Missed opportunities

[PeteRI]

It's hard to believe this is the same team that came back to beat Seton Hall. We should have at least a 5-2 record for our OOC. Now we practically have to run the table for the season and win the A10 title for the season to be a success.

[JimSidd]

Even though they’ve shown an ability to battle back in the second half of these losses and had a legit chance to win today, you can’t keep sleepwalking through the first ten minutes of a game. It puts too much pressure to have to fight back all the time. That can take its toll.

[Rhodymob05]

They’re way more talented than this. I don’t know who to blame, but their NCAA chances may have just dissolved.

[Ram96]

They’re way more talented than this. I don’t know who to blame, but their NCAA chances may have just dissolved.

I blame Cox. As great as a recruiter he is, he isn’t a good “in game” coach. He’s not an X’s and O’s guy.

[section(105)]

They’re way more talented than this. I don’t know who to blame, but their NCAA chances may have just dissolved.

I blame Cox. As great as a recruiter he is, he isn’t a good “in game” coach. He’s not an X’s and O’s guy.

......Just asking......a Cox coach team is know by_______________________on offense and________________________on defense.....?

[Rhody72]

I blame the inconsistent play of Sheppard and Carey for this loss. I thought Fatts was the facilitator against WKY as many here have been asking for. Harris helped more than he hurt us today as I predicted. He's just not a smart player. Leggett deserves more PT at PG. Sheppard appeared to be the primary PG today. If DJ is the only player who can hit the broad side of a barn door, some one may have to sit to make room for him. Half court offense remains a problem for URI.

[rambone 78]

While some of the blame for today falls on Cox for sure, he's not the one who missed layups, FT's, and turned the ball over too many times.

However, this is now year 3, and we have not seen consistent improvement as a bench coach. At some point, you have to wonder if there will be.

Yeah yeah yeah....new team blah blah blah.....they should be getting better. Same old excuses.

And yes, play Ish and DJ more, they have been good far more often than most of the others. DC is right on this one.

Maybe having both an excellent recruiter and bench coach is asking too much here?

[Ibn34]

“And yes, play Ish and DJ more, they have been good far more often than most of the others. DC is right on this one.”

DJ’s had 2 good SHOOTING games. He has not been consistently good at any other thing. He averages less rebounds than Fatts. That’s no good for a dude playing 18 minutes a game. But, I think that’s a coaching tool to have him eager to earn more minutes, coupled with his shooting ability. The incentive should be “GO GET US 10 REBOUNDS”. That would be a good motivational tool. The freshman, is just a grinder!! Something this team needs sorely. So grit! Some stones! Some toughness! When add in that Malik isn’t measuring up. It’s definitely a recipe for one, or both these guys to get more minutes.

[eli#10]

Obviously not getting the loose ball at the end and giving up the tip in was a killer. Especially the loose ball. Sleepwalking through the first 10 minutes of the game is inexcusable. Start guys that really want to be out there and who will play with a lot of heart. That is on the coach.

[KevanBoyles]

Definitely Ish with more minutes. He’s been the most consistent player on the team so far this season.

[theblueram]

While some of the blame for today falls on Cox for sure, he's not the one who missed layups, FT's, and turned the ball over too many times.

However, this is now year 3, and we have not seen consistent improvement as a bench coach. At some point, you have to wonder if there will be.

Yeah yeah yeah....new team blah blah blah.....they should be getting better. Same old excuses.

And yes, play Ish and DJ more, they have been good far more often than most of the others. DC is right on this one.

Maybe having both an excellent recruiter and bench coach is asking too much here?

Bone, I said before, it's getting late early. We shouldn't have to be bench coaching on a fan board at this point.

[bigappleram]

Obviously not getting the loose ball at the end and giving up the tip in was a killer. Especially the loose ball. Sleepwalking through the first 10 minutes of the game is inexcusable. Start guys that really want to be out there and who will play with a lot of heart. That is on the coach.

