It's amazing what Howland
- Thread starter KurtRambis4
- Start date
I don think it necessarily will happen... But I'm not sure I would be terribly surprised if we made a run at the SECT.
Not just because we are playing a little better, but also because the best 4 or 5 teams in the SEC are so beatable. The field is really weak this year.
Not just because we are playing a little better, but also because the best 4 or 5 teams in the SEC are so beatable. The field is really weak this year.
Amazing is not the word I would use. Most fans would have expected the play of this past month to be the norm, not the exception.
Plus, he owes a lot to the emergence of Q.
We may stumble but the team is gelling at the last minute this year.
Plus, they hugged after the game and many lingered.
Plus, they hugged after the game and many lingered.
I disagree.
The upperclassman are average basketball players, at best.
I think most peoples' preseason expectations were overzealous, to say the least.
The upperclassman are average basketball players, at best.
I think most peoples' preseason expectations were overzealous, to say the least.
Overzealous yes. But what about the reasonable fans? As mentioned above, SEC is better overall but still weak. Most people thought the NIT was the floor for this team.
With Q, MN, GW, the rest can be average (roll) players. Not to be overlooked as just an average player**, Holman has brought a lot to the table.
The guy can coach and recruit,we are very lucky to have him.
He is one game away from winning as many SEC games as Ray did in three years and two wins off from winning as many overall games.The guy is going to win and win big here.Next years team is going to be night and day different talent wise but young.
He is one game away from winning as many SEC games as Ray did in three years and two wins off from winning as many overall games.The guy is going to win and win big here.Next years team is going to be night and day different talent wise but young.
We are every bit the team Alabama is right now, and we could be in their position if we played like this from the start of the season. Unfortunately we were unable to do so for one reason or another.
It's been fun watching him dissect teams and exploit their weaknesses from game to game unlike any coach we've had for a very long time. It's also fun watching us know what the 17 we're doing coming out of timeouts and running organized sets on offense. The future is good and I'm excited about the opportunities we have ahead of us this year to finish strong.
It's been fun watching him dissect teams and exploit their weaknesses from game to game unlike any coach we've had for a very long time. It's also fun watching us know what the 17 we're doing coming out of timeouts and running organized sets on offense. The future is good and I'm excited about the opportunities we have ahead of us this year to finish strong.
Q owes at least some of his emergence to Howland too. Q would be good with Ray or with Howland, but Howland is making him better no question.
I still expect next year to be a struggle actually. There will be so many new faces. Their ceiling will be much, much higher, but I expect there to be a ton of growing pains next year. The 2018 team will hopefully be a top25 team all year long.
I agree. And I compare it to the old adage that the only man who could keep Jordan under 20 was Dean Smith.
But Q's emergence is a thing of beauty, no matter who gets the credit.
They'll be struggle just because of the youth.The positive to a young and talent team is the fact the SEC is very average ,so can get away with talented youth a little better than other power 5 conferences.
Next year we will have 9 top 100 recruits on roster.I'll feel even better about next year if Howland can find a nasty rebounder in JUCO during the late signing period.
The reality coming in was
that we had average talent (at best) in our upperclassmen, returning, no depth down low, and were relying on a talented (injured) freshman to play a position that was new to him.
that we had average talent (at best) in our upperclassmen, returning, no depth down low, and were relying on a talented (injured) freshman to play a position that was new to him.
Didn't the media have us at #6 in the SEC preseason.
Or somewhere right there? Either way, it wasn't just State fans that thought this team would at least make it to the NIT. It was everyone else too. Hell, that would put us on the preseason NCAA bubble based on SEC projections. We have underachieved. Looking to close strong and perhaps squeeze into the NIT. Unlikely.
Edited to add: Howland is gonna take us big places. It's ok that it took him a little bit to get his mojo back. I don't think he realized how bad his returning team was until he got them in a game...where they had to make decisions on the court.
Or somewhere right there? Either way, it wasn't just State fans that thought this team would at least make it to the NIT. It was everyone else too. Hell, that would put us on the preseason NCAA bubble based on SEC projections. We have underachieved. Looking to close strong and perhaps squeeze into the NIT. Unlikely.
Edited to add: Howland is gonna take us big places. It's ok that it took him a little bit to get his mojo back. I don't think he realized how bad his returning team was until he got them in a game...where they had to make decisions on the court.
