Poor Coaching Last Night....

[Wicks]

I must say that last night was a pretty darn pathetic coaching effort by Heath last night. We get a team from sea level who has to fly clear across the country on short notice and we lay an egg at home. Why on earth did we not press the pace of the game the whole time? Why walk the ball up the court versus a half-court team? Both Heath and Steve when they got here said they would take advantage of the altitude and run a system that pressed on D and ran an up-tempo offense. Well it's been ten years and i'm still waiting!!!!!

[cheypoke]

I agree. That was embarassing. I mouthed off yesterday about the Pokes winning by 10or more. With the long travel, altitude, etc I figured this should have been an easy win. But the Pokes didnt seem to care, Shroyer had no clue.

[McPeachy]

Wicks...I don't think 100% of the blame goes on coaching...the players were flat and uninspired. They didn't look like they wanted to be there, but instead wanted to be chasing ass somewhere in Mexico like every other spring break college kid.

Motivation comes from within...

[sharpshooter]

Less than 2500 fans in the stands....
I wouldn't have put the jersey on last night...
Ouch...
Uninspired from players to coaches...

[wellpoke]

I agree. Uninspired, lackadaisical play and coaching. Soft passes, no fire, and no changes made until too late. Waddell was the only one who seemed to really want to be playing, until Ewing finally tried to put the game on his shoulders. By then it was too late. Ogirri should have been sitting after the first five minutes when he wasn't hitting anything and didn't play defense to save his life. Davis, Thiam, and Waddell all have got to grow up a lot during the offseason and quit making those silly mistakes (passes out of bounds!!) if we intend to have any shot at all next season.

Why on earth did we not press the pace of the game the whole time? Why walk the ball up the court versus a half-court team?

I've been asking the same question for ten years Wicks. I'm tired of talk of "run-and-gun" teams that refuse to play that way. Running around the perimeter and driving to the bucket hoping for a foul doesn't qualify as "run-and-gun" in my book. We need to take advantage of our altitude in all sports, and I have yet to really see it happen.

Here's hoping we see some improvement for next year, and it's time to look forward to spring football!

GO POKES!

[bladerunnr]

I'm going to defend Heath (there's a first time for everything) for a minute. We have one of the thinnest benches in the league. Only Thiam and Davis see any meaningful minutes. It's pretty hard to play a hard up tempo game when Ewing and Ogirri have to play nearly the whole game.

Dermody played really well against CSU but appeared to get injured again. I don't believe he played a minute in the mwc tournament. We really need him healthy next year. 7 players in an up tempo game is not enough.

I thought the team's intensity the last couple of weeks has been really good. They just ran out of gas.

This tourney is a bad idea imo. The NIT may be ok, but getting motivated for this seems questionable.

[Wyolie Coyote]

If we only have 7 players, who does that fall back on? What in the hell is going on with having 3 available players sit for the entire game, every game. If Schroyer wants to run, then he should recruit accordingly. Was Linskens ever going to fit into an up-tempo game? Why did we waste a scholarship on Diakite? I do believe it is Schroyer's responsibility to have more than 7 players in his rotation. That supposedly was what the weak nonconference schedule was for, to get these guys ready to play minutes and form a rotation for conference and beyond.

[JimmyDimes]

If we only have 7 players, who does that fall back on? What in the hell is going on with having 3 available players sit for the entire game, every game. If Schroyer wants to run, then he should recruit accordingly. Was Linskens ever going to fit into an up-tempo game? Why did we waste a scholarship on Diakite? I do believe it is Schroyer's responsibility to have more than 7 players in his rotation. That supposedly was what the weak nonconference schedule was for, to get these guys ready to play minutes and form a rotation for conference and beyond.

It falls back on McClain to be honest. Heath is working with the hand he was dealt. He is missing scholarships due to the lack of academic success of previous teams. He also showed a couple players the door last year knowing he could get better players. He did, but they are on the bench sitting out a year. Linskens are Diakite are not good and should be shown the door. Linskens was Heaths first recruit and hasn't panned out. Diakite sucks and was probably brought in as a filler...similar to Tyson Johnson. It is evident Heath doesn't like the JC route, but he needed to due to lack of depth when he took over.

