Expectations

[tower912]

Of course.  How many teams play zone as their base defense every year?  Why do you suppose more don't?  Coaches other than Crean know how to game plan for a zone.  UNC shredded Duke yesterday. 

[WarriorFan]

Back to the intent of the thread:
Expectations:
- top 5 BEAST every year
- NCAA tournament every year
- Exciting, fun to watch basketball
- Positive impact on community
- Clean (100% clean no questions) program

As for the comments about Cain... we've got a 6'7" Frosh slasher/rangy defender who ALSO shoots 46% from 3 with a legit sample size?  And people are complaining?  C'mon folks!  I see Cain as a 4 year player who develops as follows:
Sophomore:  9-11ppg, 20 mins, guards opposition best 2-4 player when Sacar is out, can hold own against anyone on D.  Rebounding improves.
Junior:  11-13 ppg, 5 boards, 25 mins, guards best opposing player 1-4.  legit game changer
Senior:  13-15 ppg, 7 boards, 25-30 mins.  Team leader and go-to guy on a team with 5 guys averaging double figures.

[WarriorDad]

Back to the intent of the thread:
Expectations:
- top 5 BEAST every year
- NCAA tournament every year
- Exciting, fun to watch basketball
- Positive impact on community
- Clean (100% clean no questions) program

You are asking a lot with those first two.

UCLA's longest consecutive NCAA streak is 15.  Duke is on 23 currently.  Neither  are 100% clean.  More realistic is 4 of every 5 years.  Top 5 BEAST 4 of every 5 years.   Hard to hit on all recruiting classes, plus injuries, transfers.  At times I feel out fan base drives coaches away with expectations.  We should want to be very good, excellent, but part of the challenge with being a coach is the fans often want you to always exceed the last year.  Keep doing better than the previous record.  Unsustainable.

[4everwarriors]

#5 is axin' lots two, hey?

[Herman Cain]

My expectations are the sum of the components:

Bigs-
Matt Heldt- Has made steady incremental progress each year( and through each year),so fairly confident in expectation he will  improved and hit his peak as a player toward the end of the season next year. Obviously, the expectations are not super high, but we do know what we will get out of him.
Theo- The Big question is how much improvement will he make going from freshman to sophomore.  My sense is he will make a large incremental improvement and his minutes will increase accordingly.

Morrow- He made a big improvement between his freshman and sophomore year. Now he took a year off to work on his game. My expectation is he makes another large improvement. Not as many traveling calls and less fouls.

Froling-My expectation is that he does very well against the cupcakes and will continue to be challenged by the more athletic teams. I am looking at him as a partial insurance against any bad losses in the non conference and a few good moments here and there in conference.  I have also felt for some time he could possibly go pro in his home country where there are advantages for local players.
Ike- No expectations until we know the extent of how he has healed from injury and how much time he has trained with the team.

Forwards/Wings
Sam- Continue progression upward. My expectation is he becomes some kind of all Big East level player next year.
Jamal- Classic improvement from freshman to sophomore based on increasing body strength. Should be a key contributor in conference play with his length. Will also contribute minutes as a guard.
Sacar- Continue refinements to his game. Builds off the confidence of his solid year this year.
Joey- Has advantage of seeing how we operate.  He may not play as many minutes as his older brother did as a freshman, but I expect a similar level of performance.
Brendan- Will come in more mature than a typical freshman. My expectation is that he willingly embraces whatever role he is asked to play. Should be more physically developed than when he was in high school.  He is coming in relatively early so he should have a long time from May to October to get his D1 legs and shake rust off. 

Markus- My expectation is he moves up to first team All Big East quality and becomes more of a distributor.
Greg- My expectation is he makes a big leap up, that his thumb is healed,  and plays a key heavy minute role as a combo guard.
Cam- Continues to be a great teammate in practice and pump the guy up.

So overall, my expectations is the team performance should be somewhat similar to this year.  We don't know who is leaving the other teams in the Big East early ,so to soon to say if we can actually move up on a relative basis in conference.   My key focus player for next year  is Theo. If he can make the incremental movement I am expecting, it should really open things up for the rest of the players on the floor.

[Floorslapper]

Of course.  How many teams play zone as their base defense every year?  Why do you suppose more don't?  Coaches other than Crean know how to game plan for a zone.  UNC shredded Duke yesterday.

Hey..nobody else is doing it so we shouldn't either.  Always great logic and leadership right there.

As for UNC "shredding" Duke yesterday -  They legitimately shredded Duke with 82 points in a victory in their first matchup when Duke played M2M.  UNC then "shredded" Duke with 64 points in a loss at Cameron Indoor in the second matchup with Duke exclusively zone.  And finally last night, on neutral court, UNC put up 74 - the first time Duke has yielded more than 70 points since going zone.

Granted UNC is the Number 5 team in the land in Offensive Efficiency, but suggesting they "shredded" Duke's zone is a stretch at best.

[GGGG]

I'll leave it at that.

You should probably stop saying stuff like this.

[GooooMarquette]

Consistent use of a zone can work well when you have guys (1) with long wingspans, and (2) who consistently do a great job of blocking out.

Unless we have players hidden somewhere that I'm not aware of, I don't think that describes our team.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Cuz Ners wants too much money.

He'd have to give up his frozen yogurt stand so it just isn't worth it.

[WarriorDad]

Of course.  How many teams play zone as their base defense every year?  Why do you suppose more don't?  Coaches other than Crean know how to game plan for a zone.  UNC shredded Duke yesterday.

In the NCAA tournament it appears Coach Crean's mentor doesn't either.  For that matter, Crean's successor, Buzz Williams also couldn't.  Maybe it is the coaching tree.

Though Syracuse has knocked tournament teams off their game with high level coaches for a long time.


Rick Bozich had a good tweet today.  https://twitter.com/rickbozich/status/975482235469123587

[tower912]

Nice catch.   What I saw was an MSU team that wasn't listening to their coach.    They got baited into settling for 3's.    And they did.   Over and over and over and over and over again.   BTW, are you going to be able to come up with a connection to UGA?

[WarriorDad]

Nice catch.   What I saw was an MSU team that wasn't listening to their coach.    They got baited into settling for 3's.    And they did.   Over and over and over and over and over again.   BTW, are you going to be able to come up with a connection to UGA?

I'm not good at that stuff, but following guys like Bozich, Goodman, Parrish, Gottlieb, Davis and others, they probably will provide those types of connections.  By the time UGA goes back to the tournament, Boeheim will be gone.  If you don't play against that zone often, it's a killer in the NCAAs.

Coaches that Boeheim has knocked out since 2000, quite the list.

Bo Ryan
Frank Martin
Mark Few
Buzz Williams
Tom Crean
Tom Izzo
Jamie Dixon
Tony Bennett
Mike Montgomery
Gary Williams
Roy Williams
Kelvin Sampson
Eddie Sutton
Cliff Ellis
Tubby Smith

[tower912]

You, personally.   MU, IU.... UGA?

[1SE]

The rest of the season could still go any number of ways, but its safe to say Shaka has exceeded everyone's expectations (on this board and beyond) through 5 games.

So happy. The coaching of Buzz with the character of Wojo.

[1SE]

The rest of the season could still go any number of ways, but its safe to say Shaka has exceeded everyone's expectations (on this board and beyond) through 5 19 games.

So happy. The coaching of Buzz with the character of Wojo.