If Kevin thinks travel is tough now...
- Thread starter NYShoreGuy
- Start date
Yeah, Kev. That's it. That's definitely it.
might want to get some scoring from anyone other than his big 3. Seems most nights they get 10 points combined from Geronimo, Harris-Smith, and the bench.
I thought they might still have a shot at the tournament, but they’re done now after that loss. It’s going to be a pivotal year three for Kevin at Maryland.
Maryland fans have high expectations and losing to RU at home in an empty arena may be too much for them. I thought KW would have 1 more year, but am now thinking this may be his last. For his own sake I hope he is surrounded by security walking back to his car.
If Sha has an opening on his staff next year, KW could be the shark recruiter some posters have been calling for.
Kidding.
Kidding.
If he hasn’t figured out travel by now, it ain’t gonna happen. Maybe he should give up some of that salary to have a flight manager for each individual on the team to manage their physical and mental state with the rigors of chartered flights.
Strange. RU played at Michigan on Saturday and had to travel to Maryland last night. Willard was at Michigan State Saturday and then came home. How is that a disadvantage for Maryland?
It’s typical Willard. A big part of it is just deflection of the media.
He’s got one of the best team defenses in the country and one of the worst offenses. It’s not the travel and he knows it. The loss of Hakim Hart to Villanova was big for them. But Willard did this schtick here nonstop pointing to all these non-basketball factors. Last night he also talked about how his star player Jamir Young is worse at home like he did with Myles Powell one year. Wash, rinse, repeat.
He was glad to see Carino though, it seemed.
He’s got one of the best team defenses in the country and one of the worst offenses. It’s not the travel and he knows it. The loss of Hakim Hart to Villanova was big for them. But Willard did this schtick here nonstop pointing to all these non-basketball factors. Last night he also talked about how his star player Jamir Young is worse at home like he did with Myles Powell one year. Wash, rinse, repeat.
He was glad to see Carino though, it seemed.
Classic matchup for a rock fight.
Best D in conference
1. Maryland
2. Rutgers
Worst offense in conference
1. Rutgers
2. Maryland
Best D in conference
1. Maryland
2. Rutgers
Worst offense in conference
1. Rutgers
2. Maryland
I watched a lot of the game last night. It was painful and forced me to change the channel to give my eyes a break on several occasions. Just goes to show you how bad we were earlier in the year. No way should we have lost to that Rutgers team, especially at home.
Same. It was tough to watch. Yea good defenses, but the offensive approaches are listless.
Rutgers shot 12/24 from 3 on us. Fluke. They are 351st in 3PT% and haven’t made 12 or shot 50% in any other game.
I also cannot watch DePaul, it’s the worst looking, sloppiest basketball you’ll see, even worse than whatever that was in Maryland last night. I couldn’t take more than 5 mins of their game with St. John’s.
Pretty funny. Last year was clearly a charade and not the Willard personality we grew to know. He was obviously on his best behavior and trying to be engaging. Now he’s falling back into that personality.
I have always appreciated what Kevin did for our program (excluding the disaster against TCU).. With that said, we all saw this coming. I don't see them moving on from him this year, but next year the seat is going to be really warm. I think most of us did not see him lasting more than 3 years at Maryland, and unless something changes big time next year, i think we will be right.
You think of some of the great coaches over the years in college basketball they all had some type of personality or way of communicating effectively with media or PR etc. Willard could live with that weakness at SHU but not Maryland and especially if you're not winning
I knew that was happening
He won't last. Cant believe there were Maryland fans that were.excited. i was hoping we canned him when danny came available but knew shu wasn't paying anyone to leave
He won't last. Cant believe there were Maryland fans that were.excited. i was hoping we canned him when danny came available but knew shu wasn't paying anyone to leave
He’s going to see the real Maryland.
That's one thing I appreciate about Sha's coaching and communication so far is that I don't expect the team letdown that I could have predicted under Willard, or the "why is this game so close when we are clearly a better team." Or I've said a few times to myself this year, "if this was Willard, the excuses would be coming out about now. " I don't feel I get any of that from Sha, nor do I expect it.
They were excited because of the narrative that you can't win at Seton Hall, and his teams here exceeded Maryland fans' (inaccurately low) expectations. And his Seton Hall teams beat Maryland twice, which just does not jibe with their perceptions of how it ought to be. They thought, well, if he can do that at Seton Hall, just think what he can do here!
The reality has always been that when Seton Hall has a good coach, they will win, and how far they go is largely correlated with just how good that coach is. One of the reasons I don't mind seeing Willard whiff at Maryland is that is helps dispel that oft-repeated but false notion that you can't win here. Of course you can. You definitely have to work -- I won't deny it's a tough job -- but I don't want a coach who doesn't want to work hard. And I definitely don't want a coach who thinks the barometer of success is just making the NCAAs, and whatever happens there is gravy. Maryland can have that.
Coaches are all the same. I think Sha's comment after the PC game was something like I don't want you to write this but we gave guys a rest and played our bench longer than usual. If that came out of Willard's mouth it would've had its own thread. It wasn't incorrect, but all coaches say stuff like that, it's about do you embrace your coach or not. Sha's embraced here. Also the time he said it wasn't so bad, If he said that in December it probably wouldn't have been so easily ignored.
