david aka the TYZ
Well-known member
I think Mick has approached recruiting with the thought that athletes with potential give him a better shot of winning in the Big East than some non-athletes with better fundamentals. Maybe not the approach everyone would make, but for the most part that strategy has worked. We are abysmal as of late and the players lack of fundamentals and basketball smarts is killing us right now. But we have competed at a high level in the best basketball conference for at least the last four years. I still don't understand everyone's gripe on recruiting. No name coaches on losing teams don't bring in high-caliber recruits, especially without taking chances on them or taking partial-qualifiers. He took a chance on Lance and that didn't work out. I don't think he wants to make a habit of that. I think the original grade of B+ to start this thread is the grade I would give him as well. He has built the program up and gotten better each year until this year. Teams have down years. Some coaches as good as they are miraculously don't have the same results every year. We could and do go on for pages and pages as to why this team is losing. Good coaches have losing years. Players give up or are boneheaded or are dumb no matter how good the coach is and sometimes that affects what happens on a court. One thing you can't question is this team is giving it 100% on the court and that's alot of what you can ask for from a coach. The talent on this team is getting beat right now. We can't make shots, we have zero inside game which makes it harder to make shots and even worse its in our heads. I'll agree that we could use a better offensive mind out there, but I think alot of this team's woes as far as flow of the game fall squarely on the shoulder's of Cash and the lack of a competent big man. He just clearly doesn't have what it takes to run an offense. If your pg can't facilitate and if you don't have a big that can both catch a ball and make a shot within three feet then your only option is to take jump shots and more than likely contested jump shots. If any of us really believe that Mick sits in practice and tells one guy to dribble and then pass it sideways to another guy and repeat for 30 seconds and whoever ends up with the ball shoot from far away then I don't know what to say to you. They are winning (save the last month) and getting better and better recruits. With better recruits comes better play, at least in theory. We will see. I still think we are lucky to have Cronin as a coach because he is in it for the long haul. Do I think he's the best coach out there? No. Do I think he will get better and learn from what hasn't worked? Yes.
