Here's the deal. The Shox went on the road and beat a top-25 type team. Then they came home and stunk it up against some bad teams.
One thing we knew was that the team was young and inexperienced. Young and inexperienced teams tend to get overconfident when they beat a good team, so we shouldn't be surprised that there was a huge letdown for two games that might be considered "trap" games after a top-25 road win.
We only have 2 players with over one year of experience in the program - Orukpe and Williams. What we've seen is what happens with inexperienced and immature teams. By immature - I mean teams that aren't accustomed to prosperity and adversity as a unit.
We've got talent. We've got a lot of talent. The players will respect good teams. We've seen that. They need to learn to respect lesser teams. Actually, they need to learn to respect themselves.
Marshall tells recruits that once they're on campus he's not their friend any more. I'm certain the players believe that tonight. I think he probably got their attention. Marshall probably has something in common with the Hulk - "You don't want to see me when I'm angry".
I'm confident the team will take DePaul and (probably) Iowa seriously. We can only hope that two lackluster performances against weak teams will get enough "coaching" to last through the Valley season and prevent letdowns against lesser Valley teams.
I'm expecting 2 "head scratcher" Valley losses, but enough wins to nail down a top-2 or (at the worst) a top-3 Valley finish.
One thing we knew was that the team was young and inexperienced. Young and inexperienced teams tend to get overconfident when they beat a good team, so we shouldn't be surprised that there was a huge letdown for two games that might be considered "trap" games after a top-25 road win.
We only have 2 players with over one year of experience in the program - Orukpe and Williams. What we've seen is what happens with inexperienced and immature teams. By immature - I mean teams that aren't accustomed to prosperity and adversity as a unit.
We've got talent. We've got a lot of talent. The players will respect good teams. We've seen that. They need to learn to respect lesser teams. Actually, they need to learn to respect themselves.
Marshall tells recruits that once they're on campus he's not their friend any more. I'm certain the players believe that tonight. I think he probably got their attention. Marshall probably has something in common with the Hulk - "You don't want to see me when I'm angry".
I'm confident the team will take DePaul and (probably) Iowa seriously. We can only hope that two lackluster performances against weak teams will get enough "coaching" to last through the Valley season and prevent letdowns against lesser Valley teams.
I'm expecting 2 "head scratcher" Valley losses, but enough wins to nail down a top-2 or (at the worst) a top-3 Valley finish.
Comment