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For what it's worth, I agree with sharky, but for, probably, different reasons. Although, I do have to admit, I am pretty isolationist in my foreign policy stance. I won't go into much more because I don't want this thread to turn political. Also, I do see the sense in recruiting foreigners if we can't get comparable "home" talent to sign with us.
Okay, I had a little time to waste so I went back to see who all predicted us doing exceptional this year because, like professor, I thought I remember alot of unreasonable predictions. I picked a couple of the most likely threads, and so far, the only people I saw that made those type of predictions were people who have remained eerily quiet thusfar. I didn't go into too many threads because after awhile they tended to get off topic and turned into pissing contests and name calling. Imagine that. Anyway, I did find it interesting that at one point Dwayne and sharky were willing to give Rupp a chance but, apparently, have a short leash on chances.
I don't want this to turn into a political thread either but my simple response is do the job and better and you won't be in danger. It is capitalism. Get used to it.Originally Posted by sharky
Spoken like a person who is still in college. I think we need to let this direction of the thread die before it gets moved.
Brian. Thanks for those observations.
I have some good friends, whose opinions I value greatly, that have repeatedly told me what a great guy "The Professor" is. Those opinions have caused me to repeatedly second guess my opinion of the professors' posts.
I have come to the conclusion that this Bret dude may be a great guy but that the screen personna of the professor is aptly named. He reminds me of several real professors that I had through the years.
In my opionion the poster named the professor is a consistently negative, arrogant, condescending prick who believes the only opinion that matters is his own and that he we would rather be right in his predictions than for a TECH team to overcome adversity and therefore prove an opinion of the professor wrong.
But then again I acknowledge that I could be wrong.
I personally would rather hear from Bret sometime.
Last edited by skilldawg; 01-17-2009 at 07:18 PM.
Re: Cooper suspended for season - FromTheBlueSeats.com
The early returns are in and I think the Dawgs played their best game of the season against a much improved Idaho team.
I second that motion.
Exactly. And there was a distinctive drop-off in the glorious predictions when we lost both of our PGs. And DfM said from the start that we would be doing well to finish with mid-teen wins. "Hindsight bias" is a staple of any sports discussion, and it is definitely in play here.
Boxer, HoDo, and other mroe basketball-savvy posters never put us in the Sweet 16, and I don't remember Juice going there either. All of us expected a decent run in the conference with a shot at the conference title, and thanks to the WAC being relatively down this year (at least at the tippy-top), that is still realistic.
Over the last three games, we made a little bit of improvement each game. If that trend generally continues, we have much to look forward to down the stretch.
We hired Rupp to re-build the program, and to me the clearest sign of that is an overall trend of improvement. This is only the second year, so it's pretty easy to graph a line with just two points, but we have already increased our wins on the year by 1/3 over last year.
Yes, we do appear on the right track so far.
Okay I am sorry if I repeat anything stated earlier.
One, Coop was a cancer. Against Utah State he yelled at a coach. Against Nevada he did not participate in the huddles instead sitting on the outside like a reserve or not with the team at all on a couple occasions. He rarely hustled.
Two, this years team is better than last years team. As long as that trend continues I am satisfied by Rupp's performance. Everyone wants a miracle but turning around a program takes time.
Three, Rupp made some horrible decisions bringing in cancers from other teams. Two of the big three are gone, but I believe Rolle is the real deal. Olu is really a post player trying to be a wing. He can play the post and develope an outside game over the next couple years.
Four, anybody who thinks last years team was better than this years team is crazy or has not watched them. Yes we played our hearts out last year but we were the little enging that couldn't. We were so over matched talent wise it was unbelievable. The one guy who could really play, Latham, was a dud in the classroom. (I know I had a class with him.)
I really believe the program is headed in the right direction. We will always need a few Juco players to supplement our highschool recruits. I think two a year which would make four on the team at a time is reasonable. If we triple our win total from last year and maybe win a couple games in the WAC tourney it will be a successful season.
I don't think anybody has stated that last year's team was better than this years team. That's the problem. They've stated that this year's team isn't doing any better than last year's team with the more talented players relatively speaking. I'm not around enough to watch the team play, so I can't say. The only thing I know is the personality of several of the posters on this board, and we have some very optomistic posters that I know tend to get a bit excited. We also have some others to counter that optomism. I use them all to set my expectations as well as what limited knowledge I have of sports and the dynamics of team to determine how I think we'll be for the following year. As I said earlier, I didn't expect much from this year's team, but not for the reason I gave as that was a joke. I didn't expect much because it was basically a brand new team, and I was expecting conflict.
As far as JUCO players, I wonder how many consistently top 25 programs supplement with JUCO players yearly. I ask because I truly don't know.
I was wondering that myself. I just took a quick look at Louisville, Kansas, and Kentucky. Louisville didn't seem to have many JUCO's going back a couple of years, but Kansas and Kentucky seemed to take a guy or two to plug holes. Now, Kentucky hasn't been a top 25 team lately, but they are playing pretty well this year. Of course, that's just 3 schools, but I don't think it's rare to plug holes with JUCOs, even for some of the top programs.
That said, it didn't look like a yearly thing, but more like every other year.
Time is your friend. Impulse is your enemy. -John Bogle
Expectations from last year to this year have been high. I've consistently said wait until January and we'll see what the 2008-09 team will do. Have they gelled yet? Saturday showed me some possibilities. We'll see.
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Actually - I think that's the best game they played as a team since we beat Utah St in Paul's last year...
I think what he is picking up on that he represented as last year's team being better are statements that we shouldn't have jettisoned Lathan, Tims, and Washington to bring in jucos or whatever. The new faces on the roster since cutting those are Guyton (a juco who is a better shooter than any of the other 3), Jackson (a FR who is shaping up to be a solid player), Brandon Gibson (a FR who has shown some promise, but still has a lot of developing to do), and Berhe (a FR who came in late and it is hard to say yet how he will shape up). Guyton and Jackson are definite upgrades; Gibson and Berhe could go either way at this point (although Berhe was brought in late, and is irrelevant in the comparison to the guys Rupp cut).
The main point, though, is that it is not vague or up in the air. This year's team is ABSOLUTELY better than last year's team. The only category left in which last year's team might have been better was "heart," and this year's team caught up with them Saturday and played with as much fire as I saw out of last year's team.
What is annoying about this thread is that folks are taking the unrealistic predictions (Sweet 16, etc.) of a couple of posters who are not even participating in this discussion, making them normative, and using them to "prove" why Rupp screwed up in bringing in transfers and how we have nothing to show for it. The FACT is that this team is BETTER than last year's team and has a LEGITIMATE shot at playing for the WAC title. No one who is participating in this current discussion predicted more than that, though back when we though we would have all 3 transfers and a decent 2-deep at PG we certainly predicted we would be doing it in higher style than we are.
Jackson is a juco.
What's been strange is that people lodge their complaints against those of us who ARE engaged in the conversations as if we made completely outlandish predictions. I think we'll be a player in the conference race and contend for the tournament championship. I still think those are realistic possibilities.
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