EAST CAROLINA (9-10, 2-4) at WICHITA STATE (8-10, 0-5) Game Thread

[Topshock]

Cortes' Box +/- was terrible at -14.2. But Bell's was -18.5. Yikes!

However on the other hand, Ballard's BPM was 12.2. He's gonna look real sharp in a Top-25 Nike uniform next season. You know, the kind that doesn't have mirrored 2s for 5s.

Kenpom offensive rating:

Cortes: 19
Bell: 34
Ballard: 98
Beverly: 118

Have we ever had guards as bad as these two?

[BAShocker]

I’m convinced that after reading Taylor’s most recent article, (online this morning), we have the stupidest collection of players in D1, D2 etc.

This despite the collective GPA last semester of whatever the hell it was. Joy, Germany, Bamba and the walk-on must of all had 4.0’s.

[Shocktoberfest]

Great question. Obviously this is on the coaching staff ultimately. But there is no way to have a decent product on the court without good guard play. No way.

Still doesn't fix the defensive problems though.

[JMAN_KC]

Book Smarts does NOT equal BBall Smarts apparently

[asiseeit]

The first couple minutes set a tone. Four turnovers on first four possessions. ECU's first trip a man easily drives around Rogers for a layup. Only 8 assists and NINETEEN turnovers. Centers go 4-5 and HB 7-10 but the rest of the team south of 25%. How many times does it have to be said - pound it inside !!!

[JVShocker]

1. Mills is gonna get 3years, just have to buckle up. Maybe we lose the entire fanbase like happened in baseball, but it is what it is.
2. People forget he also had Kevin Obanor at ORU. He transferred to TX Tech the year before Mills left.
3. A roster overhaul is needed. Only a Fab 5 type class will bring excitement back.
4. If Mills brings back any of the returners outside of Ballard he must tell them they are minor players. Set the expectations as soon as the season ends.
5. Recruit Recruit and Recruit some more.

Yes. Recruit. Please. Clean house. They're good student athletes supposedly. Great. Let's all go get ice cream after the game. The athletes wanted to be treated with more respect. They want $$$$ to play now. School? What's that? You got what you wanted. Pay for play. But your play is uninspiring. It's amateurish. It lacks effort. Same boneheaded mistakes over and over and over and over again. What broke my back? The inbounds play where XB threw the ball to the other team in the second half under our basket. Basketball is a fluid game. What I watched last night was stagnation and repeated mistakes until I turned it off. We can't fire the coach. Again. Yet. So clean house. Yes. Please. New blood. MBB will need something next year to draw people in. These guys can go get their money elsewhere.

[pinstripers]

https://twitter.com/tayloreldridge/status/1750435791392715105

[Stickboy46]

Kenpom offensive rating:

Cortes: 19
Bell: 34
Ballard: 98
Beverly: 118

Have we ever had guards as bad as these two?

Bell was brought in as a backup 2/3. He is fairly decent at that, and based on his skills he showed at Drexel .. that's really exactly where he should be. He's now playing our primary point guard, and he's not good at that and he's not even trying to adjust (or be coached) to play a different way .. its bad.

Cortes was brought to be our primary point guard. What we are seeing on the floor is EXACTLY what he was at OU. That's the crazy part. It's not like Cortes is playing poorly compared to his previous numbers. Mills saw what we are seeing right now and was like "lets go get that kid to be our PG". It really puts a massive question mark on Mill's ability to evaluate talent.

[pinstripers]

There is a pretty good chance that IB wins as many games the remainder of this season as PM does.

[pinstripers]

This team plays like a team whose coach knows he can't be fired for a other 2-3 seasons. If there is any real accountability on this team, there doesn't appear to be much in the way that's obvious - the same stupid lazy one handed cross court passes keep being intercepted, the same drive right into three defenders and get stuffed keeps happening, and the same consistent blow bys and poor defensive rotations and transition defense continues to occur. His interviews about doing the same things more or less confirms this.

Mills is probably smart enough to know his philosophy isn't going to work with this group of players, and I would expect a mostly different roster next year. This year was a massive failure with recruiting, and a large chunk of that falls on Mills and his staff (sorry, but spending multiple years recruiting high schoolers isn't happening much anymore). He clearly doesn't have the ability to change his coaching philosophy and get the most out of the current roster. They aren't very skilled or athletic, but a great coach could have 3-4 more wins with the talent we do have.

The fact that we are lackadaisical in our warm ups and consistently look like we are just out there having fun playing pickup at the Y in my opinion translates to the game, and to me has a carry over to all the stupid turnovers. There is a consistent lack of focus that a good coach needs to be able to direct and control to some degree.

