This is a point I completely disagree with you on, the only thing consistent is Kingsley and Thompson at the top of the key out of position on defense. We have to get our guys to quit putting up jacked up shots for fear of getting blocked, take it strong and 90% of the time you will draw the foul. I’m frustrated because we have the talent to be a dominant tough team if we would just show up focused and execute the fundamentals. WPS
Perspective for all those who think this team is good because of their record- let’s look at the teams they have beaten:
Fort Wayne (5-4 in Summit League)
Southern Illinois (4-5 in MVC)
UT-Arlington (Arguably best team they have beat and is decent, but still 2nd place in Sun Belt; nothing to write home about)
Mount St. Mary’s (11-12 overall, horrible)
Stephen F. Austin (3rd in Southland, barely beat UCA)
Austin Peay (7-15 overall, horrible)
Houston (decent but still middle of pack in American)
North Florida (9-15 overall, horrible)
Texas (our signature win, dead last in Big 12, woot woot)
ND State (1st in Summit, but also lost to Denver, yawn)
Sam Houston State (Also lost to UCA)
Tennessee, Mizzou, A & M, LSU, Vandy (5 of the bottom 7 teams in SEC, not impressive)
Losses:
Minnesota (Bottom of pack Big 10)
OK State (Bottom of pack Big 12)
Kentucky (Understandable)
Florida (Understandable)
Miss St. (Not that great, especially bad losing at home)
Point is that this team is not that good. They have not done anything. They underperform and have scoring droughts because they start to play selfish. This is a reflection of coaching and poor preparation. Looking at who they beat and who they have lost to, my question is what has this team accomplished? Also, can someone tell me why Hannahs is not in the starting line-up when he is probably the best player on this team?
“Point is that this team is not that good. They have not done anything. They underperform and have scoring droughts because they start to play selfish. This is a reflection of coaching and poor preparation. Looking at who they beat and who they have lost to, my question is what has this team accomplished? Also, can someone tell me why Hannahs is not in the starting line-up when he is probably the best player on this team?”
You don’t get to 16-5 by not being good. Fact is we beat the teams we should and we beat teams that beat teams that other people believe are better than us. Fact is we play well in most games and the stats show it, but today we got whooped and that’s all there is to it.
You can get to 16-5 without being good. It’s called loading a schedule with cupcakes to pad your record. I know they can’t control Texas & Houston not being as good as originally thought, but that just means our OOC schedule is worse than originally thought. When you have to justify your resume by saying we beat a team that beat a team, that’s normally not a good sign. It is sad if we can’t say we beat a certain team, and that statement alone demands respect. We haven’t beaten anyone that is of that level. We beat Fort Wayne, who beat Indiana. Would we beat Indiana? No. We beat Tennessee, who beat Kentucky. Did we beat Kentucky? No, we got trounced. You can’t build your resume strictly off the upsets that teams you have played have pulled off. Does it help? Yes. It shouldn’t be the foundation of building your case for being a good team, though. Those are upsets. They are anomalies, they are not the norm. Simply put, not a good foundation to build our case on.
Most of our schedule was not filled with cupcakes. Most of our non-con was teams that made the tourney last year and were expected to make it this year. Us winning and them losing is not our problem. I mean my goodness, by your logic SC isn’t that good either because teams in their non-con ended up not being very good either. We beat Tennessee at Tennessee and I believe that team as well as others in our conference demands respect at the level they are playing at in this moment. How do you know we wouldn’t beat Indiana? We got trounced at Kentucky, but there were other factors in that than play on the floor. And games like today are anomalies for our team because it doesn’t normally happen, why, because we are a good team.
If the Hogs are a good team as you put it, then they should win 60-75% of their remaining games. Do you agree? Would you bet some of your hard earned money on that? I remember you said SC should be a win for the Hogs, do you still believe that? I guess we will be there to see.
I don’t believe our schedule was set up originally with cupcakes, but that is what is has turned out to be as the season has progressed. Those mid-majors we beat up on turned out not to be that good, after all. The one Power 5 we beat out of conference is in dead last in their conference. The 5 we have beat in conference, are 5 of the bottom 7 in a very weak SEC. That does make it our problem because it causes our schedule to be weak. You can not use what a team did last year to base your schedule strength for this year. Our schedule looked decent before season. As the season has unfolded, those teams simply aren’t that good, which means our schedule is weak. As for SC, they beat a decent Michigan team and a decent Syracuse team. Those are middle of the pack teams in what are probably the 2 best conferences in the country. They are also “name” teams. Beating those teams has value. Also, SC has beaten Florida in conference, which is one of those wins, that just by saying “we beat Florida”, demands respect. We don’t have any of those wins. Your comment about the Kentucky game doesn’t even make sense. What other factors were in play? What I saw when I watched that game was an Arkansas team the played well for 1 half, and then got run out of the gym in the 2nd half because Kentucky’s talent and depth was far superior to ours. The outcome of today’s game may be an anomaly, but the way we played isn’t. Every game we have one or two long spurts where we can’t score because we start playing 1-on-5 and our defense is absolutely horrible. It is a pattern. We can get away with it when we play teams we out man, such as Southern Illinois & Sam Houston State, and even Vandy. But when we play teams with good talent, it costs us.
[quote=“tripleC”]
Perspective for all those who think this team is good because of their record- let’s look at the teams they have beaten:
Fort Wayne (5-4 in Summit League)
Southern Illinois (4-5 in MVC)
UT-Arlington (Arguably best team they have beat and is decent, but still 2nd place in Sun Belt; nothing to write home about)
Mount St. Mary’s (11-12 overall, horrible)
Stephen F. Austin (3rd in Southland, barely beat UCA)
Austin Peay (7-15 overall, horrible)
Houston (decent but still middle of pack in American)
North Florida (9-15 overall, horrible)
Texas (our signature win, dead last in Big 12, woot woot)
ND State (1st in Summit, but also lost to Denver, yawn)
Sam Houston State (Also lost to UCA)
Tennessee, Mizzou, A & M, LSU, Vandy (5 of the bottom 7 teams in SEC, not impressive)
Losses:
Minnesota (Bottom of pack Big 10)
OK State (Bottom of pack Big 12)
Kentucky (Understandable)
Florida (Understandable)
Miss St. (Not that great, especially bad losing at home)
Point is that this team is not that good. They have not done anything. They underperform and have scoring droughts because they start to play selfish. This is a reflection of coaching and poor preparation. Looking at who they beat and who they have lost to, my question is what has this team accomplished? [color=#FF0000]Also, can someone tell me why Hannahs is not in the starting line-up when he is probably the best player on this team?[/color]
[/quote]I like Hannah, I really do. Hannah is a valuable player but he is not the best player on the team; not even close.
[quote=“Gay”]
I respect that opinion. He’s not a complete player. Probably comes down to what attributes a person prefers when making that comparison. I just like his steadiness and, for the most part, his consistency.
[quote=“tripleC”]
Overall Hannahs has been more productive coming off the bench this year, coming in at the right time fresh and unloading on opponents at times, he has also started and had poor production.
The last few minutes of any close game the coach is going to have the best performing players at that time on the court and it may not necessarily be the best player(s) on the team, but usually they are out there as well.
Hannahs has been one of those on the court more often than not at the end and performed well all around and that could be due to fresher legs also.
Valid points!!!