By the time we get to the point where people start talking about what we can do the rest of the season, I've already lost interest. That means the first part of the season is dogsh-t. I know we'll probably end up with 20ish wins and a game or two in the tournament and a top 150 RPI, just like every other year. There's no surprise. There's no "Hey those guys are pretty good." Same as football. Where's the magical 28 or 29 win season that a lot of other teams get to have once a decade or so? We get reruns.
I'm gonna say this and I don't care what the repercussions are, but we are the worst evaluators of basketball talent in the history of this sport at this point in time at Marshall and for the last several years. The old man may be able to work with guys that already made an NBA squad, but he couldn't find a guy that could get to the NBA through college if he wanted to. Kinsey can jump out of the gym but he doesn't have the tools to be more than a highlight reel. We've had guards that no one can even remember their names that were better at getting the ball to the hoop or to another guy that could than Taylor. The only legitimate talent we've had during Dan's tenure was Elmore, who fell into his lap, and spent his senior year waving at the cameras instead of winning ball games. CJ was too inconsistent his senior year to be included as a top talent. Too many wasted scholarships to count. Too many projects to ever finish one. And on top of all that we have an apparent system that you can't play in unless you're formally on the Ethiopian National Team and half starved to death or the complete opposite and the floor sags when you run down court.
The new slogan for Marshall sports should be "Just wait 'til next year." And then repeat. At this point not winning a single game would at least be a change and somewhat interesting. Stagnant and mediocre sucks. I, too, thought Dan was onto something after 2018. It was a fart in a jar and now it's gone along with the smell of victory. This sh-t right here is why people don't go to games and make our sports a big enough priority to show up in droves. Feels like a chore to go down there, find parking, get herded through the cattle gates and get to your seat to see the same crap you saw the last game, win or lose, and that you saw the last season, and the last 5 years, except maybe one year and even then it was a lucky tournament win not a complete season. We were a missed layup away from losing that game to WKU in the finals.
Wish them all the best but I'm completely apathetic to basketball. Don't watch on TV, don't go to games, don't usually even check scores unless I see a thread here. Just don't care. Past time for change. Might not matter at this point.
About 2/3rds of this post is spot on and then 1/3 of it is absolutely BS.
Idk if Kinsey will end up being an NBA player, I think we will absolutely get a look, but Idk if he'll make it. But, to pretend like all he has is his ability to jump out of the gym is a gross underappreciation of the talent and effort he gives us each night. You don't average 20 ppg by just being able to jump high. Kinsey has one of the best mid-range games in the country, he is incredibly crafty at getting to his spot and getting his shot off. Against Akron, he single handily kept us in the ball game at times by going and getting a tough bucket especially when they got up 11.
He has improved his skills every year he's got here and it's not like he is getting his points in an inefficient way he has shot over 45% from the field in every single season he's been here.
Then the disrespect of Taylor is also absolutely ridiculous. In the last 20 years of Marshall basketball, we may have two PGs that I can think of better than him Damier Pitts and Jon Elmore. And Pitts isn't even unquestionably better as for his career Pitts averaged 12.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.7 Turnovers, and 0.8 steals a game while he shot 40.4%
In Pitts best season, his junior year, he averaged 16.2 points, 2.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 2.8 turnovers and 0.6 steals while shooting 40.5% from the field.
Taylor on the other hand for his career is averaging 11.4 ppg, 5.2 rebounds, 4 assists, 2.3 turnovers and 1.9 steals while shooting 44.8% from the field.
I think that everyone would agree that Pitts was a pretty damn good player for us but if you look at the stats it would seem that Taylor is a better rebounder, a better defender and even at passing and taking care of the ball and while Pitts at this point scored a little more in his career, Taylor does it more efficiently.
So, I'd love to know what PGs we have had in the last 20 years that we've forgotten about that are better than Taylor? Because I don't think you'll find any you can make a legit argument on other than the two I named.