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mat1992

Solutions

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Instead of calling out people and firing them, how about coming up with solutions. Did you really think after losing Zane, Morsell, Gorham, and EK that we would win 18 games again? Or even go .500? I can't argue about all the players leaving though most left because they couldn't cut it or were booted. None of those guys went on to do much elsewhere. Now Martin and Gorham are talented players. They might succeed (though step up in competition isn't going to help).

You don't think Chris Datres cares about this program?  He's been on this board for nearly 20 years, going back to CAAzone. There are certain things I hold my tongue about but sure, instead of solutions, let's fire everybody from Tim to Pat, who aren't going anywhere in the near future. How about recruit better point guards? Play the younger guys more. I don't agree with firing Pat but I can critique him for his recruiting or coachng. Does it make me apologist because I know Pat will get us back on track next season? Fine. Sue me.

It's not going to get much better this year. This is what we got and if you're going to lose with 2 and 44 (who doesn't start anymore), you might as well lose with 22, 3, 5 and 25. So let's talk about solutions.

 

1)If you are going to play the youngsters, they are all athletic. Go back to a zone press and trap out of it sometimes. We didn't even attempt to press today and Morgan State had 10 turnovers that were unforced. Dottin and Timberlake are all outstanding in the open floor. Dottin in the halfcourt is a work-in-progress. They all are. We need to run when it's available. 

2)If we're playing halfcourt, Sanders  is the number one option inside. He shouldn't be dribbling the ball 20 feet away from the basket, looking to drive. He's not quick enough to take people off the dribble. Get Fobbs more involved. He may not be a defensive stalwart but he can score. He should touch it every time on offense.

3)Start Dottin with Howard and move TJ off the ball. It's not a great defensive lineup but at least you have two decent ballhandlers in the game. We aren't going to see a lot of press but if teams watch this film, they'll invent a press. There's no reason to start Jordan McNeill at this point. He might be better coming off the bench but until he plays better (he may never), he should be limited to 10mpg and coming in for defensive purposes. I didn't mind the small lineup except in the last minute, they gave up two easy offensive rebounds for a putback and that cost us the game. 

4)Stay patient with the freshmen. They aren't going to get better by playing 2 minutes here and 2 minutes there. Solomon finishes better than any big we have right now underneath. He has better hands than Tunstall. But he also turned it over twice when putting the ball on the floor. 

5)Not much you can do if you don't get good point guard play. The only other solution would be to try Betrand or Timberlake, who has some point guard instincts. Nick's father was a great point guard at Boston U. At times, he shows great passing ability but sure, he's there yet as a ballhandler. Neither is Betrand. 

Just my 2 cents.

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The problem is that we have been patient. Skerry was supposed to be the guy to get us to the big dance and so far he has failed. 

The offseason losses were tough and certainly killed our talent depth but you still have to beat GW and Morgan. No excuse. 

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Just now, TUTigers said:

The problem is that we have been patient. Skerry was supposed to be the guy to get us to the big dance and so far he has failed. 

The offseason losses were tough and certainly killed our talent depth but you still have to beat GW and Morgan. No excuse. 

It depends on expectations. Yes, of course, we shouldn't lose to a bad GW team on the road or an undersized Morgan State team. We had also not lost to a local team in what, four or so years before today? My expectations for this year were very low. As for as firing a coach who has turned a program around but has never made the CAA Finals or NCAA Tournament, count me out. If he wasn't graduating players, he was doing things the wrong way, players weren't doing a lot of charity work, sure. Fire him. But that's not the case. W&M has it worse. They have a very successful coach but they can't get to the Dance. He shouldn't be fired either. 

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8 minutes ago, TUTigers said:

The problem is that we have been patient. Skerry was supposed to be the guy to get us to the big dance and so far he has failed. 

The offseason losses were tough and certainly killed our talent depth but you still have to beat GW and Morgan. No excuse. 

Can’t agree more. This was lost on the staff not players.  People making excuses for the staff only goes so far

 

my expectations were 8 wins if you Can’t win locally against AWFUL talent, then what? Baltimore teams are bad. 

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Mat, I love the passion you & some others have for all things TU sports. When it comes to sports, I bleed TU black & gold & always will. I was careful to choose my words in a different post I started today, by not using the word “apologists.” Am I calling for Skerry to be fired? Yes...after next season, if we have another 3-5 W season, which I’m afraid is entirely possible. Is this a knee jerk reaction on my part? Respectfully, after what will be 9 years of not winning more than 1 game in the conference tournament, without winning regular season crown or the conference tournament, I think I’m not being knee jerk. We’ll be dealing with a sample size of nearly a decade after next season. 