Two plays that killed us. Up 1, DJ gets 1 of his cleanest looks and he back rims it. Would have given us our biggest lead of the game. Then that loose ball...possessions arrow favored Rhody. If anyone dove on the ball it’s a tie up and we get the ball back in a tie game.

[DanInAZ]

If 'getting better' as a coach meant each game was better than the last then many of the arguments presented by fans would be accurate.

Coaching, like any other craft, or any skill, or really anything does not happen like that. There are in moment, in game, in season, in tenure, in career, in life setbacks. The expectation for progress is that one gets better over time but there will always be setbacks along the journey to that end. If there weren’t setbacks, Jim Boeheim would be the greatest coach this planet had ever seen by now.

Case in point... many of you have been writing on these boards forever but I still see the same poor grammar crop up from time to time. You should all be Pulitzer prize winners (for Journalism under Criticism or Commentary categories) by now, right? With each post better than the last?

This is non-linear progression many try to explain in a linear way. 'He's been here 3 years now, why isn't there more consistent X?' Talk about subjective? Perhaps those that criticize the coach can outline what your expectations are and present them to the AD to hold over DC during the season. I will make it extremely easy - 'David Cox needs to win X number of games before I will be satisfied with his ability to lead the team.' Sneak preview for next year's - 'David Cox needs to win X +1 number of games before I will be satisfied with his ability to lead the team.'

The point is there are so many variables that decide an outcome of a game, that to blame any one thing or person is not accurate or fair. It is easy to blame it on one person (coach, ref) or event (missed free-throw, poor pass, injury). Is it human nature or learned behavior to think this way? Does anyone really know?

One thing I will admit I do know- I am enjoying David Cox's time as the coach of the basketball team.

[BlackDogRants]

If 'getting better' as a coach meant each game was better than the last then many of the arguments presented by fans would be accurate.

Coaching, like any other craft, or any skill, or really anything does not happen like that. There are in moment, in game, in season, in tenure, in career, in life setbacks. The expectation for progress is that one gets better over time but there will always be setbacks along the journey to that end. If there weren’t setbacks, Jim Boeheim would be the greatest coach this planet had ever seen by now.

Case in point... many of you have been writing on these boards forever but I still see the same poor grammar crop up from time to time. You should all be Pulitzer prize winners (for Journalism under Criticism or Commentary categories) by now, right? With each post better than the last?

This is non-linear progression many try to explain in a linear way. 'He's been here 3 years now, why isn't there more consistent X?' Talk about subjective? Perhaps those that criticize the coach can outline what your expectations are and present them to the AD to hold over DC during the season. I will make it extremely easy - 'David Cox needs to win X number of games before I will be satisfied with his ability to lead the team.' Sneak preview for next year's - 'David Cox needs to win X +1 number of games before I will be satisfied with his ability to lead the team.'

The point is there are so many variables that decide an outcome of a game, that to blame any one thing or person is not accurate or fair. It is easy to blame it on one person (coach, ref) or event (missed free-throw, poor pass, injury). Is it human nature or learned behavior to think this way? Does anyone really know?

One thing I will admit I do know- I am enjoying David Cox's time as the coach of the basketball team.

Well for starters none of us get paid for grammatical accuracy on a message board. It’s not our job. However let’s go with your example and say it WAS our job... After 3 years of seeing/reading “poor grammar pop up from time to time” would you let it continue? For how long?

I will agree with you about “non-linear progression” in life and basketball. There are ups and downs in anything. Key word here though PROGRESSION. Honestly, what have we positively progressed under Cox as a HC in 3 years? I am genuinely and honestly curious to hear an answer to that. To me: There is really nothing I can firmly say we do better today than we did 3 years ago.

