There is world of difference between being as good as the national champs and making the tournament. Your point seems to be that even with Kemba this year's team isn't a good as the 2011 champs.... well yeah but we'd be much, much better. Is having Kemba worth 5-6 wins? How many PPG is worth? We lost 10 games by 8 or less points. Think any of those would have been wins?
Going to wait a few days to let the stank of today wear off but this is a good poll question. I think we are right around 20 wins next year but that assumes improvement in our return players (Josh, Whaley and Polly stronger) and material contribution by the new guys. That's a leap of faith.
There were a few games where we clearly lost the game from the free throw line, where we wouldn't have had to have been fouling at the end to stay in it. I think if he weren't hurt and were taking some of those free throws instead of some of his teammates, we would have won a few of the games we lost while he was hurt. If not won.. they would have been down to the wire in last possession wins type scenarios. He and CV were our only reliable free throw shooters and I don't have the stats on hand, but I don't think CV was burning it from the stripe either. That's a lot of what if's though, but my .02
I saw that team play, the talent distance was evident. Mitchell said himself he was a late bloomer. Mitchell was the better athlete, Jalen the more talented. Mitchell benefitted from an amazing guard development system under Pitino (skill, s&c,etc.). Jalen’s left hand, shot balance, three-point shot, and motor weren’t developed under Ollie. Jalen was a skill development coach away from the lottery.
Come on....I blame Ollie for a ton of things but not developing a left, not developing a jump shot, being scared to draw fouls, not being in amazing shape. These are all on Jalen. Nice kid and I hope he does great in life but the coddling of him is pretty insane here, he didn't exactly bust his butt.
In the old Big East, no. In the AAC Kemba would have gotten them to the tournament.
You serious? What’s the point of coaches then? Why are we praising Hunter for making Carlton better? That’s what coaches do! Sure, he wasn’t as hungry as CV, but if Hurley has Jalen for 3 years, you could be double-damn sure Jalen would’ve been a first rounder.
Are you serious? You don't think Jalen was ever coached to use his left hand, to draw fouls? You don't think they wanted him to stay in the gym longer to develop a legit jump shot, you don't think they wanted him to get in better shape, use better body language?
Bet we get the same results as last year re
oll results. I’m an optimistic realist. So feeling a bit enigmatic. I just think adams leaves a bigger hole than we all realize and we don’t have any 4/5 star upper class men to lead the way. Love rique but what are we going to get from him? As far as aac awards we always revert in the opposite direction. Adams was preseason poy, AG 2x freshman of the year, Amidah defense(?). I pray josh is at least the 13&7 guy he projects to be.