Why do we think we should be a good basketball team?

[M R DAWGS]

We don’t have an outside shooter. We don’t have a dominant inside post player. We don’t have a shot blocker. We don’t have a true point guard. Our team does not play stifling defense. Our offense is pedestrian.

We have one very good player in Molinar. The rest of them are decent.

 

[DoomSlayer]

We aren’t good, we are average. Molinar is the only person on the team that has a chance to play a single minute in the NBA and even then he’s probably an end of the bench type player. Our talent has been severely overrated by our fans for a while.

Doesn’t bother me anymore we won’t go dancing because we don’t deserve to. We are a classic NIT team.

 

[047Dog]

We run an offensive system that doesn’t get the ball in the post, doesn’t get open 3s and generally uses up at least 20 seconds of the shot clock before a shot is even attempted.

Molina is a good player but he took almost half our shots tonight, 19 points on 18 shots. Only 51 shots as a team. That is slower than molasses and boring as 17 to watch.

 

[irondawg007]

Serious question, what is our record now if we had Ado in this lineup? I say 17-4

 

[M R DAWGS]

Serious question, what is our record now if we had Ado in this lineup? I say 17-4

Ado wasn’t any good either.

When you watch these games, you can tell as a reasonable sports fan if there are driven and talented players playing for your team. We do not have them at this point. Unless some major revelation occurs, we will once again be watching the tournament without representation.

 

[Msubulldogfan1]

Serious question, what is our record now if we had Ado in this lineup? I say 17-4

How did you arrive at this conclusion?

 

[047Dog]

Serious question, what is our record now if we had Ado in this lineup? I say 17-4

We need shooters. Ado was an offensive black hole and wasn’t a difference maker on the defensive end.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

We need a point guard and a three-point specialist.

 

[onewoof]

We play very well at home (great news if we seed high in the NIT) and we look lost on the road. Tonight was better until the last few minutes. Kentucky on the road was good as well.

Hopefully we keep improving. We aren't yet a tournament team. Close but not convincing.

We could honestly play well enough to win our final 7 games. Or we could lose 5 of 7. Anyone's guess.

I'm guessing Arkansas will lose 4 of the next 5.

 

[irondawg007]

Fully agree we need a shooter, but we need guys who can control the board too. If we had a good inside guy and a 3 point shooter along with Molinar, we’d be top 5 in the country. I’m simply saying the addition of a strong rebounder off missed shots would be worth potentially 3 games this year. But asking for 2-3 key players means we weren’t ever a good team to begin with — which is where we are now. We had expectations for a NCAA team, but we haven’t changed from being an NIT school. Changes are obviously needed. Good coaching brings good players.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

The offensive scheme alone is reason enough to get rid of Howland. My God it’s hard to watch. What you said is 100% accurate. Don’t get it to the post, don’t create outside shots, use up all the clock

 

[ababyatemydingo]

Howland's teams never reaching their potential is the same reason he got fired from UCLA in 2013. I remember a couple of UCLA people coming on this board when we hired him saying we'd have a boring team, and win just enough to get by.

 

[PuebloDawg]

Ado wasn’t a difference maker on the defensive end??? What the hell are you smoking? He was money defending pick and roll, and playing off screens on the perimeter. Also, a solid rebounder and shot blocker. If we had him when Tolu went down and down again and again, it would’ve made a HUGE difference. No doubt we would’ve beaten Colorado State (that loss is still inexcusable). He also set good screens on the offensive end.

You’re talking about a guy that had 68 blocks last year. To put that in perspective, our season is at least 75% over and we have 81 blocks as a team. Our leading shot blocker is DJ Jeffries with 16. Hell yes we miss the lane enforcer. And we miss him a lot.

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

7-(maybe deep, we have top 25 talent. But damned if we have near absolute zero team chemistry on the court. That's built from the head coach down. But the assistant coaches easily play the biggest role in that effort.
Our assistant coaches seem to have already bailed out on this team.
Watch their body language throughout the course of a game and how they interact with players. It is evident.

