TheTastyGreek

I thought, given the thread, that this was about the Dodge JUCO binge, not using them as a talent resource going forward. If the point is that McCarney shouldn't take JUCO players off the recruiting table... Bring your petition to the game on Saturday, and I'll definitely sign it.

I love you, brother... But that's not really a good example. If you want to compare how a desperate coach going all-in with JUCOs in a last ditch effort to save his job with immediate wins can set a program back years... You should really look at... Kansas State. 2008: Ron Prince dodges execution, signs 19 JUCO players. Team goes 5-7, Prince is fired. Because of the JUCO all-in, K-State would not return to a full 85 scholarship roster until THIS SEASON. 2009: Bill Snyder takes over, struggles to a 4-6 finish (including an OOC loss to Ricky Bustle's Louisiana-Lafayette, which beat Snyder by 2 at Cajun Field and Todd Dodge by 4 points at the same place) against D-1A opponents. Two wins against D-1AA teams Tennessee Tech and UMass. UMass finished the season 5-6, 3-5 in the CAA. UMass lost to Hofstra, Richmond, and Delaware by multiple touchdowns. Snyder's team won by 4 points in the home opener. Four wins against D-1 opponents, including a one point win against Iowa State, a seven point win over Kansas, and a 20-6 win over Colorado. The only non-home victory K-State had that year was against Iowa State... In Kansas City. Average margin of defeat against Big 12 opponents? 26 points. They beat 1-AA teams and, generally speaking, squeaked past some bad teams (not all... witness ULL). When they lost, they usually got pounded. 2010: Snyder goes 7-6. One of those games was a 1-AA. Four of the D-1A wins come by 9 points or less. Two of them required 4th quarter comebacks. The only win Snyder had that year that came outside the state of Kansas happened at... Fouts Field. I think most people here have the context on that win. So, why did Bill Snyder come in and fail to take a 5-7 team beyond 6-6 or 7-6? Was he a lousy coach? Did he not know how to win at a place like K-State? I think we can safely conclude those weren't the reasons. His explanation (prior to starting the 2011 season)? They were still under a full load of scholarship players in 2011, but Snyder did manage to take a big step forward in his 3rd year with a 10-3 record (7-2 in the Big 12). This year, still undefeated and ranked #2. Anyone who says JUCOs can't help you win is blind or stupid. I wish McCarney would be a little more flexible in using them (judiciously). Anyone who doesn't think an outgoing coach going on a fringe JUCO binge can't cripple a program's rebuilding effort... Well, tell it to Bill Snyder. Took him 2 full years to get competitive again.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying we're going to conquer the world in football or anything like that. Someone Who Shall Remain Anonymous sent me a PM asking me to explain this comment: So I may as well elaborate publicly lest anyone think I'm expecting everything to be hunky dory in the world of Mean Green football. I think McCarney and our staff last year and this year have us performing better than our talent would otherwise dictate. Not by leaps and bounds, and definitely not across the board... I think the inconsistency from game to game (or half to half, or series to series) is obvious proof of that. But notably, and frequently. And I think there are results of that in the Win/Loss record. I thought we were probably a 2-4 win team last year, and we got 5 wins. I'm still amazed by that. Not great, but greatly above my expectations of what was likely to happen. This year... I thought we were probably going to end up 4-8. Looks like we might sneak one more win than that, maximum, at this point. Probably not. I think a good coach has to do two things: 1) They need to be able to plan, motivate, _insert adjective_, a.k.a. COACH their talent to perform at or above their ability relative to the opponent. I think that's already happened here, and will continue to happen here. 2) They need to be able to consistently attract, retain, and develop talent at a level that allows for growth/improvement (when even overachievement is unacceptable in terms of results) or sustainability (when winning at a level or rate that is unusually high given the sport/resources/competitive situation). That second one... That's the one to worry about. When you can turn a 3 win team into a 5 win team... That's nice. But it's still a 5 win team. And coaching above your level to a level that isn't very good... Isn't very good. (Recursive logic is fun!) The question is, has/is/will McCarney and company attract and retain talent that, for lack of a better phrasing... OUGHT to win 6-7-8 games? Because honestly, I don't think last year was a 6+ win team, and I didn't and don't think this was a 7+ win team. But making a bad team mediocre isn't enough if you can't bring in a mediocre team (and coach them to a respectable record) or bring in a good team and coach them to be exceptional. If you're recruiting a team that looks to have 4-5 win talent, then even when you coach brilliantly, your ceiling is probably 6-7 wins. And I'm not saying that our recent and upcoming recruiting looks like we're only a 4-5 win team in terms of base talent... But that seems a lot likelier to me than assuming that Mac is bringing in a roster inherently capable of winning 7-8-9 games based on talent.

JJ had us above .500 in year one. In his entire tenure, we were only below .500 twice, and they were years 2 and 3. Every 6-8 weeks... Something else pops up and I just keep missing that guy more and more. He really may have been one of a kind in this day and age of college basketball.

Not trying to defend McCarney... He wasn't my first choice for this hire, but I do think he was a pretty solid pick and I think he's actually doing surprisingly well. One of two things is true: Either we're a good team being held back... Games like Kansas State, the ULL comeback, the MTSU blowout last year, etc. are our true ability level, and games like what we saw yesterday are signs that our coaches aren't up to the task. Or... We aren't a very good team. We don't have the talent and ability to win consistently, and we're getting coached up to play at the level we see in our good/encouraging games. I think the second one is more accurate. Agree or not, that's my opinion. I thought we were probably a 3 or 4 win team last year, but somehow we won 5. I came into this year thinking we were probably a 4-8 team, and unfortunately, that seems to be about where we're going to end up. Like I said, I think there's plenty to be concerned about. Specifically... The question of who is getting recruited to come in and lift our talent level up to the point where we aren't getting coached above our ability to get to 5 or 6 wins. That's what worries me. But pointing at other programs that may or may not be flukes, abberations, or crazy ass luck (or, more often, that don't exactly prove the point and timetable some people presume they do) as a reason to say we have coaching problems... Not buying it, personally.