You make another great point - people criticizing Cox (like me) should outline expectations and look at the big picture. When Cox was hired he said the bar was now set at A10 championships and NCAA tournament appearances. That’s more likely rah-rah BS and I wouldn’t even go that high. I’ll go easier...How about starting at getting a signature win? Then the next season getting signature wins (multiple). Overall season record aside its just something to simply show that perhaps we dropped a couple winnable games BUT the program is making those positive strides and building well. From there when the Cox critics are at the door one could at least say, “Well in year 1 we did beat ABC, and in year 2 we knocked off ABC and XYZ”. We haven’t done that. What we have done is given ourselves more opportunities to get those wins each year but have yet to get a single W out of it!

[reef]

Ish definitely deserves more minutes would like to see him get about 20

[Rhody72]

...
Case in point... many of you have been writing on these boards forever but I still see the same poor grammar crop up from time to time. You should all be Pulitzer prize winners (for Journalism under Criticism or Commentary categories) by now, right? With each post better than the last?
...

Posts on a message Board are an informal means of communications. It is more important that we make our point quickly than be concerned with grammar, spelling etc. I don't expect what I read here to be grammatically correct. When e-mail was first becoming popular, a VP at URI told me that he would never use it, because he wanted to re-read the next day everything he wrote before sending it out to make sure it was perfect. This led him to have his secretary print out his e-mail drafts for review. He later changed.

[Ibn34]

What is this team’s identity? What are they SUPPOSED to be really good at? What is it that they’re known for? Few examples:
Syracuse....2-3 zone (Boehiem)
Wherever Mike Anderson is coaching, full court pressure....
Creighton teams shoot A LOT of 3’s...
Villanova...shoot 3’s, gritty defensive team, jump stopping in the lane...
Gonzaga...offensive execution, playing fast...
Kansas...high/low offense...
Florida St...gonna guard you when you step off the bus...
West Virginia...gonna thug and out-tough you, ALWAYS with Huggins...

What’s Rhody’s identity?? It’s not an emphasis of offensive excellence. Not a feeling of a growing culture, like say Nova. Defense used to be a calling card. But that was under Hurley, for his last few years. Not an up and down team, cause can’t rebound the ball consistently. Not a play hard/tough team. Etc...

What is the point of emphasis when describing a David Cox coached team? I’d love to hear what you guys think.

As the leader of ANYTHING, you must set standards and baselines that must be met. I’m not sure that is happening here at URI. That falls directly on the coach.

[section(105)]

......my view is that we do not clearly have a Cox Coach team identity, yet.......I posted elsewhere that is borrowing/trying to develop one with the seemingly ever changing rosters he has been dealt/acquired......I think he needs to find/develop one, rather than having it defined by others.....teach it with passion, commitment to it, recruit, and retain players to are dedicated to it......much easier said than done in the current college hoops climate.......maybe this will further develop once Fatts moves on......right now, our identity is Fatts......

[rjsuperfly66]

You make another great point - people criticizing Cox (like me) should outline expectations and look at the big picture. When Cox was hired he said the bar was now set at A10 championships and NCAA tournament appearances. That’s more likely rah-rah BS and I wouldn’t even go that high. I’ll go easier...How about starting at getting a signature win? Then the next season getting signature wins (multiple). Overall season record aside its just something to simply show that perhaps we dropped a couple winnable games BUT the program is making those positive strides and building well. From there when the Cox critics are at the door one could at least say, “Well in year 1 we did beat ABC, and in year 2 we knocked off ABC and XYZ”. We haven’t done that. What we have done is given ourselves more opportunities to get those wins each year but have yet to get a single W out of it!

From my seat (which means nothing), I thought Cox got a major pass for last season. Team was sitting in a position that only a conference championship could save, in that they squandered their chance at an at-large bid by playing like crap down the stretch. Because the season got cancelled, I don't think that was discussed nearly enough since there was not a sense of finality to the season. It felt like the heat he took was more for the transfers leaving than the team failing to play quality basketball down the stretch, and as the outgoing transfers were replaced with quality transfers in return, the failings of last season felt all but forgotten with hope for the future. URI can easily win enough A10 games to be in tournament contention, but in a pandemic-impacted season where games against elite teams could be postponed or canceled, and URI only had 1 game against each of the top 2 to begin with (and road games to boot), there is definitely a sense of squandered opportunity that only an impressive run can cure. And I think it could happen, but I'd have to see Cox do it once to feel confident in that.

