I'm tired of the CBI just as much as you Beav. But when your team dynamic shifts exponentially, you will struggle.
Do you want to put lack of depth on Shy? You can if you want, but he doesn't control a player wanting to transfer, or where they transfer to. You know as well as I do that they lack of depth occurred when the team he enheritted disbanded. That would cause a hiccup for ANY coach. He's had to build against lack of depth for four years, along with having players transfer, quit, get injured or just down right have to get kicked off the team.
You want to talk recruiting getting better every year. Then consider this, our starting point in Grabau, with as well as he does, and as well as he plays within himself and has bettered himself would be the "Jack Bentz" of any of the MWC's top schools. At UNLV, SDSU, probably even UNM or CSU, he'd never see a lick of playing time.
Now, don't get me wrong I like the kid, but he can't beat you off the dribble, he can't force bad shot, he's not a threat to steal the ball, he's one step too slow to stay in front of most athletic guards. And he cannot penetrate, if he could he'd be forcing fouls and our best free throw shooter would be going to the line as much as Adams.
Adams was the very nex year, and between the two guards, it's night and day. I jus read on here, someone stated that even UNLV fans wish they had him. Because he can do all those things.
Now, four years ago, we were more religated to getting a PG like Grabau. Four years later we're going and getting a guy like Conway, who I honestly believe will run circles around Grabau's overall numbers, exception, maybe Grabau's free throw shooting percentage, but not the overall attempts.
We are now bringing in players that other competition wanted. Liebs, Gorski, Barnes. These guys have GREAT upside to them. And the benefit, they will actually be coached up, not allowed to run rampant and out of control.
So when we're senior heavy and still predicted sixth, this could be a factor. On occasion we hit a diamond in the rough that becomes a teams star player. Unranked Nance, and unranked Adams. But it takes more than that. We are have since left the recruiting realm of the unranked possible diamonds in the rough, and we are now getting some credible recruits. But all our potential with exception. Of Adams is either a freshman or in high school still.
Have we identified depth as an issue year after year? Yes, time and again. Have we addressed those areas lacking in depth, absolutely. Are they young, with their own chances to show they can be just as good as Adams or Nance and not just a role player like Grabau of Herndon? Yeah.
Because of all this, I questioned how good this team could actually be from the start. 24-7 if we were on our "A" game. By 7-0 you were touting how this team should have no less than 26-28 wins and an NCAA appearance. You over excel where this program is and want things (like we all do) by dreaming too big. Then your bubble bursts!
I questioned the other two dynamics of the season, conf play and road games. I was still questioning this team by their two road losses in OOC play. You still had us blowing by everyone in conf play. We held our own and beat CSU at CSU, that's when I began to think that if nothing happened to us the bottom wouldn't drop out on us. I was okay with the SDSU losses, even okay with USU on the road. Then mono takes our star and sixth man, that is the equivent of UNLV not only losing Vaughn, but him and McCaw. Big difference. The mono, whether you would like to consider it an excuse or not, caused us to go on this 2-4 stint. Without the incident, we are probably 4-2 here at this juncture or better. The biggest or littlest things can affect a season. But one thing is for sure...
The season is not over. And the future is bright.
