[quote="Making Plays" post=348504][quote="Monte" post=348502][quote="Making Plays" post=348497][quote="Boo Harvey" post=348495][quote="RyGuyRedStorm" post=348458]Like the tough nose recruits and between McGriff and Sears it shows that coach immediately understood where our gaps were (a true pg and rebounding) and went out to fill them very quickly.
Question remains if these guys are big east level talent but we will see soon enough.
Very optimistic about the growth so far.[/quote]
Really? What growth? What is the basis for optimism? Nothing even moderately impressive about these recruits to me, but perhaps I’m missing something[/quote]
Google a kid named Mason Jones. He was an unranked JUCO kid, that only had 1 offer and that was to University of Central Arkansas in Southland conference this time last year. He took a visit to Arkansas, and nobody knew who he was at the time, CMA offered him and he ended up averaging 14 PPG and made up one-half of the best three point shooting duo in Arkansas history.
When you look at recruits CMA brings in, you can't pay attention to the stars, most of the kids he gets will be 3-star and low 4-star ranked kids. Some of the JUCO kids they land may not even be ranked on JUCO sites. However, the kids he gets they have spent time evaluating and know that they will fit his system and play hard. You don't go 17 years without ever having a losing season without knowing how to get kids that fit what you're doing. And I'm not saying that to come off like a CMA homer, there will be some recruits he misses on, but if a kid has a hard worker mentality and some talent in them, the staff will get it out of them, these 2 guys that they have landed so far, look like they have that mentality and fit what he wants to do, you also have to factor in that it's May, I've seen schools take less impressive guys this time of year[/quote]
MP I am a bottom line kind of guy. If CMA can consistently have us a top 25 team and consistently get us to the big dance, then I will consider him a successful coach. That's where I feel this program should be and deserves to be. If not, then I won't. Others may set the bar lower. Some here feel that CMA's time at Arkansas was a successful one. Based on my aforementioned criteria, I do not. It's nothing personal, and it's subjective. 3 tourney teams in the last 8 years, and 2 of those years with appearances in the top 25, is not my idea of success. Like I said I'm a bottom line kind of guy. And again, everyone measure success differently. CMA is not going to get our program back to where it belongs by recruiting the same way he did at Arkansas. He's going to have to change his approach and expect he will. He's now running the top college basketball program in the greatest city in the world and in the most fertile recruiting grounds(NYC and NJ) in the country. Un-ranked or low-ranked JC kids and top 300 kids aren't going to get us back to being a consistent top 25/tourney team. It ain't gonna happen. For every unranked JC kid, like Jones, who makes it big, there are countless others who do nothing. For every top 300 kid who makes an impact at this level, there are dozens more who can't play at this level. For CMA to be successful here, by my estimation, he's going to need to bring in mostly top 75-150 high school kids, highly ranked JC kids, a transfer here and there, and then back fill with lower ranked kids. Maybe he'll grab the occasional 5 star kid and maybe he'll occasionally grab a lower ranked kid, like Jones, who will blow up. He should have no problem getting decent talent here. Talent that should have us at or near the top of The Big East every year. As I've said before, right now he gets a pass on anyone that he brings in for next year. I welcome the 2 young men he brought in with open arms. But unlike others on this board, I'm not buying that CMA has any more insight in to the talents of these 2 young men than all the other D1 coaches around or all the recruiting gurus. So I will seriously temper expectations with these young men, and hope to be pleasantly surprised.
There's no secret formula for success:recruit a balanced and talented(enough) roster, coach them well, and you will have a consistently successful program here. Like the last 6 coaches who have been here, CMA has my full support. I like what I've seen so far, but then again I liked what I saw from all of the last 6 coaches when they first arrived. So ultimately, time will tell.[/quote]
There's a lot to digest in that post, I won't get into everything, but I will say this.
When people say CMA didn't have success at Arkansas and only went to tournament 3 years out of 8 years, most of the time people don't know the whole story. CMA took over an Arkansas program that was in APR trouble and had a bad culture of kids cheating on tests, getting kicked out of school, the roster was almost completely different every year. On top of that Arkansas was behind in facilities, and was the only school in the SEC at the time that didn't even have a practice facility. The AD that hired CMA (Jeff Long), said himself he wouldn't even count CMA's first three years against him because he knew it would take at least that to rebuild the program, which he did and left the program in the best shape it's been in for almost 20 years. He's had the 3rd best record in the SEC during his 8 years only behind Kentucky and Florida.
Just to put things in perspective on how bad the program looked before CMA got there, Dana Altman, in the coaching search before CMA was hired, took the Arkansas job, got on campus, did a press conference, then got a chance to look at the situation he inherited and he quit the next day. That's how bad the program looked, if you can find another program that was looking so bad a coach took the job, got on campus and seen what he inherited, and quit the next day, I'd like to hear about it.
CMA was fired at Arkansas simply because he didn't fit into the new AD's plans and there was a BOT member and some good ole boys who had been trying to push CMA out from day 1 because they never liked him because of how things went down with his mentor Nolan Richardson. They seen this down year with a new AD and pounced on the opportunity. Any unbiased fan that looked at the Arkansas situation and seen what CMA did, especially when more than half the conference was cheating and buying players, knows he did a great job rebuilding and making Arkansas an attractive job again.
Also, as far as players, CMA and staff hit on more guys than they miss. We've had one of the top big men in the conference almost every year CMA was there at Arkansas. 1 was a first round pick, and another is set to be a first round pick this year. 2 transfers that CMA brought in played in the NBA this year, one on a 10 day contract the other was a JUCO player on a 2-way contract. He's also had other JUCO players have 10 day contracts, and one in Jaylen Barford that is close. He'll get players here that won't be an issue, he'll get some star players as he did at Arkansas, my point I was making that the majority of the roster when you're playing 11-12 guys will be 3 / low 4 star guys that buy into that system and play hard. That's what makes his system work.[/quote]
I’m not about to start knocking CMA, but let me just say this: I have a very hard time believing that after he came back to Arkansas, cleaned up mess left behind by the previous coach, supposedly got the program back on track, that he the got fired because a few members of the BOT didn’t like him? Because of his connection to NR? Then why would they have hired him in the first place? Not buying it.I’ve read a lot of stuff on the Arkansas board and the local papers. The vast majority of those people thought/think the world of him as a person, but felt that it was time to move on. I saw very very few people defend CMA as a coach, and even fewer people who were sorry to see him go. That says a lot to me. As I’ve said before, no one knows a coach like the fan base.
