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I keep reading posts calling for KO to be fired because hes "not a very good" coach who has not developed players over the last 4 years. I personally disagree completely with this as i believe in KO as much as i did the first day he was announced and when you know, WON A NATIONAL TITLE. Of course the naysayers will cry "he won with Calhouns guys". This sentiment is supposed to be some knock and proof of KOs lack of ability when in fact it proves the point that im going to make. My point is this, TALENT! Or the lack there of on this roster.
Now dont get me wrong we`ve got some good players and even a couple with some first round NBA potential but thats about it. People talk about guys like AB,Purv and Facey failing to develop but i ask, if these guys were under Calhoun would they be much better? Of course your first instict is to say yes but need i bring up the names of talented guys under JC who also failed to develop? The reason it never became an issue was because we were stacked with enough talent that if someone wasnt cutting it another guy stepped in and we`d be off and running. Remember the days when we had so much talent that we often wondered how some really talented guys could get enough minutes? Now we wonder if we have enough bodies to get through a game without resorting to walk ons.
At the start of the season the starting 5 were Larrier,Facey,Brimah,Purv and Adams. Let me ask would any of those guys start on any of our 4 national title teams? How about any of our powerhouse 90`s teams? Of those JA at best is likely a 6th man. I know Olander started in `11 so ill give you AB over him but thats about it. The point im making is that people are underestimating KO and over estimating the talent level thats here especially in regards to cohesiveness. Until we start getting 4 and 5 star guys up and down the roster these are the seasons we`re going to be dealing with. I know the counter argument will be "other coaches are doing more with less". But my counter is this sure we may have more physical talent than a lot of schools and we`re all wowed by it but many of our players skill level are average at best and the overall basketball iq on this team isnt very good.
Until we start getting physically talented,high skill,high iq players here like we became accustomed to having we are going to go through seasons like this. The good news is that it appears this is starting to happen although a bit slow especially when it comes to bigs but it does appear to be happening. This nightmare season will end soon and i fully believe that someday this program will get back to its spot among the elite of college basketball and the nightmare that has been these last two seasons will be a distant memory that will give us an appreciation for how special the good times are when they happen again.
Now dont get me wrong we`ve got some good players and even a couple with some first round NBA potential but thats about it. People talk about guys like AB,Purv and Facey failing to develop but i ask, if these guys were under Calhoun would they be much better? Of course your first instict is to say yes but need i bring up the names of talented guys under JC who also failed to develop? The reason it never became an issue was because we were stacked with enough talent that if someone wasnt cutting it another guy stepped in and we`d be off and running. Remember the days when we had so much talent that we often wondered how some really talented guys could get enough minutes? Now we wonder if we have enough bodies to get through a game without resorting to walk ons.
At the start of the season the starting 5 were Larrier,Facey,Brimah,Purv and Adams. Let me ask would any of those guys start on any of our 4 national title teams? How about any of our powerhouse 90`s teams? Of those JA at best is likely a 6th man. I know Olander started in `11 so ill give you AB over him but thats about it. The point im making is that people are underestimating KO and over estimating the talent level thats here especially in regards to cohesiveness. Until we start getting 4 and 5 star guys up and down the roster these are the seasons we`re going to be dealing with. I know the counter argument will be "other coaches are doing more with less". But my counter is this sure we may have more physical talent than a lot of schools and we`re all wowed by it but many of our players skill level are average at best and the overall basketball iq on this team isnt very good.
Until we start getting physically talented,high skill,high iq players here like we became accustomed to having we are going to go through seasons like this. The good news is that it appears this is starting to happen although a bit slow especially when it comes to bigs but it does appear to be happening. This nightmare season will end soon and i fully believe that someday this program will get back to its spot among the elite of college basketball and the nightmare that has been these last two seasons will be a distant memory that will give us an appreciation for how special the good times are when they happen again.