This program in general is a giant mess, and one I am slowly losing the desire to care much about. Don't see much care from our athletic department, our basketball staff, or our players, and that has trickled down to me. Just one man's opinions...

ALL OF THIS

[SubGod22]

Absolutley pathetic performance tonight. This is worse than the 90s. Mills obviously is not the answer. Need to cut our loses now. I am beginning to think we need to totally clean house- The WSU President, Athletic Director and the basketball coach.

What's your issue with Muma? Quite frankly, since he officially took over he's pretty much been killing it from what I've seen. Saal seemed like a good hire at the time, he definitely spoke a great game, but it's looking bad at the moment. He might be able to salvage something if the new baseball coach can be a bright spot. I'm not sure how the baseball fans here are feeling about that hire right now. I do know it seemed pretty lackluster from the outside when it was made, but I don't follow baseball all that closely to know if there's reason to think it'll work out or whatever.

Nooner is looking bad, but our women's program has been pretty bad since Jody left. He will probably get a little more time to get things turned around than someone like Mills because the women's team isn't a money maker and doesn't drive anything.

It's a shame that the sports we're currently good at don't generate revenue. I'd love to see softball grow in support. Those ladies are a lot of fun to watch and they win. T&F has never been a huge spectator sport outside of major national/international events. Bowling...

[shocker43]

All aboard the Pain Train!

HCPM or HCIB...who wins more this year? Discuss.

Anyone comparing the two are insane.

IB had a team of...

Craig Porter - NBA player, getting quality minutes
Dexter Dennis - two-way NBA player, has played against real NBA competition this year
Rickey Council - two-way NBA player, scored his first NBA points this week against real NBA competition
Tyson Etienne - one of the best players on his G league team

Throw in players like Alterique Gilbert, Trey Wade, Mo Udeze. That team beats this team by 30. IB couldn't muster a post-season win, was barely above .500. Loss to Alcorn State, East Carolina, Memphis at home by 40, etc.

There are a lot of things that worry me about PM (recruiting blunders, lack of energy, intensity, etc.) It was nearly impossible to identify an offensive play ran by IB teams, with guys that could actually run an offense. We can run offense now, we just aren't good at executing the offense.

[Stickboy46]

What's your issue with Muma? Quite frankly, since he officially took over he's pretty much been killing it from what I've seen. Saal seemed like a good hire at the time, he definitely spoke a great game, but it's looking bad at the moment. He might be able to salvage something if the new baseball coach can be a bright spot. I'm not sure how the baseball fans here are feeling about that hire right now. I do know it seemed pretty lackluster from the outside when it was made, but I don't follow baseball all that closely to know if there's reason to think it'll work out or whatever.

Nooner is looking bad, but our women's program has been pretty bad since Jody left. He will probably get a little more time to get things turned around than someone like Mills because the women's team isn't a money maker and doesn't drive anything.

It's a shame that the sports we're currently good at don't generate revenue. I'd love to see softball grow in support. Those ladies are a lot of fun to watch and they win. T&F has never been a huge spectator sport outside of major national/international events. Bowling...

Muma is doing pretty well from the university as a whole standpoint. Lots of really good activity going on there. I don't see him as being on the hot seat.

ADKS get an A or B grade for everything he's done as an AD EXCEPT his hires. His hires have been very suspect. I'm not sure if its as simple as getting rid of ADKS or the next hire needs a different process with a different decider.

[Stickboy46]

Anyone comparing the two are insane.

IB had a team of...

Craig Porter - NBA player, getting quality minutes
Dexter Dennis - two-way NBA player, has played against real NBA competition this year
Rickey Council - two-way NBA player, scored his first NBA points this week against real NBA competition
Tyson Etienne - one of the best players on his G league team

Throw in players like Alterique Gilbert, Trey Wade, Mo Udeze. That team beats this team by 30. IB couldn't muster a post-season win, was barely above .500. Loss to Alcorn State, East Carolina, Memphis at home by 40, etc.

There are a lot of things that worry me about PM (recruiting blunders, lack of energy, intensity, etc.) It was nearly impossible to identify an offensive play ran by IB teams, with guys that could actually run an offense. We can run offense now, we just aren't good at executing the offense.

I sometimes wonder whether people actually watch the games when they say stuff like this

[rjl]

https://twitter.com/tayloreldridge/s...35791392715105

The first play in that video is one of the most painful plays I've ever seen for multiple reasons.

First, we have Ridgnal wide open in the corner, which tells me our players suck so bad that the other team knows the only real chance we have of scoring is if we can get close to the rim. Leaving a player wide open to his own devices is the preferred defense.

And second, EVEN THEN, Cortes fires an unguided scud missile at him that sails so far right that even Alex Jones is afraid to talk about it on his podcast.