Tulane
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No one in the Alley is calling for Haith's head this year.
Next year will be the pivot year. Unfortunately, the horses don't look to be there to help him. He needs great players to be a great coach. His "in game" coaching is 87 levels of terrible.
Next year will be the pivot year. Unfortunately, the horses don't look to be there to help him. He needs great players to be a great coach. His "in game" coaching is 87 levels of terrible.
You're wrong there. He had me believing after the Cinci game last year with the way he handled our players as opposed to the clown who coaches Cinci. I do think he relies on his assistants a lot and we lost some strategy with Schwartz going to Tennessee.
But he's had too many good moments to be called terrible. He made Wright a functional player in the AAC and that guy couldn't catch a dollar bill in one of those tubes with dollar bills flying around, much less a rebound. We had a point guard who was historically dominant and couldn't hit wide open three if you had a cheat code.
The issue with this team is the talent with the wing players. I would have benched Birt for Korita a long time ago, but they were trying t win games this year and Korita just wasn't ready. He's going to be fine though. There are some obvious talent issues and that's our problem. And that's on the coach.
Let's hope Jeffries is big time and one of these guards is ready to go. That will make a big difference.
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To quote: "We need to start a "next coach" thread."
That was a small part of the post I was referring to. I disagree, that's all. If it's the same story next year, that statement will be more appropriate. I think we'll see UCONN and Temple go back to form next year, hopefully we do the same.
Haith's love affair with a player shooting less than 30% from the field (and he shoots a lot) is the one thing I haven't understood as the season progressed. Compromising pictures is all I can come up with. Fortunately, he won't face that temptation next season.
His defense isn't bad. I'm sure like everyone else, Haith hoped Birt would start taking over some games at some point, like he did last year. I specifically remember him willing us back into the game at UCONN, and some clutch threes at SMU. Just look at some of his conference games last year:
20 pts @ECU, 16 @Houston, 22 @Temple, 27 vs. Houston, 17 @SMU, 24 @UCONN, 26 @UCF, 23 vs. Temple
I have never seen anything like what's happened to Birt. And it's not a lack of open shots. To go from 20, 22, 27, 24, 26, 23pt nights to his production this year is unimaginable
20 pts @ECU, 16 @Houston, 22 @Temple, 27 vs. Houston, 17 @SMU, 24 @UCONN, 26 @UCF, 23 vs. Temple
I have never seen anything like what's happened to Birt. And it's not a lack of open shots. To go from 20, 22, 27, 24, 26, 23pt nights to his production this year is unimaginable
New coach threads are too reactionary at this point. This season was in the works 5 yrs ago when our recruiting got out of balance and led to the massive turnover. I expect several players to be recruited over and transfer out as Haith tries to get on a normal 3-4 player recruiting cycle.
We are unfortunately the small fish in the big pond. Sniping at Haith at this point will send the wrong signals. A year or two down the road with no improvement will change my overall opinion. But for now, patience is key. loyalty now will payoff in the long run.
We are unfortunately the small fish in the big pond. Sniping at Haith at this point will send the wrong signals. A year or two down the road with no improvement will change my overall opinion. But for now, patience is key. loyalty now will payoff in the long run.
When Noble is calling out the reactionaries, well, I've seen it all. And I agree.
If you want to keep building on this program, having stability will help is land the next big recruits (Bryce Thompson, cough cough) more than trying to get someone who will jet once they get us to the tournament. Things aren't as bad as they seem. We need this year to end and get some guys healed up and in the weight room.
I'd be interested to see what ctt8410 found. It's not just replacing that many players, but replacing that many Seniors. If someone can find the last time a team lost 9 Seniors, and then how that team performed the following year.
FWIW I went back to check the stats years ago when Nolan took over. TU went 8-19 in the year ending 1980, then went 26-7 when Nolan & the Juco's came in. Nolan's worst season after that was 19-12 in 1983 before he left in 1985. JD Barnett went 23-9 his first year with Nolan's players then sank to 8-20 in 1988 before bouncing back to 18-13 the next year. Tubby came in for the 1992 season and went 17-13 then the following season went 15-14 before bouncing back to 23-8 in 1994 and 24-8 in 1995. I'm hoping Haith follows a similar trajectory.
I realize 9 seniors sounds more dramatic, but we know we didn't lose 9 contributors, right? 4 of 5 starters. 2 of top 3 scorers. 7 of the top 9. Kept our top 3pt % shooter and 2 of the top 3 FT % shooters.
% of total PPG lost is probably a more useful figure to compare. Clearly we had a lot of rebounding to replace too.
% of total PPG lost is probably a more useful figure to compare. Clearly we had a lot of rebounding to replace too.
