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Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 6, 2016 15:47:40 GMT -6
Some may consider this a confusing question and I certainly do at this point but is Coyote basketball going in the right direction or the wrong direction? The Yotes built some momentum last year but that momentum is pretty much gone at this point. For whatever reason Craig Smith seemed to want to put all his eggs in the 2016-2017 basket with his recruiting decisions and it appears that may be backfiring.
Some may say that this whole thing is a talent issue but how do we know that if the team lacks so much energy and lacks the ability to play as a team consistently. I kind of envisioned this year being one that started out slow and gained momentum as the season progressed but the Coyote regressed more and more the longer the season went on. I didn't get the impression this team was well coached if coached at all because it certainly didn't look like it for much of the Summit season. A well coached team is supposed to get better throughout the season not regress.
What is puzzling to me is the development and usage of Jech and Hagedorn. Coming into this season they were supposed to be kind of the two guys that had the intrigue and the upside. At the beginning of the season they were being used and it seemed like they were coming along nicely and suddenly both especially Jech suddenly stopped getting playing time. I really wonder why. At one point Smith said those players were not playing because of a particular matchup (I believe against Denver). I guess any matchup is not a good matchup for them. Are one or both of them over rated as players or is their a dog house being created for them. I was hoping we would have two very promising players going into their sophomore years and instead it's pretty much alot more questions than answers at this point.
The Coyotes miss Larson and Boss terribly this year. They have not been able to replace them. Casey is a shooter and Norris is limited with his size and doesn't have enough quickness for being undersized to bring too much to the table that any other team is going to have to worry about. The Coyotes need to add at least 3 good guards that can play and definitely need more guys that can shoot. The Coyotes also lack size to the back court as well.
I could go on and on and on but at this point I will save some breathe for now. The bottom line is that this program has taken a fairly big step backwards. Next year is a very important year for the Smith regime. I think we will find out alot as to whether Smith is the guy for this program and if he can coach at this level. A big step forward needs to happen for alot of reasons.
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Post by yippinloud on Mar 6, 2016 17:41:51 GMT -6
To answer your question, take a look at who has been playing recently.... Tre B no longer trusted to start but biggest contributor across the season, DJ looks steady and reliable but has he really influenced any games with all those minutes?He's a less productive scorer (pp40) than some who left the program which looks a bit like playing safe, then you have has Trey N, Casey, Flack, E Rob....all guys recruited in the Boots/James/Kassin/Williams era and you have had two guys walk out - looks like objectivity and man management are issues - expect a big turnover of the potential returnees ahead of a year that should have been a continuation of improvement and not a regression. It's now almost like Joey James' one year interim appointment. Can't totally agree with the comment about Trey's lack of speed, if he'd have been coached as a passing guard, right back to JJ's year, he would have had even better assist stats - signs of that this year as he he outdid his sophomore year in assists starting far fewer games
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Post by gopheryote on Mar 6, 2016 19:54:47 GMT -6
Geesh guys - step back from the ledge. I don't think Coach Smith was hired to win with Boots/James players, but rather build a program. According to people who know about this type of thing than me, the talent level next year will jump a ton. It would appear if they struggle/don't improve next year, then throw this type of post out there. But at this point it looks like they were simply trying to find a combo of players, and they did have 3 seasons-within-a-season (Pre-Flack/Sparks; Full Team; Post Shy), which is unusual.
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Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 6, 2016 20:09:58 GMT -6
Geesh guys - step back from the ledge. I don't think Coach Smith was hired to win with Boots/James players, but rather build a program. According to people who know about this type of thing than me, the talent level next year will jump a ton. It would appear if they struggle/don't improve next year, then throw this type of post out there. But at this point it looks like they were simply trying to find a combo of players, and they did have 3 seasons-within-a-season (Pre-Flack/Sommers; Full Team; Post Shy), which is unusual. No one is stepping out on a ledge. There are some legitimate concerns with the programs and they should be discussed regardless of your perspective of the program right now. People can argue the talent of this program but that doesn't explain the lack of chemistry, confusion on offense, lack of effort overall. The effort wasn't always poor but it definitely wasn't as good as it needed to be as often as it needed to be. There were many games where it didn't seem like the team even showed up emotionally to play. I watched first hand last night and that Yote team that I saw was confused on the offensive end like they had no sense of direction as far as what they should be doing. It looked like playground basketball. I am pro coach Smith but I am more anti losing and both are conflicting forces right now. I can't say I don't have my concerns and a legit fan should at least want a few questions answered about this season. |
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Post by Yotes on Mar 6, 2016 20:19:27 GMT -6
No one stepping on the ledge? You're inches from calling for a new staff already.