The schedule was soft because we had no depth. Only two players who played many minutes played at all last year. Our rotatation is 3 seniors and 4 underclassmen. We'll have better depth next year, but will be very young with only Dermondy (hopefully) being the only upperclassman.

Sometimes is is good to know what you're bitching about.

[wellpoke]

JimmyDimes, I get what you're saying, but how long is this going to be McClain's fault? Yeah, the program was in shambles when Schroyer took over, but things seem to have turned around academically. So good for Schroyer, but he still needs to recruit for his system. Is his evaluation of talent that suspect? If Linskens and Diakite aren't going to pan out and will be run off in the offseason, why were they recruited? What role were they to fill if not to lengthen the bench?

I'm not against Heath, and I wasn't a McClain fan, but I'm just confused at to the type of system he wants to run, and the type of player he wants to recruit. So far, it's not much different than McClain, except for the acadmic issues, and we all know how well that panned out for us.

Some of us may not know of which we bitch, but we know what we see on the floor. And for the most part, I'm unimpressed.

[wyopokesfan23]

I don't think it's fair to say Diakite should never have been recruited. He was one of the highest rated JC players in the nation and I remember reading a recruiting magazine sayin that he WILL be in the NBA someday. Whos to say he won't pan out anyways? Was Tyson a huge contributor when he first got here from JC? No. And when it comes to Linskins. I doubt he will ever pan out but it's definitely possible. He has the size and can shoot.

[JimmyDimes]

JimmyDimes, I get what you're saying, but how long is this going to be McClain's fault? Yeah, the program was in shambles when Schroyer took over, but things seem to have turned around academically. So good for Schroyer, but he still needs to recruit for his system. Is his evaluation of talent that suspect? If Linskens and Diakite aren't going to pan out and will be run off in the offseason, why were they recruited? What role were they to fill if not to lengthen the bench?

I'm not against Heath, and I wasn't a McClain fan, but I'm just confused at to the type of system he wants to run, and the type of player he wants to recruit. So far, it's not much different than McClain, except for the acadmic issues, and we all know how well that panned out for us.

Some of us may not know of which we bitch, but we know what we see on the floor. And for the most part, I'm unimpressed.

The lack of depth is what I was referring to. McClain didn't recruit well or didn't make his players learn toward the end of his tenure. When Heath showed up, who did we have?

I think he expected more out of Linskens and Diakite. But, if you've watched the games, these two didn't do anything to impress.

I like the recruits Heath is bringing in and think he deserves to have his players in place to run his sytem. Next year we'll have pass first point guards, a big time JC scorer (he'll only be a sophmore), and the biggest guy to have ever worn the Brown and Gold. Sylla alone will solve some of our problems in the post. This will allow Adam to play PF, and think he has some post moves to be successful. Add in Afam, AJ, and Djbil and now we're talking about building a strong foundation.

I know the product on the floor wasn't the best, but it was an improvement over last year. I see improvement and better recruits coming in. Building a program from the ground floor takes time. If we don't see significant improvements in two years (the team will be loaded with juniors and sophmores), then I'll start thinking we made a bad hire.

To me, last night was on the players and their lack of motivation....especially from a couple seniors who were playing in their last college game.

[Wyolie Coyote]

He recruited Linksens and the Greek the first year. He recruited Diakite. He has two scholarships sitting in street clothes. If there is a lack of depth, it is his own fault. Nothing to do with McClain at this point. We were only short one scholarship during this time.

As for whoever thought Tyson did not produce in year 1, he did for the conference season. He was solid during conference play last year and played a lot of minutes. Diakite hasn't had his warmups off since December. The scouts all said he had NBA potential but Schroyer has done nothing to involve him or develop him. Now we are sitting on a scholarship for a senior with practically no D1 experience.

[cheypoke]

I'm a bit perplexed by the Diakite issue too. There were plenty of opportunites for him to have gotten some quality minutes in games.