Someone mentioned it above...we lost all of our leadership and on court energy from last year's team. Shaq and Juice were the clear leaders, Ray and Swannegan were the motors and hype, and even Curtis was one of those cool calm leaders. I think this team assumed Birt was the leader and I don't think Birt relishes that role. I don't think Taplin wants that role either. I think it falls to Etou and Igbanu and I would not be surprised if Jeffries came in and took that role on right away too. Jeffries' game is such that he can provide a spark on defense or on offense or just pure on court hustle...a little Eric Coley-ish in that regard.
I actually don't think Juice and Shaq were much in the way of team leaders at all. They wanted to play their game and they were more than capable of carrying their teammates on any night. But I don't confuse that will leadership. What they did all have was chemistry and an apparent love and respect for one another.
We haven't had a real leader since Peete. The periodic lapses in focus of last year's class when they were in charge showed that. Haith had to turn cartwheels to get their attention sometimes. And more than once lamented the difficulty of keeping them motivated.
We haven't had a real leader since Peete. The periodic lapses in focus of last year's class when they were in charge showed that. Haith had to turn cartwheels to get their attention sometimes. And more than once lamented the difficulty of keeping them motivated.
That's true. Maybe that'll be easier to find, the last time any team replaced 7 contributing Seniors.
I think Igbanu is the team leader type. It was difficult for him to do that as a Freshman. Don't know about the newcomers but he is the only one with the visible leadership qualities at least on the court in front of the fans.
We had 8 scholarship Seniors, 1 walkon. 7 Seniors that avg'd at least 4pts a game. To put things in perspective, I was able to find how many Seniors are on each D-1 team this year. Then I looked at the better schools with 7+ Seniors to see how many of the players actually contribute. Out of 351 teams:
Texas Tech - 7 Seniors, 4 contribute
Iowa St - 7 Seniors, 5 contribute
Dayton - 7 Seniors, 5 contribute
Holy Cross - 7 Seniors, 5 contribute
Monmouth - 5 Seniors, 5 contribute
In total, besides teams listed above:
7 Seniors - Nicholls St, NC Central, James Madison, Jackson St, Grambling, Coppin St
8 - Mississippi Valley
9 - Howard, Prairie View
10 - Jacksonville
Texas Tech - 7 Seniors, 4 contribute
Iowa St - 7 Seniors, 5 contribute
Dayton - 7 Seniors, 5 contribute
Holy Cross - 7 Seniors, 5 contribute
Monmouth - 5 Seniors, 5 contribute
In total, besides teams listed above:
7 Seniors - Nicholls St, NC Central, James Madison, Jackson St, Grambling, Coppin St
8 - Mississippi Valley
9 - Howard, Prairie View
10 - Jacksonville
wheeler and Henderson still play one on one juco ball. taplin does the same. we play one in and four out which is designed to throw into the post, but it does not happen very often. I have only seen it a few times this year. korita four times with magnay and once with edogi. Henderson has done it four or five times and that is it. their may have been more, but I did not see it. igbanu, as good as he is, tries to score in the post and does not kick the ball out very much. he has trouble finding the open man. I guess its difficult when you are triple teamed,
that's what happens when you do nothing but dribble and try to drive to the rim. most of the time we get blocked or turn it over. their is little kick out to the open shooter. we get deep into the shot clock because of this and end up throwing up a hurried shot.
if wheeler and Henderson are starters next year, we are in trouble. taplin needs to improve over the summer. everyone needs to work hard on all parts of their game. magnay and korita need to get healthy.
Taplin has improved and I expect that improvement to continue. Remember he was a freshman backup PG last year that played less than 10 minutes per game. His 3pt percentage improved from 27% to 41%, FT % from 79% to 84%, etc. Some people are going to have to come to terms with the fact that TU can't recruit one and dones, they have to coach kids up over their careers. A lot of the people ranting about how much we miss Shaquille were wanting him recruited over when he was a freshman (and many when he was a sophomore).
It's a leadership thing. My sons high school graduated 9 senior baseball players with no real junior sophomore class. It is now starting 7 true freshmen (NJ included) but as talented as these boys are, they just don't have the experience and leadership to play on their current stage. All of the boys have played on usssa World Series championship teams, but, that experience is nullified when playing against older more mature teams.
Give it a yr or two.
Taplin can be a stud...he still makes some stupid mistakes and he needs to develop confidence in pulling up and shooting when the dribble penetration is shut down on him. The dribble drive sets up so many other things though as he can find the open wings in the corner as well as most PGs we have had. If Birt and Korita shot the % both had last year, Taplin probably averages 6 assists a game this year.
