ARon Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Crews recruited Crawford, Agbeko,Lancona and Ash....Crews may have had the interim tag during some of that time, but they're his players. Exactly. There is some bad revisionist history happening in some of these posts. Every player on this roster is a Crews guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Man Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Crews recruited Crawford, Agbeko,Lancona and Ash....Crews may have had the interim tag during some of that time, but they're his players. I give Crews a pass on that class since he was not named permanent coach until very late in the recruiting cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I give Crews a pass on that class since he was not named permanent coach until very late in the recruiting cycle. That class has the two best players he recruited in it. If you are defending Crews I think you would want to give him credit for that class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne's_World Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Oh, what could have been..... http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2015/11/4/9670364/ben-howland-mississippi-state-basketball-recruiting-malik-newman-schnider-herard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Man Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 That class has the two best players he recruited in it. If you are defending Crews I think you would want to give him credit for that class. I'm evaluating Crews. Not defending. I thought he did fine given the circumstances with the 2013 incoming class. That said, it was the 2014 class with the full year of recruiting with 6 spots to fill that absolutely had to include the future stars of this program - ala Majerus' 2008 class that included Kwamain, Conklin, Reed, and Cassity - to be the springboard going forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chillinthemost Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 The team regressed every game of that steak and by the A10 tourney were a weak imitation of the team that darted the year You can criticize Crews for how the team looks last year or this year but criticizing that season is ignorant. How many teams won 19 straight games that year? Also, your comment about regressing each game is simply false. There were games that were closer than they should have been and blowouts of good teams mixed in. It was definitely not a consistent decline. The game after Mason taking us to overtime at home we beat St. Joes (the A10 tourney champs) by 16 on the road. Everyone realizes the current state is not great. Bitchin about when times were great is foolish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 The '13-'14 team's best win of the regular season was probably the very last game. It was a weird year. Not sure it's fair to say they regressed. They lost to the only two good teams they played early, then gutted out their two best wins after the three game losing streak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 That team absolutely crumbled down the stretch, a player walked out on the team during practice, etc. Lost to Bonnies and were blown out for 35 mins of NCST game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Crews ran that team to the ground up until the last second. It was a testament to their talent that they got as far as they did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 That team absolutely crumbled down the stretch, a player walked out on the team during practice, etc. Lost to Bonnies and were blown out for 35 mins of NCST game And their two best wins were sandwiched around that loss to the Bonnies. The "blow out" you reference turned out to be the best win not just of the season, but maybe the history of the entire program. It's fair to say they crumbled over the three game losing streak and again in the conference tournament, but it's just bizarre to overlook that the two best individual games of the season were also during that stretch. On here the angst during the entirety of the winning streak centered on the lack of any "quality" wins, and how we didn't deserve the top 10 ranking because we hadn't beaten anybody. Crews deserves the pitchfork treatment he's getting right now based on what's happened since his guys took over. Not sure why anyone would feel the need to go back in time and downgrade the two best seasons any of us have ever seen just to pile up some more ammo for the lynch mob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Crews deserves the pitchfork treatment he's getting right now based on what's happened since his guys took over. Not sure why anyone would feel the need to go back in time and downgrade the two best seasons any of us have ever seen just to pile up some more ammo for the lynch mob. Looking back on the end of that season, we probably should have seen that as a warning sign. That team had 0 bench. Crews went to Amherst and played an injured Jordair almost the entire game that was virtually meaningless. The conference #1 seed and share of the title had been wrapped up. Then that team went and gave up a huge 1st half lead to the Bonnies, looking totally gassed in the process. Then they get a really terrible draw from the committee as a 5th seed vs. 4th seeded Lousville. Crews was coaching like Tom Thibodeau - winning regular season games at the expense of tournament play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zink Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 As someone who witnessed the away win vs LaSalle and the tournament loss to the Bonnies, we were clearly fading down the stretch. The team relied on Jordair's heroics and Dwayne's ability to score on post-isolations without any real offensive structure. It was four guys gutting it out for their teammates, with Barnett, Glaze, Manning and McBroom along for the ride. We won a bunch of those games on sheer force of will, and it was often ugly. Our offensive effieciency wasn't even in the top-100, if I remember correctly. By the time the conference season was wrapping up, we looked gassed, and it took more last-gasp craziness to pull out the win vs NCST. There's no doubt in my mind that team would have benefitted from better minute distribution and an offensive gameplan that opponents had to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Those were two great seasons, but both of them ended with Tournament runs that were shorter than their potential. We should not have been satisfied with anything less than Sweet Sixteen appearances for either of those teams. The '12-13 team ran into a hot