A New Era

[wtw2400]

We will be without faces we have been familiar with the past 4 seasons. Will Malik come back? What do you expect this team to do this year? Tough loss tonight. But this season proved to me we have the best coach in the SEC. If Howland could do that with Rick Ray coached players, imagine what he will do with the #6 class in the country...

So, way too early assesment on us, how will we compare to the rest of the SEC and will we be going to the post season?

 

[rugbdawg]

Malik will be back. We will be in the NIT.

 

[57stratdawg]

Where is Malik going to go? If he leaves, it's one of the worse decisions I've ever seen.

 

[rugbdawg]

It's some funny ****. Malik can't start for a bottom feeder SEC team. He could always play in Europe...or Israel.

 

[wtw2400]

Where is Malik going to go? If he leaves, it's one of the worse decisions I've ever seen.

I agree. But its his decesion. I would not be surprised either way. But I would wait another year if I was in his shoes.

 

[ShrubDog]

At the beginning of the season I said we had a chance to be a .500 team and Malik will be back. We fell short but did ok.

 

[RepeatDawg13]

Would definitely be a better decision for him to come back another season. With that being said, I doubt he does. He will end up playing overseas somewhere

 

[Dawgzilla]

Has Malik been going to class? I'm not suggesting anything here, I am genuinely curious. His academic effort could indicate whether he is determined to go pro immediately.

The team we had over these past couple of weeks is the team I expected to see all season. Capable of beating good teams, but also capable of getting blown off the court some nights. I had hoped for a .500 team with a shot at the NIT, but the 0-5 conference start put an end to those dreams. I expect a winning record next year, but an NCAA bid is probably still asking a lot.

 

[patdog]

Where is Malik going to go? If he leaves, it's one of the worse decisions I've ever seen.

Malik's choices are the D-league, Starkville, or a European minor league (he won't make it in the big European leagues right now). The smart decision would be to come back and try to work his way back into the 1st round. He wouldn't be the first one to make a bad decision to leave early though.

 

[mstateglfr]

If Howland could do that with Rick Ray coached players, imagine what he will do with the #6 class in the country...

What exactly did Howland do? What is 'that' which was so incredible?
He inhereted a team with 5 of the top 6 scorers returning and added 2 highly ranked freshmen to the team. I would love to know what 'that' is which was such an incredible on court accomplishment.

Im not trying to take away from Howland or the team here, I just dont know what miracle Howland pulled off.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

His 5 of the top 6 returning scorers, only 2 would start on any other sec team and the other guys who were returning would be lucky to get a scholarship. The talent Ray left is comparable to what Cohen inherited from Polk Deuce.

 

[mstateglfr]

His 5 of the top 6 returning scorers, only 2 would start on any other sec team and the other guys who were returning would be lucky to get a scholarship. The talent Ray left is comparable to what Cohen inherited from Polk Deuce.

Your post has nothing to do with what I posted. It doesnt refute what I posted. You may be correct that only 2 would start for another SEC team, but what does that have to do with anything? Howland's record really wasnt some incredible turnaround.
Howland took a team who went 13-19 overall and 6-12 in conference, lost 1 starter and added experience of the returners along with 2 elite recruits and got them up to 14-17 overall and 7-11 in conference.

I just dont see the miracle that Howland performed. Its not like he came into the job with some bare cupboard of talent and experience. He eeked out 1 more conference win while also managing to lose a couple of terrible non-conference games.
We went from winning 40% of the games last season to 45% this season. We won 33% of last year's conference games and won 38% this season.


That isnt a miracle.

 

[codeDawg]

I just dont know what miracle Howland pulled off.

I don't think he pulled any miracles, but you had to expect some of the early losses and he got the guys to buy in about half way through. Howland is never going to be a miraculous floor coach, but he's obviously not to shabby either as evidenced by some of our later games with obviously inferior talent.

He is an outstanding recruiter though, and at least 75% of the game of college basketball is simply getting guys that are good at basketball to play for you.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

Ok, smartass, i'll respond your stupid post, what did he do that was incredible and that you don't see the miracle he pulled off. The answer is nothing. He did nothing incredible and nobody in this thread used the word incredible or said he pulled a miracle. So you're asking why is someone saying something when no one is saying it.

 

[mstateglfr]

Ok, smartass, i'll respond your stupid post, what did he do that was incredible and that you don't see the miracle he pulled off. The answer is nothing. He did nothing incredible and nobody in this thread used the word incredible or said he pulled a miracle. So you're asking why is someone saying something when no one is saying it.

I responded to wtw2400's comment of- If Howland could do that with Rick Ray coached players, imagine what he will do with the #6 class in the country...
I asked what the word 'that' means exactly. Howland did 'that'...which is what exactly? The post struck me as odd because to me it reads 'If Howland could do this well with Rick Ray's players, then imagine how great he will be with the incoming players.
And I didnt see what he did with Ray's players to be all that great.

 

[kired]

Next year I expect a winning season. Anything under .500 is a failure.

I want us to at least be similar to UM, georgia, florida, vandy, and lsu this year. Kind of that middle 3rd of the conference rather than the bottom 3rd.

 

[ShrubDog]

Next year we have a chance to make the NIT. It was not going to happen this year despite returning players.

I will tell you what BH did this year. Inherited a street ball team with 1 ball handler and 1 semi big man. Added 3 freshman to the rotation and did almost the best they could do. It will be hard to win 20 games next year.

 

[wtw2400]

I responded to wtw2400's comment of- If Howland could do that with Rick Ray coached players, imagine what he will do with the #6 class in the country...
I asked what the word 'that' means exactly. Howland did 'that'...which is what exactly? The post struck me as odd because to me it reads 'If Howland could do this well with Rick Ray's players, then imagine how great he will be with the incoming players.
And I didnt see what he did with Ray's players to be all that great.

He got them on a winning streak when we all wrote them off. For the first time they all looked comfortable and looked like good basketball players that we had been dying to see. No there was nothing incredible this year. Thats why we are sitting at home right now. Im just simply stating that there were a lot of games that Howland outcoached the opposing coach including Avery Johnson and Kevin Stallings when those teams had more "talent" than we had. This post was more of a looking forward to next year. Not to point out the negatives of this year.

 

[patdog]

With the recruiting class he's bringing in, if we're middle third of the SEC, that's a big fail.

 

[KurtRambis4]

For starters,

What exactly did Howland do?

for the first time in years, we had a coach capable of out-coaching others.