I agree he tends to overcoach and tinker too much with matchups. Play to our strengths, create the mismatches instead of reacting to the other side.
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anon_4htvdezyfe7k9
Guest
Agree with Tom, but the question shouldn't be "Why is Willard Here", but "Why is Willard Going to be Here 4 Years From now?"
Holy Cross isn't having a great season. so we got that going for us.
Holy Cross isn't having a great season. so we got that going for us.
Let's make it a true Daily Double , Alex. Who is Danny Hurley.
And believe me I have seen the games with the tough losses against PC, Dayton, Valpraiso, Houston and the horrible FT shooting that has cost them games. They missed 6 straight to almost lose an 8 pt lead with 1:32 left against UMass.
Now he did inherit a terrible program from Jim Barron who was something like 2-19 in A10 play for a time and in 9 seasons never made the NCAA. It just shows what a job a coach like Al Skinner did there. I hope Danny does succeed there.
Full disclosure my wife went to URI and we go to 1 game a year to see them. And believe me after my post on our crowds in Newark she is just has scared going to Fordham even on Arthur Avenue.
Going to Mohegan Sun when they are in the HoF tourney. Now that is a nice trip.
And Skinner had also scheduled an interview for the open St. John's position but BC denied that Skinner's firing had anything to do with that.
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Picking coaches is an odd skill. Was anyone less ready by record for the greatest conference ever known than the coach of Liu who rode a good player to an nit appearance and fell below 500 when he left. Maybe he got the job cause his old man was beloved and respected by our AD. I can tell you, when we hired PJ I KNEW he could never succeed. And I wasn't alone. Some schools pick a good coach all the time. We ain't them...but that time we hit it out of the park.
Because people are looking to get rid of guy who won the conference championship only a year ago. Apparently I found out Isaiah won it with no help of the coach because Isaiah, himself, was the coach of the year. The kid figured out what a good shot was and what a bad shot was all on his own. I don't remember ever seeing a kid develop so much from chucking up bad shots like crazy early in the season to being as efficient as he was. I didn't know until this thread that he did it without the help of the coach. It was also kind of Isaiah to take himself out in OT of the WSU game on national tv. This thread has been eye opening. Let's hope the thread keeps going. I'm learning so much.
Maybe you can teach us then who we have lined up to replace Delgado if he leaves early?
Is it going to be Nzei? I noticed the article last week that he is learning to play the 5.......interesting timing of article......
Or who is going to be PG next year???
No one complains too much about his defense.
His offense and his recruiting without assistant positions is legendary on this board.
He went out and got assistants before, seems he needs to do that again, and if one of them can bring an offense besides the weave and one on one Rucker ball, then I am sure you will hear the pirate crew quiet down the anti Willard chatter.
Is it going to be Nzei? I noticed the article last week that he is learning to play the 5.......interesting timing of article......
Or who is going to be PG next year???
No one complains too much about his defense.
His offense and his recruiting without assistant positions is legendary on this board.
He went out and got assistants before, seems he needs to do that again, and if one of them can bring an offense besides the weave and one on one Rucker ball, then I am sure you will hear the pirate crew quiet down the anti Willard chatter.
Let me ask you, were you planning on dismissing Carter in September? Were you planning on Delgado possibly leaving in September? He still has Anthony on the roster. How many of his 13 scholarships did you want him to use on center? 5, 6?
As for the PG position, is he not going after the best available? Or would you prefer us take a commit from a kid and then later on tell Duval or Walker sorry? Maybe we can land both. Maybe Gordon has an amazing off season and comes in and has a Copeland type unexpected season. Oh and we still have Thomas who will be not be missing the first 3 months. The cupboard is not bare with 0 PGs on the roster.
If players unexpectedly leave a school in March do you believe every coach has a commit waiting the second the kid leaves?
Get real.
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The suggestion that we are so bad off is ridiculous. We have a ton of returning talent, we have Cale, Brodie is a nice commit of a local kid with great size, we are in the game for the best PG of the class and other very good ones, we have also been pretty good at landing 5th year seniors that can contribute.
