Mccasland Has To Make Better Use Of His Scholarships

GrandGreen · February 18, 2019

7 hours ago, Andrew said:

I would love to have Holston and Lawson back in place of Hawkeem and maybe Draper taking a scholarship.

My my guess is we see more turnover again and only return any redshirts, Woolridge, Simmons, and Gibson. (Probably Draper). More changes ahead.

After Draper's last game, you don't think he deserves a ship. You rather keep a bunch of bigs that have barely or not ever been on the court?

Andrew · February 18, 2019

2 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

After Draper's last game, you don't think he deserves a ship. You rather keep a bunch of bigs that have barely or not ever been on the court?

Jamiah is a sophomore and then Tope will be leaving. Draper seemed content being a walk on and that would have given us another spot. Somebody who could help.

meangreenJW · February 18, 2019

22 hours ago, shootermcgavin44 said:

Recruiting is a definite concern. Anyone that is contributing at any significant level is a Benford recruit. Has a GM recruit contributed at all?????

Everyone that scoffed at the idea of a JJ return, look at what him and another former UNT coach are doing down at TX. Southern....

Huh? Draper and Wooldridge are LITERALLY the only Benford recruits on the team. Some of you guys don't seem to know how the scholarships work. Alcindor is redshirting. He only played against non D1s. Tikhonenko is injured. He only played in 8 games and will likely get a medical redshirt. Wise is redshirting too. None of this was an issue and we scored fine until injuries mounted up. It does seem they missed on Tope. We just don't get much out of him. And I question the decision to put DJ on a scholly. It's a feel good story but DJ just isn't athletic enough to be counted on. But redshirting the guys he has redshirting is a great sign to me. It says Grant is building a program. If he wanted to win and get out of here, he'd burn the redshirt. But he hasn't.

Does everyone griping realize we were missing two starters (Duffy and Ryan) and our 6th man (Simmons). We played with 6 guys, one of which was DJ. And I've never seen a player struggle post injury like Rose has. That couldn't have been predicted.

We should end the year with a top 120 RPI, maybe top 100 following last year's 190 rpi. Benford never finished above 275 and finished below 300 multiple times. If you look at what Kelvin Sampson has done at Houston GMac has exceeded his 1st two years. Kelvin was 13-19 (4-14) in year #1 and 22-10 (12-6) in year #2.

In my opinion, Grant is doing a really, really good job.

GrandGreen · February 18, 2019

7 minutes ago, meangreenJW said:

Huh? Draper and Wooldridge are LITERALLY the only Benford recruits on the team. Some of you guys don't seem to know how the scholarships work. Alcindor is redshirting. He only played against non D1s. Tikhonenko is injured. He only played in 8 games and will likely get a medical redshirt. Wise is redshirting too. None of this was an issue and we scored fine until injuries mounted up. It does seem they missed on Tope. We just don't get much out of him. And I question the decision to put DJ on a scholly. It's a feel good story but DJ just isn't athletic enough to be counted on. But redshirting the guys he has redshirting is a great sign to me. It says Grant is building a program. If he wanted to win and get out of here, he'd burn the redshirt. But he hasn't.

Does everyone griping realize we were missing two starters (Duffy and Ryan) and our 6th man (Simmons). We played with 6 guys, one of which was DJ. And I've never seen a player struggle post injury like Rose has. That couldn't have been predicted.

We should end the year with a top 120 RPI, maybe top 100 following last year's 190 rpi. Benford never finished above 275 and finished below 300 multiple times. If you look at what Kelvin Sampson has done at Houston GMac has exceeded his 1st two years. Kelvin was 13-19 (4-14) in year #1 and 22-10 (12-6) in year #2.

In my opinion, Grant is doing a really, really good job.

Agree with most everything, other than your assessment of Draper is way off base. He looks plenty athletic to me and plays adequate defense. He is only 5'10 and that is certainly a liability, but he plays as hard as anyone on the team. As for as the scholarship, he deserves it a lot more than several others who have them.