I knew this season would be a struggle, & unfortunately I think next year will be too. I have grave doubts this coach is going to get us where we want to go. I respectfully suggest he has shown a complete inability to bring in a quality PG, and is unable, or unwilling, to recruit players whose main skill is being to flat out shoot. I adhere to the belief that a successful college program requires surrounding the 3-pt line with kids who can shoot 3’s. I believe Coach Skerry has an affinity for “athletes” who can pound the boards. I don’t think this philosophy is going to work. I also think it’s fair to question his recruiting prowes/ability to evaluate talent. He’s brought in 1 program changing type player, & that was years ago. He’s had many kids leave, & while I understand that is not unique to Towson, it does call into question the evaluation of the kids being recruited. 

I also question his X & O skills, when year after year I see a stagnant half court offense & I see things like struggling over the years to get off good shots when the game is on the line & struggling to adapt when the opposition utilizes a press defense. 

I also am concerned about the lack of continuity as far as players coming & going. I’m starting to get a sneaking suspicion that several of the players on this year’s team (not counting seniors of course) will not be back next year. That means another new crop of players.

As for your proposed solutions, I’ll simply say Im for anything that makes the team get more W’s. But the reality is we’re dealing with a finite number of players, some of whom appear to have glaring deficiencies in their skill sets, though some of that may be attributable to youthful inexperience. Obviously, the coaching staff needs to try to come up with solutions, but I fear that (at least for this season) any potential solutions are really nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

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Next year, is next year. Who knows how many players will be back? Gray is going to be pretty good. I don't know how good because he hasn't blown me away but most players when they sit out are usually out there coasting because they aren't going to play that season. His upside though is intriguing. But if we don't have a decent point guard, it doesn't matter much unless we find a JB somewhere.

If I didn't have faith, I would not have stuck around those 15 losing seasons. Pat has been a winning coach in all but two seasons. Now it will be three. I'm not just looking at wins this season as much as improvement of the younger players. If they don't improve as the season goes on, then sure, next season will probably be .500 at best. Seems like every season, we've brought in a D1 transfer that has to sit out. That wasn't the case this season because we needed guys that could play right away.

The coming and going part of players was something I was never concerned with until Martin and Gorham left. So sure, when it has an effect on your results, it concerns me. The other guys that left the program or we booted out didn't really matter. Sure, maybe Jerome Hairston could have been something but he chose to not be a team guy. So eff him.

 

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I suppose it’s possible I’m just greedy, ungrateful and/or unrealistic, but I want more than just winning seasons. 

While I’m venting/ranting, let me also say that laudable things like community service & graduating players don’t have to be mutually exclusive from winning the daggone conference (regular season and/ or tournament). Why can’t  the two concepts co-exist????????

 I’m also not persuaded by what I’ll call the “William & Mary” argument, which holds that “hey, it could be worse for us, look at W&M who’s never made the tournament.” Frankly, I don’t care a whit about W&M. I want us (as I’m sure all of us do) to make the tournament. It’s been over a quarter of a century. I’m tired of “waiting until next year.”  I’ve been doing that since George HW Bush was President.

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There's nothing wrong with wanting a CAA title. That would be nice to achieve since it's never happened to me since I graduated. I thought we appeared to be on the right track last year, winning 10 straight non-conference games. Then what happened? We got rolled by Oakland and choked at Pitt. We've never been the same again. I don't really know what happened to that team. Maybe we overrated them and once again, point guard play was one of the reasons for our inconsistencies in the CAA.

How did I feel about this team? I don't think I've missed the first two home games of a season since I was a student or maybe before that when I didn't even know where Towson was. Covering D3 games is just not for me and then the performance in the Bahamas bummed me out so I didn't even go to the Loyola game, which I don't think I've missed in many years.

The good thing is that the passion is still there. After PK's disastrous seasons, I didn't know if people would return to Towson basketball. PS did get them back in the building. Now he has to keep them there and it's going to be a huge challenge this season to just be competitive. This is a bad basketball team right now. You couldn't really tell in preseason or the scrimmages playing themselves or others. Though it was a bad sign when I heard they lost to Navy. What happened in the Bahamas was a complete opposite to what took place last year on Northern Ireland or Florida. 

Experience does matter. We didn't play any freshmen last season. That's why the performance of last year's team in CAA play was the most disappointing by far of Pat's tenure. You can say it's no excuse for having inexperience or freshmen. Ok. But that's why they call it rebuilding. We're can't reload like Duke or Kentucky. Having a new arena is nice but people still aren't coming here just for the arena. It would be nice for some recruits to come here because they want to make history. 

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Nothing will change unless staffing changes. Sad reality and we will be having this SAME discussion this time next year. Deal with it..

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