[Blue Man]

Missed opportunities tends to be the story of this program forever.

Brief periods of true success that is never sustained.

We do not invest in this program. Period.

We will always be a stepping stone school until we invest. We had the right guy, and we invested too little too late.

So now we're getting a practice facility...woo. About 5-6 years too late. Still nowhere NEAR what a program with our aspirations (A-10 championships, NCAA tournaments was the "bar" coach said exists) should have. But it would've been enough to keep Hurley happy at the time and show we were trying.

Charter flights for the team. Charter flights for recruiting. Assistant coaches pool (pretty sure most of the UConn staff individually makes more than our entire pool).

We make an investment once, and then stop thinking it's good enough. The Ryan Center was great! Then we did literally nothing with it for 12 years. We don't even have replays! We had VCR tape for film in 2012. 2012! It took us almost two decades to get a film room (that also is our press conference room).

A majority of our fans either don't understand or don't want to understand what it takes to compete in D1 collegiate athletics. They think because nothing like "this" has been done amongst the cow farms of south county, that it doesn't need to be done. "Why does a coach need over $1M?" "Why do they need offices, Harrick recruited out of a trailer" etc, etc.

The problems with this program are above Dave Cox's in game decisions and Thorr's department management. Until the school, state, and donors want to properly support the program - nothing will change.

Until we have those things we will be a program that makes the tournament once every 4-6 years at best unless we get lucky.

[rhodylaw]

Missed opportunities tends to be the story of this program forever.

Brief periods of true success that is never sustained.

We do not invest in this program. Period.

We will always be a stepping stone school until we invest. We had the right guy, and we invested too little too late.

So now we're getting a practice facility...woo. About 5-6 years too late. Still nowhere NEAR what a program with our aspirations (A-10 championships, NCAA tournaments was the "bar" coach said exists) should have. But it would've been enough to keep Hurley happy at the time and show we were trying.

Charter flights for the team. Charter flights for recruiting. Assistant coaches pool (pretty sure most of the UConn staff individually makes more than our entire pool).

We make an investment once, and then stop thinking it's good enough. The Ryan Center was great! Then we did literally nothing with it for 12 years. We don't even have replays! We had VCR tape for film in 2012. 2012! It took us almost two decades to get a film room (that also is our press conference room).

A majority of our fans either don't understand or don't want to understand what it takes to compete in D1 collegiate athletics. They think because nothing like "this" has been done amongst the cow farms of south county, that it doesn't need to be done. "Why does a coach need over $1M?" "Why do they need offices, Harrick recruited out of a trailer" etc, etc.

The problems with this program are above Dave Cox's in game decisions and Thorr's department management. Until the school, state, and donors want to properly support the program - nothing will change.

Until we have those things we will be a program that makes the tournament once every 4-6 years at best unless we get lucky.

I 100% agree - the sad part is that we could actually make more money with the NCAA tourney credits if we could get the investment to get to the level where we go 3 out of 4 years. Need money to make money!

[Rhode_Island_Red]

This thread makes me think this should be our theme song:

[bigappleram]

What is this team’s identity? What are they SUPPOSED to be really good at? What is it that they’re known for? Few examples:
Syracuse....2-3 zone (Boehiem)
Wherever Mike Anderson is coaching, full court pressure....
Creighton teams shoot A LOT of 3’s...
Villanova...shoot 3’s, gritty defensive team, jump stopping in the lane...
Gonzaga...offensive execution, playing fast...
Kansas...high/low offense...
Florida St...gonna guard you when you step off the bus...
West Virginia...gonna thug and out-tough you, ALWAYS with Huggins...