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I was thinking that too when we were playing Kentucky, but didn't want to say anything out loud.
So a bunch of
pencil pushing journalists, for the most part, are who you listen to? It all makes sense, now.
pencil pushing journalists, for the most part, are who you listen to? It all makes sense, now.
Ha I wonder why he's always calling for Mullen's head then? Hell Mullen has performed better than the media expected every year.
Give it up, man. This is the exact same team that RR took to 13-19 (6-12). KR say all the time no way Howland's team was going to be better than RR's last team.**
It is a miracle that Howland has taken this no-talent team to 12-14 (5-9) with TAMU, USCe, TSUN, and AU left. Simply Amazing!@!@!!@!@!@!@!@!@!@!@!
It is a miracle that Howland has taken this no-talent team to 12-14 (5-9) with TAMU, USCe, TSUN, and AU left. Simply Amazing!@!@!!@!@!@!@!@!@!@!@!
Those people were not amongst the "reasonable" that you speak of. The reasonable people knew that three years of losing was not going to be expunged overnight and that we were not going to vault into the top 40ish of the RPI overnight simply by adding Malik, which to be fair was the only addition most people were talking about into November.
It's just not likely to happen. For 2012-15, the average RPI and win totals for NIT at large teams was around 72. Iowa in 2012 was the highest at 131. Literally no one else got in with an RPI over 100. That's how much of an outlier Iowa is. Those same teams are also in the 19-20 win range. Power conference teams seem to get a little bit of a break on that, as many have gotten in with 18 and several with 17. To get there, we would need five or six more wins between now and Friday or Saturday of the SEC tournament, which would also likely mean that we would not be playing on Wednesday night, reducing the possible games to four regular season plus the tournament.
Oh come on
- 121jose say everyone knew our upperclassman were going to turn into lottery picks, no depth inside wouldn't matter, and Malik would be the best pg ever (despite having to learn how to play it and being injured).
Did you see Q playing PG the other night in MN's absence? Damn, Q learned it so fast and beat a tournament team in his first game. But yeah, Q wasn't injured, so it doesn't really count.**
MN missed, what, two games? Lol. Stick to watching the tapes.
Well you got me
there...** oh but Q played pg in high school so I guess not. Great point! Stick to making up **** without knowing what you're talking about. Why stop now, right?
You thinking someone not having ever played PG before isn't a big deal tells me all I need to know.
there...** oh but Q played pg in high school so I guess not. Great point! Stick to making up **** without knowing what you're talking about. Why stop now, right?
You thinking someone not having ever played PG before isn't a big deal tells me all I need to know.
Go ahead and show me where Q played PG in High school. You've got the tapes.!@!@!@!@!!!@!@!
And if you don't think that the #2 SG prospect in the nation can't play the point much less play with the ball in his hands, it tells me all I need to know. But please tell me about that season debilitating injury again, Dr. Rambler.**
You
really haven't added anything to this thread, but speculation. Speculation from someone that clearly knows nothing about basketball.
I'm sure when you played 12 year old YMCA basketball (maybe), the pg position was not really anything special, but once you make it past that point (which you're going to have to just imagine), it gets a little more complicated than just "playing with the ball in your hands." Give me a break. Is this real?
This is isn't going anywhere, as are most of your posts, so I'll leave it at that. Feel free to add another post with absolutely no insight or intelligence.
really haven't added anything to this thread, but speculation. Speculation from someone that clearly knows nothing about basketball.
I'm sure when you played 12 year old YMCA basketball (maybe), the pg position was not really anything special, but once you make it past that point (which you're going to have to just imagine), it gets a little more complicated than just "playing with the ball in your hands." Give me a break. Is this real?
This is isn't going anywhere, as are most of your posts, so I'll leave it at that. Feel free to add another post with absolutely no insight or intelligence.
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Sword and Ware are hardly 'average at best'.
Thomas, Zuppardo, and Daniels are average, sure. Average SEC basketball players, which puts them clearly above the overall average for college(D1).
If you want to include Ready in the upperclassmen since he has a lot of experience and is a JR, cool. He is better than average too, in spite of the emotional tantrums that so many throw on here about his play.
The problem for us occurs when we run into a team with size. For example, if we play Georgia in the first round, we are in trouble.
Chicken and Ware are above average, but I think Thomas, Zuppardo, and Daniels are probably below average SEC basketball players, at least out of players in a regular rotation?