Oregon team that was way underseeded. I understand that. But the '13-14 team could have avoided the poor matchup of Louisville had they avoided the resume-hurting losses during that meltdown stretch and been a 3 (or maybe even 2) seed. If the team-chemistry-devastating mess had been handled better, avoiding a loss to St. Bonaventure could have resulted in a repeat double championship and paved the way for Elite 8 or Final Four. The problems reared their head even before the past two disastrous seasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Looking back on the end of that season, we probably should have seen that as a warning sign. That team had 0 bench. Crews went to Amherst and played an injured Jordair almost the entire game that was virtually meaningless. The conference #1 seed and share of the title had been wrapped up. Then that team went and gave up a huge 1st half lead to the Bonnies, looking totally gassed in the process. Then they get a really terrible draw from the committee as a 5th seed vs. 4th seeded Lousville. Crews was coaching like Tom Thibodeau - winning regular season games at the expense of tournament play. I'm really not arguing with any of that. But the original idea billikenblue posted above was that we started that season off awesome, and had only ashes left by the end. What was the high point, if the regression was so consistent and so steep? Before UMass, our best win was what? The squeaker at home vs. VCU? That was near the end of the streak. The road win over Dayton? At the time, they didn't look very good. It was just a weird season. I think it's fair to say, with the benefit of hindsight, that Crews should have kept Crawford in the rotation to bolster a bench that was as non-existent as the 2014 StL Cards'. But that seems like a pretty minor criticism compared with what we're dealing with now. I can see the argument about the UMass game being meaningless, but we still would have lost to Louisville even if we had punted at UMass and let Jordair rest. So what was the real cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 If the team-chemistry-devastating mess had been handled better, avoiding a loss to St. Bonaventure could have resulted in a repeat double championship and paved the way for Elite 8 or Final Four. This gets spoken about in hushed tones on here a lot, but I still don't know what people wanted Crews to do about it. Benching McBroom only would've made the bench even more invisible than it already was, and would've forced Jordair to play even more minutes while injured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 We lost to Duquesne, VCU, Dayton, got bailed out by Jett at the buzzer to beat UMass, lost to St. B, and were down 59-45 with 5 minutes to go vs. NCST. We could have very easily lost our last 6 games. It felt like a collapse at the time, and it was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Yes I give the players an insane amount of credit for battling back vs. NCST, but they missed an insane amount of FTs. As did we. Calling that the biggest win in program history is a bit of a laugher for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Yes I give the players an insane amount of credit for battling back vs. NCST, but they missed an insane amount of FTs. As did we. Calling that the biggest win in program history is a bit of a laugher for me It's in the running by default. We've never made it past the round of 32. That win was as a big as any, considering the circumstances. SLU isn't a program that's known for big come-from-behind victories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Yes I give the players an insane amount of credit for battling back vs. NCST, but they missed an insane amount of FTs. As did we. Calling that the biggest win in program history is a bit of a laugher for me Then what is? Beating a 7 seed with Larry Hughes? The main complaint with how Crews coached that year seems to be we didn't punt @UMass (which even I called for at the time). So if we'd gotten our wish, your six straight losses scenario to end the season really might have been a reality. Just seems like an odd thing to complain about now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Four out of five or five straight losses... same difference. If that's not fading or regressing down the stretch I'm not sure what is? As for being the best win, by default, in the tournament era.. Fair enough. I'll remember the Memphis win and even the Michigan State loss much fonder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 All of those were fun. But NC State was our David Freese moment, or at least the closest thing SLU basketball is ever likely to produce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 All of those were fun. But NC State was our David Freese moment, or at least the closest thing SLU basketball is ever likely to produce. I'm with you. Quite the 180, considering that 14 point deficient, coming off the 4/5 Ls was such a low point in itself. Wild game. One last gasp. The Jett roaring photo should be framed in Chiafetz somewhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Hsmith - I think the idea I'm trying to get at was the 1st round loss and collapse gave the committee reason to slide SLU to the last 5th seed. If they go deep in the A10 tourney, maybe they get a 3 and avoid a tough match until The S16. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiseAndGrind Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 It's easy to gloss over a lot when you're winning. There were a lot of warning signs during that season. I don't think anyone disagrees there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 This gets spoken about in hushed tones on here a lot, but I still don't know what people wanted Crews to do about it. Benching McBroom only would've made the bench even more invisible than it already was, and would've forced Jordair to play even more minutes while injured. Some coaches would suspend such a player (not merely bench him) for "violation of team rules." Team discipline (and chemistry) must be built from the beginning, not wished for. I posted during that season about "drift." Coach Crews seemed to be rather laissez faire that season. Sure, the 2010 class had had two years' of Majerus's tutelage to draw on, but the precision and details had been slipping. Manning and Glaze hadn't really gotten enough exposure to it, and McBroom never played for RickMa. Crews was in a tough situation, but maybe he chose the wrong times to back off or not "butt in." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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