So next year we should go back to Baron scheduling. This way we can:
- Enter A10 Conference Play 12-0 or 11-1
- Everybody excited, riding high, saying we should be ranked Top 25, we are getting screwed because we are not ranked
- Ryan Center filling up because we are 12-0 and playing Maine, New Hampshire, Wagner,
- Not see players have to perform under pressure, play against other Top 50 RPI Teams, see who steps up and who doesn't, see where the weaknesses are
- Not have Hurley is Baron 2.0 threads
- Not blame anything and everything on the Head Coach. Rave about how great the players are doing.
Personally I want to see:
- How the William & Mary Game works out
- How the 18 Game A10 Conference Games work out
- How the A10 Post Season Tournament works out
- How the NCAA Tournament Selection Process works out
Does the tough OOC Schedule prove to have been a benefit or a non-benefit? The 3 Road Games that ZERO of the other Top 50 RPI Teams would choose to tackle? Was it a wise more by our Head Coach? Most HC's would say no - obviously they would say that because they choose not to do it
According to most on this embarrassingly titled Baron 2.0 Thread the answer is a resounding NO. It was not a wise more. This board cannot handle the losses (albeit close losses).
But for me I am glad he did it. I am happy he scheduled like he did.
No reservations at all. Happy with the 1-4 record - of course not. Ready to run the HC out of town? of course not - the season is not 1/4 complete yet. Ready to call the season a complete and utter failure? of course not.
Will this tough OOC scheduling pay off?
Only time will tell.
I've said it before and stick to it that the Title of Thread is way, way, way off base calling it Baron 2.0. That makes no sense to me.
For many, many years the thrashing that Baron took on this board was relentless, non-stop, brutal, monotonous, sometimes personal, posters were brutalizing the guy constantly and then some immediately departed or soon thereafter when Baron left.....never to return. Baron could not do anything right, not press conferences, not post game shows, not sideline demeanor, not his accent, not quotes to the Projo, everything he did was wrong. I rarely ever let my opinion be known about how I felt about the guy and got labeled a Baron Ballwasher - a disgusting name calling if I ever heard one - yet people did not even know where I stood. Since he has gone I have realized that he was worse than I thought he was. But if you didn't join the hanging mob you were a Baron Ballwasher - even if you never committed one way or the other.
Since Baron, I have observed the uptick in the quality of academics, the virtual elimination of behavior issues, players respecting one another and the coaches, recruiting from High Performing AAU and High School Teams, high caliber preseason tournaments, being ranked in the Top 25, being picked to win the A10 preseason, getting pay increases for the Assistant Coaches, bringing in a top notch academic advisor, a Head Coach and Assistant Coaches who will individually take the blame for a loss not as before to blame everything but himself, a Head Coach who knows the game and has lived it his entire life and can articulate his observations in the Post Game show with poise, bringing in a top notch strength and conditioning coach, team and player discipline, recruiting players with good attitudes who as Alumni we will all be proud to have graduated from our State University, new weight training facility, money for charter flights to away games, more attention from the National Press, pride back in the URI Basketball Program around the country, URI being talked about again, promoting assistants to jobs at Boston College then to Creighton, to Arizona State, to Xavier, an assistant HC getting ready to assume a promotion in David Cox.............and Baron in all of his years? Pat Skerry to PC, and others? crickets??
To say Baron was a 4 and Hurley is a 6? to say Hurley is Baron 2.0? to say they are even? to say the gap is not that large? to say the gap is closing?
The same environment that was present for many years, especially the last 3 years, with Baron is starting to show signs of returning.
Are things perfect? No.
Is the URI Basketball Program in a different place than it was before Dan Hurley arrived? For me it is a resounding yes. It is not even remotely close to where we were. NOT EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE.
I am embarrassed that this thread exists on the KeaneyBlue Board. I am bewildered and astounded that anybody can believe that DH remotely equates to JB. The program is far ahead of where we were.
But all are entitled to their opinion, even if it does not agree with the majority
