21-22 Wishlist

[choida]

Honestly think giving him a multi year contract extension was stupid... And can't give any reason to why it was done. Beating Houston at home in a Covid year is not the reason. Boatwright made a quick rash decision and i hope it doesn't come back to bite is in the @$$. Hope I'm severely wrong.

[Stickboy46]

I agree you probably aren't going to implement a new offense at that point especially when you are just trying to survive a crazy season with all kinds of restrictions and limits some of which no doubt impacted the continuity of practices. Nevertheless a coach can impact how he wants whatever the team is running to be implemented. If IB was okay with the stickiness of the ball, lack of ball and player movement and excessive dribbling, poor screening and cutting, and taking a lot of forced and wild shots then that's a problem. If he wasn't okay with it, then what did he do to try to change that. From what I can see either very little or the players ignored what he wanted. Either way that's a problem. I think the offense we have can work with much better execution, more patience and better BBIQ (i.e. know the difference between a good and bad shot or know when to kick the ball out to the perimeter either by the post players or players driving to the hole).

Clearly, Coach IB has some real challenges to deal with. He seems to be a very likable and a very good man and I hope he is up to the task. I would be very happy to see IB be a success.

While just a personal preference, I found the style of basketball the Shockers played this year as a bit painful to watch even when they were winning. The 3 games in the post season were like going to the dentist.

I bolded a KEY statement. Were you in the practices? I'm guessing no. With limited capacity, Were you even at the games? I'm guessing most on here that is a no also. From watching the game on TV, were you able to see the coaching being done? I watched every game on TV. I sure don't remember seeing more than 2-3 minutes combined all year of any conversations on the bench because they were always focused on the court or the analysts or commercials. I sure can't make a judgement of what he did or didn't try to do. Heck, I'd argue that 99% of the people bitching on this board wouldn't be able to tell if an actual adjustment was made. The only thing they based their decisions on is whether more balls went in the hoop which has 100 factors to make that happen.

I'm just saying in a crazy year like this year, making major changes probably wouldn't be smart. Yes, he should make minor adjustments. We definitely saw SOME of those throughout the year. I felt like the defensive gameplan last night was amazing. Drake has an elite offense and we shut them down. Did we suck on offense? yes. Some blame goes to IB, but we shot like crap. Including shooting like crap on a lot of really good shots. Heck we missed 4 shots in a row, 1 foot from the basket with the game on the line. We missed 11 FT. Dexter bricked several wide open 3s. They were selling out on stopping Etienne and we didn't have enough people step up and hit shots to take advantage of that.

[Shock Top]

Just because your not an IB truther, doesn’t mean you hate the guy and hope he’s going to be a failure.

You can have legitimate concerns and doubts. You can think going with a different candidate with more experience is a better and safer option.

[shoxlax]

Going forward in respect to IB:

1. He was playing with house money this year and won
2. Next year the pressure of being the permanent head coach of a top 40 program starts
3. This business eats “good guys” up
4. A plus for him, in today’s style and mess with college basketball, being a master tactician is a tie breaker, not a career breaker.
4a. Coaches now win with instant talent teams, getting players to play hard for them and players liking each other.
5. The element of surprise is gone. Teams know how to scout our players and despite IB putting some new wrinkles in, it was still the same offense.
6. Again, DB offered him the job with 5x the pay he was making. Would any of you turn it down? Don’t blame IB for not being an idiot.
7. Finally, he is my coach at the present time and like it or not, he is yours too. Don’t spend too much time playing “gotcha” on either side of the argument until he has a full season or two under his belt, unless you just like to fight with each other.

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

Ok, so he introduces a new game concept .. then the next day gets told he can't practice with his team for a week and half, then has to play Houston. We get blown out by Houston because the team is confused about the new concept they learned a week and a half ago and never got to practice but are being forced to use because the coach of the first place AAC team has fans that want to "see new wrinkles". Sounds great.

Seriously, I'm confused why ADDB didn't just come on Shockernet to get our next coach. We have SOOOO many great coaches on here that know exactly what it takes to run a D1 program in the middle of a pandemic. You can't just act like this year was the same as every other year.

I'm sorry if you think it is that simple. Back to the football analogy; if you think Lincoln Riley doesn't introduce something new, every week, you're sadly mistaken on what goes into coaching. Just because it has been introduced and practiced doesn't mean that is ALL there is to run in the next game. Stop excusing IB for not doing his job.

[Shockm]

I believe IB said yesterday he was going to give them a week off then talk to them. That's probably best .. Give them some time to separate from a disappointing loss before making a critical life decision.

Surely he's saying that he will give them a week to make a decision. and doesn't mean he doesn't talk to them during that week. He needs to be in their ear immediately if he wants them to return because others will be in their ear immediately. He is going to see players who are serious about their game informally, in the gym during the week he is talking about and it doesn't have to be a formal meeting for him to get an idea of what if happening with them.

If he's not planning to see them for a week that is a mistake.

