IMO hiring a coach away from a cUSA school for roughly or a slightly better position than his current one has to look good for us. Having a staff loaded with talented coaches is a huge step in the right direction. It could also cushion a transition should several years of winning create an opportunity for White to move on. (not that I meant to get ahead of things!)
The one thing Rupp did that I liked was put together VERY managable schedules to say the least the last 3 years (all SOS 250 or worse)....
I hope this staff continues that until they can get a foundation under this program -
We need to WIN, regardless if its against the blind sisters of the poor - just WIN in OOC and shoot for .500 in conference play
Winning breeds confidence, Confidence breeds growth...
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Disagree 100%. Beating bad teams brings false confidence. IMO a team will not get better unless it is consistently put to the test against teams that are known to play good basketball. Competing with good teams builds confidence. It also allows an honest evaluation of our team, talent, and gameplan.
I think we need to BUILD a schedule for this first year. Try to get a couple of gimmes early in the season as the players learn a new system and gain some confidence. Then play a progressively tougher schedule as we head into conference play. I wouldn't say that's the way to do it EVERY year, but it's certainly the way to do it during a transition year.
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
Been trying that since 1987 in football and it hasn't worked -
Apply the Boise St method to basketball and ROLL....
Two or three good OOC tests and the rest should be schools you should compete with or beat should get you primed enough for conference -
WIN WIN WIN WIN gets folks in the seats not a fistful of single digit loses to quality teams...
Get 12 or so OOC wins minimum and go with it
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
There is a reason home teams win such a high percentage of games OOC which inturn means any ROAD OOC win is a good win and we all KNOW that the most home OOC games we will possibly get in a season is 6 or 7 at most more than likely 5 or 6....
Get in two holiday tourneys where you will draw one real toughy...
Rupp had the schedules - just couldn't pull it through
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
The other advantage is that if we're going to play a weaker schedule anyway we can play all those local schools that everybody loves to play.
I'm with you on this. For the next couple of years (at least) our schedules need to look pretty much the same as they've looked the last 3 years.
-Bunch of southland/swac/sunbelt schools.
-Couple of the closer/weaker CUSA/MWC schools.
-The mandatory $ game or two.
-Couple of random far-flung series that we can work into a trip we're already making, or who are willing to do a one-for-one.
We aren't looking to improve our seed, we're looking to break .500, then to make the tournament, then we can start worrying about preparing for a run.