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feared
Freshman Member
Posts: 82 
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Post by feared on Mar 6, 2016 20:48:21 GMT -6
Some may consider this a confusing question and I certainly do at this point but is Coyote basketball going in the right direction or the wrong direction? The Yotes built some momentum last year but that momentum is pretty much gone at this point. For whatever reason Craig Smith seemed to want to put all his eggs in the 2016-2017 basket with his recruiting decisions and it appears that may be backfiring. Some may say that this whole thing is a talent issue but how do we know that if the team lacks so much energy and lacks the ability to play as a team consistently. I kind of envisioned this year being one that started out slow and gained momentum as the season progressed but the Coyote regressed more and more the longer the season went on. I didn't get the impression this team was well coached if coached at all because it certainly didn't look like it for much of the Summit season. A well coached team is supposed to get better throughout the season not regress. What is puzzling to me is the development and usage of Jech and Hagedorn. Coming into this season they were supposed to be kind of the two guys that had the intrigue and the upside. At the beginning of the season they were being used and it seemed like they were coming along nicely and suddenly both especially Jech suddenly stopped getting playing time. I really wonder why. At one point Smith said those players were not playing because of a particular matchup (I believe against Denver). I guess any matchup is not a good matchup for them. Are one or both of them over rated as players or is their a dog house being created for them. I was hoping we would have two very promising players going into their sophomore years and instead it's pretty much alot more questions than answers at this point. The Coyotes miss Larson and Boss terribly this year. They have not been able to replace them. Casey is a shooter and Norris is limited with his size and doesn't have enough quickness for being undersized to bring too much to the table that any other team is going to have to worry about. The Coyotes need to add at least 3 good guards that can play and definitely need more guys that can shoot. The Coyotes also lack size to the back court as well. I could go on and on and on but at this point I will save some breathe for now. The bottom line is that this program has taken a fairly big step backwards. Next year is a very important year for the Smith regime. I think we will find out alot as to whether Smith is the guy for this program and if he can coach at this level. A big step forward needs to happen for alot of reasons. I thought Craig had some good things to say in the presser after last night's game: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwP4dnMhwhg |
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Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 6, 2016 20:57:04 GMT -6
No one stepping on the ledge? You're inches from calling for a new staff already. You are simply incorrect my friend and don't put words in my mouth that are blatantly false. What is it about me being "pro Smith" do you not understand. I think it's fair to ask the tough questions. This team basically did a complete mid season collapse and you'd think there would be some reasons for that aside from players suddenly being not very talented when they were plenty talented enough early on. I wonder what kind of internal strife may have been going on to cause a good basketball team to suddenly not be very good at all. I believe USD was something like 3rd or 4th in RPI of all the teams when the conference season started. |
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Post by Yotes on Mar 6, 2016 21:04:01 GMT -6
Our guard play was basically limited to Kasperbauer and Burnette and our inside game in part suffered from this. Video got out on us and we became very easy to plan for. That's why halfway through the season we saw a sharp decline and no recovery. We have three guards who sat out this year that our success will hinge on. If those guys turn out to be as good as the coaching staff believed when offering them a scholarship we will be doing just fine. Everyone anticipated this to be a transition year and that's what the year turned out to be.
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Post by Cousin Eddie on Mar 7, 2016 6:44:39 GMT -6
Those I have talked to that have seen the three red shirts say they are legit.
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Post by golfingyote on Mar 7, 2016 7:22:53 GMT -6
Barring Anything unforseen, The yotes will have 6 new scholarship players and one new walk on for next year. Those incoming faces matched with our depth at the big man positions should allow smith to tinker with his style and hopefully find a good fit for next year. Great things to come.