But I really don't think talent is the problem. If you gave Howland two years with this team, they'd probably be pretty good the second year although there'd still be the weakness of not having adequate depth in the post and the potential for Ware getting in foul trouble to derail a game.
But you cant take a group of guys who have lost for three years and as a group have average talent, add three true freshmen (one of which missed most of non-conference with a serious injury, one of which has had to deal with nagging injuries) and expect to gel early enough to have a successful season. Just gelling by the end of the season under those circumstances is pretty successful.
We have some good players but we have holes in our team, i.e. we don't have the right balance. There just isn't enough size or athleticism in the post. Our man to man defense has improved tremendously over the course of the season. What I'm interested in seeing is how players who return improve from one season to the next.
In our case, the media's expectations were way out of line too. MSU was voted the #8 team, right behind USCe and ahead of Ole Miss.
With 4 games left in the SEC schedule, we are alone in 12th place .. one game ahead of Auburn and two ahead of Missou.
Couple of shining lights in an otherwise lackluster season .. Vandy and Bama's losses to State are considered "REALLY BAD" losses and will probably keep both from dancing. Play has really improved and newcomers are leading the way.
One thing you are discounting is the evolution of the team. The guys who have been here have lost a lot of basketball games. You don't just start winning at this level - you have to learn how to win. We lost a lot of close games early that would possibly go the other way now. That is part of the evolution and growth of a basketball team. Talent is fine, and we have some of that, but that's only one variable.
Ware, until
this year, was average. Sword is an average basketball player. You cannot convince me otherwise. He may be more than that in our league, but that's not saying much.
this year, was average. Sword is an average basketball player. You cannot convince me otherwise. He may be more than that in our league, but that's not saying much.
I get what you're saying, but Vandy and Bama have as much or more size as Georgia, and we just beat both of them. We were horrible against UGA, so it get magnified. Take the effort against Vandy or Bama and apply it to the UGA game, and it's at least a competitive game. By the same token, take the UGA stinker of a performance and apply it to Vandy or Bama, and we get blown out of those two as well. I think it just reinforces what missouridawg said - the field is really weak this year, and really even top to bottom. I don't EXPECT us to win more than a game or maybe two if one of them is on Wednesday night, but depending on the draw nothing would really shock me. I'd probably like to avoid Kentucky and Vandy as long as possible.
Chicken and Ware are both good players. They are
Boneheads as far as basketball IQ goes but they are clearly above average SEC players.
And, after Q, they are our two best players. Sword is a good defender and plays with excellent effort. His offense is pretty solid as well. If you had to choose Chicken or Newman (THIS YEAR ONLY), you would have to choose Chicken. He is that valuable to our team THIS YEAR. He played a hell of a game against Vandy and Bama. Sword creates a lot of offense for Ware too.
Boneheads as far as basketball IQ goes but they are clearly above average SEC players.
And, after Q, they are our two best players. Sword is a good defender and plays with excellent effort. His offense is pretty solid as well. If you had to choose Chicken or Newman (THIS YEAR ONLY), you would have to choose Chicken. He is that valuable to our team THIS YEAR. He played a hell of a game against Vandy and Bama. Sword creates a lot of offense for Ware too.
We have at four to go to plus tourney to get two more wins....
Unfortunately we have some pretty tough outs left on the schedule. Two of the top 3 in SEC and UM on the road.
Unfortunately we have some pretty tough outs left on the schedule. Two of the top 3 in SEC and UM on the road.
[/h]
Luckily we are talking about this year. So Ware is above average.
As for never convincing you of Sword being better than average, thats OK since Ive also accepted there are people in this world who deny the moon landing and several elected officals who think a woman cant become pregnant from rape.
The stats dont support your position, but hey, when has that mattered for much of what you post?
The SEC is the 6th strongest/best conference out of 32 D1 conferences. Sword starts for a team in the 6th best conference, scores in double digits on a good FG% for a guard while pulling down 4rpg and getting 3apg.
Not only is he clearly above average for a basketball player(when considering all of D1 which is about 4500 players), but he is above average in the SEC which is about 210 players. Yup, Sword is in the top 100 players of the SEC. Ill now go back to before this season and reference that Sword was on the conference freshman team and was a second team allSEC last season. He has upped his overall FG%, rebounding, and scoring since last season's 2nd team selection.
...but he is a below average basketball player.
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