[Stickboy46]

"Normal" doesn't matter here. If you get to the final third of the season, and you have not introduced wrinkles, you've failed your team as a coach. Do you think the NCAA football teams just trotted out there with their fall camp playbooks and ran with only that into the Championships? Coaches should always be evaluating (players, staff, and self), always be adapting, always be scheming, always be looking for any advantage. To say that IB doesn't need to do that because this year wasn't "normal" is...wow. So because things aren't going the way they typically do, he should just not do his job?

Ok, so he introduces a new game concept .. then the next day gets told he can't practice with his team for a week and half, then has to play Houston. We get blown out by Houston because the team is confused about the new concept they learned a week and a half ago and never got to practice but are being forced to use because the coach of the first place AAC team has fans that want to "see new wrinkles". Sounds great.

Seriously, I'm confused why ADDB didn't just come on Shockernet to get our next coach. We have SOOOO many great coaches on here that know exactly what it takes to run a D1 program in the middle of a pandemic. You can't just act like this year was the same as every other year.

[Shock Top]

While just a personal preference, I found the style of basketball the Shockers played this year as a bit painful to watch even when they were winning. The 3 games in the post season were like going to the dentist.

Agreed.

They only game that was a real pleasure watching was the Houston one.

Like you said, I was happy they were winning, but boy were some of those games and endings painful to watch!

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

In a year like this year where you had no idea if you would be able to practice tomorrow? Keep it simple. I think that's fairly obvious. Also, I don't think you introduce new wrinkles when you are 1st place in your league. While we didn't look GREAT throughout the year, It was leading to wins. That combined with the first statement leads me to think, you don't try to throw a wrench in things.

Your statement is probably correct in a normal year.

"Normal" doesn't matter here. If you get to the final third of the season, and you have not introduced wrinkles, you've failed your team as a coach. Do you think the NCAA football teams just trotted out there with their fall camp playbooks and ran with only that into the Championships? Coaches should always be evaluating (players, staff, and self), always be adapting, always be scheming, always be looking for any advantage. To say that IB doesn't need to do that because this year wasn't "normal" is...wow. So because things aren't going the way they typically do, he should just not do his job?

[1972Shocker]

We knew what to expect from Marshall offense. It wasn't going to change. Considering IB took over a week before the year, it was fairly obvious that he wasn't going to change up the offense mid season. He's now on the clock to implement his own touch on the program. With him having 7 years under GM, I don't expect drastic changes, but he might have a few tricks up his sleeve.

I agree you probably aren't going to implement a new offense at that point especially when you are just trying to survive a crazy season with all kinds of restrictions and limits some of which no doubt impacted the continuity of practices. Nevertheless a coach can impact how he wants whatever the team is running to be implemented. If IB was okay with the stickiness of the ball, lack of ball and player movement and excessive dribbling, poor screening and cutting, and taking a lot of forced and wild shots then that's a problem. If he wasn't okay with it, then what did he do to try to change that. From what I can see either very little or the players ignored what he wanted. Either way that's a problem. I think the offense we have can work with much better execution, more patience and better BBIQ (i.e. know the difference between a good and bad shot or know when to kick the ball out to the perimeter either by the post players or players driving to the hole).

Clearly, Coach IB has some real challenges to deal with. He seems to be a very likable and a very good man and I hope he is up to the task. I would be very happy to see IB be a success.

While just a personal preference, I found the style of basketball the Shockers played this year as a bit painful to watch even when they were winning. The 3 games in the post season were like going to the dentist.

[NCAABound]

So by my quick scan at our rankings....we are:

167th in Points per game
317th in FG%
183rd in 3pt%
181st in assists
263rd in FT%

Definitely looks like we could actually use some guys who can put the ball in the cup at a better rate or unselfish guys who can get our supposed good shooters open looks.

These are atrocious stats.

[asiseeit]

Player assessments should ALREADY be determined and known by everyone concerned. If not we have
more problems than I thought. A ten minute meeting with each one today with both coaches and players
being honest with one another. Let the chips fall where they may and get to work recruiting / building. No time to waste.

[shockersx]

We’ll definitely need to add an immediate contributor or two, but I’m excited to see how Seymour and Jenkins develop over the summer. I hope one if not both can work their way into the rotation.

[Stickboy46]

A week off ? Hope that doesn't apply to himself and the staff ! Need to get to work NOW on signing some polished
gamers. We only had four players contribute much last night and two of them most likely won't be back.

He said he gave the players a week off. Yes, I'd assume he and his coaches are manning the portal all weekend as more players enter

[Stickboy46]

I don't understand why that is fairly obvious. As a coach, you should always be experimenting with something new. That doesn't mean you run it right out of the gate, but there were no new wrinkles or ideas as the year progressed.

In a year like this year where you had no idea if you would be able to practice tomorrow? Keep it simple. I think that's fairly obvious. Also, I don't think you introduce new wrinkles when you are 1st place in your league. While we didn't look GREAT throughout the year, It was leading to wins. That combined with the first statement leads me to think, you don't try to throw a wrench in things.

Your statement is probably correct in a normal year.