We're three possessions away, except for the fact that you keep forgetting about the home loss to a .500 team, plus basically a non-competitive effort against X. So, we're much, much, much further than 3 possessions from being a Top 10 team.
My starting 5 next game:
Jenifer
Cobb
Evans
Clark
Deberry
Moore and KJ first off the bench. Reality check time for a few players
What is the bar you've set for this team to achieve that determines whether you cast stones at them or not? Will you be happy if they make the NCAA's, do they need a sweet 16 run, or would you be happy if they won the NIT??
I learned a very long time ago not to "set standards" about the NCAA tournament. You'll end up crushed emotionally 9 out of 10 times. I hate to say this, but it does depend on draws.
With that being said, I fully admit that before the season started I looked at this team as being Sweet 16 able. Hell, depending on the draw I thought F4 dark horse. So to answer your questions, I'm always happy to make the NCAA tourney because you just never know what can happen. What if we make it as an 8 seed and win before playing a #1 seed, say Kansas, then lose to the Jayhawks? No we wouldn't make the Sweet 16 but I wouldn't consider it a failure and therefore wouldn't cast stones at a disappointing season. Then again, what if we slid in the tourney as a play in #12 seed and ended up in the Sweet 16?
Too many what if's still.
My point, if you're still with me, is that a lot can happen yet. Positive and/or negative. What would the tone be on this board IF we won out? or only dropped a game or two from here on out? The same argument can be made if we continue to lose games.
I'm no good in the heat of the moment. Never have been. I'm a big picture guy. Well, this season I think I'm going to have to be.
When they lost Brown to give them only 6 players, why didn't we adjust our pace a bit and use our depth to wear them down? Is the answer to that simply bc Mick thinks Troy is SK and he needed to keep him fresh so he could ride him down the stretch? I can't think of any other reason why you'd play that slow vs 6 players. Maybe if we had worn them out a bit more and actually made them play some transition defense, they would've been too tired to make all the plays they needed to come back at the end. I mean,Mick did just say this week that our depth might be the biggest key for conference play. Seems weird to be too afraid to use such a big key.
I learned a very long time ago not to "set standards" about the NCAA tournament. You'll end up crushed emotionally 9 out of 10 times. I hate to say this, but it does depend on draws.
With that being said, I fully admit that before the season started I looked at this team as being Sweet 16 able. Hell, depending on the draw I thought F4 dark horse. So to answer your questions, I'm always happy to make the NCAA tourney because you just never know what can happen. What if we make it as an 8 seed and win before playing a #1 seed, say Kansas, then lose to the Jayhawks? No we wouldn't make the Sweet 16 but I wouldn't consider it a failure and therefore wouldn't cast stones at a disappointing season. Then again, what if we slid in the tourney as a play in #12 seed and ended up in the Sweet 16?
Too many what if's still.
My point, if you're still with me, is that a lot can happen yet. Positive and/or negative. What would the tone be on this board IF we won out? or only dropped a game or two from here on out? The same argument can be made if we continue to lose games.
I'm no good in the heat of the moment. Never have been. I'm a big picture guy. Well, this season I think I'm going to have to be.
We're three possessions away, except for the fact that you keep forgetting about the home loss to a .500 team, plus basically a non-competitive effort against X. So, we're much, much, much further than 3 possessions from being a Top 10 team.
Yes I keep forgetting what our record is...lol! I've probably watched almost every single game for how many years but I have no idea who we lost to. Thanks for reminding me.
Do you know there are 5 teams in the top 10 with 2 losses? One with 3 losses? Had we beat ISU, Butler, and SMU...we would likely be in the top 10...or maybe just outside of it.
The point of all this isn't to make excuses. It's simply to point out we have enough talent on this team to be dangerous. It doesn't look like that potential is going to be unlocked or realized. But it's there. This team is capable of more. You never know...that's why they play the games. If this ship doesn't get straightened out...I'm going to be on the "get a new coach" train. But there are games to play yet so...
2 months ago, I was solidly on the "talent is there" bandwagon. Didn't expect Jenifer to become totally insignificant, Ellis to become what he's become, Clark to become less aggressive and be afraid to shoot, Caupain to lose his shot and his ability to finish, Evans to suddenly be Croninized, and so on and so forth. Were we just too blind to know that the talent wasn't really there? I'm beginning to think that.
I disagree on Clark. He was aggressive last night, especially for a nice stretch in the 2nd half. Actually showed a new post move too for a nice banker.
Serious question: If Cobb had spent his entire career here, would he be as good as he is right now?
Obviously, we wouldn't be expected to beat Kansas. The failure wouldn't be in the tourney. The failure would be in the regular season, playing badly enough to drop to an 8 seed and putting yourself in position to face Kansas in the 2nd game. It's still a failure.
Because I'm down on Cronin, my obvious answer would be to say he wouldn't be as good. But, I don't know. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said players adjust to Cronin. He obviously doesn't put anyone in the NBA, so again, significant improvement is not happening under his watch.
I think Sean Kilpatrick would disagree.....
Gary Clark played like a man. 11 boards and 5 steals to go with 13 pts. Nice double double. Cobb played like a man with 4 steals and 18 points. They recorded 9 of our 12 steals. Caupain had 2 and Moore had 1.
We had several players who seemed to be MIA last night. For some reason Jenifer...not sure what that was about. Ellis, DeBerry, KJ, Thomas.
I thought Quadri played another nice game. Didn't force anything and did his job. Evans needs to be out there for 30 minutes but he needs to be more aggressive looking to score.
Caupain, Clark, Cobb, and Evans need 30 minutes.
As for the rest...I would say whoever wants it most. Next man in. Need to shake some things up.
You Might want to look at the minutes played. KJ hardly played, and made Two of the three shots taken. The problem it the coach.