8bucks

Two maybe three NBA first round picks. Two McDs Three veteran guards A pretty well balanced roster of guards, bigs and wings. A lot of experience. These are not the ingredients of mediocrity. Yet at this point we are once again underperforming.

Maybe, tomorrow you should ask about a certain coach in Boston. I had a friend who knew Brad from his Depauw days and often has dinner when they are in town. My friend is not someone I see often but she told me he was drawn to the NBA to some extent because he would have more time with family as NBA coach (off during summers). I have not been able to find out if this has panned as he hoped.

Any idea who he was going in for? My guess is OG since he had that big dunk and all

He is worth watching. I am headed to a Butler game tomorrow. Will be fun to watch them in person when I am not rooting against them.

He still may become a strong contributor but too many people were ready to crown him great before he even played a game. I could see why he would look great in practice. His speed would allow him to drive by our weak defenders pretty easily.

I generally think you are right. However, he will have a hard time convincing us an extension is necessary again if we don't have a big year before it. So without a big year, he may need to make a move before say BS is available.

Remember the one obvious change that occurred last year? There were probably some things we did not see but we got much better with someone got injured

Yeah I agree. He will either be extended or replaced. I think the clock could start early if the candidate we want is ready this year. If he is not and Crean does enough then the wait another year.

Why did Mcswain not have his jersey on?

Defense is the great equalizer. When not shooting well, a great D keeps you in the game. Imagine the thoughts Louisville had going from Virginias D to ours.

We have given him a lot of next years. Last year we felt pretty good at the result but it was far lower than the bar set initially.

At the end of the Alabama game, less than a minute to play, one of the Bama kids commits an unsportsmanlike penalty. When Saban found him he told him to leave the field. Saban probably is not a guy you want as a neighbor but he knows how to send a message

To be fair, zones used to really trip him up but we have gotten better against them. However, I am not overly optimistic he can figure this out.

Good points. That D is not something we see that often. When we do, it is our kryptonite. Those teams that play that kind of D don't always win the NCAA championship so others find a way past them. Kind of like the Patriot D in the early Manning/Colts years. We beat everyone but we're too finesse oriented and could not win against that style Manning eventually figured it out enough to start having some success against them. Can Crean?

Could we get this thread back on topic. This is the criticize Crean thread not the criticize people who may or may not criticize Crean thread. We finally get a nice lovely Fire Crean thread so let's keep it on topic.

I think Crean can definitely win a championship here. If you look at the Vic/Cody year where we lost to Syracuse, we were dominant early in the year. We won at MSU, at OSU at PU and later at Michigan. We had a stretch before the MSU game where we were on a roll and had the tournament been in February I believe we could have won. He also took a team with Dwade to the FF. Gary Williams won a championship with Maryland. Mike Davis took us to a championship game. Nolan Richardson won one at Arkansas. I am sure there are many other examples of coaches who had one six game shinning moment and got the championship. Crean is just as capable. Now, the problem is Crean does not seem like a guy who will take a very good team to the tournament frequently. Bill Self is a great frequency guy - consistently getting a highly ranked team into the tournament with a chance to win it all. He just isn't a great tournament coach. Frequency guys need to get very good teams there a lot in order to find that championship. Crean also does not seem to have his teams peak at the right times. BS got very good at getting Butler to win and advance in the tourney. His teams peaked at the right time. Crean currently is not this type of coach either. I had hoped that Crean was turning into a frequency guy. Finding strong 3-4 star kids that stay and develop and compliment with a few 5 star kids so that each year you field a top 15 team that can get hot. His recruiting misses this year have me a little more concerned than our loss to Nebraska because that will hurt the frequency model.

That is what I thought. The feedback is good but sometimes players may not really see it until they get into the workouts.

I still think Glass knows what has to be done. If fans accept inconsistent play and feel pretty good with what Crean excels at and can live with his shortcomings then there will be little pressure or incentive to make a change. If, however, fans don't accept it and push back then Glass will feel that and that could cause a reaction. Sellouts, wining BT titles is pretty good overall and many may be fine with that. It really depends on what the other group does. If they feel things will not change then they get louder or they get complacent and stop caring.

I thought JBj's knee kept him from working out with teams. I know he talked but don't think he was able to do anything physical

Last year even the most ardent Crean supporters were saying elite 8 or make a change. Then the year starts bad and we lose Blackman and the expectations were lowered and most were happy with how the year went. This seems to be the cycle with Crean. Raise expectations - And when we don't meet them do Just enough to stay around.

No one knows how close things got. Just because they stayed the course does not mean things were not close to tipping the other way. When Mike Davis was going through his final years the admin did everything to keep him despite fan pressure but eventually empty seats and loud booing during games helped force their hand. I don't think it would get as bad as during the Davis years because will do enough but if this team or next years miss the tourney then I think that will be enough. Couple that with his contract. Soon you are going to have to extend or make a change. Not the day the contract expires but 1-2 years before that. A mediocre/underperforming year, like we may be seeing, will not help. That keeps things foggy and unclear.

I agree. The seat will get scalding hot quicker because many of us who started to feel good will turn quickly if we continue to stumble.

On a positive note: I had hoped Rob would start to look for his shot more and he has the last few games. Need less shots from Josh and unfortunately Morgan should be limited to put backs or layups. Dang even my positive note had two negatives.

As awkward as that was I think using that in your label for him completely distracts from any point you are trying to make. Don't mistake me for a supporter of his, I am not, but you can critique him without this.

Honestly I would play Diamont. He does not have the arm but is a better leader. Hard to make the switch now though if he did not get the snaps in practice