Chris Datres

2 hours ago, TSU88 said:

If Embeya struggles, as freshman sometimes do, or if he gets in foul trouble, that leaves Paar having to possibly play significant minutes. Let’s see a show of hands of everyone who’s good with that. There can be no question that there are plenty of bigs in the portal better than Paar. And I’m not talking D1 pie in the sky guys we have no shot at. I’m taking run of the mill D1 guys, D2 guys, NAIA and/or JUCOS. You cannot tell me that out of those categories that we are unable to upgrade over what we currently have 

Maybe this is the impetus we finally need to change the offense and get away from that plodding throw it to the post, back em down game.

Nah, who am I kidding.  That ain't changing.

Luke Murray would be a really good get for any school with an opening.  Hurley calls him the offensive coordinator of those efficient sets and he had the scout for the Purdue game.

3 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Seven penalties. Just lack of discipline and for some reason, they decided to stall with about 11:30 left and stopped going to the goal.

So clockball isn't only for the basketball team?

And now we're getting sloppy.

I just hope you're not sitting near the speaker with the goal horn, Mat.

I love that we have all this offense now.  We had a number of lean years in the last few in that department.

Treating Hofstra like a baby treats a diaper.

I was looking forward to him in a Louisville uniform.

11 hours ago, Tiger93 said:

If you really think that I am not sure why you watch any of the games until the conference tournament. That is 22 games over .500 in 54 conference games (70.3 wining %), which is over half (53.5% to be exact) the games we have played the last three years. I know it is not really a great version of the conference, but it is the one we compete in every year.

I don't say this to stick up for Skerry or try to give us moral victories. I say it because wining in conference play in the regular season is part of the equation for being a good program. I think it is noteworthy.  Not making an NCAA Tournament or having any significant non-conference wins are other parts of the equation, but you can't just ignore the fact that of all the good teams in our conference we are within three games of having the best record the last three years, and are one of only three teams to have finished first or had a share of first in one of those years.

If we hired a new coach would you want them to do well in conference play, or does it just not matter at all to you? I know the NCAA Tournament is what matters most, and that is true for everyone here. However, there are other aspects to being a good program. You can say this coach hasn't done enough to lean on those numbers and that is fine, but having a 70% winning percentage in conference games, which are the most important games we play outside of the conference tournament, does not equate to Spring Training. 

So if the conference season is spring training, do we call the non-con season the Hot Stove League?

Having the NIL all-stars won’t mean anything if they’re not developed correctly or toss up dud efforts.  Supposed ‘meh’ players can be turned into all-conference players with the right development.  We’ve failed with that. 

5 hours ago, TSU88 said:

At the risk of getting excoriated by 1 or 2 people on the board, this is the natural evolution of things. Kelsey stayed a few years at C of C, got them to the tournament 2X, used C of C as a lily pad to a bigger job. And C of C will simply go out and try to get the next Kelsey. Rinse, wash, repeat. 

That's the sign you're a great mid-major program -- have a guy get you to the promised land and then they get hired by a basketball desert and they flame out in 3 years while you reload with another young up-and-comer and do it again a couple years later.  Not many successful mid-majors outside of Gonzaga keep their coaches around longer than 1-2 years after they go to the Tournament since everyone likes to snap up the hot name.  Few realized what he had in Spokane and wasn't swayed by crap programs in major conferences throwing big money figures at him.  You can't blame these guys from a bank account perspective but some of the decisions from a basketball perspective didn't pan out.  

The best parallel example to Skerry is Tod Kowalczyk at Toledo.  I outlined this a couple weeks ago -- He's been there as long as Skerry has been here and Toledo has been the 1 seed in each of the last 4 MAC Tournaments.  They've lost every time.  Their tournament drought is longer than ours.  And I read today that Kowalczyk is being talked about for the job at Utah State.

Citing James Jones in that list might be pushing it a little bit because it's the Ivy League.  They'll fire a scientist for not producing a Nobel winner faster than they'll fire a basketball coach.  Here's the last time each Ivy League school fired their basketball coach for on-court performance:

Penn -- 2009 (Jerome Allen had some shady stuff going on and ended up getting a 15-year show cause from the NCAA)

Princeton -- at least 1945

Columbia -- 2003

Cornell -- 2016 (contract not renewed)

Yale -- at least 1947

Harvard -- 2007

Brown -- 2012

Dartmouth -- 2016

2 hours ago, El Tigre Oro said:

Surprised it’s been that long for Louisiana Tech. Must go back to the Karl Malone days?