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Post by yote14 on Mar 7, 2016 8:21:59 GMT -6
A step backwards? Anyone who thinks that please tell me who on the team this year was going to put us in a position to be a contender? I know everyone expects immediate results from a coach but not one player we had on the roster this year other than the 2 true freshman big men and Flack are legit D1 talents. It's impossible/unheard of for true freshman big men to succeed their first year in D1.
It was carryover D2 recruits (not saying that to be mean bc those guys worked their but off and made the best of the situation) and JUCO xfers patched together to get by this year.
Did you expect to get 20 and 12 from ERob? or 16 points and 7 assists from Norris? Get realistic expectations. We won 3 less games this year overall in a league that improved day and night from last year when our roster got worse. And we knew it was worse. Things like effort, engagement, and cohesiveness always look like they are absent when you have a team that is lacking in talent.
If next years team has a losing record you have an argument but this year its hard to understand this question even.
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Post by Coyote Fan on Mar 7, 2016 9:31:38 GMT -6
Carryover D2 recruits? Lets get real, it's been 8 years since the Yotes were D2. This has nothing to do with anything regarding the D2 recruits. Even if these were Boot's recruits it's not like he was a dumpster fire coach. Did we need a change, yeah we did but it's not like these players were D2 players we currently have on the team.
Obviously things will continue to evolve but let's not pretend that Smith did a good job coaching this year because he did not and the program took a step back any way you look at it. Smith may very well end up being a good coach for the next decade but that does not change the fact that this team looked like it was not well coached for most of the Summit League season. With the talent lost in Hunter, Larson and Boss sure that is hard to replace but having Smith have one more year to install his program and ideas should have off setted much of the talent loss.
By the way I did watch the Smith post game press conference and liked what I heard from him. He went into quite a bit of detail about what happened this year, what he was limited to being able to do and what we can expect in the short term future. It sounds like Smith definitely would have liked to do some things strategically that he wasn't able to do because of having not enough capable bodies to be to execute it. Being able to press more would have been one of the things he would have liked to do more.
The good news is that the player shortages are mainly from the back court. It's much easier to have to figure out a way to have to fill the holes at guard than be forced to have to come up with good bigs.
I still remain optimistic I just think there are concerns as well.
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Post by yote14 on Mar 7, 2016 10:43:01 GMT -6
They are D2 equivalent talent. Not saying they were recruited to play D2.
What did you think was going to happen this year? We would be 24-10 and be the #2 seed? The talent was not there. Anyone who followed the program the last 2 years expected exactly what played out this year. This was not a surprise or a step backwards. This is not the movies. The greatest coach in the world cannot make sub par talent into sustained winners. There was not one time I looked at Smith in a negative light this year.
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Post by fightsd on Mar 7, 2016 10:57:30 GMT -6
They are D2 equivalent talent. Not saying they were recruited to play D2. What did you think was going to happen this year? We would be 24-10 and be the #2 seed? The talent was not there. Anyone who followed the program the last 2 years expected exactly what played out this year. This was not a surprise or a step backwards. This is not the movies. The greatest coach in the world cannot make sub par talent into sustained winners. There was not one time I looked at Smith in a negative light this year. Gotta agree with CF on this one. Shocking, I know. But we can't use the D2 recruit excuse anymore. No current coyote athlete was recruited to play Division II sports. Your initial comment was poorly worded if you did indeed mean they were D2 talent rather than literal D2 recruits. |
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Post by Charlie on Mar 7, 2016 14:01:08 GMT -6
The lack of guard play hurt the Coyotes more than anything. Down the stretch, it is almost impossible to be a consistently good team without consistent guard play. Norris did his best but outside of him, the Coyotes really had no true ball handlers. Tre could but he really wasn't a true guard but more of a guy who could score and create off the dribble. Same could be said of Davis. Plus Davis was asked to guard the best perimeter play on the opposing team every night which wore on him down the stretch. Next year, if the Coyotes are able to have an actual guard rotation, the entire team will be better. Better guard play make things easier for everyone. Plus, I think Smith would like to press more and that will be easier with more guard to rotate in and out. I don't think we got to see the style of play that I think Smith wants his teams to play.
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