3star_recruit

You are a numbers guy. In addition to being one of worst defensive teams in D-1, this is one of the worst passing teams in D-1. You're not going to survive in the 2nd half once the teams turn up the pressure if you're bad at passing AND you're bad at stopping teams on the other end. If the players aren't good at a particular skillset -- passing, defending -- I don't think that's fixable this year. You can, for example, go from being a horrible defense to a below average defense. You can only fix that problem by bringing in players who are better defenders. The coaching staff hoped to have a Big Three to cover up their offensive and defensive deficiencies. For much of the season they only had a Big One (Jimerson), recently they became a Big Two (Jimerson and Big Brad). Not enough. They need a healthy Parker. This team is so bad at defense, they need to average 80 ppg to win. Maybe after marginal improvement on defense they can get by with averaging 77.

The only guys that have done this in the past 60 years have been Spoon and Majerus. That's it. When you look at the likely free agent market after the season, you don't see that guy. It's Chris Mack, who could jump right back into high major D-1 if he wants, and everybody else. There may be an up and comer in the free agent market who becomes the next Chris Mack but the risk-averse BOT isn't going to bring him here. They're culturally incapable of it. There's a reason that those kinds of success stories happen at St. Mary's and Florida Atlantic and not at so-called established mid-majors. Programs and boosters who feel they have nothing to lose are willing to take a lot bigger risks.

Our mediocre defense is exacerbated that by the fact that we have to work so hard to score. I believe we'll give up fewer points once Parker becomes a significant contributor. A Big Three will mask deficiencies on both sides of the ball similar to how Yuri-mania masked deficiencies on both sides of the ball last year. The question is will a late-season run be enough to save Coach Ford's job? Will the BOT be willing to kick the can down the road? The free-agent market will probably have bigger names by then. That seems to be the route the BOT is most comfortable with if they want to make a move.

I agree. Good to see LJ get some threes to go, though. He was struggling mightily even before the injury.

The Matthew Rocchio tweet from earlier this week said Parker wouldn't be available this week. Our next game is at home followed by two road games where we'll be double digit dogs even with Parker in the lineup. If the goal is to put Parker in a position to succeed, I wouldn't bring him back until after the VCU game. What would you do?

Salvaging the season means going .500 in January, going on a run in February and continuing that run to the conference tournament finals. Then a case could be made that if the roster had been healthy all along, the traumatic blowout losses in non-conference never would have happened. As it stands, I don't think the coaching staff can be competitive in the transfer portal. We're not sitting on pots of money and we're at the bottom of the A-10. A salesman needs a reasonably attractive product to sell.

We'll never know. We can only engage in MBM speculation. I suspect it's because the clandestine old boy network known as the BOT signed off on it. Talking about replacing a coach and an AD is therapeutic because one day that will happen. But will the BOT ever be receptive to so-called "out of the box thinking" when large sums of money are involved? I seriously doubt it.

I thought the consensus was that we need someone who is a top-notch teacher of the game. Somebody who can "coach up" mid-major recruits. What does a Duke assistant know about coaching up that caliber of player? I think there's a reason that Coach's K tree has been underwhelming.

The top mid-major programs basically have 1 guy who could be a high-major starter on a good team, a couple of other guys who could be in a high-major rotation and other guys who are just mid-major guys. I don't see that changing. It will just become a lot more expensive to acquire and maintain such a team.

If the teams in your conference happened to beat teams that did well in their conference, that would boost the NET of the former.

There are 28 games tonight that start at 6 pm CST or earlier. TV must love that time slot.

If you got some enjoyment out of it, it wasn't a waste of time. We're not making a run at anything without Medley becoming an above average point guard and Thames becoming an impact defensive player. I will be eyeing their development over the next two months just as closely as Parker's.

We'll have the same players available as last game, which is what I expected. I wouldn't expect to see Parker until our 2nd home game at the earliest. And that's a Parker that needs to get back into basketball shape. The rest of the guys will have to step up for us to hold serve at home.

I hope the staff can figure out what's going on with Thames' ankle. We're going to need his defense in conference. I like what I've seen from Medley over the last 5 games. Keep it going young fella.

I couldn't pick the face of academics or athletics at any of the successful mid-major programs from a lineup. When other programs win, we talk about how brilliant their coaches are and how much better their players are than ours. The only time I hear any AD talk is when we're talking about our own school. It's just assumed that if other teams are winning in any given year that means their AD is awesome. However, I go to many a mid major message board. Rarely is anybody happy with their AD. I don't know if their displeasure is sour grapes because they didn't make the NCAA tournament or confirmation that all but a tiny percentage of ADs are mediocre.

I like the young guards Coach Tillett is bringing in. She brought in a high-scoring guard and a defensive stopper. That might be enough to win playing small ball. But she sure would make her job easier if she can land a quality big in the portal.

Nothing wrong with it, but I'm old school. To me an update is a change in status. If he's still weeks away from playing that's not even worth talking about.

If I was in charge, you'd get an update after Parker has been in full contact practices for a week. It's pointless to give an update before then.

You need to be good at passing to regularly run the clock down and get a good shot. Teams who aren't particularly good at passing have to take shots when they're open.

We don't have to sprint to score 6 more ppg than we've averaged in the last three games. We just need our top scorer back healthy.

I'm sure these guys are able to generate lots of 3-point attempts against the mediocre defense they see in practice. Doing it in a real game is another matter entirely. Medley and Meadows attempts at breaking down the defense don't scare anybody. Regardless, I expect us to be one of higher scoring teams in the A10 if Parker can return to form. If you score 78 points, who cares how you score them? The issue is can you hold the other team under 78 points?

It's a best case scenario. Most freshmen play like freshmen.

Piggybacking on the grading theme of Wiz's analysis, this is where we've been and where we hope to go. My grades are slightly different but in general agreement with Wiz. Mid-Nov: B- (With Parker in the lineup) Early Dec: C- (Without Parker in the lineup) Mid Dec: C (With Ezewiro in the lineup but Meadows, Thames and Hughes hampered by health issues) Early Jan: C+ (With a healthy Meadows and Hughes) Mid Jan: B- (With a 75% Parker in the lineup and a healthy Thames) Early Feb: B (With a 85% Parker in the lineup) Late Feb: B+ (With a 95% Parker in the lineup and the freshmen playing like sophomores) The hope is we can defend home court in January and stay above .500 in conference until Parker returns to form. If he can, we've got a chance to win 4-5 road games as well. That's the only realistic route to a top 4 finish, IMO. A team playing B+ ball by conference tournament time is dangerous enough to make a run. Let us pray for the injury bug to buzz off.

I'm interested in the Indiana State situation for two reasons. Schertz is a former D2 championship coach. If Indiana State can secure an NCAA bid this year, programs who had shied away from hiring D2 coaches may begin to take a serious look. I'm also curious as to whether his two probable MVC first-teamers stay loyal to Schertz. They don't have to be part of a coach/player package deal. They would have enough portal value to get the best deal for themselves independent of the coach's decision.