I am also not sure that Thomas will not have a positive impact before the season is over. If Delgado leaves, it is a huge hole. I am not buying that happening at all. If it does, we have to deal with it. Also, if he leaves early someone on the staff must have had some role on his year by year improvement.
I am also not sure that Thomas will not have a positive impact before the season is over. If Delgado leaves, it is a huge hole. I am not buying that happening at all. If it does, we have to deal with it. Also, if he leaves early someone on the staff must have had some role on his year by year improvement.
Do you really think Myles Carter was ever going to replace anybody? Get Real.
We have little talent outside of the core four plus Nzei and Powell.
Rashed is a great backup five fouls. He is not a starter.
We have little talent outside of the core four plus Nzei and Powell.
Rashed is a great backup five fouls. He is not a starter.
The question wasn't was Carter going to replace Delgado. The question was did you see Delgado possibly leaving in september? The question was were you not planning on having Carter on the team next year? The question was are you not planning on having Anthony next year? We landed Brodie, a guy we can develop. Should Willard have planned on going hard for another center?
I never expected Carter or Anthony to ever play more than 5 backup minutes for the Hall ever.
I knew there was talk of Angel going pro last year. Do you really think he wasn't going to get better?? The player himself said "if he comes back" next year he will beat Rutgers again. Doesn't sound promising.
I feel bad for Brodie, you guys have him to be the savior. Don't think he is that guy yet. Keep the expectations low, lest you start beating him up for what he is not.
I would do whatever it took to sign both pg's. Play Nzei and Ish down low and play 4 guards with Desi and Cale playing the 4.
I read Zags article today, and it sounds like our #1 draft pick in 2018 is picking up interest on other people's draft boards. JQ is a pipe dream, so just take the quality in our backyard.
I knew there was talk of Angel going pro last year. Do you really think he wasn't going to get better?? The player himself said "if he comes back" next year he will beat Rutgers again. Doesn't sound promising.
I feel bad for Brodie, you guys have him to be the savior. Don't think he is that guy yet. Keep the expectations low, lest you start beating him up for what he is not.
I would do whatever it took to sign both pg's. Play Nzei and Ish down low and play 4 guards with Desi and Cale playing the 4.
I read Zags article today, and it sounds like our #1 draft pick in 2018 is picking up interest on other people's draft boards. JQ is a pipe dream, so just take the quality in our backyard.
Again you dodged the question of which center did you not see here in September. Talk is just talk, and when you only have 1 senior and 1 commit already it's tough to go out and get a bunch of commits. Delgado didn't make that commen til December. And how is saying Brodie is a guy we can develop making him the savior. Nobody is doing that.
Agree with Tom, but the question shouldn't be "Why is Willard Here", but "Why is Willard Going to be Here 4 Years From now?"
Holy Cross isn't having a great season. so we got that going for us.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Northwestern hasn't made an NCAA tournament ever! Collins has done an amazing job in a short time. Great school, but a tough turnaround. Fred Hill was there as an assistant - wonder who their assistants are now under Collins.
I didn't see Rashed Anthony here next year, assumed he would graduate transfer to somewhere more at his level. So I would have been going hard after a big regardless. 6'7-8" kids that can bang inside are good no matter at the 4 or the 5, and you can never have too many of them. We aren't getting any 7 footers so multiple bangers are the way to go.
The problem with Willard has always been his ability to recruit. Let's face it, besides the great Whitehead class, he has recruited just two real good recruits in Powell and Cale. That's it.
The cupboard at the PG is spot is bare. While we are going after the best available pg available in Duval, its not likely that he will come. So there is just one other PG name who needs to reclassify and we risk insulting with our infactuation with Duval. This staff needs to be going after both players and give them both ships or risk losing both. I want both players on the team next year. But if we don't get the dream in Duval, I want Walker locked in who is a really good player.
