End the Season
Yes, you are correct Coach Wright recruited them, but as an assistant coach you suggest players to the head coach and they agree or disagree with your recruits. How many recruits were brought to Coach Mo's attention that were better than the current players and were passed over? How quickly we forget the complaints about how Coach Mo was slow about signing recruits and was basically signing year by year (last minute)so assistants were scrambling for 3-4 players for the next season when most schools are recruiting for 2 years down the road. I am not disagreeing that Coach Mo did a great job while at WIU, but the team with CC & Terrell were born winners and leaders. I could have coached them and they would have one. We seem to forget Coach Mo's first season with the current players. Did we start a thread to fire him after basically 2 seasons? If Coach Wright loses with players he has control over recruiting beginning with Brandon and DeLo then a topic on this subject is warranted.
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sealhall74
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End the season? Not even an option. I hope this thread initiator is not working on a Masters in Philosophy.
Billy's current problem is the exact same one Mo had and many mid-majors have. Simply not enough bench talent. When substitutions happen, it usually is not a simple one for one change position wise as the the "3 guy" moves to 4, 4 to 5, sometimes you end up with 2 PGs on court, etc. It is a freaking clusterfuck at best - difficult to find any rhythm on offense and you end up with mismatches on defense.
Having personally witnessed our one game and very embarrassing appearance in Sioux Falls last year and given where we are at this point in season, I think it would be a serious mistake to play out the rest of the year just to try and scratch out the two or three wins required to qualify for tournament. The current senior players would no doubt disagree with me on this one or at least I hope they would. But sooner or later a struggling coach must bite the bullet during the season and starting prepping for the future. That means giving the young kids (especially his own recruits) more PT. If you are in that frame of mind, then it also means turning on the off-season strength and conditioning work maybe a little earlier than normal. Being a Division I athlete is a year-round endeavor. That is enough of my own philosophy for today. Now I have about 28" of snow to work on.
Billy's current problem is the exact same one Mo had and many mid-majors have. Simply not enough bench talent. When substitutions happen, it usually is not a simple one for one change position wise as the the "3 guy" moves to 4, 4 to 5, sometimes you end up with 2 PGs on court, etc. It is a freaking clusterfuck at best - difficult to find any rhythm on offense and you end up with mismatches on defense.
Having personally witnessed our one game and very embarrassing appearance in Sioux Falls last year and given where we are at this point in season, I think it would be a serious mistake to play out the rest of the year just to try and scratch out the two or three wins required to qualify for tournament. The current senior players would no doubt disagree with me on this one or at least I hope they would. But sooner or later a struggling coach must bite the bullet during the season and starting prepping for the future. That means giving the young kids (especially his own recruits) more PT. If you are in that frame of mind, then it also means turning on the off-season strength and conditioning work maybe a little earlier than normal. Being a Division I athlete is a year-round endeavor. That is enough of my own philosophy for today. Now I have about 28" of snow to work on.
Embrace the pace of the race.
1. That's not an option...pretty sure the conference (and maybe the NCAA) would have something to say about that.
2. Like Seal said...if we consider this season a complete bust (which it technically isn't yet, Denver and USD only have 2 conference wins...if we're able to put together a few wins, we could still make the conference tournament), then the focus should shift to getting the younger players in and getting them playing time. You work on starting to improve for next year rather than trying to scrape out a few wins at the end of the season.
In the past 20 years, we've had two seasons with fewer wins than we already have (5 in '00/'01, 3 in '03/'04) and 4 other seasons where we finished with our current win total. I think that it's hitting people pretty hard this year because we started stronger than we ever have and then have just fallen "off a cliff". It's disappointing, since it looked like we could really go somewhere with this team, but it's just not going to happen this year...but that doesn't mean that something good can't be gained by focusing on what we need to do to be better for next year.
2. Like Seal said...if we consider this season a complete bust (which it technically isn't yet, Denver and USD only have 2 conference wins...if we're able to put together a few wins, we could still make the conference tournament), then the focus should shift to getting the younger players in and getting them playing time. You work on starting to improve for next year rather than trying to scrape out a few wins at the end of the season.
In the past 20 years, we've had two seasons with fewer wins than we already have (5 in '00/'01, 3 in '03/'04) and 4 other seasons where we finished with our current win total. I think that it's hitting people pretty hard this year because we started stronger than we ever have and then have just fallen "off a cliff". It's disappointing, since it looked like we could really go somewhere with this team, but it's just not going to happen this year...but that doesn't mean that something good can't be gained by focusing on what we need to do to be better for next year.