Should pull up the welcome footage of him landing at Maryland in the private jet... shine has worn off everything but his dome.
No disagreement but to pretend like there are coaches out there, including our own, who don't say stuff like that is absurd. That's Willard's schtick. He's going to talk about something completely ridiculous so he can protect his player as much as possible. And if you're dumb enough to listen shame on you. His team is terrible. He's got 3 very good players and if one has a mediocre night they have no chance. Kaiser and Harris-Smith have a ton of work to do in the offseason, but when you look at guys like Mamu, Rhoden, Powell, Desi and even Whitehead from year 1 to year 2, I think he's got a decent track record.
I do think Willard was more competitive than his public persona. His teams here were also so close to doing so much more, just lacked something repeatedly… And usually edged by Villanova in the most excruciatingly torturous ways, LOL.
But whether it’s Willard, Holloway, or whomever coaches The Hall, the only thing that will change that storyline and perception on Seton Hall is a guy who can push us through consistently in March. And you know what? The school has earned that reputation. It’s been a trainwreck often. The program has a grand total of 4 NCAA Tournament wins in 30 years since Carlesimo walked out. 30 years!!! And 1 in the last 20, woof. We haven’t been to a second weekend in 24 years. Now that spans 6 coaches. So the consensus is the school lacks proper institutional support and resources.
I do believe we have a guy in Sha that BURNS to get us to that level where we are perennial national player. Whether he can pull it off remains to be seen.
Why did you have to write that? Now it feels...so much worse!
lol. Damn....that is not a good run...!
Lmaooo
Some other fun facts:
1. We only have 14 appearances ever: 6 by Carlesimo, 1 from Amaker, 2 from Orr, 5 from Willard. 16 wins, 12 from Carlesimo alone.
2. We are on - by far - our best BE streak ever with possibly our 8th consecutive non-losing season. The previous high was 3!
Has a coach ever before blamed a home loss on travel? That seems like a stretch, even by Willard’s standards. It’s hard to defend him on this one. I wonder if he has a list of excuses and decided to go to the emergency page last night. “DO NOT USE UNLESS JOB IS ON THE LINE” is how I imagine the header reads.
He's not talking about Geronimo adding nothing to the offense. He's not talking about Kaiser and Harris-Smith inability to throw the ball in the ocean. Scott last night didn't put up 10. If any of their big 3 are mediocre on a given night, they have no chance.
But at some point roster construction falls on the coach too, doesn’t it?
Caleb Swanton Rodger - Soph 1.7 ppg
Noah Batchelor - Soph - 1.7 ppg
Johnathan Lamothe - Frosh - 1.3 ppg (9 games)
Jahari Long - Sr. - 5.0 ppg
This is the depth “HE” recruited for his bench. There are no Turgeon hold overs in this group.
He knew he needed shooting to support his pick / roll offensive system to space the floor for Jamir Young
He brought in Geronimo from Indiana off a season in which he shot 26% from 3. He has gotten worse at 15.8% this year.
And his two top recruits Harris- Smith (30) and Kaiser (66) are shooting 16.1% and 24.1% respectively.
On the season they rank 347th nationally in FG% (28.7%).
Maybe the gameplan shouldn’t be to chuck up 18 - three pointers and instead go straight at Cliff Omoruyi when he is starting the second half with 3 fouls. You know, coaching strategy.
Absolutely it falls on him. Literally it’s year 2. He shouldn’t be worried about it. If you read my posts on Sha I’ve said the guy needs time. I’ll say the same for Willard. He got them a win in the tournament last year. Did he recruit for this year or did he recruit for the future? Malachi Brown might be a player for us, but year 1 isn’t going to be his year. Willard has a lot of them and they’re really talented just not translating to games yet. I’m not really sure Willard recruited an impact freshman other Powell his last 7 years here. If you’re not going to give him a chance to develop he’s not the guy. I’ll bet if he gets the chance to develop his guys they’ll be fine.
I’ll assume if two top 70 national recruits stay he will develop them.
But the four guys mentioned above are not P6 rotation type players. And before you say Jahari, it took him 4 years to be able to contribute 5 ppg off the bench.
And I am always rooting for a guy like Brown. But I don’t feel like I am being rude when I say realistic expectations are that Brown will not be a major contributor for this program. He is already being recruited over with our recent signees.
Now do I hope to be wrong and him have a productive and impactful SHU career…Absolutely. Just not hyping it up as some have expecting him to a solution for this year off of a decent game against Monmouth.
so we are in agreement coaches in year 2 at most places don’t have a full roster in many cases. Doesn’t Jahari Long have 2 more years available? I’d sign up for that in our rotation.
Not really. We were told that Kevin would have significantly more resources afforded to him at Maryland compared to Seton Hall. I would expect in year two that Kevin has a rotation that goes a little deeper than 7 players that relies heavily on two freshmen.
And unfortunately Jahari has only one more year of eligibility left due to the COVID season exception.
Will have an opportunity to improve upon his 2.5 ppg career average.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/jahari-long-1.html
Similar threads