Andrew · February 18, 2019

15 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

Why do you keep calling him Hawkeem? It’d be one thing if you were calling him Hakeem, but I have no explanation where you keep pulling Hawkeem from.

Also, our lineup was terrible with Holston and Lawson starting. We took off when we stopped playing them. There’s a cool alternative to bringing back failed players and it’s called signing actual good players who other schools want. We should try it.

S’ Hakeem (phone auto corrects)

Alcindor

Edited February 18, 2019 by Andrew

MeanGreenHoops · February 18, 2019

On 2/16/2019 at 6:43 PM, Censored by Laurie said:

I think (and this is definitely an outsider interpretation of the situation) that Wise came in/was early banged up so was a bit off the pace from the go and seemed, regardless of injury, to be 3-4 deep at the 2-3 spots, that redshirting him seemed back in October/November to be a luxury this team could afford. I think Grant dug in on that stance when depth became more questionable...which if you've asked an 18 year old to sit out a year, it's tough then to ask him to burn a year of eligibility on the last two months of a season. I still think Wise is a baller.

Mohamed and Alcindor seem more like swings and misses and that has really hurt this team. there was ample opportunity to develop both as depth pieces in non-conference...5-10 minutes a night...even if they didn't contribute during December/January, we could at least potentially go more than six-deep tonight.

Dollar says Smart is gone end of the year.

Grant has done a lot of good things, but made some serious mistakes this season.

of course...again...many of you posters and fans have allowed your own egos and lack of perspective exacerbate your frustrations. this was never a team that was legitimately sniffing the top 25. this is a team a year removed from 6 straight .500 or worse seasons (removing CBI).

hell...we're two years removed from a 2-16 conference record. that's 11.1%. Smart shot better than that these last three games!

Interesting take on Smart, leaving, why'd you say that?

Agree this team was never as good as the record made it out to be.

Injuries have taken a huge bite out of the team, but Mohamed not playing is still a weird one. He was a Juco and he can't help at this point? Big miss.

The roster management is partly just injury mess, but still as you and @BillySee58 are saying, a lot of it is also on coach.

MeanGreenHoops · February 18, 2019

And another thing, I find the last write up on the FIU game where he says he had to play 4 guys the whole game because he is down to only 6 players weird. He's down to 6 players that he will play, not six players who could play.

GrandGreen · February 18, 2019

21 minutes ago, MeanGreenHoops said:

And another thing, I find the last write up on the FIU game where he says he had to play 4 guys the whole game because he is down to only 6 players weird. He's down to 6 players that he will play, not six players who could play.

If they are trying to make Alcindor's season a redshirt year then they are down to 6 ship players. The response that Alcindor can still redshirt because he has not played in a d1 game is the only thing that makes sense to me.

MeanGreenHoops · February 18, 2019

32 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

If they are trying to make Alcindor's season a redshirt year then they are down to 6 ship players. The response that Alcindor can still redshirt because he has not played in a d1 game is the only thing that makes sense to me.

That makes sense.

BillySee58 · February 18, 2019

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

If they are trying to make Alcindor's season a redshirt year then they are down to 6 ship players. The response that Alcindor can still redshirt because he has not played in a d1 game is the only thing that makes sense to me.

He has played in three division one games. He has played two division one opponents. You don’t get to keep your redshirt just because you don’t play against division one opponents, which he has. They burned his redshirt unless they can claim he has been injured, but he has been in the layup lines all year to my recollection so I didn’t think they were trying to go that route.

MeanGreenHoops · February 18, 2019

40 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

He has played in three division one games. He has played two division one opponents. You don’t get to keep your redshirt just because you don’t play against division one opponents, which he has. They burned his redshirt unless they can claim he has been injured, but he has been in the layup lines all year to my recollection so I didn’t think they were trying to go that route.

So if he can't redshirt, and can't even get on the floor, that is not a good job or recruiting.

If you think about it, this team doesn't look much different than last year before the CBI. We struggled on offense last year too. The main difference is Smart losing his confidence. But even last year, if Smart didn't score we struggled. We are better overall in the system, which is why even without Smart playing well, we have been able to win more games and stay close in others until injury took away Duffy.

