Bankrupt upfront

[#UnleashNigel]

I for one cannot make any criticism of Hamilton.  He was an unheralded, nobody Shaka recruit, who redshirted for his culture year at MU and now is entering his third year as the starting center for a Big East team. Good for him, he is doing the best of his ability.  The problem is that he is Shaka's center, his recruit, who he developed and retained in his system. Shaka kept him in the program and did not look to replace him. Clark is identical in his development/background and see how it works out.

Hopefully both work out and don't end up like Al Amadou, who was on the same path as both. He transferred to St. Joes and is at the end of the bench with the team managers.

That's a great story and all, but at the end of the day currently Hamilton looks lost. That's all that matters at the top d1 level.

[Markusquette]

That's a great story and all, but at the end of the day currently Hamilton looks lost. That's all that matters at the top d1 level.

On top of being lost, he's just not there athletically or skills-wise. He'd be lucky to even start for a horizon league team and MU is forced to play him. Pearson appears to be the best big man signing in Shaka's tenure so far. Really have to hope he pans out. With how poor the sophomores and juniors look overall, he really needs to hit on the new signings.

[79Warrior]

Shaka got a reputation for developing raw bigs, but those (Sanders, Allen, Haynes, Kai Jones, Oso) were super athletic. The bigs he's recruited to MU are just the opposite. Gold is at best an OK athlete. Hamilton and Clark are plodding out there.

Disagree with your assessment of Gold. He works his tail off with a cast of misfit bigs. If he had an experienced center to work with his life would be easier.

We will get our ass beat down low again in the BE this season. We do not have the size nor ability to finish around the rim.

Going to be a long season.

[nyg]

That's a great story and all, but at the end of the day currently Hamilton looks lost. That's all that matters at the top d1 level.

That's a great story and all, but at the end of the day currently Hamilton looks lost. That's all that matters at the top d1 level.

My story was having an ending that Hamilton hatred should be placed on Shaka and his staff, not him as a player.  Shaka brought him in and evaluated him.  Shaka made the decision to start him. At this point, it's all MU has unless Gold moves back to the center and Parham at the PF. It's not like Hamilton isn't trying, at this point and maybe never, he does not have the required skill set for Big East caliber play. 

[mileskishnish72]

Take the redshirt off Pearson.

And then we might have the record - THREE centers that aren't ready for Div. 1 college basketball.

[Viper]

Dude. Get off the ledge. We might have a down year. I'll take 1 down year out of 5. And Shaka massively overachieved Years 1,2 and 3.

Some MU fans need to relax and chill out. I for sure am not throwing in the towel on this team/season despite the slow start.

i appreciate your optimism, but if Shaka hadn't 'overachieved' in the seasons you mention, then maybe we should be really worried?...as in...MU got lucky those years...where we are now is where we maybe should have been? I don't think year 1 was an overachieve as much as it was a team underrated going into the season, imo. Year 2 and 3...I didn't expect 2-seeds, but I felt MU was definitely a solid 5, or thereabouts. Yr 4 played out as I anticipated. Yr 5? I predicted on this site some backsliding...9-11 conf record and NIT bid, but with a little good fortune maybe a last-in ncaa type season. However, not sure anyone is on the ledge after today. Rather, the majority is more-so realistic to what we've seen. Which is...the team isn't very good, with too many recruiting misses.

[dpucane]

Dude. Get off the ledge. We might have a down year. I'll take 1 down year out of 5. And Shaka massively overachieved Years 1,2 and 3.

Some MU fans need to relax and chill out. I for sure am not throwing in the towel on this team/season despite the slow start.

Brewcity nailed it in another thread:

Last year is what a "down year" should look like for this program. Spending the money they do on a mid-major team should not fly.

[1SE]

Recruiting misses coupled with being an average to below average in-game coach. His rotations, and his (lack of) use of timeouts in key moments can be real head scratchers.

Maybe this is the year we flip the script and are much better in March than we were in November.

Or maybe the November success of some of the past years is the anomaly and what we've seen in post new year Shaka most years is the real deal.

[Small Orange Soda]

This whole 'let's replace projects with projects' thing is a disaster