1991 was their last time too.  Here's their roster -- https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/louisiana-tech/men/1991.html

That would be correct.  Columbia & Dartmouth have only had 8 years of Ivy League Tournaments in order to get to the championship round.  All the others have had plenty of time.

9 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

The last time Duquesne went, Norm Nixon was playing for them and Richard Nixon had only been out of the White House for about 2-3 years. 

Be interesting to know how many of those 59 have been to the Tournament, but have a longer drought than us. As to the schools that have never been, I’m going to assume a number of them joined D1 subsequently to the last time we were in the tournament 
 

Here's the list.  The ones in bold have also not been to a conference championship game since the last time we were in one.  The ones with asterisks are those who are D1 veterans and never been or have droughts longer than us:

Army**                                   Bethune Cookman**           Bowling Green**                  Brown**                                               

Cal Baptist                         Central Arkansas             Chicago State**                    Citadel**

Columbia**                           Dartmouth**                        Denver                               

Elon                                     Fort Wayne                        High Point          

Houston Christian            Idaho**                                   Idaho State**                        Incarnate Word

Jacksonville**                        Kansas City**                        LA Tech**                               LeMoyne           

Lindenwood                      Loyola Marymount**          Maine**                                  Marist**  

Merrimack                         NJ Tech                               New Hampshire**               North Alabama               

Omaha                                Presbyterian                     Queens                               Quinnipiac                         

Rice**                                     Sac State                            Sacred Heart                     Seattle**

SIU-Ed                                South Dakota                    Southern Indiana            St. Thomas

Stonehill                             Tarleton State                  Tennessee Tech**

Texas A&M Commerce  Toledo**                                UMASS-Lowell                  UC Riverside                     

VMI**                                      USC Upstate                      UMES**                                  UC San Diego                   

UT Martin                           UTRGV                                Utah Valley                       Western Illinois**

William & Mary**                Youngstown State**

6 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

The last time Duquesne went, Norm Nixon was playing for them and Richard Nixon had only been out of the White House for about 2-3 years. 

Be interesting to know how many of those 59 have been to the Tournament, but have a longer drought than us. As to the schools that have never been, I’m going to assume a number of them joined D1 subsequently to the last time we were in the tournament 
 

Hold that thought.  I'll fire off that list in a bit.

Congrats to Stetson, Grambling, and Duquesne for punching their tickets to the Dance.  For the Hatters and Tigers, it's their first time.  For the Dukes, first time since 1977.  That now leaves 59 D1 teams who either have never been to the Tournament or have a longer drought than we do.

4 hours ago, tualum said:

Nah. Ladies won the caa title not long ago and went dancing. No skerryball here

He prefers to focus on the losses so it gives him a reason to complain and call for firings.

Ladies on to the semis doing something the men couldn't do -- beat a higher-seeded Charleston team.  Next up are those dopey Dragons.

1 hour ago, Chris Datres said:

Watching Howard-Norfolk State for financial reasons and I catch the name Allen Betrand after a basket.  Yep, same one.  On his 4th school.  Maybe he'll get to the Tourney via this route.

Shockingly, braindead basketball sends Norfolk packing.  Betrand will have to petition for another year and maybe go to a 5th school to get a Tourney trip.

Watching Howard-Norfolk State for financial reasons and I catch the name Allen Betrand after a basket.  Yep, same one.  On his 4th school.  Maybe he'll get to the Tourney via this route.

If you want a Towson equivalent elsewhere in the country, head to the home of Corporal Klinger.  Toledo has had Tod Kowalczyk since 2010 and they've had 8 20-win seasons in his tenure there.  But in the MAC Tournament, that's where the terror happens.  They've at least made 3 conference championship games but they've gone into the last *4* conference tournaments as the 1 seed.  Today, as the 1 seed, they got whacked by Kent State, a team they had beaten by 14 & 15 in the regular season.  They extend their Tournament-less streak to 44 years (one of 61 schools who have not been there since we were last there, though almost half those have barely been in D1).

They lost so many years of progress after the attempted purge that they weren't able to build on their CAA Title win (where have we heard this before in this athletic department?).  What recruit of any significance in the subsequent 5 years was going to come to us with all of that financial mayhem going on?  You wanna talk about tearing it down to the studs, I think we tore this program down to the concrete pourings.

5 hours ago, TSU88 said:

I’m ok with going the D2, JUCO, NAIA route, provided we’re not talking Sylaa and/or Suliaman 2.0.  Hasn’t C of C had great results going this route? 

They have and that's because their coach is able to cultivate that talent and assimilate it within the team he has.  We bring in a POY and an All-American in consecutive years and their play here makes you wonder how in the world they earned those awards.