Once Duffy went down, it started to expose every one else.

Coach has really improved the teams ability to compete. But the roster management and his inability to get Smart back on track is concerning.

RiseUNT · February 18, 2019

42 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

He has played in three division one games. He has played two division one opponents. You don’t get to keep your redshirt just because you don’t play against division one opponents, which he has. They burned his redshirt unless they can claim he has been injured, but he has been in the layup lines all year to my recollection so I didn’t think they were trying to go that route.

Pretty sure that is the route they are taking. Stop playing the player before a third of your season is done and say it was for medical reasons. Duffy has warned up for 2 weeks but has not played so layup line does not mean healthy to play.

RiseUNT · February 18, 2019

1 minute ago, MeanGreenHoops said:

So if he can't redshirt, and can't even get on the floor, that is not a good job or recruiting.

If you think about it, this team doesn't look much different than last year before the CBI. We struggled on offense last year too. The main difference is Smart losing his confidence. But even last year, if Smart didn't score we struggled. We are better overall in the system, which is why even without Smart playing well, we have been able to win more games and stay close in others until injury took away Duffy.

Once Duffy went down, it started to expose every one else.

Coach has really improved the teams ability to compete. But the roster management and his inability to get Smart back on track is concerning.

He can medically redshirt.

The number 1 overall pick in the NBA has 100% lost his shot. All the experts can't fix him. Smart's struggles are on him.

Cooley · February 18, 2019

Huh? Draper and Wooldridge are LITERALLY the only Benford recruits on the team.

Mean Green Add Two Recruits For 2017- 18 - North Texas men’s basketball head coach Tony Benford announced the signing of Zach Simmons (Cedar Hill, TX) and Amaad Wainright (Kansas City, MO) to National Letters of Intent. Simmons, 6-foot-9 forward, continues the trend of Texas native recruits to sign with coach Benford. According to TexasHoops.com, Simmons is ranked No. 91 in the state of Texas. Wainright, a 6-foot-4 guard, plays at Trinity Valley in Athens, TX and his brother is a senior guard at Baylor Ishmail Wainright.

xyresic · February 18, 2019

The primary issue here is similar to what was seen with Fball and WBB. Gmac had to basically cycle the whole roster and when you do that you will have some hits and misses, especially when year 1 had a shortened recruiting window. Benford took a lot of swings at JC/transfers and many missed, there was less developing guys where they stayed in the program for several years. There were a few exceptions but the roster was not well managed as a whole - we don't have to rehash it. He also recruited players not suited for Gmac's scheme.

Gmac was left with a raw incoming Freshman in Simmons, Woolridge and Draper. Draper is great but he is clearly best suited as a roll player who can stick the 3. So he had to bring in 12 players in short order.

Same with WBBall after Peterson left, Jalie had to basically recruit an entire team. She had to take a student who used to play basketball in high school and recruit her as a walk-on to get more depth. Seth had a big handicap in terms of quantity of players on the team when he came in. I think this year the football depth issue should finally be mostly addressed - it just takes time. When you are left with a hole on the roster you have to take some chances. When you roll the dice on transfers and JC players you will have some misses and then you add in injuries to a thin roster and you can get into trouble.

Football is obviously more of a slow build from a roster perspective, but this is only Gmac's second year. He is doing the right thing, redshirting folks to get the roster built back up to normal D-1 standards. It helps you to build continuity and culture - the culture has already improved if you listen to the players speak. Players will always transfer, but we should be able to build teams that are solid and then have an even better peak every two or three years as our stars mature into Juniors and Seniors.

Finally Gmac is smart and he understands that they need more bodies in the event the injury bug strikes again. If you listen to him talk he is honest about the shortcomings of the team and where the coaching staff needs to improve.

Edited February 18, 2019 by xyresic

meangreenJW · February 18, 2019

3 hours ago, Cooley said:

Huh? Draper and Wooldridge are LITERALLY the only Benford recruits on the team.