What’s Rhody’s identity?? It’s not an emphasis of offensive excellence. Not a feeling of a growing culture, like say Nova. Defense used to be a calling card. But that was under Hurley, for his last few years. Not an up and down team, cause can’t rebound the ball consistently. Not a play hard/tough team. Etc...

What is the point of emphasis when describing a David Cox coached team? I’d love to hear what you guys think.

As the leader of ANYTHING, you must set standards and baselines that must be met. I’m not sure that is happening here at URI. That falls directly on the coach.

This would be my single biggest flag on DC so far as well. In 2.5 years we don't seem to have an identity. We had one with Dan. It matters.

[Rhodymob05]

I would say its supposed to be fast pace fast break offense. But it hasn't been executed consistently.

[PeterRamTime]

I like the points being made in regards to our identity.

Hard to form an identity when you have so many new faces.

I was thinking and I think Cox was thinking that we would retain the main tenets of the defensive identity Hurley created here while opening up the offense a little more. Getting out in transition and not getting bogged down with so many iso plays like we saw under Hurley.

He said he wants to teach a higher basketball IQ and run less plays so things are more free flowing and I think at times I have seen that.

The stretch last year where we were good our offense looked better than it ever had under Hurley. There was more passing, back cuts, pick and rolls. Stuff we didn't really see much under Hurley.

We have seen a little bit of that with this team (when Ish is on the court) but it seems like he doesn't have the IQ level there yet with all the new pieces and maybe needs to give them a little more direction.

Thats where the timely timeouts come in. Basketball is a game of momentum and our guys tend to get lost for too long.

Maybe their collective IQ's will improve to the level Cox wants them to in the end and he won't need to make the end game adjustments many on here are screaming about. Maybe they will actualize what he wants and they will be cohesive enough to dominate the A-10.

Even then I worry about his hands off approach beyond that. You want to be able to say your coach makes good in game adjustments. You want to see your coach call timeouts at the appropriate times. If nobody is saying that then something is wrong and it will limit your teams potential.

[Jersey77]

What is this team’s identity? What are they SUPPOSED to be really good at? What is it that they’re known for? Few examples:
Syracuse....2-3 zone (Boehiem)
Wherever Mike Anderson is coaching, full court pressure....
Creighton teams shoot A LOT of 3’s...
Villanova...shoot 3’s, gritty defensive team, jump stopping in the lane...
Gonzaga...offensive execution, playing fast...
Kansas...high/low offense...
Florida St...gonna guard you when you step off the bus...
West Virginia...gonna thug and out-tough you, ALWAYS with Huggins...

What’s Rhody’s identity?? It’s not an emphasis of offensive excellence. Not a feeling of a growing culture, like say Nova. Defense used to be a calling card. But that was under Hurley, for his last few years. Not an up and down team, cause can’t rebound the ball consistently. Not a play hard/tough team. Etc...

What is the point of emphasis when describing a David Cox coached team? I’d love to hear what you guys think.

As the leader of ANYTHING, you must set standards and baselines that must be met. I’m not sure that is happening here at URI. That falls directly on the coach.

This would be my single biggest flag on DC so far as well. In 2.5 years we don't seem to have an identity. We had one with Dan. It matters.

I think they would like our identity to be aggressive defense, hustle, and create off of turnovers, but not fully there yet.

[Rhody72]

...

I 100% agree - the sad part is that we could actually make more money with the NCAA tourney credits if we could get the investment to get to the level where we go 3 out of 4 years. Need money to make money!

By eliminating one embarrassing program, we can increase funding for two M's & W's programs, improve the public image of URI athletics and increase private donations. But, as the late Richard Gelles was fond of saying after his unsuccessful effort to terminate a Journalism Department with no tenured faculty and few students, "show me a weak program at URI, and I'll show you a program with a strong external constituency".

Also, did the money saved with DC's contract stay with M's basketball?

[RhodeIslandRams]

I remember Gelles! And the Journalism department. Took many a class back then. I like the quote, I had never heard it before.

