Let's go through your points:
To say opposing fan bases are relishing in it would be an ubderstatement. It’s feeling a bit Cal-like out there, but he set himself up for this. He is getting killed on the webiverse. Needs to manage the highs and lows like a pro. I’m the first one to admit I’ve enjoyed some of the “branding” but now see how it’s biting in the @ss.
I think Diarra has been decent at PG. He is a backup PG which is the mistake. He is the only player who consistently penetrates for us. He actually needs to do more of that and we have to switch from all these perimeter passing to someone like him penetrating and dishing it out, alley-loop or scoring. Diarra has been our only decent guard. Ball I can't say has been decent since he is a total whiff on defense.
Another one who misses the point. So this year’s team is better off without junior Clingan and soph Castle. Heck, throw in senior Hawkins. I know why these guys are leaving, I would too. But I guess I’m a bird in the hand type when the bird is hard to better. The whole premise that we won’t get superior talent if they can’t see others who came before them go pro very fast is just speculation. It supposes McNeeley doesn’t come if he doesn’t see Castle leave after a year or Clingan, Hawkins and Bouknight leave after two. Did he say that, or did he see us winning and his mind well coached. You and I don’t know. Are next year’s recruits coming because they see our early departures or they see us winning. All is know is we have an impatient fan base.
I read that as the piss will still satisfy. Which can be true after lots of sweet alcohol.
Very interesting but they made something of their season in the end. Similar type of Schedule to this year's UConn.
My point is we win the first one even without Clingan. We blew everyone out. Last year he definitely was a monster so not debating that one.
Of course, but Sanogo was no slouch and I think they still win pretty handily that year even if Clingan wasn’t on the roster.
I have a buddy who’s there and he actually told me the exact parents who took off. I’d rather not say specific names but will just say it’s parents whose kids were getting little PT in a game you might expect them to start getting more. Sure it could be because it was late and they were losing, just noting it as part of the larger. Not like you have to beat traffic out of there.
Yeah it’s harder to tell super talented guys to sacrifice, wait their turn, and play roles that are not maximizing them when you’re losing.
The year before half the board wanted Hurley’s head in January, and we didn’t win either the BE or BE tournament. We did blow everyone out in the NCAA but even then I think it was vs. SD State that Hawkins hit a big 3 that stopped a shrinking lead. Cling was an important part of that team. I have no idea if we win without him.
You are kind of supporting my point. I think they are both what made us different although I tilt a bit more to Clingan. Anyway, neither stayed and so far it shows.
Are you crazy? DC was a once in a generation player for us.
I opened the chat, saw the top message said something about this being worse than the last Kevin Ollie year and immediately closed it out. This fanbase is a disaster
So Clingan, Hawkins, Castle etc left the program in a worse position because they were one and done or two and done? This take is VERY bad bro. Like REALLY bad. They won 2 championships. And on this team we have Karaban(RS Junior), Hass(fifth year), Samson(Senior), Reed(Junior), Mahaney(Junior), the four sophomores and 1 freshman that actually plays.
He just can't grasp the fact that kids don't want to stay in college for 4 years. It's not even really worth discussing with him because the starting premise is just completely off base
I think I’d also take castle. He would be our starting PG and perimeter defensive stopper. Offsetting Our two biggest glaring weaknesses. We could obviously use Clingan since we have NO RIM PROTECTION (I said this weeks ago and was crucified) but I think Reed will be really good by the end of the season and next year.
What top 20 kids did we turn down? I think Hurley actually believes Ross and the other sophomores are ultra talented, he's said it over and over. Hurley had his pick of who he wanted in the portal and he went with Reed who I am very happy with. He also went with Mahaney who had a pretty big rep, it obviously hasn't worked out but that seems to be an evaluation problem and a fit problem. If Hurley picked Enoch Cheeks off of Robert Morris over Aidan Mahaney people would've said Hurley lost his mind. If Hurley picked Nate Santos off of Dayton and told Jaylin to find a new program people would've said Hurley lost his mind. Cheeks and Santos crushed us last night and they've both been way better than our transfer guard and our sophomores.
Maybe, but Castle is tasked with defending SGA, Steph Curry, etc on a nightly basis. The 23 championship team was good enough with Sanogo as starting center. But, it’s awful hard to win without a solid point guard, and Castle’s defense is elite. The ability to go get a bucket in crunch time is missed.
Castle is already being discussed as a generational talent by some media sources. Chris Paul has said he is the most advanced rookie he has ever played with.