By pure accident I caught part of the Championship game of the SNY invitational between St.Raymonds and CTK with two PG targets of ours in Washington and Alvarado who have committed elsewhere. Liked both players with Washington the more polished but either would have been a great get for us.
Washington, yes. But he has academic issues, so we'll see how that plays out. Nothing worse than getting a commitment from a player and no longer recruiting that position and find out he is not eligible.
Alvarado is a nice point but I doubt his freshmen year would be better than what we have in Jones this season when taking into consideration both sides of the court. .
Alvarado is a nice point but I doubt his freshmen year would be better than what we have in Jones this season when taking into consideration both sides of the court. .
I guess Willard gets no credit for the transfers in Gibbs and Teague who did well while here or the graduate transfers. Whether you agree with it or disagree with it Sina was a top 100 recruit coming out of HS. We haven't put together 3 or 4 straight solid classes but currently the state of the program is not lacking talent overall.
As for the PG spot being bare...I remember the cupboard at PG being bare a couple years ago with Gibbs sitting out, Maayan's first year, Cosby trying to play PG and he did a decent job. We have a shot with 2 of the best PGs you can get in this class. There's no guarantee we land one. There's no way Jevon Thomas will do what Whitehead did last year, but if we get nobody we have a PG with 2 years experience in the Big 12. If we don't get anybody we have a PG in Gordon who will push to Thomas to be the starter. Gordon can play. There's a reason some really good schools were after his services. I wouldn't call our PG situation bare at all. It won't be top 5 in the country, but it's far from bare.
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I admire the strength of your faith in Willard. I in no way agree with you, but you sure do try to hang in there. As an aside, I have to disagree with your statement that Aaron Cosby did a decent job at PG. I thought he was a complete misfit in that role. And I also disagree with your potential comfort level with Jevon Thomas and Eron Gordon in the event we don't get any of our PG targets. As for Willard, we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think he hit his high water mark last year and will end up overstaying his welcome at the Hall. I'd love to be wrong about that, but I don't see it.
I have no problem agreeing to disagree. But the bogus posts like Isaiah did it all by himself last year are bogus and need to be called out. The whole staff did an excellent job in developing Whitehead into a more controlled talent and raised his IQ as much in a 2 month span as most of us have ever seen someone do in Pirate Blue. Cosby looked uncomfortable there for sure, but you could see a major difference when he went to the bench. He sacrificed his own game for the benefit of the team and I don't think he did a bad job. As for next year, all I said is the cupboard is not bare about PG because we've seen it bare before and by no means is next year bare.
Do you really want to bring up Gibbs? Who we lost out to Texas for?
Do you really want to bring up Sina who we lost to both Alabama and Northwestern?
Those are some of the recruiting failures that we continually bring up.
I always cheer for the Pirates, but I also am a realist, and besides Powell and Cale who has Willard brought in without some sort of attachment?
Only other guy that was a decent get was Singh and he didn't pan out.
Look at the litany of his failures.
I am all for getting rid of A great young man in Grant Billmeier, because with his opening we can bring in another player, and that is a damning statement that I feel that way.
Do you really want to bring up Sina who we lost to both Alabama and Northwestern?
Those are some of the recruiting failures that we continually bring up.
I always cheer for the Pirates, but I also am a realist, and besides Powell and Cale who has Willard brought in without some sort of attachment?
Only other guy that was a decent get was Singh and he didn't pan out.
Look at the litany of his failures.
I am all for getting rid of A great young man in Grant Billmeier, because with his opening we can bring in another player, and that is a damning statement that I feel that way.
Are those kick ass assistants who are helping him reel in good talent? Have no idea.
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anon_4htvdezyfe7k9
Guest
I watched Mullin having a conversation with one of his assistants during their game against Providence. Not sure who it was TBH, but he looked fully engaged and was listening to what advice he was being given. I've never seen that from KW. It's a pretty well-known business process to hire the right people, and then listen to them. The jury is out on the former, but seems KW fails miserably on the latter.
