It’s better to burn out, than fade away!
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List of active coaches who have made multiple final four appearances. How is making the final 4 or elite 8 a flame out? Sweet 16 or better is a successful tourney appearance imo. It’s really hard to win a single elimination tournament. The elite 8 team was probably a championship team if Mark and Sasser are healthy
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I agree, we should hire Kevin Ollie
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I agree with this. The question is, whether the players we recruit are capable of being better, offensively. We play great D, but in today’s game, offense is key.
UConn won a title with mediocre D against SDSU, which was one of the best Ds in college basketball. We lost to Miami because they could hit threes and mid range, and we could not. Heck, we were missing layups.
Now, I hope that playing the better teams will make us work harder. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
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A ceiling is only the ceiling until it gets broken through. We’re in the midst of a period for the program that will match and maybe even surpass its halcyon days. As long as we’re continue creating opportunities to win a championship then we should always be way more hopeful than cynical. Especially when there’s more of a chance of it happening even with a flame out in a Sweet Sixteen or Final Four. Certainly way more of a chance than the team having 1 tournament appearance in 30 some odd years.
I’m befuddled that anyone can look at the state of our basketball program and be cynical when it’s the envy of so many other programs and basketball fans. The staff, players, administration and fans have built a juggernaut from practically nothing.
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Winning a championship is luck. There are 10 teams that are prepared at the highest level to win the championships every year but when one of the ten wins there is an aspect bigger then training and coaching.
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I’m just LOL’ing at the notion that a team “flames out” going to the 2nd and 3rd weekend of the dance. In my book, you “flame out” if you lose in the first round. I’m thrilled to be cast in the Oasis after being in a desert for too many decades.
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Ut has been the poster child of flameout over the years losing as favorites.
Not having the best team in the country and claiming we cannot win it all with the style we play is ludicrous in my opinion. We have been highly successful and our 2nd rd loss was as an underdog in a game we deserved to win.
Recruiting players who play hard, learn defense and are made with the fabric of high character doesn’t guarantee a National Championship but it sure has put us in the conversation a few time over a short period of time.
NEXT!!!
I love the team we have for this coming season. The only thing that I am disappointed about is our ability to recruit and develop bigs.
I remain hopeful about Javier, but I have not seen anything to date that he is the answer. However I think there is plenty of promise in the backups if they develop…
We are going to be very exciting to watch this year. We might take a slight dip on the defensive side with Mark, Jarace and Sasser gone, but we should more than make up for it with shooting…
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It’s interesting that we definitely have more talent in the bigs than the Kyle Meyer (love him) days but it feels like the cupboard is more bare
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Go post on the football side you will fit right in there
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It’s also more interesting that I used to view our team as CKS beating teams by out-matchup-ing other teams with the five he would put on the floor vs the other teams 5. Now it’s like we expect our team to be one thing, tenacious defense and three balls. And we don’t see the current lineup fitting what we have seen the past couple years so we panic a bit. We used to recognize that CKS was a master roster manipulator. (Don’t get me wrong I still want a big big)
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Agree we haven’t landed the big ship when it comes to recruiting bigs but don’t agree that we have failed to develop them.
I think the develop with Brady and Harris and even Carlton in his one year was really on another level.
And think this season will tell us a lot on Francis but really think the disappointment from many on him is misguided. He came in very young and raw. He really exceeded my expectations in finishing around the rim. He showed some huge flashes early last season before hitting a rut. Do to having the experience with veteran Cheney (RIP), he didn’t get the time to play himself out of it. I saw his development as being right on pace and this season will say a lot about where he is going. One more thing to his work ethic is he along with Harris improved their FT shooting, or at least ability to make them, as much as any players I have EVER seen.
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The light finally came on with Harris after four years and he was a pleasant surprise.
Not sure how much Brady improved but he was decent.
Javier has a lot of upside but the light has to come on.
Lath is raw but can learn to be a bully around the hoop.
Coach is really high on McFarland and he could end up being the best center during the Sampson era
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Man… I still can’t believe Reggie is gone…
Do It For Reggie!!!
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Brady made an amazing transition with body type and was a real weapon with certain matchups. Very underrated defender and athlete by the time he graduated but had a real odd propensity of picking up quick fouls.
I will throw J’Wan in there as well even with the slow finish last season. There was a time the offense was running through him with crunch time possessions.