldn't hold Shaq up.