Henderson- I love the ball in his hands at the end of games when we need a shot hit. He can shoot from outside, he can get to the rim, and he has a great pull-up. But I also agree that it is better for him to come off the bench although the quality of his game on offense probably makes him deserving to start (and if the quality of his defense continues to improve).
Probably starters for next year: Taplin-Scott-Henderson-Etou-Igbanu.
Both Etou and Igbanu have the potential to be 15/10 guys next season. I said it earlier this season after Igbanu was inserted into the starting lineup, I'm not sure there is a current big in the AAC that can stop Igbanu down in the post. That includes Fall and Brimah. Igbanu made Fall look pedestrian.
A search for teams losing that many seniors largely turned up weird transitional D1 seasons like Houston Baptist and their 10 seniors in the first year up from NAIA. I didn't think those cases were particularly instructive and the number is largely trivial anyways when you consider it includes Nick Wood and Big E.
So next I went looking for teams from major conferences that lost a significant number of contributors from the previous season. Since 2007, I found 23 teams from the top 10 conferences that replaced 80% of their minutes from the previous year. On average, those teams dropped from 23 wins to 15 wins.
I agree. magnay and kortia, I believe will be fine. shaq and juice their freshmen year was not very good as was taplins. Jeffries and scott should be ok, but I believe the two incoming freshmen may struggle a bit as freshmen tend to do. hopefully they pick up the scheme better than atson and battle.
the one who has the ball after it crosses the mid court line normally goes one on one. this is not always the case in juco, but sadly is what happens most of the time. Henderson got out of the juco mold after about 3/4 of the season and wheeler did not. I do not think wheeler has much of an outside game. it is drive to the basket and throw up a circus shot. james harden he is not.
Wheeler shot 32% from beyond the arc but only shot 57 long ones. Like most of our shooters he turned down a lot of open shots.
everyone teaches it, except we pull in from the outside to help defend the middle and do not rotate out to the corner fast enough. that creates open looks. we play a 2/3 matchup zone which leaves the middle open, which causes the help defense to pull deep inside and the rotation does not get to the corner as two or three players are trying to cover the middle. I would think a 2/1/2 would be better as you have a defender in the middle of the zone. this is just what I see happening. last year we only had two bigs and help defense in the middle was necessary to keep them from fouling out. this year we have five bigs and I believe we still need help defense, but not so much to protect the bigs from foul trouble. mo.
Our guards are UnderQuick! Reaction time is lacking and I do not think this can be coached
I have zero experience in evaluating basketball players. However, the fact that Haith refuses to press or trap with these guys even when behind coming down the stretch leads to believe the above statement to be accurate.
He has a very slow release. It's good form, just slow. I think that's why he turned down so many.
Our offense is predicated off how Taplin plays, similar to Shaq. Look at these wins this year:
Illinois St - Taplin had 15pts, 5 assists
UCONN - 13pts, 6 assists
Memphis - 17pts, 6 assists
@Temple - 14pts, 5 steals, 4 assists
Tulane - 24pts, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals
Taplin was playing very well, and consistent, when we were winning games. He cooled off, and we went on our losing streak. He's only a Sophomore. He's got the potential, just needs to take better care of the ball, and play confident. Leadership should develop.
The bigs this year, Etou, Igbanu, Magnay, and Edogi are all fully capable of playing solid interior defense without needing to drag guys away from open 3 pt shooters. I suspect that we didn't really work on a box and 1 D at all otherwise you would always have someone on Williams from UCF and Reynolds from Tulane, and the dude from ECU. Every other team we match up ok going man to man.We start crashing down on guys like Fall and Paul (TUL) and we leave guys like Williams and Reynolds open...I'll take my chances with Fall making or missing an 8 ft hook shoot versus Williams shooting a 3. Same with pretty much any big man in the AAC.
Not sure where you got that information, but that's not true. Gonzaga lost 4 Seniors and Sabonis. That's why they signed 5 in 2016. It's somewhat similar, as they replaced 5 contributors and we replaced 7. But, they had one player return who avg'd 6pts a game, another player who avg'd 10pts a game, and 5 other role players. We returned 1 role player, at the time, and Birt. In other words, they returned 7 players to our 2. They signed 5, to our 8 (9 if you include Scott). But anyway, tired of this thread.
So Gonzaga returned just 4 more avg points that we did from legit contributors?
If our returning senior played to his average we'd easily have cleared .500. 9 newcomers or not.
If our returning senior played to his average we'd easily have cleared .500. 9 newcomers or not.
I just did some research (not exhaustive by any means) and it looks like they graduated 4 seniors last year and brought in 5 freshmen which included a 5-star and 3 four star players (rivals ranking). Did I miss something? If not I don't see any comparison between the two teams.