ULM made a quick turnaround? Remind me again when they've ever had a winning season in D-1 football? Spoiler alert: if they finish above .500 this season, it'll be the first time they've done it in TWENTY YEARS. Never at the 1-A level. And remind me how their coach did in years one and two of his tenure there? Ohio had a quick turnaround? As in, one winning season in Solich's first four years? Louisiana Lafayette? The team that's 4-3, .500 in conference, that we just beat 2 weeks ago? If we had WKU's Willie Taggart here, we'd have run him out of town after he got blown out at home by 4 touchdowns by a lousy 1-AA team. In year two. When we hired Dodge, I hoped he'd turn us around as fast as Rick Stockstill did at MTSU. And after that quick start, Stockstill has had 4 sub .500 seasons and only one other decent year. He went 2-10 last year. If we'd had to pick a coach to clone for ourselves at the start of last year, it probably would have been Cristobal at FIU. This year, they're 1-8 and 0-5 in conference. There's lots of reasons to be skeptical about our future under McCarney. Not fast enough doesn't come anywhere near the top of the list.

Not sure if Anthony Walker (another Sophomore at South Plains) is still intent on going to UT Arlington once he finishes up this season (he was a verbal to them out of high school... believe he had eligibility issues). But, if he is... I wouldn't be totally shocked to see Robinson come back to the Metroplex with him. I don't think it would be the first time UTA grabbed a pair of players from the same JUCO.

If I could pick one and only one of the three, I'd pick K-State. They aren't preseason ranked like Creighton, but that would be a bigger win to me. One, because of casual name recognition. Two, because it would mean winning our pod of the P-NIT and going on to NYC. And years from now, I think that one will register more because of the power conference affiliation and historical success (ignoring their offseason coaching change) than a win over Creighton might. Anything you have to explain about the value of a Creighton win to a very casual basketball follower ("No, they're actually ranked! They have a preseason all-american! Omaha. Missouri Valley. No, it's actually a great basketball conference. Wait, come back!") feels less valuable to me than beating a more well-known KSU program.

They lost some key pieces. Also, MTSU and USA are returning very strong this year. May be more about crediting what those two obviously have over not crediting what WKU might have.

I think it would be very, very illuminating if anyone who thinks this would be The Biggest Win would also identify what game they feel would be bumped down to 2nd place. And I think it might be pretty educational if anyone who thinks it wouldn't would mention what they feel was a bigger one.

Where's MY parade???

NT03 was talking about it, but I think he's changed his mind. I'm planning on the K-State preseason NIT games and possibly the St. Louis game.

I've been trying to buy a green jersey since Christmas 2008. Didn't want a black one... Though those seem to have run out about a year or so ago. Didn't want a white one, but finally caved and bought one of those last lingering white Tristan jerseys because they were on clearance and I had a gift card. They can't sell if none of them exist to be bought. I guess we won't replenish until every last damn white Tristan jersey is sold out. After 3 and a half years of waiting for what I really want, I finally gave up and did my part to get us there.

Want to know how to ID a true American? Do what all the intelligence agencies do to confirm identities. Say the phrase "Back seat". If the person you're talking to doesn't IMMEDIATELY say "Windows up!", regardless of context or social situation... THEY ARE NOT AN AMERICAN. Take down that double agent or secret commie and your country will thank you later.

To be fair, that's not his only acceptable location. There's the sauna... Jacuzzi... Back row at the movies... Just to name a few.

This guy gets it.

Can't believe I missed that... Shame on me. How much is enough? I'd ask if anyone else was driven out, but I'm probably just digging my shame-hole deeper and deeper.

Last week of September

Unconfirmed reports are saying that you insist upon receiving yours in a big black truck, but do not hold others to the same requirements.

Lower case "G", people. Lower case "G".

Like Nostradamus of the gridiron... The man predicted his inevitable reanimation and return to the sidelines. #ZombieLandry2016

340+ teams... Even people that cover college hoops for a living can't keep up with everything. I follow things pretty obsessively, and I couldn't tell you much about the contenders in A-Sun or the NEC, for example.

That program, the whole operation- team, staff, coaches, fan support they've built through the years and years of solid play... Amazing. And if they ever have to vacate anything, I'll be SHOCKED. Did it all above board. Boise State football gets tons of rightfully deserved publicity. But Stew Morrill and Utah State basketball are every bit as amazing to me as what Boise State has accomplished. EDIT: And Eustachy, don't want to leave him off. I just completely identify that program with Morrill.

Is it too late to get in on this? I'd like to co-adopt Malik Dilonga, along with FilmerJ. Sort of a "My Two Dads" situation. I'm not sure who would be Paul Reiser. I think we could be a positive, if unorthodox, stabilizing influence. I think that despite any madcap antics that might pop up from week to week, we'd eventually overcome any obstacles or zany misunderstandings to all grow together and become better people. NT03 will be a distant, creepy uncle, potentially arranging playdates with us and Antonio Johnson. Mrs. Eulessismore could be Judge Wilbur.