DooleyBull06

Not a fan of this. The Anderson part specifically

Also this, gotta be able to shoot to win nowadays.

I’m not mistaken don’t the Mac teams split money the further a team goes in the dance? I could be wrong there.

Oh we def were. We were the darlings for a night then UMBC happened. Remember Arizona was public enemy number 1 bc of the scandal they were going through too.

Totally agree with you…and as many here have mentioned, had they not been winning would things be different? Bc they have taken every wrong step from a PR stand point. And Nate looks completely overwhelmed and arrogant. But hey they have a shot at a title. A bigger question is, if culture was a reason Whitesell got canned, do we wanna bring in Hogdson?

I’m going to agree with some/most of this and disagree with a little bit. I think the article’s point about scoring was that it was down each year from Oats final year. So while yes we were 50th in scoring, the point was that the scoring was 7 points down from the 84 a game under Oats. And this years scoring was down 2 from last year. Bad trend. Coupled with excessive turnovers and a defense that allowed a lot of ppg…we got what we got. As for recruiting, I agree. The point of the article was and you hit it , where was recruiting going. The staff had no plan. No building plan. Do we target high schools kids? Transfers? They had no philosophy. And in the end it’s why we had a mix match of players who truly had no real chemistry on the court. As for culture, whether it’s fair or not, the staff is always accountable for the actions of their players. Unfair but true. The Mballa situation was very bad. Was proof that Whitesell had no control. He brought in the coach. That absolutely falls on Whitesell. And luckily that wasn’t worse for us as a program than it was. Culture wise, Whitesell seemed like he let the players do what they wanted. To me from afar, it was evident with the play on the court. Whitesell was their good cop and had no bad cop on the staff. Whereas under Oats, he could be the good cop to Oats bad cop. So while yes the team played hard they were wildly undisciplined. Finally, as for big games, I think any big 4 game is a big game. And while yes I agree we don’t get high major teams here, we get decent action at alumni. For example, there’s no excuse why the game against Colgate only drew less than 2k. Why? I think the MAC has tried to step up with having games on a Friday night. All games are televised and some end up on ESPNU or CBSSN. We are a mid major that can’t get majors to come here, suck it up that’s life. We need to offset that by scheduling home and homes, 2 for 1s or just looking for up and coming mid majors and battling them. Like we did with Colgate. Also we should take a trip to the nyc area. We never do that. Get creative! There are ways around it. Enough with high school teams. Hell be a buy game. It pays the bills and could be a way to build money to eventually buy a home game.

Toledo lost to Michigan in the NIT. They were up five at half but they don’t play any defense what so ever and let Michigan score 90.

I feel like he’s an 8 year senior. Just graduate already!

Hopefully it is and it’s filled with lots of winning before the coach leaves us for a bigger job.

To me, the move to fire Whitesell was a realization that the program was spiraling. And they axed him before it got worse and out of control. Right now as the article said, we are a reclamation project. We all could see that this needed to be done. Perhaps maybe a year sooner, but it was done sooner rather than later. And now we look forward.

Wow I stand corrected about coaches interviewing.

This is exactly what he did here. Horns clear was staple of our offense. I while say this…notice how every offensive possession includes ball screens. It’s a must. Not just iso ball.

Same here. I felt no connection to this team. So I’m right there with you.

Then basically what you are saying is that Whitesell failed at recruiting. Because he brought these guys in. So obviously he’s a terrible talent evaluator.

Not to get nitpicky but that’s a little different. Lance was in D2 or whatever and he was the head coach and like a legend there. And it most likely was just coaching one game. Not potentially 6. And since, the landscape of college athletics has really changed. Doubt Oats would let Hodgson interview while trying to make a title run.

The previous two comments are interesting. I’ll tackle them this way. I agree with @Tee4threeabout giving them playing time. Why didn’t they get playing time? Rhetorical question. They should’ve been given time when healthy. We should know what we got in a player after two years. That wasn’t the case with blocker, Williamson and Mading. Super frustrating. Sometimes you gotta learn and grow while making mistakes. And to @UBinMDpoints. Both are great. Jo Smith provided more veteran presence. But if the staff knew this was a development year then why not play everyone. In the end that could’ve saved Whitesell’s job. Instead he went with the win now approach and exposed himself and the roster in terms of lack of player development.

Players should always be allowed to transfer if a coach leaves. It’s like they are making an agreement to each. Anyways, about Mading…we never got to see him play or develop to determine what he could do on the floor. Yet another issue with player development regarding the staff.

The longer it goes the speculation becomes that it’s a coach on a team still playing in the big dance. Otherwise you assume would could move quickly in our interview process.

This is gonna be a complete restart. Honestly would like it that way. Full blown rebuild from the ground up.

100% agree with this take.

Following up…

I think in a day and age of the portal, you have to get the players on the floor for fear of losing them. Double edged sword bc if they perform well they will portal anyway.

Probably was behind this too

He was so highly touted. I blame his lack of development on the coaching staff.

He’s bouncing too.