Cooper suspended for season - FromTheBlueSeats.com

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Originally Posted by theprofessor

bullshit.

bullshit.

bullshit.

the coaches talked about how we took our lumps last season but that this season was going to be much better. we were going to compete for the wac title in 08-09 and go dancing in 09-10.

most of us bought into that bullshit. by that definition, it was going to be turned around overnight. we redshirted our supposed best player last season while three savior transfers also sat out. those four players were going to make is an immediate player in the conference and eventually nationally. the coaching staff truly believed that. when i watched practice before the season and expressed a few of my concerns to one of the assistant coaches, he told me point-blank that i had nothing to worry about. they honestly believed it.

boy, were they wrong. dead wrong.

rolle, while incredibly talented, struggles to stay out of foul trouble as it is. there's no way he can play center, where he's now needed because kenny cooper did something so terrible so many times that it caused him to be suspended for the season. and the way rupp talked (allowing him to stay on scholarship "so he can graduate"), he's not expected back next season. of course, we all know what happened with jamel white, who couldn't even make it to his first game with the dawgs. and olu ashoulu hasn't been nearly as good as advertised, even with a redshirt season to develop. he has a lot of offensive potential, but he's struggled to find a position (he's a 4 who wants to be a 2) and also does not compete very well on the defensive end of the floor. his minutes have been limited somewhat, but he's lucky he's playing for rupp and not keith richard, because his liability on the defensive end wouldn't have allowed him to even sniff the court.

these coaches took a major chance, selling it as they were standing on principle, by sending four players packing during the offseason (when, in reality, the coaches just didn't think they were good enough). that gamble has been a total failure. and the coaches have to be held accountable at the end of the season. we put up with six losses last year because of this year and next year. so far, this year has been a failure. don't tell me, "well, we've won more games." hell yeah, we have. look at the talent on the bench last year and how that hamstrung the 07-08 team. well, that talent didn't make that big of a difference this year.

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I completely agree. This is Rupps second year and we are back at phase one.

None of his plans, NONE, have worked out. He built this team on JuCos and transfers. He ran off the only highschool players he had. Yea, maybe they weren't lights out, but they were 4 year players.

I am not saying that he shouldn't discipline his players, I like his commitment to principles. My problem is with what was said last year. "Wait til next year." Well, its next year, and we suck.

Nobody is overreacting. This is a different situation than the football loss at army (when people were making 4-8 predictions). ALL OF OUR SUPPOSED GOOD PLAYERS (save 2, who haven't been great) are off the team.

One more thing, if y'all really think Kenny is coming back next year, get a grip. He was probably kept on scholarship so he can graduate and not hurt our scholarship count. He is gone.

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Originally Posted by bluecrew

Timo that article was about his brother Lace not Davarious.

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Thanks for the correction, foxie.:icon_wink:

I don't know the particulars, but agree in principle with Coach Rupp.

I kicked several great players off my girls' summer BB team...one of them starts for her HS team and recently had her picture in the Times as "Sports Hero of the Week" after she scored 30 pts in a game. Never doubted she could play, which is why I recruited her in the first place, but too many disruptions to the team.

I also had a kid that played soccer, baseball and basketball for me years ago in youth leagues, and that we were always at odds...early on. Other coaches allowed him to rule the roost because he was such an awesome athlete. I didn't. The first time I took his uniform from him and told him to leave, his eyes were like this: :shocked2: When he came to understand I was the boss, he wasn't, we got along great. And we won all kinds of championships in all three sports together. To this day, he hugs me, calls me coach, and we talk as friends, who respect each other. He's 33 with his own kids now. (GAWD! I'm getting old!)

I support Coach Rupp doing what he has to to get and maintain control of his team. Those players that make the grade will be great student-athletes.

It is the lack of player development that is worrying me. Olu, Magum and Cooper all have raw talent and could be great players if they were getting the proper instruction. Maybe this will be what Mag and Olu need to step their game up.

As far as the bad season, I am as disappointed as anyone, with the talent we have there is just no excuse. Its not like we are in the Big East, or losing to great teams. This team has every bit as much talent as the days of Gerrod Henderson, Tiger, and Cole, but those guys refused to lose. This team seems to be surprised to win. I am going to the game Sat. vs Idaho and expect this team to come out fired up. If they dont fight with their backs to the wall, then we have bigger problems.

All that being said, I do think KG is a good player who could take over a game if he could get a little help on offense. All is not lost, we just have to pull off a couple on the road now and take care of business at home.

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Originally Posted by TECHLAX

Again, even with the turmoil, we have already won more games than last year. With the problems, I would call that progress. I am certainly not happy with the way this season is going but I am not going to jump off a bridge about it. This team will continue to improve with quality players with character, and if they stop improving before they get to the tourney consistently, then we can jump form the bridge.

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come on, lax. you're a knowledgable guy. surely you don't actually believe this. progress? last year's team was sabotaged and set up for failure. the coaching staff intentionally took one on the chin. there was no way not to progress. the season is not done, so there's still time to right the ship, though that looks tough at the moment, but at this point right now, i would say this team is more of a failure than last year when you compare talent to production. it's ridiculous that this team has so much problems producing comparable to its talent and struggles so much to play with heart. at least last year's team had heart and palyed above its talent level at times. we haven't seen that from this year's group.

I tend to agree with Prof, it appears we don't play with enough intensity. However, I will say we showed a glimmer of it against Nevada. If we could play with the energy we had the last 2 minutes of that game then we'd be talking about our win over Nevada right now. This team is a total mystery to me, hopefully someone will step up and be a leader.

There is a reason Utah didn't give him the job after the interim year...