Yes I want to bring up Gibbs. He wore Pirate Blue. Yes I want to bring up Sina. He wore Pirate Blue. Who cares where the initial commitment went. So if Duval picks Seton Hall, and then changes his mind to Duke. Does that mean Willard really won the recruiting battle over K? And who gives a crap where the attachments come from. Who cares if the attachment comes from a HS coach, AAU coach, shoe company, by recruiting a players girlfriend more than the player. We've watched the other teams use their resources and bitch when we don't get the player. Now we do whats necessary and it shouldn't count? If you believe we are getting Duval by being the purest of his potential suitors you are nuts.
I think getting into arguments about individual recruiting gets and misses is pretty far into the weeds in terms of the overall Willard assessment.
I wouldn't care if he brought in nothing but 2 and 3 star players if he could get them to play at a very high level and we were getting a bid for years on end in Willard's tenure. It's the same reason I don't care so much about a singular COY award. Can you consistently put together a team that wins, without having too many off the court issues. Doing 50% of that isn't enough to be a high level D-1 coach.
To take a local example, Cooley inspires a crap load of confidence in his abilities, because he's truly brought Providence into being a consistent player. Post season play in 4 of his 5 seasons (thinking they aren't going beyond NIT this season but who knows) with finally getting into the second round of the NCAA last season. Brings in a steady stream of top 150ish kids.
I wouldn't care if he brought in nothing but 2 and 3 star players if he could get them to play at a very high level and we were getting a bid for years on end in Willard's tenure. It's the same reason I don't care so much about a singular COY award. Can you consistently put together a team that wins, without having too many off the court issues. Doing 50% of that isn't enough to be a high level D-1 coach.
To take a local example, Cooley inspires a crap load of confidence in his abilities, because he's truly brought Providence into being a consistent player. Post season play in 4 of his 5 seasons (thinking they aren't going beyond NIT this season but who knows) with finally getting into the second round of the NCAA last season. Brings in a steady stream of top 150ish kids.
So you think having Thomas start at point guard is an acceptable situation? Since you think Cosby did a decent job at point guard, I guess That is your perspective. I thought Gordon was a 2 guard and not a point. Having Thomas starting is in no way acceptable. It would be worse than what we have now. He has been poor even in the backup role this year. That would be the worst pg in the conference and probably he would be the bottom half (and I am being generous) of all D-1 PG is the nation. A point guard who can't shoot nor make free throws nor pass well is not a good point guard.
Btw, Sina only came here because the coach at Northwestern got fired. It's not like Willard beat them out in a recruiting battle. Relying on transfers and 5th years seniors is not what you want out of your head coach.
In the discussion about Gibbs and Sina lets not forget that both left the program and transferred , Sina in the middle of a game and that the year they left the program experienced not only an epic collapse but a team where the players and coach were not on the same page. Hoopsfan, you're right that both wore Pirate Blue but didn't value it enough to finish their careers in Pirate Blue.
Reading comprehension is tough here. I never said having Thomas start is acceptable. But we've seen having a bare cupboard in the past, and this is in no way a bare cupboard. Starting a 2 guard, having an international player getting his 1st taste of American basketball is as bare as it gets. As for next year, we have 5 guards on the roster as of now. I'm sure most people want to see Carrington, Powell and Cale getting 25+ minutes each next year. And why does it matter by which way kids get here. This isn't college basketball of 1970. Kids are transferring at an alarming rate. This is the way of the world. Kids are committing to school 1, then going to school 2 all of the time. So the fact a kid changed his mind and we got him, big deal. If you want to give the other staffs credit, then we should get credit for KA before he changed his mind.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/67252/jevon-thomas
Those are some tough stats man. Both here and at KSU I'm not sure I'd look at the cupboard and have much confidence. You're also talking about Gordon stepping in at PG when he hasn't been able to sniff the court this season. Saying "He will push JT to be a starter", on what basis? What have you seen from Gordon that instills that opinion? These seem like dream statements. They sound like the off-season talk of this year that MJ and JT are going to balance each other and be serviceable.
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