We dug a humongous hole that year. Borderline miracle to fight back.
Reminiscent of 2021-22
- Thread starter BillyC80
- Start date
What bugs me is the certainty with which some want to declare this season out of reach for the NCAA tournament.
Maybe it’s just me, but as a fan I think of myself as an extension of the team. In no way will I even begin to think we have no chance, nor would I ever say it to the players or coaches, so that attitude reflects how I post on here.
The thing that keeps me hopeful, more than anything else, is the fact that our defense remains elite, nationally. This goes to effort and to coaching.
Yes, we allow our opponents to get too many offensive rebounds, but we also create more turnovers. I can’t remember ever having caused so many shot clock violations, and even more impressively, so many 10-second violations, as we’ve seen so far this year.
Our shots will begin to fall, and when they do, we will be a very tough out.
Maybe it’s just me, but as a fan I think of myself as an extension of the team. In no way will I even begin to think we have no chance, nor would I ever say it to the players or coaches, so that attitude reflects how I post on here.
The thing that keeps me hopeful, more than anything else, is the fact that our defense remains elite, nationally. This goes to effort and to coaching.
Yes, we allow our opponents to get too many offensive rebounds, but we also create more turnovers. I can’t remember ever having caused so many shot clock violations, and even more impressively, so many 10-second violations, as we’ve seen so far this year.
Our shots will begin to fall, and when they do, we will be a very tough out.
I don’t want to write the season off either. April to October is depressing without college bball. Hoping Derek can become the player we’ve seen in flashes. If Gavin shakes out of his funk, we could be formidable.
It wasn’t really in doubt but that’s because we shot 50% from behind the arc.. my point is you set that to a more normal performance and you’re talking 4-7 point game that would’ve been in doubt down the stretch which is not too dissimilar to what we just saw against Stonehill. And this from a team that had already lost to Lafayette.
Fair enough on the second point, I had forgotten about that though it rings a bell now that you mention it.
Jackoffs. Had a guy dogging Paul all last year. I shut him up every time and so did others near us. Come to think of it I haven’t seen him this year.
I think that stuff really took a toll on Paul. I don’t think anyone should have been blindsided by his departure. And I doubt Even if I had had that kind of athletic ability and discipline, I don’t think I’d ever be comfortable being the face of a program. Taking all the abuse. All that pressure. And he played with such emotion - we could use some of that right now.
Also, in case you didn’t see this.
Cool, the fan police has now showed up to tell everyone what to do. FYI....in case you missed it, there are plenty of active threads where people are expressing woe and misery.
I’m not the fan police.
I’m just tired of the delusion.
If people want to make threads comparing us to certain teams that made the tournament, or talk about how losing Cam wasn’t going to be a big deal, or how we were going to win games in the 70s and 80s this year, go right ahead and continue to be delusional. I’m ticked off because the so called insider fans gave us the WORST preseason report I’ve seen for any team I’ve ever followed. So excuse me if I decide to push back a little on this constant delusional nonsense.
It’s going to be a very rocky season. I’ve accepted that
Seems like if you had accepted it you wouldn't be mad enough to get bothered about an innocuous thread such as this.
You're certainly entitled to packing it in whenever you want.....but you are in fact acting as a fan police by telling others to "stop" feeling or posting the way they want which you did in that post. Also speaking of the delusional nonsense you note - blaming your anger on other boogie man "insider" fans here for just expressing their opinions on their pre-season prospects of a team seems to fit the bill much more than overly optimistic hope expressed by a few fans here.
When I'm watching a team I have no rooting interest for this is true.
When I'm watching RU, I watch with both.
You’re being sensitive to me disagreeing with OP. The “insider” fans here were wrong about everything. Post whatever you want. I will laugh and say stop with the nonsense all I want.
Who is being delusional? People are discussing what’s wrong, missing and what needs to change for us to right the ship. What some of us have seen at the open practice looks nothing like what we’ve seen in the games. We’ve all accepted that the post season is a long shot, that 12/30 was the one of the least satisfying wins in program history- but January 3rd is a bit early to throw in the towel.
Also, that Illinois loss doesn’t look so bad anymore after watching them dismantle NW last night far worse than they did to us - without Shannon Jr.
