Positive Outlook

A

Alex9045

Well-known member
It's been a tough year. As fans we have to look at this way (next season):

1. Enjoy whatever is left of the season. These guys are leaving it all out there but we just don't have enough. These kids need all the support they can get right now. We're going to win games.

2. We're returning 5 players including who are getting major time this year (counting Trimble who is getting better and coming into form).

3. Ponds will be back. Incredible sophomore shooting slump but he should be much better with more guards/playmakers/shooters/bigs next year.

4. We're finally going to have a BE tier bench and a full roster. We've seen how important this is, especially as the season wears on.

5. SIZE. I can't stress this last point enough. Yes we have "length" but next year we will finally have some kind of muscle inside. Between Brooks, Keita, Diakite and Roberts we are going to have guys that are taller, stronger and heavier than what we've had in the Mullin era. This is going to help tremendously in two of our weakest areas, rebounding and three point defense. No more getting slaughtered on the boards and having to collapse interior defense leaving open shooters. Yawke and Ali B won't play ten minutes a game combined next year.


Take this season for what it is, a Crapshoot. The Big East will be taking a step back next year, and Mullin will finally a full complement of players. He gets my vote of confidence fully for at least another year.

Go Johnnies!
 
It's been a tough year. As fans we have to look at this way (next season):

1. Enjoy whatever is left of the season. These guys are leaving it all out there but we just don't have enough. These kids need all the support they can get right now. We're going to win games.

2. We're returning 5 players including who are getting major time this year (counting Trimble who is getting better and coming into form).

3. Ponds will be back. Incredible sophomore shooting slump but he should be much better with more guards/playmakers/shooters/bigs next year.

4. We're finally going to have a BE tier bench and a full roster. We've seen how important this is, especially as the season wears on.

5. SIZE. I can't stress this last point enough. Yes we have "length" but next year we will finally have some kind of muscle inside. Between Brooks, Keita, Diakite and Roberts we are going to have guys that are taller, stronger and heavier than what we've had in the Mullin era. This is going to help tremendously in two of our weakest areas, rebounding and three point defense. No more getting slaughtered on the boards and having to collapse interior defense leaving open shooters. Yawke and Ali B won't play ten minutes a game combined next year.


Take this season for what it is, a Crapshoot. The Big East will be taking a step back next year, and Mullin will finally a full complement of players. He gets my vote of confidence fully for at least another year.

Hopefully our top five players all come back and each of our recruits are eligible and fulfill their commitments. At least Ali will have exhausted his eligibility after this year!

Go Johnnies!
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Fair points. You are most certainly a glass 1/2 full kind of guy.

I assume you say trump “only” has 36 months left in office. :)
 
I totally agree. We knew this roster was marginal at best and any injury would seriously effect us. Three redshirts and our freshmen recruits will fill out the roster.i am looking forward to watching this team compete and hopefully grow this year, but I am anxious to move on to next year.
 

Guess, that is what our program has come down two for a decade ,wait until next yr. Sad that fans waited so long stayed loyal at his point we are 0-7 and last in confr
 
Re the present recruits;

Brooks has solid skills, size, but will take time, like most freshmen. He still needs to get stronger & acclimate to BE play. Be patient, he is not going to be Karl Malone year one.

Roberts is very, very raw & with proper coaching could be a good four year player. Year one, I would not expect much.

Williams is not a shooter, but defends well. He could be good complementary kid as a frosh.

Red shirts: Having seen Dixon a few times in my area, I think he will adapt to BE play quickly and be solid next season.

Keita is obviously a big guy, but let's wait and see how he plays. Yes he was a ranked recruit, but really there is no sample size to predict how he does in rugged BE.

Diakite is rail thin & a SF, but who knows how well he has recovered from injury. Videos of him working out mean little & as I recall he was raw to begin with.

All in all, this looks like a good group over time, not an instant fix. That said, the bigs listed obviously trump looking at Amar and Yakwe struggle. I sense KY will leave btw. Ponds will return in my opinion as will the core guys on present roster. If that happens, the team will be worth watching. If not ....

Lastly, they will have room to add two players, but unless they come up with a transfer, I would not expect anyone with much impact out of the gate. Sorry for long post, but I needed relief from beating a dead horse on the season. :)
 
Re the present recruits;

Brooks has solid skills, size, but will take time, like most freshmen. He still needs to get stronger & acclimate to BE play. Be patient, he is not going to be Karl Malone year one.

Roberts is very, very raw & with proper coaching could be a good four year player. Year one, I would not expect much.

