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Post by keithfromxenia on Dec 9, 2011 15:30:37 GMT -5
tavarus has 15,15,14 &12" in four games. cannot find boxscore for airforce. florida game he got 8" and was getting schooled by their big men on defense. we still had a shot (sort of) so bd played him little. he was terrible against north florida and played little. he almost did not play at all against ysu. not sure why but i would bet bd had a reason. anyway, i am not sure what you are complaining about with tavaras. and i think his minutes will continue to go up as johan's go down (i hope). why don't you call bd at his show and ask him. but i will guarantee you this, he may be a young rookie coach, but he knows more about hoops and more about our players that you, me and the rest of the posters together. when i stop trusting his judgement i will start calling for his removal.
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Post by Glory Days on Dec 9, 2011 21:02:23 GMT -5
tavarus has 15,15,14 &12" in four games. cannot find boxscore for airforce. florida game he got 8" and was getting schooled by their big men on defense. we still had a shot (sort of) so bd played him little. he was terrible against north florida and played little. he almost did not play at all against ysu. not sure why but i would bet bd had a reason. anyway, i am not sure what you are complaining about with tavaras. I said I was using Sledge as an example. I think he has shown some nice steady improvment this year. I think much of that is due to the game experience he has been getting against good big men because he cannot get that type of experience vs our big men at practice. THAT WAS AN EXAMPLE. Now apply that example to the rest of the freshmen. Many of us have been saying that you cannot simulate that game experience for our young guys at practice because we don't have those experienced players they have to go up against to try to improve their game. So once again, I agree with Wolf and Raider Grad. I would like all of our young guys to be given a chance to play in games. And all any of us has said is we would like each guy to get around 5 minutes a game. |
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Post by keithfromxenia on Dec 14, 2011 12:16:42 GMT -5
and once again i will say it. this isn't little league baseball. everybody has to play 3 innings. they earn their minutes in practice and if a player hasn't earned them he won't get them. believe me, they understand it, only some fans don't.
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Post by keithfromxenia on Dec 15, 2011 6:46:12 GMT -5
yep, and i am watching our team closely and i do not see any "gamers".
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Post by Bomber on Dec 15, 2011 7:32:25 GMT -5
Keith,
Coach Donlon is FAR from perfect and although he sees these kids at practice all of the time, that doesn't mean he is making the correct decisions on playing time. You said playing time is earned at practice. I believe that is true to an extent. I think you earn the chance to get onto the court in a game based on how you practice. I think that is it. How well you perform when you are actually in the real game should determine how much playing time you get. I think that is what is really frustrating our fans. We have several kids who play major minutes and aren't producing anything. Early in the year Mpondo and Balwigaire were both playing major minutes and producing next to nothing. Personally, I would rather watch a freshman make some mistakes in games knowing that is going to make him a better player in the future than to watch an upperclassman do nothing on the court. With the freshman, I feel like we are building for the future. With the upperclassman, I feel like we are wasting our time on someone who isn't helping us AND slowing the development of our underclassmen.
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Post by cincyraider on Dec 15, 2011 11:36:36 GMT -5
I agree game performance is what matters. Depth is one of the strengths of this team and I am surprised that the coaches do not utilize it more.
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Post by getrowdy44 on Dec 15, 2011 14:07:42 GMT -5
yep, and i am watching our team closely and i do not see any "gamers". Absolutely agree. Not one player on this team has the ability to take control of the game, or is anywhere close to a "gamer" status. I would like to be optimistic about what this team could do in the future, but I really don't see players on our roster that are going to take this team somewhere. |
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Post by CincyDrummer on Dec 15, 2011 14:27:17 GMT -5
yep, and i am watching our team closely and i do not see any "gamers". Absolutely agree. Not one player on this team has the ability to take control of the game, or is anywhere close to a "gamer" status. I would like to be optimistic about what this team could do in the future, but I really don't see players on our roster that are going to take this team somewhere. I have to agree with you. I am baffled as to why there are some that are continually amazed at the "level of talent" that our squad has. What?? Show me. Sure, I see some talent, or talent that could be developed over years, but perhaps my idea of talent has changed after watching what was essentially UC's "2nd string" smash our faces into the court last night. I would be thrilled to have even 1 of those guys on our squad. I think a UC fan summed it up well last night. A WSU student and this UC fan got into a little spat, where the fan's response was "It's because you're in the Horizon League. This is Big East basketball, buddy." The WSU student was quiet until he left early. |
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Post by wolf41 on Dec 15, 2011 15:34:01 GMT -5
Cincy, I think you are seriously wrong in saying we played UC's "second string." The only first team player not present was Gates, the other 4 were there and scoring while playing major minutes. They had 5 guys in double figures and a sixth player with 9. So obviously their starting 4 contributed significantly to their "W".
