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A lot of truth in here but I’m not sure I see this the same way. If you are intent on playing pressure man with little help (what we ventured to do) you’ll certainly create turnovers if you have good athletes (which we did do). However, very few players on an island with no help are going to...

I don’t take anything for granted — good or bad — with anyone who hasn’t actually really played. Definitely not saying he can’t be excellent but I just don’t really know how we can bank on him being a stud — despite his credentials — right out of the gate.

Haha — that’s what makes me a bit skeptical of that tweet. The idea that any player will be anywhere for four seasons is hard to wrap my brain around at this point.

This is the only way to view westry at this moment. Fun to dream on, very much rooting for a kid who’s clearly very talented. But — and it’s a huge caveat — banking on any sort of production specifically from him is impossible unless someone here understands not only the medicals but also how he...

Broadcast and social media are in a different category than newspapers were/are for me. But broadcast media and social media simply reflect who we are as a people, for better or, mostly, for worse. My point that I doubt the media wanted to push Iowa women’s hoops, but then Clark comes along...

Haha. Jim Phelan. Different era but I covered his program for three years in the latter stages. Awesome dude. I’m a skeptical guy by nature and he was incredibly genuine.

Maybe his foot was bothering him all year? Otherwise I’m with you. Didn’t see much that makes me think he adds anything to speak of unless they can play some sort of zone that keeps him around the basket for 6-7 mins/half. When he gets pulled away from the basket defensively we’re in huge...

Having empathy is a good thing. We should all be rooting for him to find some sort of contentment, just like we should with any of these kids. So much vitriol (not you specifically) on this board sometimes.

This. He’s basically Chris sale at this point. Very, very talented prospect but at this stage, while you take what you can get, you can’t bank on getting anything. Nothing against the kid and I’m rooting for him, but you have to plan your roster under the assumption that at best he’ll be limited...

Yeah, I should know that by now. I do agree its been largely disappointing for several seasons. No question. I just think maybe reversing that trend might be a bit more difficult in the current setting. It sucks. Red will get three years, is my guess. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

I think the issue is that no league anywhere just washes out the majority of its rosters each year and starts over. If you follow baseball you are invested in the young, controllable players on your team's roster (as well as any stars with longer term deals) and you're interested in your...

fair point.

I have zero clue what the plan is but if I were taking a shot at what maybe they're thinking is that they can collectively improve the frontcourt and Brown sees that as potentially diminishing his minutes/role? Not sure but maybe they want to add Freeman, still play Bell, maybe they like...

Very rational take. My biggest concern is replacing two players who instinctively did a lot of good things to help a team win in Q and Brown. You needed to coach brown to be a bit more aggressive offensively and he got better defensively on the high ball screen as the year went along, but he...

Yeah, the Brown loss and whatever the situation was with Q are really disappointing. No other way to look at it. In a broader sense I’m not sure it’s terribly unique in this world of college basketball, but even that is depressing for the sport as a whole. I guess Red is now essentially...

Haha. I hear you. Comical to me would be completely incompetent. I think what we’ve been is largely below what our expectations are. I also don’t think leaving the big east helped basketball at all either. But whatever, we need to improve and sadly I’m starting to wonder if that’s realistic...

I think people are forgetting that a lot of teams are playing post-ups straight up with no help. A skilled big is going to eat up a lot of guys if he can take five dribbles and pump fake twice before shooting. Saw filipowski get eaten alive against nc state.

Eh, disappointing in many ways for sure. But four 20-win seasons, four tourney berths, two sweet 16s and a final four with one losing season (still 16 wins) isn’t that atrocious. Add into that the fact that it was the end of an incredibly long tenure by a legendary coach (almost always a rocky...

i would venture a guess is that the truth lies somewhere between your post and the one you’re replying to. Taylors sample size through two seasons isn’t nothing but it’s a bit small. A real 3-pt shooter in today’s game is going to put up somewhere between 150 and maybe 250-300 threes. He’s shot...

I agree but it’s a weird world where it’s hard to build toward anything so every year is sort of zero sum. It’s the job Red’s got, so I agree it’s just part of the deal. But I do feel for some of these guys trying to build a program. Tough to do with so little continuity and no ability to slowly...

The results in W/L and tourney berth, etc. probably go hand-in-hand for me, but even if we’re not at those levels I’d love to see a bit more success with offseason additions to the roster and some significant growth in our approach offensively and defensively. Felt like we’ll-coached teams got...

There will never, ever, for as long as any of us are alive, be a coach who gets universal approval for his rotation on this board. I’ve come to accept that as reality. I think I finally accepted that somewhere around the Brycen Goodine era.

Agreed. And if one of these bigs happens to be in the portal it’s going to be a massive bidding war. Not saying we can’t compete on that level, but a player with some size and decent feet and some ability to rebound would be an immediate upgrade. Not entirely sure it has to be a traditional center.

I would think MAAC or similar level would be nice for him to get really good minutes and ample opportunity to rediscover his offensive game. Agree, he could potentially do better in terms of general level of play, but (pure conjecture here) I think he needs opportunity and confidence. Touches...