Williams is not a shooter, but defends well. He could be good complementary kid as a frosh.

Red shirts: Having seen Dixon a few times in my area, I think he will adapt to BE play quickly and be solid next season.

Keita is obviously a big guy, but let's wait and see how he plays. Yes he was a ranked recruit, but really there is no sample size to predict how he does in rugged BE.

Diakite is rail thin & a SF, but who knows how well he has recovered from injury. Videos of him working out mean little & as I recall he was raw to begin with.

All in all, this looks like a good group over time, not an instant fix. That said, the bigs listed obviously trump looking at Amar and Yakwe struggle. I sense KY will leave btw. Ponds will return in my opinion as will the core guys on present roster. If that happens, the team will be worth watching. If not ....

Lastly, they will have room to add two players, but unless they come up with a transfer, I would not expect anyone with much impact out of the gate. Sorry for long post, but I needed relief from beating a dead horse on the season. :)
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Very informative post. It looks like starting 5 will be almost the same, except maybe Dixon replaces Ahmed and starts as part of 3 guard offense with Simon and Ponds? What is missing is a 3 point threat. Maybe staff could find a grad transfer.
 
Thanks for the input on the recruits/redshirts Paultzman - very helpful. After watching last night's game (as with the Nova & Seton Hall games), it is pretty clear that our top 4 or 5 guys can compete with the best of the Big East, but we do not have the depth to beat them as we wear down in the last minutes. Xavier has a deep bench and that showed during the last 5-6 minutes. Once again (as with the DePaul game) a strong big man killed us. Lack of a big man is the one glaring personnel deficiency that can't be blamed on Lovett injury or late Wilson transfer - no excuse for staff not doing what Xavier, DePaul and others did.

Regarding next year, we hopefully return 4 core guys plus Trimble who will be a key contributor as well. Discounting Diakite (due to uncertainty as to health), we bring in 5 other guys who should all be improvements over our current 7th and 8th men and only lose Ahmed who has not progressed from last year. I posted earlier this year that Simon may be our most valuable, if not our best player, and he will continue to improve in his decision making and leadership as the season progresses. I would expect that next year, he and Ponds will be the kind of dynamite duo we looked for Ponds & Lovett to be this year. Clark & Owens are both solid BE starts. All of this is cause for optimism that we should at least compete for a tournament bid.

I do worry a bit about the fact that (Nova game aside) Shamorie continues to struggle to find his offensive rhythm. Staff needs to focus on doing whatever it can to help him get good shots in the flow of the game; too much of the time he either is resorting to threes at the beginning of the shot clock or drives down the lane tying to score over two or three defenders. If the immediate eligibility rule for transfers were to take effect before next year, needless to say the PC & Hall staffs among others will be in his ear. If he is unhappy at the way this season ends, who knows?
 
Re the present recruits;

Brooks has solid skills, size, but will take time, like most freshmen. He still needs to get stronger & acclimate to BE play. Be patient, he is not going to be Karl Malone year one.

Roberts is very, very raw & with proper coaching could be a good four year player. Year one, I would not expect much.

Williams is not a shooter, but defends well. He could be good complementary kid as a frosh.

Red shirts: Having seen Dixon a few times in my area, I think he will adapt to BE play quickly and be solid next season.

Keita is obviously a big guy, but let's wait and see how he plays. Yes he was a ranked recruit, but really there is no sample size to predict how he does in rugged BE.

Diakite is rail thin & a SF, but who knows how well he has recovered from injury. Videos of him working out mean little & as I recall he was raw to begin with.

All in all, this looks like a good group over time, not an instant fix. That said, the bigs listed obviously trump looking at Amar and Yakwe struggle. I sense KY will leave btw. Ponds will return in my opinion as will the core guys on present roster. If that happens, the team will be worth watching. If not ....

