Really wish you hadn't opened up the eyes, attitudes/ire and fingers of the KO bashers, They were in great force Wednesday night and yesterday - now this
KO can coach through adversity just fine. What remains to be seen is whether he can coach consistently great teams that are relevant more often than not.
Obviously you're not going to get rid of him after this year. But the next 1-2 years are put up or shut up. We'll have cleared out the recruiting chaff from the sanctions years. These teams will be entirely the teams that KO is capable of putting together. We'll see if they're good enough.
Yes, Ollie's 13-13 record will stand up right next to Diaco's 6-7 in the pantheon of coaching masterpieces. Along with 2012 depending who you ask.
I agree, I think they are hopefully developing some confidence for next season, but this year is terrible.
0 top 75 wins, 3 top 100
Duke & Cuse both played 7 players the other night
KU and UK play 7 players like 90%+ of the minutes except blowouts
Disagree about Rodney and Kentan. Rodney is constantly assigned the opposing teams best perimeter player and Kentan has been a warrior logging big minutes. Only Amida has figured out how to get rest during games.On the subject of fatigue, we have one player on the team who can create shots. One...
When that one player gets tired or is hurting, then the offense grinds to a hault. Our already predictable offense falls apart, we give up live ball turnovers and take bad shots, and the other team runs up the score until that one player can create something again.
I'm sure Purvis, Brimah, and Facey had fresh legs, but then again, it's easy to have fresh legs when you're making your sophomore teammate carry the entire load.
It was metaphorical more than literal.Disagree about Rodney and Kentan. Rodney is constantly assigned the opposing teams best perimeter player and Kentan has been a warrior logging big minutes. Only Amida has figured out how to get rest during games.
Excuses. Sanctions are well in the rear view mirror. It is a stretch to blame this season on them. Next season is a MAJOR stretch. As for conference, I present to you Gonzaga, Wichita State and Villanova. None of them are from P5 conferences and this idea of a P6 conference is just a flawed construct to avoid the comparison.Not sure if the sanction chaff is gone but he still has the conference image issues so things aren't crystal clear
12 wins is a low expectation in this conference. We could have gotten 12 this year. Lolmmm....Okay, but next year is the put up or shut up year. Top 3 finish in the aac, 12 wins in the aac at least, 20+ wins in the regular season and 22 or so is more or less the actual expectation, top 6 seed (even a 5) and at least a win, if not two in March.
Sure man, they should have had 12 this year. They will probably have 10 but should have had 12. Maybe next year they can go for 13 or 14. I figure at least one loss to smu, cincy and Houston and maybe another 1 or 2 somewhere else, maybe memphis or if ucf improves. Maybe 13-5 or 14-4 is not outside of the realm of possibility but now I am afraid to have expectations that are too high. I should, but I am afraid. 9-2 or something outside of conference play is possible. That would put them around 22-7 or 23-6. 2-1 in aacT (at least a finals loss to cincy or smu) would put them at 24-8 or 25-7. That is where they should be, actually. So for next year they should be hovering around 25 wins by selection sunday...so maybe 22 is actually to low an estimate so I retract my 20 win statement earlier. Fans expecting any less than 20 wins for next year are not demanding enough.12 wins is a low expectation in this conference. We could have gotten 12 this year. Lol
I'm sure you don't say to a patient the reason you have lung cancer is because you started coughing when you came to my office. That it has nothing to do with smoking 2-3 packs a day for thirty years. And to follow up with the parallel I'm making regarding your post I doubt you will ever say to a patient that their treatment will only take one pill and that the one pill is guaranteed to provide a complete recovery.Excuses. Sanctions are well in the rear view mirror. It is a stretch to blame this season on them. Next season is a MAJOR stretch. As for conference, I present to you Gonzaga, Wichita State and Villanova. None of them are from P5 conferences and this idea of a P6 conference is just a flawed construct to avoid the comparison.
Sanctions are well in the rear view mirror.
If you follow this particular thread back, it leads to a post by tenspro2002 where he said "the next 1-2 years are put up or shut up. We'll have cleared out the recruiting chaff from the sanctions years." So I am not talking about this year as much as I am about next year. Yes, Brimah is a result of the sanctions so, yes, the sanctions are somewhat responsible for this debacle. But neither our freshman nor or sophomore classes were affected. Look at Duke. Look at Kentucky. Look at Kansas. Look at UNC. They have freshman and sophomores that are way better than Brimah. We are still affected by having to use Brimah because we haven't been able to recruit over him in three years where two of those years were completely unaffected by sanctions. That is why I say it is a stretch to use sanctions as an excuse even for this season. Technically, yes, it has an impact but, practically, a "great recruiter" should have been able to recruit over him by now.I'm sure you don't say to a patient the reason you have lung cancer is because you started coughing when you came to my office. That it has nothing to do with smoking 2-3 packs a day for thirty years. And to follow up with the parallel I'm making regarding your post I doubt you will ever say to a patient that their treatment will only take one pill and that the one pill is guaranteed to provide a complete recovery.
Do you apply the same reasoning as you do in your post and call it excuses if a physician says to a patient there could be extensive treatments required which may take years, treatments for which there are no guarantees and which could result in that patient still dying even after trying everything?! You know very well that some illnesses develop well before symptoms are expressed, that the greater the impact to cells by carcinogens the longer the treatments may take and the worse the prognosis. And in spite of the best efforts and the most capable physicians there are no guarantees they can overcome the original abuse to the body.
Amida, Kentan and Steve are players that KO was forced to recruit because of those APR sanctions. Last I've observed they are still in uniform. The sanction are still in play as long as these three players are playing. Furthermore @Matrim55 has described in detail how the past three classes were forced to be unbalanced because of those restrictions. He's pointed out how KO has had to bandage last season with 5th years because of that imbalance. And that it will take one more class to get that balance. He's also described how injuries and the need to withdraw Zach's scholarship are still in play delaying this balance even further.
One thing we can agree on. Conference affiliation is a non factor at the moment. It could become a significant factor. Currently there are significant numbers of non P5 schools still making noise. And a significant number of P5 schools who completely stink and have so for a long time.
Reducing our own standards for the sake of feeling better.Yes, Ollie's 13-13 record will stand up right next to Diaco's 6-7 in the pantheon of coaching masterpieces. Along with 2012 depending who you ask.
Our sophomore class was, indeed, affected. We weren't allowed to send out a full battery of assistants until those players were juniors, which greatly limited our options & our ability to ID the talent we wanted (hence Turtle Jackson).But neither our freshman nor or sophomore classes were affected.
Look at Indiana. Look at Syracuse, with their worst incoming class in more than two decades. Look at Illinois and Michigan, two schools that have yet to become what they once were, pre-sanctions.Look at Duke. Look at Kentucky. Look at Kansas. Look at UNC.
Next year's team will have literally zero seniors, so this is a non-sensical statement. And again: Our junior class was heavily affected by sanctions. We got our top target (Adams) and then a project big fell into our laps (Enoch), and other than that we missed on every other recruit. Same with 2014.Only our seniors will be from a class even remotely affected by sanctions.
This is the most damaging part of the sanctions in the flesh. There is a lasting, trailing affect on a reduction of scholarships and recruiting restrictions that don't necessarily show up right away. The 2015 class was the first Ollie recruited for without some level of restrictions in place.