Mean Green Add Two Recruits For 2017- 18 - North Texas men’s basketball head coach Tony Benford announced the signing of Zach Simmons (Cedar Hill, TX) and Amaad Wainright (Kansas City, MO) to National Letters of Intent. Simmons, 6-foot-9 forward, continues the trend of Texas native recruits to sign with coach Benford. According to TexasHoops.com, Simmons is ranked No. 91 in the state of Texas. Wainright, a 6-foot-4 guard, plays at Trinity Valley in Athens, TX and his brother is a senior guard at Baylor Ishmail Wainright.

Yeah, I did miss Simmons which was an error. Draper was a walk-on, not a recruit so not sure how much that really counts. So we have 6 guys averaging double figures. Two of them were from Benford era. So in year #2 for McCasland, 37% of offensive production come from Benford recruits. My point remains anyone who says Mac is "winning with Benford players" and his own players aren't good enough is being asinine. Sure, some recruits haven't panned out but this damn sure wasn't plug in play.

RiseUNT · February 18, 2019

55 minutes ago, meangreenJW said:

Yeah, I did miss Simmons which was an error. Draper was a walk-on, not a recruit so not sure how much that really counts. So we have 6 guys averaging double figures. Two of them were from Benford era. So in year #2 for McCasland, 37% of offensive production come from Benford recruits. My point remains anyone who says Mac is "winning with Benford players" and his own players aren't good enough is being asinine. Sure, some recruits haven't panned out but this damn sure wasn't plug in play.

This is actually sad because Benford was supposed to be a great recruiter!

GrandGreen · February 18, 2019

6 hours ago, RiseUNT said:

This is actually sad because Benford was supposed to be a great recruiter!

Benford was and probably still is a great recruiter. It is just very hard to recruit for a head coach that is horrible at his job.

Added on for those confused: Benford was horrible at his job and therefore it was tough to recruit players to play for him instead of a successful head coach.

Edited February 19, 2019 by GrandGreen

FirefightnRick · February 19, 2019

19 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Agree with most everything, other than your assessment of Draper is way off base. He looks plenty athletic to me and plays adequate defense. He is only 5'10 and that is certainly a liability, but he plays as hard as anyone on the team. As for as the scholarship, he deserves it a lot more than several others who have them.

Agree. Saturday DJ had two of the most amazing reverse fall-away layups I’ve seen in a long time. One of the hardest playing dudes on the team.

Rick

Censored by Laurie · February 19, 2019

13 hours ago, MeanGreenHoops said:

Interesting take on Smart, leaving, why'd you say that?

gut feeling. I think his contribution...or maybe better, the team's reliance on his contribution...is already looking minimized next season given Gibson's rapid maturation as a scorer. I've noticed he takes the brunt of GM's ire and criticism after poor play and I wonder if it's not in his head to just go down a level, get 30 shots a game and ball out his senior season (see Michael Sturns).

MeanGreenHoops · February 19, 2019

10 hours ago, Censored by Laurie said:

I've noticed he takes the brunt of GM's ire and criticism after poor play

Yeah I've definitely noticed that too. It seems like Rose might need a hug at this point rather than continued ire.

UNTLifer · February 19, 2019

1 hour ago, MeanGreenHoops said:

Yeah I've definitely noticed that too. It seems like Rose might need a hug at this point rather than continued ire.

Or maybe he should listen to McCasland and let his game mature.

greenminer · February 19, 2019

45 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Or maybe he should listen to McCasland and let his game mature.

Are you suggesting Rose is not listening, or acting defiantly?

UNTLifer · February 19, 2019

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

Are you suggesting Rose is not listening, or acting defiantly?

No, but he plays out of control at times. He had such success last year, that it could, not saying it did, effect his game where he kind of thinks everything will drop for him. I would just like to see him play more under control and let the game come to him.

Shark84 · February 19, 2019

I think it is all confidence with Rose. If you notice how many of his 3's are just rimming out. He isn't shooting near as many off balance air ball three's as last year. I think he has to get that confidence and swag back. I think driving to the basket and getting to the FT line would help. Sure need him to get back to where he was last year to have a real shot at making noise in Frisco. Go Mean Green!