 

[Seinfeld]

I think the reason is due to prior to the season, the roster made it seem as if the pieces were all there. We had good returning presence both inside and out with Molinar and Tolu coming back, we were adding seasoned immediate-play guys in Jeffries and Brooks, and then it just felt like we were gonna find depth somewhere with guys like Watts, Moore, Fountain, and Matthews.

I guess our problems this year all started with Tolu's lack of availability, but in addition to that, I really just don't know how to describe this team. A lot of ok to good pieces, but they just don't seem to fit well together at all at times. I'm not sure if it's because of the players, coaching, or the portal, but I don't know that I've felt one time this season that this group of guys looked like a "team".

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

If a coach in year 7 doesn’t have a good program you have the wrong coach.

 

[Mr. Cook]

7-(maybe deep, we have top 25 talent. But damned if we have near absolute zero team chemistry on the court.

Agreed. Not sure where the blame lies -- most likely it is shared. It is always easy to say the coaches, the players need to also "buy in" (or recruit players that do).

That's not to say they aren't, just hard to tell why the chemistry isn't taking place.

I loke the players on this team, and I enjoy watching them. I wish for their sake they came up on the right side of a few these games where they have played hard. I think the latter part of the 1st half in last night's game was about as gritty of a performance as I've seen all year from them

 

[patdog]

When you’ve got multiple player groups over several years who don’t really buy in or play to their potential as a team, you have to think the coaching is a problem.

 

[Mr. Cook]

I don't disagree. Hindsight is 20/20

 

[FlotownDawg]

A big reason Howland got fired from UCLA was his style of play was boring as hell to watch and fans weren’t coming to the games even when the team was winning. Sound familiar?

 

[Msubulldogfan1]

Ado wasn’t a difference maker on the defensive end??? What the hell are you smoking? He was money defending pick and roll, and playing off screens on the perimeter. Also, a solid rebounder and shot blocker. If we had him when Tolu went down and down again and again, it would’ve made a HUGE difference. No doubt we would’ve beaten Colorado State (that loss is still inexcusable). He also set good screens on the offensive end.

You’re talking about a guy that had 68 blocks last year. To put that in perspective, our season is at least 75% over and we have 81 blocks as a team. Our leading shot blocker is DJ Jeffries with 16. Hell yes we miss the lane enforcer. And we miss him a lot.

Our defense this year and last year allowed 66 ppg by opponents.

We average 73 ppg this year, as opposed to 69 last year.

Do with this knowledge what you will.

 

[8dog]

There is absolutely enough talent to make an NCAA tournament.

 

[KentuckyDawg13]

Frank Martin thinks you are wrong.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Frank Martin thinks you are wrong.

It’s been 5 years since USCe made that run and haven’t sniffed the tournament since. His winning percentage at USCe is 54%. I would imagine that the seat has started to warm. 5 years is a long dry spell in today’s time.

 

[Mr. Cook]

Frank Martin thinks you are wrong.

Frank Martin has taken a team to the Final Four

 

[patdog]

Seriously? He had one good season 5 years ago, but other than that Howland at MSU is a lot better than Martin at South Carolina. And really even then, they just go hot in the tournament, they weren't a great team by any means.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Frank Martin has taken a team to the Final Four

Dan Mullen took MSU to the #1 ranked team in the country!

 

[curseddawgs]

Frank Martin has two 20 win seasons in 10 years at South Carolina. Howland had 3 straight in 2018, 2019, 2020.

 

[curseddawgs]

Not only that but they MAYBE would have made the NIT in 2020, they have been extremely hard to watch since 2017. However, would we take two 20 win seasons in 10 years if one of those seasons ended in a final four? Part of me says no but we haven't made the second weekend in mine and many others lifetime.

 

[Mr. Cook]

Dan Mullen took MSU to the #1 ranked team in the country!

Fluke. He couldn't keep 'em there and lost the Egg Bowl that same year. Less than five years later --- gone