The Cooper situation has been brewing before the season ever started - yes he was LOOKING to transfer OUT before the season ever started because he wasn't getting his way -

I still have a hard time NOT believing that with Lathan, Timms and Washington this team wins 3 or 4 for ballgames so far this year -

Like I've said before KARMA is a bitch....

What was the reason Utah didn't offer him? coaching ability?

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Originally Posted by Dawg04

I'll start with this:

Players removed from the roster at the end of last season:

Brandon Mims - currently averaging 3 points a game for a division III school.

Orren Tims - the 4th option on his junior college team. He is not a division one player.

Drew Washington - kicked off the NAIA school he went to less than one month into the season for the same crap he pulled here. Please stop saying we should have kept him.

Dwayne Lathan - bad kid. Noticed that his dad failed to mention that he still has a six game suspension from the NCAA that he has to serve AFTER he sits out his transfer year when he went crying to the Newsstar.

Removed for Discipline:
Jamel White
J.C. Clark
Kenneth Cooper
I know the head coach gets the final decision on who to sign or who not to offer a scholarship too but it’s interesting to me that of all the guys removed only one (white) falls under our current staff.
Mims, Tims, Washington, and Lathan were all Richard signees.
Clark and Cooper were both here because of Renie Bailey. If you remember Bailey no longer is on staff.
This is a cleaning that program needed.

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+1

Good discussion on this tonight on the show. To be continued next Wednesday if any of you would like to chime in.

Probably one of our better segments. This has people talking, and the opinions vary greatly.

My stance: If you're going to nuke the program, and that's what essentially happened when Rupp got here, and basically give an entire season away, then I think it is fair that we as fans demand more from this team in Season 2 than we're getting.

I don't see the progress. Maybe when/if we get some more HS guys in here and try our hand at developing our own talent.

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Originally Posted by Luminaire

Good discussion on this tonight on the show. To be continued next Wednesday if any of you would like to chime in.

Probably one of our better segments. This has people talking, and the opinions vary greatly.

My stance: If you're going to nuke the program, and that's what essentially happened when Rupp got here, and basically give an entire season away, then I think it is fair that we as fans demand more from this team in Season 2 than we're getting.

I don't see the progress. Maybe when/if we get some more HS guys in here and try our hand at developing our own talent.

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For the record I am not in maybe next year mode. But just to clarify the players that Rupp is recruiting in here...

The 2010 and 2011 seasons roster will look something like this (hopefully)
PG- Yonas and Holton
SG- Josh Brown and Darrius Redding
SF- DJ Wright and Brandon Gibson
PF- Olu
C- Kadeem and Oliverson (sr year in 2010)

Every single one of those guys (with the exception of Oliverson) we recruited and committed to us out of high school. It is very true that on paper that team means nothing until it proves otherwise. Just simply pointing out we are recruiting high school kids. No obviously we still have a need at a power forward and possibly other positions depending on how these guys develop but we have the makings of a nice roster right now.

Put this in a situation most of you can relate to. Imagine this is your work place and you have someone that has this kind of attitude. Does it help moral at work? Hell no. Same thing with a team. I say get the bad apples out when you need to and you will be better off down the road. Our problem right now is that it really hurts to lose a player, especially one that was contributing. Let's hope this helps the attitude of this team.

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Originally Posted by Luminaire

Good discussion on this tonight on the show. To be continued next Wednesday if any of you would like to chime in.

Probably one of our better segments. This has people talking, and the opinions vary greatly.

My stance: If you're going to nuke the program, and that's what essentially happened when Rupp got here, and basically give an entire season away, then I think it is fair that we as fans demand more from this team in Season 2 than we're getting.

I don't see the progress. Maybe when/if we get some more HS guys in here and try our hand at developing our own talent.

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I've been thinking about this. I've never seen a coach nuke a program this way before. I've seen radical changes, but never an almost complete overhaul (FTR--not saying it doesn't happen, but I don't follow sports well enough to have ever seen it happen in a team I follow). Anyway, this kind of overhaul definitely has risk, and we are seeing that risk play out.

I'm just starting to think that we should have prepared ourselves for a season 2 like this, as we were banking on a benchload of transfers (plus Olu), not on anyone we'd ever seen actually play.

That said, many on here were expecting huge things, and I, personally don't think a WAC title run has been elminated yet (not after seeing the best the WAC has to offer in Ruston last week). But even if we don't get there, even without Cooper and the other guys we lost, this team is still better than last year's team. While I was hoping for major fireworks this year (mainly because this will be my last basketball season in Ruston for the foreseeable futuer), as long as we are seeing legitimate improvement each year, then I still have confidence that the program is headed in the right direction.

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Originally Posted by Brian96

I've been thinking about this. I've never seen a coach nuke a program this way before. I've seen radical changes, but never an almost complete overhaul (FTR--not saying it doesn't happen, but I don't follow sports well enough to have ever seen it happen in a team I follow). Anyway, this kind of overhaul definitely has risk, and we are seeing that risk play out.

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Keith Richard did the same thing several years ago for Paul Millsap's junior year. He dumped a lot of players on scholarship and brought in 6(?) Juco players - Disy, McKenzie, Richardson, Elliot, etc. They had talent but they seldom played team basketball.

Like many of you I am disappointed with some of the things happening this year. But don't forget that other than Kyle Gibson, the cupboard was bare when Coach Rupp came. I think he is making progress and I'm satisfied with the progess (although I still expect to contend for the national championship every year). It just takes more than a season and a half to turn a long time mediocre program into a contender.

I'm a longtime fan of TECH MBB and I live and breathe TECH MBB yet I'm not upset. I still have hope for this year and a lot of hope for the future. It amazes me that so many are upset because I see a much brighter future under Coach Rupp than I would have ever seen with Keith Richard. Although there are some clouds present, I still see a bright future ahead.

Atleast the ladies of Section 107 will be spared of my quit playing like a girl comments...

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