BA47591

We win this one and go .500 the rest of the way I think we're in. The difference in our team is Dorn. I'm not sure when Conerway comes back I'd mess with the chemistry. Having another guard off the bench would be more valuable. Jmho. If Dorn continues to play at this level with Wilkerson being more consistent, I appreciate the evolution of TDs game to garbage/glue guy... we could be interesting. If we only had a monster in the middle.

It wasn't pretty, but that team had more talent than us at home with a 14 game winning streak on their floor and we out toughed'm. We let a late lead get away but I like to call these moments "Ali/Frazier in Manila moments". We got off the stool in the end when they couldn't. Tucker doesn't have the athleticism to be a star in this league, but he's morphed his game into a dirty work, do a little bit of everything kinda player and it's working for us. Side note: Xavier Booker is one instate kid I'm glad we didn't get. Bailey looked Zach Randolph against him last night. PS. We had the better coach and assistant (Rod Clark). Rod was in Lamars ear the entire second half.

Im gonna have a late night snack. Crow, i believe.... Just beat the teams with worse records and we're in.

I've had a heckuva day. I just wonder if I'll be awake at 9pm.

He's never been a volume shooter. His numbers last year were a bit misleading. If he could knock one down from straight on and use his first step to get down hill and create off the bounce a little could give us something to exploit.

You have to look at our roster realistically. Teams at the bottom of the conference we should be able to win at home and go .500 on the road against. We don't have any conceivable way of beating a top of the conference team, because we can't match talent and/or athleticism with them. 14-9 when we get back from California. We would then need to beat Wisconsin, Oregon, Northwestern and Minnesota at home, go on the road and beat Ohio State to finish .500 in conference. Add a BTT win to give us 20 wins and we get in. That's us playing to the best of our ability. That's going 5-3 to finish the conference regular season. Disgusted with DeVries for staff and roster assembly....ABSOLUTELY. But if he can do the above with this roster he can flat out coach.

True. It's a 5hitty deal to have to find joy with "at least it's not Woody." Results will be similar. Same January nose dive. Woody had talent though. Devries doesn't, but it's his fault we don't.

The initial approach Cignetti used is starting to he copied by Penn St and Oklahoma St, I'm sure others will use it but in basketball coming from a lower level and bringing your players seems to be harder to succeed at. Iowa is in our neighborhood right now and I'm not sure he'll be able to recruit the athletes necessary to compete for conference championships with his style. That's where I think Devries can. If we have a year two roster that looks like this year's then I think our support financially isn't there.

I'm not sure how far the 3 bigs line-up goes in March but they're deep.

Next year we won't look like this. There's nothing you can do when you don't have power conference measurables anywhere. We have nothing to exploit at this level.

We had money. We didn't have anyone current to spend it. No connections, no relationships,,,, Who on that staff while the portal was open was a proven recruiter? So we need to upgrade the staff first, then the talent will improve because everyone on the roster gets the green light...

Wilkerson on Lindenberge

Will we have the financial support for basketball necessary to right this ship? Mark Cuban eluded to it indirectly when taking about his support of the football team. To paraphrase 'making a smart investment with my money.' Honestly, no one's favorite choice, to include my top two or three, are doing particularly well right now. I never thought I'd say this in my lifetime, "We'll probably never be the team our football team has been the last two years." Different sport but 27-2 and a natty??? Plus it generates more revenue. Is it possible that Cig put the final nail in our basketball team? If so, maybe we deserved it. Not as fans, but as a program. I think DD is a good coach, but great coach ,,,not really. But we haven't been worthy of much more for a long time. Our administration fell off the dumbfk truck and landed in a pile of Cignetti and is going to look great because of it, but the process around our flagship sport has been abysmal since Myles Brand. Now I'll go watch this guaranteed alliteration as my hope for a return to "the old days" peacefully crosses over the rainbow Bridge.

There are things we could do better. The game plan right now appears to be, get up a lot of shots, make more 3s than the other team does and play a scrappy brand of positional defense. Ultimately our problem is lack of a counter. We don't have the horses to do that. Tucker is a terrible athlete, Lamar can be contained and our pg struggles with control issues. I still think we can go .500 in conference. That probably doesn't get us in the dance, but missing the tourney could be advantageous. We need to get to the off-season as fast as possible.

This will be ugly. They'll clamp down on Wilkerson, DeVries will have to shoot from 35 feet to get a shot off and we have never been as outclast physically as much as we will be against them.

If this was "We never should've hired DeVries" thread, I'd be on board. My choices aren't exactly lighting it up though. He made his bed early and now we all get to lay in it. However I think he's a really solid x's and o's guy. He just blew it out his a55 with early staffing. A change or two with staffing and the talent necessary, I think we'll be OK. At the end of year 3 if we still can't get players then.....

I said this the second we signed him. This is where I normally go on my tangent about the first 2 months of DeVries tenure and not having a staff and people in roles they shouldn't be building a roster. Upgrade the staff a bit, someone with Euro connections is a must and buy the best back court available in the portal.

He's going to do the necessary things to ensure we can recruit at an elite level globally. That was his intention but he fumbled the ball a bit coming in the door. Next years roster will be bigger in the paint, more physical and our perimeter players longer and more athletic.

I think a couple of elite euro bigs and the best pg money can buy in the portal would put us back into tourney next year. We need to upgrade the staff a bit to accomplish that. I wonder what the financial commitment is moving forward for the basketball team. Football makes considerably more money.

I think with MSU's ability to defend the perimeter and rebound, also being on the road, it could be the worse loss we have this year.

What mightve been. Had Miokobu and Murphy walked through the door after Texas Tech and Alabama were eliminated this would've been a much different roster. A+ proven recruiters get you players. DeVries didn't build that team at WVU, his staff did. He fumbled the ball about as bad as you can the first two months on the job. We could've hired any coach in the nation and if they had Adams and Norton working in the players lounge trying to fill 13 roster spots, the roster would reflect it. Clark is solid. Kenny is probably washed up. Like I said, tweak the staff and flush this year when it's over. Get some players that belong on a competitive Big Ten team and see what DeVries can do with it. I'm just now watching this game. We just don't have a Big Ten roster. We knew we didn't.

Anyone overreacting, my guess is you didn't understand the importance of having a staff in place day one. You probably thought this roster was carefully crafted. The Murphy, Moikobi(sp) thing cost a year of what could've been a better roster. I wasn't a DeVries guy, but I think he's done really well considering the MVC caliber talent he has to work with.There isn't anyone in street clothes on that bench that can help us. He needs to tweak the staff a bit. I'm sure the portal wish list is being put together and back channeling has started. I squint and see 19 wins. That's good. We can get a jump on things. You have to come in the door hot, with at least one successful recruiter with you to flip a roster well.

Rod Clark is certainly the jewel of the group. Adams was never supposed to be a recruiting force on the first DeVries staff and that's evident with this year's roster, specifically Reed Bailey. The wild card is Kenny. Can he resurrect some of the magic from over a decade ago. He's certainly connected in the dmv. DD is a really nice modern offensive coach. Year 3 will be when we should expect return on investment.

I think if we can go 5-4 for the month of January and be at 15 and 7 we've maximized our talent. There's not much we can do to overcome the deficiencies we have. I think we'll have to win 2 of the three games in March and get one in the btt to make it in.

Enjoy the moment of where we're at right now, hard times are coming. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.