“They may never lose again” after their next win!
Going .500 in the B1G would be better than 7 of the 8 seasons under Pitino.
Players and coaching, these guys are 4th and 5th year seniors, lots of experience and success, maybe not at the major power 5 level but for the most part have seen most things thrown their way.
Still requires great coaching to get them to play together, and part of this was the type of athlete and person he chose to recruit. The staff seems to have selected guys that definitely are willing to play within the system, can guard multiple positions, play team defense, are sound in handling the ball, and each guy on the floor can knock down an open look. Who knows where this goes rest of this year, but if he continues to recruit players like this, with more size when he has the opportunity to do that, it could be fun.
look at Pitino's roster at New Mexico. Jamal Mashburn, Jalen House and Gethro Muscadin are all essentially 4 star players and the rest of the squad are 3 star's with experience. Pitino's exceptional coaching guided them to back to back LOSSES to UAB and Townson lol.
One advantage Ben's "first commit" has over most first commits is the nearly 1700 minutes of college basketball he played prior to committing here.
congrats on improving your best bro, from you sad sack we're doomed Miss St, prediction.
Give credit where credit is do, you technically cannot start any better. The team is playing with great composure and is playing like a team. Good coaching starts with recognizing what you have. Right now, we are playing to our strengths. There are some tough games ahead, but give the players and coaches credit for the strong start.
His ability to bring in transfers and new players and get them to play a style together and win is going to go a long way in recruiting future HS and transfer players. Sky is the limit for this program to building under Johnson.
For anyone familiar with college hockey, this is somewhat like the model Mankato has followed and been very successful with. Although instead of transfers, they are just bringing in older freshmen who stay for 4 years.
I agree. But give honest assessments as well. His first commit had played a lot before he got here. Like giving Fleck credit for Pinckney’s development without mentioning the previous 4 years.
It is nearly impossible to know if a coach is a assisted or impeded by the prior regime, their program or their players. The most honest way to appraise a coach is with contextual wins and losses. That stated, I specifically said "give the PLAYERS and coaches credit".
I agree with all of this. But maybe Battle would be better with another coach. We don't know. The argument I made was that you can't compare battle as a "first commit" (which is a silly thing to compare anyway) to high schoolers.
It does but coaching isn't going to transform these guys into team players in two months, it's more of a reflection of the kind of guys he identified and brought in. He still has to get them to play the game he wants but he's three quarters of the way there by the guys he recruited. I will argue again it's a combination of the coach and the players.
Of course it is, and a huge part of coaching is identifying the type of players you bring in. They obviously identified players who fit how he wants to play. And, a coach can create a team identify in two months - but with the wrong type of players even the best coaches struggle with that. The best coaches rarely miss on identifying those kids, although they all make a mistake sometime. It's why Ben let so many of the kids go from last year and didn't try to keep them, despite what some on GH wanted.
No love for Northern Illinois?
They may not win two games in the big ten still holds true
You were probably "the guy" who posted it just a month ago.
I have already said we already have exceeded my expectations. I expected 5-7 wins this year an am pleasantly surprised
Also using 2-3 zone, which I don't know much about, but it really confounds the other team's offense.