GeorgiaRed
Well-known member
North Texas will improve as the season goes on and will be a Quad 2 win hopefully.
(Charleston Classic) Dayton, Fri., Nov. 17, 2p, ESPN2
- Thread starter Knight
- Start date
Exactly, Mike Anderson is not coaching this team. Rick Pitino is. That’s why I’m not worried at all right now. Rick will right the ship. We will win 8 games OOC and 12 or 13 in conference along with one or two in the Big East Tournament and we will get a bid. If Mike Anderson was still the coach I would be panicking. Look, this is exactly what everyone on this board wanted. They wanted Anderson out and Pitino in. They were tired of losing and playing with a team that had borderline Big East talent. We got Pitino and he cleaned house. Let’s let Pitino do what Pitino does. This what we all wanted. We can’t complain about it now. I have total faith in Pitino and his process. Let Rick cook, in the end we’ll have a savory meal!
The quality Big East players who never had a winning record in conference and never made an NCAA tournament with Anderson? I’ll take what we have now and trust Pitino.
Rocket
Well-known member
Michigan is a better example because they play in the BIG. Our defense allowed them to dictate the tempo and again, Soriano could not contain their big guy and drifted too far from the basket to be effective down low. To date, even though he gets his stats, his play has been not very cerebral.
Long Beach State drilled Michigan for 94 points in a win last night because they were able to run and shoot with them. Long Beach dictated the tempo and they didn't have a slow Ledlum on their team, which made a big difference.
I hope I was not head faked by the Stony Brook game but after watching the Michigan game and reading the posts here about the Charleston classic games I am beginning to think that the team does not have the killer mentality. If we allowed artificial intelligence to compose a bball team for us based on available coaches and basketball players, I think that AI would have CRP as the head coach but not necessarily the players he recruited. At this point we need AI to tell us what lineup CRP should be using. Aside from Joel Soriano, I can't really tell who the starting 5 should be.
Those two guys were at the top of the food chain for many college coaches who were trying to fill roles on their teams. CRP beat them out. Granted there was no time for recruiting so getting the top kids available on just your name was an unbelievable accomplishment. Don’t think Anderson would have landed them. 12 new kids with 12 new roles. Where will they be in January? Let’s see how it plays out?
Silly Donovan
Well-known member
The problem with your comparison is that on those Kentucky and Louisville teams, he brought kids into the program his first year and retained them jn his second. On this team in his second year he will lose Soriano, Jenkins, Dingle, Allyne and Ledlum, 4 of this years 5 starters. So next year will be like starting all over again.
Ray Morgan
Well-known member
Hand picked must mean something else to you than it does to me. If I'm the first one to the produce section in a grocery store, I can hand pick the nicest fruits. If I am in a mad scramble with dozens of high major fruit picking coaches, I'm not hand picking the best anymore. I may get some fruit that are overripe, some that have bruises, and some I pick because I need to fill my refrigerator. I may get outbid for the real top of the line melons, Those are the most coveted.
While some will argue for the rest of eternity that CP should have kept the fruits he was handed over, I would say I will trust the judgment of one of the all time greats over just about anybody. Even my friend who managed the produce department at Publix for 30 years. He was the only guy I know qualified to compare apples to oranges.
SJUFan85/89
Active member
CRP must’ve been picking fruit with his eyes closed while wearing gloves
Ray Morgan
Well-known member
I used go to the racetrack with a friend. About 5 steps out of the starting gate, he would start complaining how his horse stunk if he wasn't among the leaders. I had to remind him the race had another mile to go. He didn't listen as he preferred to be miserable. So I stopped going with him.
Would his horses win or lose?
SJUFan85/89
Active member
I’m assuming they lost
Ray Morgan
Well-known member
Most they lost. But some did win. He was a pessimist of the worst kind. I think he preferred to lose so he could complain.
It's really difficult to overcome the pessimism that we as SJU fans have been conditioned to live with over the past 20 years. Many on here are die hard Jets and Mets fans as well, and it is the same feeling. There's simply no denying that regardless of trying to have a logical or rational outlook going forward, the start of this season under these circumstances has been very disappointing.
redstorm to redmen
Member
We will be much better with Wilcher, Taylor, Luis, Dunlap and Ejiofor THIS YEAR. Past records of Jinkins, Ledlum and Dingle were from mid-major program, not major program like Big East.
Recruiting 5th year players was a deliberate strategy by Rick. While you are correct that these players are definitely gone next year, he has had more time to build the 24-25 roster and already has made progress.
I would also say we are in a new era in college basketball. The portal combined with NIL essentially makes most of your roster a 1 year commitment and even freshmen like Wilcher and Dunlap will reassess the market after this season.
Many older coaches especially really want no part of this added complexity of re-recruiting existing players each season and work within the confines of NIL budgeting. Any kid who busts out with a great season will want more NIL. In a competitive landscape of the portal, he can get it.
Two reassurances about CRP - his broad attention to even the smallest details, and his history of success tells me that he will figure it all out and we are on an upwards trajectory.
Hard for battered fans to accept the uncertainty but the uncertainty is part of the landscape.
Factor in that we are already competitive at top of market, a vast improvement over the last 30 years maybe more.
Silly Donovan
Well-known member
Perhaps but RP had a better chance to build those teams under the former landscape where kids committed to programs (blue bloods) and usually stayed. And while no one questions coach P’s resume, we have yet to see how he fares under this new “portal” landscape as we are all witnessing the portal situation does not guarantee a quick fix. And with the importance of OOC record for Dance entry, by the time this team gets its act together a Dance bid may be lost as we have no doubt witnessed in the past.