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
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Neckfansince71
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I think the cliff the Necks fell off can be given the name, "reality!" For me personally there was about a two-week period where it seemed to be the "Year of the Leatherneck!" The win at Wisconsin was one for the ages!!! I mean who in their right mind would expect the Necks to beat the Badgers in year two of the "Wright" building project. The Badgers were ranked, hoisting their final four flag in front of a packed home crowd, I mean what could be better? And then for them, the roof fell in! The Necks were receiving votes, something in my lifetime we have never experienced, they were also ranked in the Mid-Major poll. About the same time the football team miraculously received a bid to the "FCS big dance” and a date with Dayton. Of course there were some red flags for basketball as they suffered 30 point defeats at Creighton and Iowa, but some how, some of us just shrugged our shoulders and thought, “well that’s okay!” As a Leatherneck fan I was happy as a lark to drive to Bloomington/Normal for round two against the Redbirds, and I left for home that afternoon with a feeling that for Bob Neilson’s football team, the best was still yet to come.
It was a wonderful 2 weeks. And then to my dismay, all hell broke loose. At first it was just a “have you heard anything” comment about Coach N having an affair with South Dakota, and my gut reaction was, “what, no way!” Then the news broke and things seemed to just spin out of control. Without the internet we would have never really known what really and supposedly went on, but we live in an age of information, some of it good and some of it bad! The loss to Chicago State (presently 0-6, 4-19 in the WAC) for me was frustrating, a win that was within reach. I felt better about Loyola after seeing the Necks compete for 4 quarters at a high level. But currently the Ramblers (2-6, 9-11 in the MVC) have really fared no better! We saw a 10-point lead at Omaha just disintegrate in a matter of minutes and this has basically become the norm. The Leathernecks have hung tight till the end only to have a mistake, or a missed shot or free-throw, or a poor possession hurt them at the end. The 29-5 run at South Dakota was not as much about good shots as made shots. If the Coyote shots don’t fall, the fans start screaming about poor possessions and bad use of the shot clock. This thing called “basketball coaching” is not easy. In high school its all about families in town, in D1 its all about athletes recruited. In both its about shots made!!! Coach Wright was Mo’s best recruiter and he will get it done! Big men take time, a lot of time to develop at this level. If they walk in polished, they are playing somewhere else. Our big men are just going to get better with time and commitment, and as Seal says, bulk! Both of our early-commits can shoot the rock which should equate to baskets. So yes it is difficult to watch to the end because we have a tendency to hold our breath just waiting for the other shoe to drop! But let’s play this thing out. We have a committed coaching staff and players. If they are not committed or “all in” they will not be around. Enough said!
jc
Ps. The Derek Thomas comment made earlier is not even close. I watched his staff and players and it was obvious to me that the “players” were doing their own thing with little class while the staff had little control!
It was a wonderful 2 weeks. And then to my dismay, all hell broke loose. At first it was just a “have you heard anything” comment about Coach N having an affair with South Dakota, and my gut reaction was, “what, no way!” Then the news broke and things seemed to just spin out of control. Without the internet we would have never really known what really and supposedly went on, but we live in an age of information, some of it good and some of it bad! The loss to Chicago State (presently 0-6, 4-19 in the WAC) for me was frustrating, a win that was within reach. I felt better about Loyola after seeing the Necks compete for 4 quarters at a high level. But currently the Ramblers (2-6, 9-11 in the MVC) have really fared no better! We saw a 10-point lead at Omaha just disintegrate in a matter of minutes and this has basically become the norm. The Leathernecks have hung tight till the end only to have a mistake, or a missed shot or free-throw, or a poor possession hurt them at the end. The 29-5 run at South Dakota was not as much about good shots as made shots. If the Coyote shots don’t fall, the fans start screaming about poor possessions and bad use of the shot clock. This thing called “basketball coaching” is not easy. In high school its all about families in town, in D1 its all about athletes recruited. In both its about shots made!!! Coach Wright was Mo’s best recruiter and he will get it done! Big men take time, a lot of time to develop at this level. If they walk in polished, they are playing somewhere else. Our big men are just going to get better with time and commitment, and as Seal says, bulk! Both of our early-commits can shoot the rock which should equate to baskets. So yes it is difficult to watch to the end because we have a tendency to hold our breath just waiting for the other shoe to drop! But let’s play this thing out. We have a committed coaching staff and players. If they are not committed or “all in” they will not be around. Enough said!
jcPs. The Derek Thomas comment made earlier is not even close. I watched his staff and players and it was obvious to me that the “players” were doing their own thing with little class while the staff had little control!
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sealhall74
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We have to be very careful about using that "All In" idiom. Some highly-educated people might get the wrong impression (i.e. definition #1 instead of #3):
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/all+in
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/all+in
Embrace the pace of the race.
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Neckfansince71
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That damn bracket buster game against Wright State! 
jc
jc