Cool. Carry on and enjoy the insecurity of having your emotions be a victim to the opinions expressed by others.
no, this team reminds me of 2018-2019. That team went 14-17 that year. It had a transfer (Jacob Young) who was going to help, but we needed to wait till the great 2019-2020 team the following year to use his talents...Jeremiah Williams is the same guy this year. It had some good Freshmen (Tez+Ron+Caleb) who needed their freshman year to get minutes and learn how to play in college. We have that this year with Gavin and Jmike.
The 2018-2019 team is not a perfect comparison to this year, since the 2018-2019 team needed a year to gel, and it then added great complimentary players the next year in Young, Yeboah and Paul to help out the core. Plus it had a key player leave with Eugene. Next year's additions aren't complimentary pieces but core pieces. But they are freshmen, and can't be asked to do too much, or more than it required of them.
That is why this year is ALL about building a foundation for them, and getting ready for them to come in next year to put the team over the top into a fun contender.
So for me, this year is all about just these things. I don't care if they are a bottom 4 team in the BIG. If I don't list certain players on this list, I'm sorry...I don't care. The Seton Hall game looks like the outlier right now, and there is enough of a pattern of results here that tell us that this team is soft, leaderless, and woefully unreliable in making layups and 3s. So what matters to me?
1. Develop Gavin. He needs to be a major piece next year.
2. Develop Jmike. He needs to be a major piece next year.
3. Get Mag healthy and happy. Maybe have him take over the team and lead it as an Akwasi Yeboah-type player that they will need next year.
4. Get Jeremiah Williams on the court and have him be the next Caleb that this team will need next year.
5. Figure out if any frontcourt players can provide toughness and rebounding consistency and dependability for next year.
That's it. If they figure out a lot of this stuff by the end of the year, and really turn it on and win games, mission accomplished. If they can put on a run in the BIG conference tournament, that's a bonus.
But I don't care about NCAAs this year. The NIT would actually be great for the young guys on this team to get some post-season experience, but I'm not expecting a record over .500
The 2018-2019 team is not a perfect comparison to this year, since the 2018-2019 team needed a year to gel, and it then added great complimentary players the next year in Young, Yeboah and Paul to help out the core. Plus it had a key player leave with Eugene. Next year's additions aren't complimentary pieces but core pieces. But they are freshmen, and can't be asked to do too much, or more than it required of them.
That is why this year is ALL about building a foundation for them, and getting ready for them to come in next year to put the team over the top into a fun contender.
So for me, this year is all about just these things. I don't care if they are a bottom 4 team in the BIG. If I don't list certain players on this list, I'm sorry...I don't care. The Seton Hall game looks like the outlier right now, and there is enough of a pattern of results here that tell us that this team is soft, leaderless, and woefully unreliable in making layups and 3s. So what matters to me?
1. Develop Gavin. He needs to be a major piece next year.
2. Develop Jmike. He needs to be a major piece next year.
3. Get Mag healthy and happy. Maybe have him take over the team and lead it as an Akwasi Yeboah-type player that they will need next year.
4. Get Jeremiah Williams on the court and have him be the next Caleb that this team will need next year.
5. Figure out if any frontcourt players can provide toughness and rebounding consistency and dependability for next year.
That's it. If they figure out a lot of this stuff by the end of the year, and really turn it on and win games, mission accomplished. If they can put on a run in the BIG conference tournament, that's a bonus.
But I don't care about NCAAs this year. The NIT would actually be great for the young guys on this team to get some post-season experience, but I'm not expecting a record over .500
I would say the people getting upset over me disagreeing with them are the emotional ones. You’re also acting as a victim when I said “stop” as if I have some sort of power to censor those on the board. Go discuss whatever you want. My original post was a genuine reaction. Mainly because even comparing this team to that one is totally ridiculous. Just because someone thinks your post is ridiculous doesn’t mean you should stop discussing. However, you decided to get sensitive and call me the fan police. OP thinks is reasonable to compare the two teams. I thinks it’s reasonable to say it’s a ridiculous comparison and delusional. That’s all
No, there is not nearly enough scoring or rebounding on this year's team to seriously compete in the Big Ten. This is a transition year before a potentially historic season. I just hope we can keep everyone else together.