Agreed. Already posted this once but just fun to feel like you have a taste of what’s happening.

I won’t die on the hill of saying we need a huge spring game crowd but I just think anything you can do to get this program in the public eye as much as possible is a good thing. Just seeing quotes from Allen about his offseason regiment — as meaningless as those comments may be — is really a...

Cool to see. Hope he absolutely kills it. We’ve been lucky to have him for the better parrr of the past 20 years.

Yeah this is where I am too. Someone who really excels at Xs and Os would be a massive addition. Ideally he could recruit too but I’m a little less concerned with that if I’m being honest.

Their offense is fun to watch. There is sometimes a lot of movement for the sake of movement — like motion in football. But when they get into their real actions it’s a beautiful brand of basketball. Sucks to say it, but it’s absolutely true.

Two3zone literally said his game is trash. i mean, i read that as he’s the reason we’re not in the tourney, which i wholeheartedly disagree with — disappointing sophomore season or not. There have been a lot of similarly disparaging comments (not sure of yours specifically). Your summation of...

True — but he is better than all those future nba guys? I thought nba draft status was the most important thing. It’s what’s been thrown my way 15 times in this thread. This argument keeps changing. Everyone said he sucked because he dropped down draft boards. Now it’s his 3-point shooting...

So I think this is fine to say. Again, not sure I agree entirely but I do accept that it could be true. But two things: 1) Excellent college scorers are exceptionally important, particularly in March. A guy who is unlikely to sniff the NBA knocked out an entire team full of NBA players at...

The massive point here is the second point you make. Whatever everyone thinks of Judah and whether he’s back or not or in the nba or not, do we really have the ability to answer all the deficiencies no one is talking about in this particular thread? The answer is hopefully yes but it’s the far...

By that logic richard manning was a better player than scoop and Rick jackson.

Let’s try to find some sort of common ground here: hopefully Red accomplishes two things this offseason. 1) finding a group of players that meshes together better as a unit and 2) installs an offense that encourages and rewards players for sharing the ball and moving without the ball. In all...

This is a completely fair argument. I’m not sure I entirely agree, but when you add the struggles shooting to the high usage rate to the inconsistent effort on the defensive end to the off-court stuff that appears to have been going on … I can see that mix being more trouble than it’s worth...

No, did the season start?

Ok. So you’d rather he passed the ball more to Taylor? Maybe Bell creates a bit more off the dribble? A little more short roll action, running some offense through McLeod as the decision maker? You’re going to fall down draft boards when you’re a smallish guard who doesn’t shoot well. That’s...

Teammates are context. Every argument worth anything is framed within some sort of context. It’s why so much political discourse is worthless — wild soundbites with zero substance are more lucrative/productive. So when we look at Judah it’s only fair to consider who he is playing with. The...

Funky strokes are fine if they go in, so I’m no genius. It just always looked a little odd to me.

Eh, fair point. I still find myself at the BET to this day.

Yeah, the lack of attempts spoke to a confidence issue. Not hammering the kid but hard to view it otherwise. Mintz going in a different direction with the ball might anger some folks but passing to guy who doesn’t really want the ball isn’t a winning formula. Taylor didn’t really want the ball...

His shot seemed weird to me all the way back when he committed. The numbers were better but the shot was unusual to say the least

Funny thing is I’d do all that on a heartbeat. Obviously not happening, but a cool hoops conference with a tourney in nyc? You could blow it all up on the football side. Fran has been an incredible breath of fresh air, but when hoops is right, nothing else comes close

After I saw the exhibitions I was concerned we wouldn’t get to 10. Maybe I’m just super pessimistic but I didn’t love what I saw from JJ — it was ok but not super exciting. McLeod felt like a bad fit, Benny looked like the same Benny, Taylor and Bell were OK but didn’t look like...

This is fine and you may prove to be right. Red (or I suppose maybe GMac or, I suppose in a bigger surprise, maybe Hop) was always going to be where they turned with JB retiring. The point being it was going to stay in-house. So red may not be the long-term answer here. That’s a logical...

More movement helps with offensive rebounding too. Might not make us the best offensive rebounding team on the planet, but far tougher to box out a player who's moving than a player who's watching. Generally speaking, we still need some adjustments to the roster. No question. But the approach...

Probably didn't state it clearly. Just meant that for about half the season, Judah played a good chunk of minutes with Taylor (who struggled almost all year), McLeod, who wasn't an offensive threat at any point, and JJ who was struggling for roughly half the season (maybe more like 10 games, as...

The only way you roll with that group is if you have them play specific roles. Experiment with a little zone for a 5-6 minute stretch of each half with McLeod and then use Carey for 4-6 minutes a game and just live with a true big for 14-20ish minutes a game. I'm not sure that will work or be...

agreed -- a big that can bring some things on both ends of the floor is ideal. My point was more that there are a couple different avenues to take that could, conceivably, work. Let's say they struggle to find a big who fits the way they'd ideally like. A couple tough, two-way wings could mean...