[rhodyfan3000]

idk, I don't want to say the wrong thing and be labeled a DC apologist like last year, but I'm not sure you can shoe horn this crew into an identity. This team has a lot of talent, but they still trying to settle into an identity like pieces falling into place on a tetris game.

As far as WKU goes, they are a good team, they would be one of the more competitive teams in the A-10 conference this year at least. Reef even nailed the score, so that wasn't unexpected. I don't think I am upset about the second half of some of these games, this one included, where we outscore the other team, trying to come back from behind.

The part that is upsetting is the big goose egg on the board 5-6 minutes into the game. If that doesn't change, then the results will not change. To that end, fire away.

[bigappleram]

Agree with this...3-4 isn't all that unexpected given the schedule and the roster overhaul.

The correctable flaws right now are 1) turnovers and 2) fouling in the half court. With more continuity I expect both of these things to get better...guys to know each others tendencies more, more communication on defense, better team help defense and knowing assignments. These two areas have been costly in all 4 losses.

[SmartyBarrett]

Agree with this...3-4 isn't all that unexpected given the schedule and the roster overhaul.

The correctable flaws right now are 1) turnovers and 2) fouling in the half court. With more continuity I expect both of these things to get better...guys to know each others tendencies more, more communication on defense, better team help defense and knowing assignments. These two areas have been costly in all 4 losses.

I'd add rebounding to this list. They're a minus rebounding team right now at both ends. Losing Makhi definitely won't help, but they still have the personnel to be better on the glass.

[rhodyfan3000]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, I needed that.

I compared DC to John Chaney a week ago, in reference to the "anyone, anyplace, anytime" OOC scheduling philosophy, and I still stand by that. Chaney would have been 3-4 right now too, except against Kentucky, UNC, and Florida.

But, consider this. If DC was truly like Chaney, and said "we're going to play a match-up zone Defense, which is near impossible to learn, and even more difficult to execute, and we'll run our typical ground and pound half court offense with no outside shooting. Once a decade we'll have one ace shooter at PG to open things up and four redwoods, and that will be our offense. Mwahahahahaha!"

... he wouldn't have gotten all of this transfer talent in one recruiting season, that's for certain. Players would be like "the hell with that". And that's ultimately when Temple decided to actually replace Chaney, when he wasn't having as much success raiding the Philly and surrounding areas for top talent anymore.

These days, the game has to be a marriage between what the coach wants to do and what the players want to do, and I know that sounds like a cop out, but I think the college game is getting more and more like that as the decades roll on.

[PeterRamTime]

idk, I don't want to say the wrong thing and be labeled a DC apologist like last year, but I'm not sure you can shoe horn this crew into an identity. This team has a lot of talent, but they still trying to settle into an identity like pieces falling into place on a tetris game.

As far as WKU goes, they are a good team, they would be one of the more competitive teams in the A-10 conference this year at least. Reef even nailed the score, so that wasn't unexpected. I don't think I am upset about the second half of some of these games, this one included, where we outscore the other team, trying to come back from behind.

The part that is upsetting is the big goose egg on the board 5-6 minutes into the game. If that doesn't change, then the results will not change. To that end, fire away.

That hits the nail on the head. Losing to them wasn't so bad. But it's inexcusable to play as poorly as we played to start the game. In back to back games! Its just troubling to see that. Especially after getting out to such fast starts in the previous three games. A microcosm of the Cox tenre. Hot and cold.

[NYGFan_Section208]

...
Case in point... many of you have been writing on these boards forever but I still see the same poor grammar crop up from time to time. You should all be Pulitzer prize winners (for Journalism under Criticism or Commentary categories) by now, right? With each post better than the last?
...

Posts on a message Board are an informal means of communications. It is more important that we make our point quickly than be concerned with grammar, spelling etc. I don't expect what I read here to be grammatically correct. When e-mail was first becoming popular, a VP at URI told me that he would never use it, because he wanted to re-read the next day everything he wrote before sending it out to make sure it was perfect. This led him to have his secretary print out his e-mail drafts for review. He later changed.

