and Ado/Holman is a push compared to Gafford. The talent difference was staggering and will ultimately lead to a new coach after next year. I seriously doubt I renew my tickets because I end up agitated all weekend.
Our backcourt should be okay next year, but next year when Gafford leaves it’s going to be a vast waste land inside.
I was stunned we were even in the game. Lead at half and lose by 10. I fully expected to get blown out. That team should have beat us by 30. Easily.
shusssshhhh. This is as good as we are capable
Good post, Navy. The talent differential is sad for our program. Next year is going to be a tough one if we don’t bring in a couple of stud front line players.
How long has Howland been there? Not 8 years. Now don’t get me wrong, he is a proven cheater and I wouldn’t want him as a coach. But it doesn’t take 9, yes next year will be year 9, to put an ncaa teamnon the court.
Again with the year counting. So weird. I can’t defend the product on the court.
But the year 8 stuff is weird. College sports are cyclical. They were good in year 6 and year 7. Coaches all over the country have bad years in the middle of their tenure (Huggins at WVU is having one).
If you think MA should be fired because of what he has/hasn’t done over the span of his tenure, that argument can certainly be well made. But the year counting is odd.
i will try to explain why i count years, or year counting as you call it.
yes we’ve been to tourney 3 out of last 4 years, not counting this year. will be 3 out of 5 after this year. one year, that bolstered everyones expectations was the year we should have beaten north carolina and gone to sweet 16. would have made a huge difference in perception of the program had we done that, but fact is we didn’t. last year, with a veteran team other than gafford, we get punked as gafford calls it by butler.
after watching for these 8 years, there are certain things you can count on from an anderson team. some good, some bad.
the way we switch on every screen, often leaving our big man on a guard, and a guard on the opponents big man. over and over again, a mismatch is created and that mismatch doesn’t favor us. i think that hurts in both defense and rebounding.
our press or helter skelter defense. nolan called it scrambled egg defense. in watching games we seem to be the guys wearing down towards the end of the game. nolan had depth, we do not, which is a direct reflection on recruiting, which to me is andersons biggest shortcoming. we seem to recruit athletes instead of guys that can put it in the basket.
three point defense, if you have eyes you can see we leave players open for wide open threes.
turnovers, when its working its beautiful. first half of south carolina game was some of the best defense I’ve seen us play in a long time. because of depth or adjustments south carolina made which we didn’t react to, we lay an egg in the second half. back to recruiting and coaching.
the 4 position. when the research was done recently on the 4 position, if that wasn’t eye opening i don’t know what is. i watch these games, and bailey, or gabe, or chaney, have the ball beyond the three point line. our offense is set up that puts them out of position to help with inside scoring or rebounding. but this is not something new, we’ve seen it for 8 years. we just don’t have enough bigs, but how can you recruit bigs when you hang your hat on the fastest 40 minutes. a style i wish we had never marketed.
half court offense, don’t really need to comment on this because everyone sees it every game.
i am not saying fire mike, i really like the guy, but its like aunt bees pickles, what you see better learn to like, or at least stomach, but its not going to change. year 8, why not adjustments. im sure we watch film. if its obvious to me who has no real basketball coaching ability, its certainly obvious to opponent coaches and hopefully our coaches. i love the up tempo stuff, kids like playing that or so i thought. we don’t seem to be recruiting at any high rate of success. msu played what, 7 or 8 players?
in year 8 i just don’t see much progress, my only hope is just making the tourney period, be one of the top 68 teams, i don’t think we’re going to far even if we do make it to the dance. the sec is getting better, better coaches and players. does that include us? i don’t mind having a gabe on the team, he does bring something to the court at times, but 4 of them? eddie and even nolan had a player like them that knew their role and excelled at it. in year 8 i would think most would be looking forward to our success and already dreaming of how far we might go next year. with what we have on the court, and after what we’ve seen repeatedly, is anyone truely imagining that right now. reading this board, some on here cringe when looking forward to next year, rightfully so. by the way, i will differ and say i think they could be better next year than this even without gafford if some changes are made and we have a decent spring signing period.
its year 8, i don’t see much to get excited about, i am not excited about next year. do we have a top recruit coming in to get excited about? other than hill blanked in early signing period. recruiting again. just get to the dance is all i ask, dropping my expectations to only that. its not up to me, but i’m not against giving anderson one more year. everyone says fire assistants, that doesn’t matter much to me, its the head coach dictating how we are to coach and play. its up to him.
The Aunt Bee pickle reference may be the best on this board in years.
I agree with most of this.
I don’t think I’ve ever rooted for a coaching personality at Arkansas as much as Mike.
It breaks my heart that someone so tied to our past isn’t getting it done.
We all want to be fair to him.
And we as a program are simply no where near where it should be at the moment for any number of reasons.
Even though it’s been a while since ‘77 to 2001, there are enough of us still around to know what the program was and should be.
I hate that we are discussing Mike this way and I’m ok if he gets one more year or if a change is made now, but I believe the program and fan base deserves more unless we choose to forget our past.
The hogs fail to play basic defense. At no point this year have they blocked out to prevent offensive rebounds. They have allowed straight line drives to the basket. Leave shooters wide open from 3. They back off and allow the mid range shot to taken wide open as well.
MIss ST was given this game by the our players. On offense we gift wrapped turnovers that went straight to the hole for dunks or layups.
As long as we have to play with a short bench we are out matched. We lack talent with experience! Joe, Jones and Gafford can’t do it all. We watch 5 on 3 on our offensive end.
I’m disappointed they can’t defend the home court!
Ehh, disagree on Gafford and think Carter/Joe is a push.
They do have better talent, though, including their bench versus ours.