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Post by getrowdy44 on Dec 15, 2011 22:56:16 GMT -5
Absolutely agree. Not one player on this team has the ability to take control of the game, or is anywhere close to a "gamer" status. I would like to be optimistic about what this team could do in the future, but I really don't see players on our roster that are going to take this team somewhere. I have to agree with you. I am baffled as to why there are some that are continually amazed at the "level of talent" that our squad has. What?? Show me. Sure, I see some talent, or talent that could be developed over years, but perhaps my idea of talent has changed after watching what was essentially UC's "2nd string" smash our faces into the court last night. I would be thrilled to have even 1 of those guys on our squad. I think a UC fan summed it up well last night. A WSU student and this UC fan got into a little spat, where the fan's response was "It's because you're in the Horizon League. This is Big East basketball, buddy." The WSU student was quiet until he left early. I think part of the problem with perception is that we have been spoiled as fans over the years. With the likes of Dashaun Wood, Vaughn Duggins, Todd Brown, Cory Cooperwood, Scottie Wilson, etc... we have had some great talent the last 5 years and have had a lot of success. We are used to seeing our guys shoot lights out at the Nut and play lock down D and that just isn't happening right now. We no longer have a single player on our roster that can produce like these guys did on the court. It sure would be nice to see some development and see guys come out and play like a Vaughn Duggins did. Obviously this isn't going to happen overnight, but if guys would just give the 110% effort that Vaughn gave I think we would look a lot better. |
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Post by Raider Country on Dec 17, 2011 11:33:05 GMT -5
I think Coach Donlon made 3 pretty big mistakes this past year that is killing us this season.
1. He didn't prepare last year's freshmen class to step up this year. We had 4 seniors on our roster last year and he completely relied on them. We didn't prep our young players to take over this year.
2. Coach didn't recruit the way he should for such a young team. He played 4 seniors major minutes last year and knew this team was going to have next to no experience. We brought in 6 new recruits: 5 freshmen and 1 JUCO. The JUCO we did sign, Balwigaire, has been less than impressive so far this year. We are red-shirting one of the freshman we brought in, Pritchett. and we are giving Cuffee next to no playing time. Knowing that we were going to have such a young team, we would probably been better served bringing in 2-3 JUCOs this year that could have contributed.
3. Coach over-scheduled. Coach knew what type of team we were going to have this year. If he was ever going to go with a schedule full of cupcakes, this should have been the year to load the front part of our schedule with some beatable teams that we could have picked up some wins against and used to get our young team some game experience where we could have used the games as a chance to coach them up. Starting the year in a tournament vs 2 top 10 teams makes much more sense in 2 years when we have a really experienced team, not this year.
Recruits want to play for a winner. Fans want to follow a winner. We are headed towards a 10-20 type season when we could have made this an above .500 year if we would have recruited smarter and scheduled a little bit lighter. I think Coach Donlon is going to have a hard time signing a great class in 2013 and I think we are taking a huge step backwards with building a fanbase for the remainder of this year and even next year. I hope Coach learns from this for the future because I really like Donlon and want him to be successful here.
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Post by wolf41 on Dec 17, 2011 13:20:22 GMT -5
I generally with all of your observations, especially regarding the schedule. I welcome the tougher schedule for the future, but for this season a somewhat weaker schedule would have been preferable given our inexperience. I had also hoped for more JC players, especially a center or forward.
But that ship has sailed, and we are who we are. Right now I agree that I would give Cuffee more court time in every game. The guy was first team all state in WV. I'm not expecting Jerry West, but I'm sure he has talent that can help us. If that means Reggie plays less than 30 minutes per game, so be it. Reggie is good and can get hot, but his frequent mistakes, getting past picks, etc. are all costly over the course of the game. I think his speed and quickness could be a good infusion when coming off the bench, but the Coach is the boss, so let the games begin.
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Post by Rush the Court on Dec 17, 2011 20:14:03 GMT -5
I think Donlon really needs to think about his job security. Grant is going to give him a long leash this year knowing that we have a young team. I see that leash getting much shorter next year as Grant and our fanbase are going to expect some results on the court. Donlon needs to decide which of these players is going to be able to help us going forward and start developing their skills. He also needs to take a hard look at who isn't helping this team and decide if he is going to renew everyone's scholarship for next year or does he need to bring in some new guys for next year.
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Post by Raider4Life on Dec 17, 2011 20:17:28 GMT -5
I think Donlon really needs to think about his job security. Grant is going to give him a long leash this year knowing that we have a young team. I see that leash getting much shorter next year as Grant and our fanbase are going to expect some results on the court. Donlon needs to decide which of these players is going to be able to help us going forward and start developing their skills. He also needs to take a hard look at who isn't helping this team and decide if he is going to renew everyone's scholarship for next year or does he need to bring in some new guys for next year. I don't think Donlon would not renew someone's scholarship. |
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Post by Rush the Court on Dec 17, 2011 20:19:08 GMT -5
I don't think Donlon would not renew someone's scholarship. I don't think Cartharn or Clark left last year on their own. |
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