....1) What Shane barely touches on in his article about how we don't have enough gym rats is that we've had our share. These are the guys that have left in the last 5 years. Ben is the poster boy. He was a gym rat. Did the little things well. People forget that he had to sink 3 free throws in a row at SC with no time on the clock to send the game to OT which, had we lost, could've very well knocked us out of the tournament. That was the very talented team that lost about 5 games they shouldn't have despite having Rhodes Gordon, and a young Varnado. The Delk twins are another example. Everybody wants to knock them, but they played defense and hustled. And finally, Osby, who could be helping this team. Why is it that these are the ones that transfer? We'd better be getting very nervous about Rodney Hood.
2) Rick had a great four year run from 02-03 to 05-06. We all know the kinds of players those teams had. Outside of that four year run, he's made the tournament 2 times in the remaining 9 years. Of those 2 times, only one was good to be an automatic qualifier as an 8 seed, and the other was that 13 seed. Which of these is the norm? I could've sworn at the end of 2005 we'd be a consistent tourney team. But that's obviously not the case. Rick's 2012 team with Sidney and Bost resembles his late 90's teams with a pouting Tang Hamilton and a bunch of wasted talent.
3) I don't care about the floor coaching. He was not a floor coach when we were going to the tournament every year. It's the program management that has killed us. And now, he has stopped emphasizing defense. Even when we couldn't score, we'd defend and rebound.
2) Rick had a great four year run from 02-03 to 05-06. We all know the kinds of players those teams had. Outside of that four year run, he's made the tournament 2 times in the remaining 9 years. Of those 2 times, only one was good to be an automatic qualifier as an 8 seed, and the other was that 13 seed. Which of these is the norm? I could've sworn at the end of 2005 we'd be a consistent tourney team. But that's obviously not the case. Rick's 2012 team with Sidney and Bost resembles his late 90's teams with a pouting Tang Hamilton and a bunch of wasted talent.
3) I don't care about the floor coaching. He was not a floor coach when we were going to the tournament every year. It's the program management that has killed us. And now, he has stopped emphasizing defense. Even when we couldn't score, we'd defend and rebound.