Interesting article in today's Trib about Matt Driscoll, the coach at North Florida. His comment is that it's about the Jimmys and Joes, not the Xs and Os. I have always thought that 90% of college basketball is recruiting. Our cupboard is bare, at least for this year. A better coach may have gotten more wins out of this group, but we were never going to be very good. Possibly the people sitting out, the recruit coming in and the replacement recurits for those who leave may make a difference. Or possibly not.

Castro and Jackson better be absolute studs.  Sanders better be a beast down low with excellent range.  We also need to land a Juco who is talented.  If all those things happen, Ferry might save his job.  It's an extreme long shot though, and I don't see how the season could improve.  

indygjm wrote:

Oh jeez ... I hate to pile on Ferry, but I think we are already there.

From the Post Gazette blog a few hours ago - quoting Jim Ferry "If you look at all the programs that are like us, it takes time. It takes five, six, seven or eight years to really establish what the program is."

By that measure, Ron Everhart should have gotten 2 more years to save his job.

Dome - I'm just saying Ferry is asking for more time than Ron Everhart got to save his job. Ron did enough here to get 1 or 2 more years. The AD wanted him out.Now he can live with the results.

pressurecooker wrote:

Interesting article in today's Trib about Matt Driscoll, the coach at North Florida. His comment is that it's about the Jimmys and Joes, not the Xs and Os. I have always thought that 90% of college basketball is recruiting. Our cupboard is bare, at least for this year. A better coach may have gotten more wins out of this group, but we were never going to be very good. Possibly the people sitting out, the recruit coming in and the replacement recurits for those who leave may make a difference. Or possibly not.

There are two way to play BIG TIME  D-1 BB.  One is the very slow, chew up the clock, low scoring game , BUT; winning ONLY, with the BEST 5 star recruits you can find . OR, like the few coaches that coach at schools that don't get 4 plus recruits ( like us , like never), a running style game, but  much more complex. Heck, it's easy to coach at a Duke or NC or maybe Pitt. Just get the biggest half-court 5 star recruits, and run clock, body-up, and win in the closing minutes  on natural talent.  Heck,  It's been over 50 years since Duquesne could recruit and play that game, yet, some VERY LOST SOULS keep thinking that here?  Worst thing, is when a coach comes in here, and finds a way to win (with lesser than 4 plus star recruits) in a running style game and win  consistantly,and filled up the seats,  (and he did) then,  he got canned? Really?      

NapaDuke wrote:

duq81 wrote:

pressurecooker wrote:

Interesting article in today's Trib about Matt Driscoll, the coach at North Florida. His comment is that it's about the Jimmys and Joes, not the Xs and Os. I have always thought that 90% of college basketball is recruiting. Our cupboard is bare, at least for this year. A better coach may have gotten more wins out of this group, but we were never going to be very good. Possibly the people sitting out, the recruit coming in and the replacement recurits for those who leave may make a difference. Or possibly not.

This is it. You can rarely win without talent. Sometimes, when the pieces fit together well, and there is experience, and chemistry, a good coach can wring a good season out of mediocre players, but that's the exception to the rule. You need talent to excel, and we're lacking it. Despite a poster who thinks that Ron won despite recruiting a bunch of bums, we all know that Ron won when he had talent. 21 wins when he had an exceptional player. Solid teams when he had solid players. Ferry isn't good enough to win with role players. Castro will need to be the player we saw last summer, or Ferry will be hitting the bricks.
 

Wow, you called players bums?? That Ron only won because he lucked into talent? SIX years of lucking into talent that Ferry/Nee/Porter/ ETC  could not??  Hey, Ron was one lucky guy, right 81?  Hey, I'll bet that shooting really  helped too??  Just a little insight 81, there are 40 minutes in a college BB game, if you care to play all of it, but when you  just sit back in that zone defense, you give away to the oppossing team, the control of the clock and up to 20 mintes wasted,  that you didn't attack them and in fact a zone defense  is a passive defense by design, thus unless you have an unstoppable offense to compensate for giving up so much on defense, then statistically, you will loose. Hey, maybe it's me, but I watch these Dukes, they got some talent, much like when Ron had here, but just standing still in that zone, they just suck. Hey by the way, TJ led the country in steals for Ron (or nearly) think he would come close just standing there in a zone???   NO.  Two of the toughest things a team came  face in baskekball is a pressing-man-to-man-defense, and a running, transition, multi-motion-offense (Back-door, give and goes, etc.) Don't see Ferry employing any of this, in fact, none of it?? Ron was just lucky, Right????  Looking forward to next year??

You are the one who said Ron's teams had no talent, not me. A quote from you, "a coach comes in and exploits the weaknesses in the half-court game, and  with lesser recruits than other A-10 teams". As for Pitt's style of ball, Not one of our coaches has tried to play that way. Scott Edgar ran, ran, ran, and ran the program into the ground. Pitt gets top talent??? Go over to the Pitt board and tell them that. Pitt grinds it out to compensate for their lack of elite talent. Maybe I've missed all those Pitt guys who are burning up the NBA. It takes a high level of talent to win by playing an uptempo game. Teams lacking talent routinely try to limit the number of possesions in a game. Anyone who has watched basketball should know this. The perfomance of Ron's teams was commensurate with their talent level. He raised the talent level, and the performance of the team with it. The talent level overall was average for the league, and so was the perfprmance. Had the level of talent remained at what he had the first year, he would have failed. Conversely, had he recruited at the level of Xavier, we would have been near the top of the league every year. Talent is always the key.

FAM wrote:

WOW - where do I start - Ferry saying it takes 5 -6 7-8 years No surprise there.  He is trying to buy himself time because his program is terrible.  I have said this a number of times - it took him 6 years at his previous school...there won't be anyone left to attend the games at his rate. His teflon excuses are his m.o.   Also, I can't believe some folks on this board make comments about how he doesn't have good players.  HELLO!  He recruited them!!!
I am pis---

He doesn't have good players, and the blame is on him. Robinson being glued to the bench just baffles me though. Is he hurt? There is just no excuse for him never seeing the floor.