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There are legitimate concerns. The problem is that when everything is a concern for you and everything is terrible all the time well it kind of loses its impact. As for Jesef’s post that you quoted, I agree. We need to be better at home next season. I think that we will once fans are back in the seats, along with having a very strong roster packed with seniors. I’ll never understand people who choose to be so negative, especially with an amateur sport where KIDS come and play for the university, giving their all for free. As for the paid staff, time will tell if Whitesell was the right hire. So far the sample size is 2 years. 1) where we lost 4 starting seniors and our best 6th man in history, along with the entire recruiting class when Oats left, and 2) the year of covid where the season was a disjointed mess from the start and we still got to the MAC championship and a birth in the NIT. Am I disappointed we lost our final 2 games? Of course. But I’m also trying to be objective and rational about the situation. To expect the team to magically carry on the success of oats after losing Massinburg Harris Perkins Carothers and McCrae is not realistic. If you think that it is I don’t know what to tell you. If Whitesell can get a couple high level guards in the off-season everything will be just fine despite all the doom and gloom on this board.

I have had a chance to compile some stats. The first chart shows pace under Whitesell and Oats limited to MAC conference games to lessen any distortion that may be caused by non-conference opponents. This shows that the 'Pace' for first two years under Whitesell is comparable to the last two under Oats (~75 possessions per game). As each team will generally have the same number of possessions in each game it is useful to see how many points per possession you score vs what you allow. The following is chart showing Points Per Possession on offense: You will see that our offensive efficiency improved this year relative to last year, but was less than 2018 and 2019 seasons. Our points per possession improved during 2021 - as some of the early season issues were addressed. One area that prevented us from doing more with our possessions during 2021 was turnovers which we will need to address in 2022 to improve upon this year. Hopefully we continue the good work on offensive rebounding. On defensive side, points per possession allowed was comparable to Oats last year and in my opinion a positive to take away from this past season. Again, hope we can force a few more turnovers in 2022 and continue defensive rebounding.

That announcer in Championship game was on crack. Preston had a ridiculous first half against us, no doubt, but when that guy kept saying NBA talent, I felt that was a bit of an overreaction

I also think that we have a disconnect- most people on this board weren't up in arms during the extended solid play late in the year, including those (count me among them) who are skeptical about JW. What's more, I don't think a conference tournament finals loss is cause for panic. That said, all of the reasons listed that we lost that game (lack of depth, lack of shooting) are due to failure of JW to recruit or bringing in athletes that gave the program a black eye (kidnapping, stabbing rival player) and failed to contribute. I was a Reggie supporter and defender until the very end. I thought he had brought the program to a level we were lucky to reach and had done so with integrity. I was proud of the athletes that represented our school. Having seen the past two tenures, however, I want and expect more. When my coach says (paraphrasing): "We just lost BVP on that inbounds, hat tip to Ohio. They made some plays"- I want to tear my hair out. Can you imagine either of our last two coaches reacting in this manner? They'd immediately follow that our play, in that situation, wasn't good enough, was unacceptable. He seems to have no sense or urgency or have a set of expectations for these "kids." I don't think you get the job done without demanding better- either as a coach or as fans of a program. One more year- NCAA or start fresh.

Am I the only one that gets nervous when I see an update on this thread?

Gotcha. I see McRea and I think if Javon naturally. Montell did a great job for us.

Practices start today. Closed to media so updates will come from the department.

Lighten up Francis, it’s getting old

Not that I don’t like Alnutt, I do, but what has he done here to raise his stock like that? Retained Leipold and Jack, and internal hire of Whitesell. Not sure how the university has done on athletics fundraising since he took over, but by and large everything has seemed to stay status quo in his short tenure