I like what I have seen of the new guys. I hated losing taylor, not so much Micah, but we can't pay players that kind of money so it is what it is. We can still win as a team, and sounds like defensively, we're turning it up a notch. I heard Crawford talking about full court man and love it. Love to see ua defensively smother people and create offense from it.
I'm not expecting us to be world beaters, but i am excited about seeing what we do. I'll be there regardless, just like football.
This is what gets me. What is the expectation?!?! One minute we have Dan talking about national championships but when we lose first round of the conference tournament, we get "well look at some of the positives during the season". Quite frankly (as a supporter of men's basketball), I want to set a high bar with the new conference we are in. There has been too much flim-flam when talking about the expectations of the program. One minute it is a low bar, then the next minute it is a high bar. Which is it??? The expectations are all over the place......and I am not talking about this season. It just seems lately that too much focus has been on Dan. I worry about Marshall basketball. We are 1-3 in conference tournaments lately with the only win being in an opening round against FIU. I don't like that we lose to Rice, LA Tech and Texas State in 1st round. In many ways, I question Dan's approach to practice the last few years as to whether we are tough enough when conference tournaments roll around. And it is Dan that makes no bones about that he is a players coach when it comes to approaching practice. No extra running to toughen them up mentally, practices generally over in 1.5 hours, more shooting than banging.....those are Dan's words, not mine.
Yeah, we can talk about full-court pressure. But if you are going to do that, then you must have "depth". And quite frankly, I haven't seen that portion be developed within the program lately. Either you have to move the roster OR you have to develop the guys better that weren't productive last season. You can't full-court people with a 6 or 7 man rotation.
As far as moving "the defense up a notch".....he better get that defense moved up a few notches on the dial. We lost a lot of offensive production. I just don't think this team is built to win with offense only come late January and into February. I would like to see an extra half-hour of practice that we could use under NCAA guidelines to be used to work on defense only.
I like Dan a lot. This isn't personal. I look forward to each and every basketball season. But quite frankly, I think it is time that Dan do some things different with this program in terms of his approach to the game. Younger coaches tend to study the game more, use concepts that other successful coaches have done, expanded their recruiting base, attack the weakness of the team instead of using the same ole concepts. I haven't seen that lately out of Marshall basketball.
I wish the coaches and the players the best this season. When I can make it in on Saturdays, I will be there with excitement. But talking about championships and doing the things necessary to win them are two different things. Quite frankly, I am ready for the latter and don't need to hear the talk.