Pretty sure that I read somewhere that good grammar and punctuation usage is now considered a micro-aggression...that it intimidates the young people...

[PeterRamTime]

...
Case in point... many of you have been writing on these boards forever but I still see the same poor grammar crop up from time to time. You should all be Pulitzer prize winners (for Journalism under Criticism or Commentary categories) by now, right? With each post better than the last?
...

Posts on a message Board are an informal means of communications. It is more important that we make our point quickly than be concerned with grammar, spelling etc. I don't expect what I read here to be grammatically correct. When e-mail was first becoming popular, a VP at URI told me that he would never use it, because he wanted to re-read the next day everything he wrote before sending it out to make sure it was perfect. This led him to have his secretary print out his e-mail drafts for review. He later changed.

Pretty sure that I read somewhere that good grammar and punctuation usage is now considered a micro-aggression...that it intimidates the young people...

I feel aggressed upon.

[ace]

Agree with this...3-4 isn't all that unexpected given the schedule and the roster overhaul.

The correctable flaws right now are 1) turnovers and 2) fouling in the half court. With more continuity I expect both of these things to get better...guys to know each others tendencies more, more communication on defense, better team help defense and knowing assignments. These two areas have been costly in all 4 losses.

I'd add rebounding to this list. They're a minus rebounding team right now at both ends. Losing Makhi definitely won't help, but they still have the personnel to be better on the glass.

I haven’t seen him play enough to know the answer to this, but is there a developmental arc for DJ like what they did with KI? I guess I mean more in approach than anything else. Kuran got to a point where he took a lot of pride in rebounding and blocking shots and kind of knowing where he should be defensively (still some lapses, he is who he is and I love him for that) and using his length to be disruptive. DJ seems to clearly be a better shooter, but they need him to be better defensively and to want to be.

[bigappleram]

Agree with this...3-4 isn't all that unexpected given the schedule and the roster overhaul.

The correctable flaws right now are 1) turnovers and 2) fouling in the half court. With more continuity I expect both of these things to get better...guys to know each others tendencies more, more communication on defense, better team help defense and knowing assignments. These two areas have been costly in all 4 losses.

I'd add rebounding to this list. They're a minus rebounding team right now at both ends. Losing Makhi definitely won't help, but they still have the personnel to be better on the glass.

Agree...and given we are net positive in rebounding against 2 of the biggest teams in the country (Seton Hall and Wisconsin) there is zero reason we don't win that statistic every night in the A10. Even without Makhi.

[reef]

Wasn’t KI top 50 coming out of high school ?? If DJ can get to his level by his senior year we be in great shape

[SandorClegane]

They’re way more talented than this. I don’t know who to blame, but their NCAA chances may have just dissolved.

I blame Cox. As great as a recruiter he is, he isn’t a good “in game” coach. He’s not an X’s and O’s guy.

I blame society. If they weren’t here, we’d all be happy.

[rambone 78]

Sutton is supposed to be a very good X and O guy.

How much input does he have there?

Anyway, the players have to execute no matter the plan.

Ish looks like the real deal when it comes to BB IQ.

We get athletes, even Baron got them, but not many high BB IQ guys. And that makes the difference at this level.

[luke]

This team has been very disappointing to me so far . To me , the main issue has been very careless passing , especially in the first half of games as
if the players don't have any urgency and so the players figure if the low percentage passing and low percentage shots don't work out in the first half
it was worth the gamble anyway since they still have the second half to make up for mistakes . If they are thinking like that they better reconsider
that philosophy and fast . Coach has to emphasize making the simple plays and having the patience to wait for the easier opportunities to present themselves. That is my assessment so far . I may be totally off , but that is what my eyes are telling me . They should be doing much better than they have I believe and it is killing me to see them beating themselves the way they have .