Lastly, they will have room to add two players, but unless they come up with a transfer, I would not expect anyone with much impact out of the gate. Sorry for long post, but I needed relief from beating a dead horse on the season. :)
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Very accurate appraisal of the above players. Unfortunately none are answers to our poor play in the areas of 3 point shooting and rebounding. Keita could be a valuable presence if Mullin plans to use him for rebounding and defense but he is not an offensive threat. Not being able to target a serviceable 5 has tarnished this staff's recruiting rating. Staff seems to be happy with every big playing as a shooting forward and leaving the middle to the luck of the bounce. Sorry but I think Diakite appears to be a 6'8 version of Kassoum. We appear destined to always have an injury prone player on the roster every year. So much for 13 scholarships! We usually begin with 12, two of which end up being sit out Matt Abdelmassih transfers and leaving us with a 10 man roster. That roster will include two freshmen projects and two kids not ready for prime time. If all the stars are aligned right we will have 6 serviceable Big East players. My take is that without an impact player this team, under this staff, will never rise to the top 5 in conference standings which would be necessary to make the Dance. With superior coaching and instructive preparation that could change the possible win-loss outlook but the player-coaching dynamics doesn't look like it will change in the short term. If we fail to get a host of local players like Aiden, Precious and Kofi and a couple of others this staff's value will have failed to make any difference in the local market. Of course losing diminishes our attractiveness to most recruits so this continues to be an uphill battle. Sadly Slice was brought in to focus on 5 star talent. Too bad he only got 10 months to accomplish that mission.
 
I totally agree. We knew this roster was marginal at best and any injury would seriously effect us. Three redshirts and our freshmen recruits will fill out the roster.i am looking forward to watching this team compete and hopefully grow this year, but I am anxious to move on to next year.
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This is how I felt at the end of last year. I hope it’s not how I feel next year at this time.
 
I think many of us would agree that the most frustrating thing about this team is that they have some pretty good players. The assertion that only Ponds is a Big East player, and not a very good one at that, are ridiculous.

The problem is they are a little short (pun intended) in roster depth to be a really good team. They can be competitive in games, but they can't finish right now. It's really really hard to be positive about an 0-7 team. I guess you can lovett or leave it, both most of us are used to sticking around a watching a train wreck - you just can't take your eyes off of it.
 
Re the present recruits;

Brooks has solid skills, size, but will take time, like most freshmen. He still needs to get stronger & acclimate to BE play. Be patient, he is not going to be Karl Malone year one.
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In my completely uninformed opinion, Brooks would be the only one of the three capable of starting if we needed him to, but Clark has been too good of a soldier and will get the nod, despite his rebounding limitations.

My fear with Roberts is that no one seems to want to be patient anymore -- fans or the kid himself. He will be less painful than AA, but he's probably only going to give us a couple points a game as a frosh.

I wouldn't mind a grad transfer capable of playing point. I don't even mind if he isn't all that impressive numbers wise at his current school, but we need someone else back there. Bring a local kid home from the middle-of-nowhere school he ended up at after juco.
 
On the positive side, there has been a lot of criticism of guys who have been in shooting slumps who keep shooting.

Post Georgetown slaughter, where Villanova couldn't miss, Jay Wright approximated the following:

"Tonight was a night where anything we threw up went in. We've been on the other end of this. When we shoot poorly, I just tell our guys to keep shooting. The only way to work out of a slump is to keep shooting"

Now, Villanova typically gets very good looks, and that's worth criticizing. But I wouldn't criticize Simon, Ponds, Clark, or even Ahmed for taking wide open threes.
 
Give Chris and his staff credit for keeping them competitive and spirited and not giving up. It is a miracle by itself. It will pay off eventually.
 
Excellent post for me and all other optimists!
You make imo very valid points.
Reality is Chris Mullin - a winner all his life - wants to win!
He inherited NOTHING. An expansion team.
Also reality is that it is going to take until the fourth year - not two or three - to see further progress.
I particularly like the Coach's post game comments & attitude after these losses - no blame, no giving up - just constructive observations on how hard the players are working; l how he has lived through losing streaks; that wins eventually come = which again for those optimists on this board, next year will be better.
Without a bench, without height, without jump shooters and with Lovett gone we have played several top 20 teams to almost a stand still. That's pretty good to me.
Losing stinks. I can't stand it. But there is reason for hope.
Thanks.
 
Frank , your post is refreshing . There is no quit in Mullin’s Team . Ever . They competed to the last possession last night ! Clark has a great game with , 16points . But, 2 rebounds in the last 2 games hurts . But, then again , we are limited at rebounding every game . Simon had a Career game ! We will need him to pick up Lovett’s points , every game . We will beat G’town . Split with DePaul, Split with Butler , Split with Marquette and maybe , beat PC on their home court . Maybe beat Creighton here at home . Prayers for the needy . Us !
 
Give Chris and his staff credit for keeping them competitive and spirited and not giving up. It is a miracle by itself. It will pay off eventually.
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I was a huge Lavin fan, wanted him to stay, didn't like how it went down. Wasn't hot on CM as a coach year 1. However, I too am positive and like the direction where this team is headed, especially on the recruiting front. For once, I have a positive outlook myself, and am excited to see what's to come. The guys play hard and don't give up, have to respect it.
 
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