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Post by williamtsherman on Feb 20, 2019 8:58:46 GMT -6
FG PCT
3-Point FG PCT
Index Team G 3FGM 3FGA PCT
1 Bowling Green 13 119 290 0.410
2 Central Michigan 13 115 303 0.380
3 Toledo 13 120 344 0.349
4 Eastern Michigan 13 89 259 0.344
5 Miami 13 107 315 0.340
6 Buffalo 12 110 332 0.331
7 Northern Illinois 13 76 234 0.325
8 Kent State 13 99 308 0.321
9 Western Mich 13 90 283 0.318
10 Ohio 12 82 275 0.298
11 Ball State 13 71 239 0.297
12 Akron 13 96 358 0.268
I stole the above from tarheel in another thread. What's up with this? Wasn't perimeter shooting supposed to be a primary feature of Whitford's style? It seems Whitford is just flailing about schematically.
I think the root of the problem is that Whitford is a low energy recruiter. This is a HUGE disadvantage to work around. It really takes you out of the running for a lot of kids in the traditional HS pipeline, who seem to crave constant, long-term attention from college coaches. With year-round basketball, there are very few hidden gems anymore. If you want the good HS kids, you have to go head-to-head with all the other programs, and they are willing to spend incredible amounts of time and effort following these kids around for years and showing them lots of "love". A low energy recruiter is just going to get buried in this world.
So, as we have seen, Whitford has resorted to transfers and projects that don't involve so much work and time. The window to recruit a transfer is very limited....from the time they leave their old school to committing to a new one. You may still have competitors for the kid, but it all happens very quickly compared to HS recruits. Also it seems that transfers often want to move closer to home and that limits the competition through geography. And then, of course, projects are simply going to have fewer suitors due to their relatively unimpressive track records.
But like most work arounds, this strategy has drawbacks. When your transfers sit out and your projects redshirt, your roster gets very short and you are extremely vulnerable to any injuries at all....even just injuries to non-starters. So I've heard, anyway.
Secondly (getting back now to Tarheel's stats) as you are waiting on whatever transfers are going to fall from the trees, you have less ability to choose the types of players you get. There are simply a lot less transfers than there are HS players. You are in a more take-what-you-are-presented situation. Your roster becomes sort of cobbled together as well as being short, and you flail about schematically. Thus you have the 2018-19 Ball State Cardinals.
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Post by sweep on Feb 20, 2019 9:32:17 GMT -6
If you are looking for difference making bigs in the transfer/grad market they are harder to get than a quality four year recruit. I don't get his strategy at all, why would anyone want a bunch of 6'6" guys who can't shoot or handle the ball ? Which is why I finally arrived at the supposition he is lazy, it's the only thing that explains the majority of his shortcomings.
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Post by bsutrack on Feb 20, 2019 9:52:49 GMT -6
I'm too "lazy" to do it, but I'm guessing a similar table of our assist to turnover ratio compared to the other 11 MAC teams would be similarly disturbing.
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Post by redbirdman on Feb 20, 2019 10:03:39 GMT -6
That leads us to Persons. Having your ball handler as your big scorer to me would lead to lots of unhappy teammates.
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Post by sweep on Feb 20, 2019 10:52:59 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2019 12:30:20 GMT -6
Especially contrast this his statement a month ago about being happy he is full on his 2019 class so he and his coaches can get some additional time-off this year. There's no job more grueling than traveling around, watching guys play basketball, eating dinner and then talking to moms and dads..........Whew, I can certainly understand needing some extra vacation time after all of that. |
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Post by williamtsherman on Feb 20, 2019 12:59:31 GMT -6
I think it IS pretty grueling. Having followed my own kids around the travel sports circuit a bit, I can tell you it gets real old and real boring. Then you have the situation where all your time and work can be rendered a total waste in one moment based on a decision made by a 17-year-old boy.
It takes a different sort of person to put tons of energy into it every year....but those are the successful recruiters, and therefore the successful coaches. Seems to me that Whitford is not this type. That might be a credit to his sanity, but sanity of that sort isn't going to bring the next Mac championship here. |
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Post by 00hmh on Feb 20, 2019 13:52:03 GMT -6
Hiring insane assistants is also important. Giving them the keys unfortunately leads to trouble as poor innocent Rick Pitino discovered.
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 20, 2019 14:26:19 GMT -6
Wait, you mean we have money to spend on hookers?
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Post by sweep on Feb 20, 2019 14:35:33 GMT -6
Wait, you mean we have money to spend on hookers? My understanding is we do offer recruits some VIP room action at Hoosier Girls in Anderson, but most decline the invitation. |
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Post by williamtsherman on Feb 20, 2019 18:39:12 GMT -6
A major part of the Sherman Plan for hiring coaches would be to screen out all candidates showing signs of sanity about recruiting effort and time.
I would ask the following multiple choice question
Would your rather spend 3 days
a) fishing a trout stream in the Rockies
b) On a romantic holiday in Hawaii with your wife
c) On a romantic holiday at a hotel in Castleton with a Code Red Dancer
d) watching 29 games of bad, undisciplined basketball at a smelly gym in Detroit, and staying at a Motel 6
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Post by CallingBS on Feb 20, 2019 19:51:40 GMT -6
I really think Sherman has pinppointed the epicenter of Whit's problems. College coaching is mostly about recruiting, and Whitford has made more than enough public and semi-public comments over the years that point to very lazy recruiting. Bad coaching is aplenty in the MAC anyway, though this really annoys me about him too. But if you recruit players they play at a different level, which eliminates the need for coaching perfection. And let's be 100% honest here...with our facilities alone he should be able to out-recruit every coach in the MAC with ease.
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Post by cardfan on Feb 20, 2019 20:26:42 GMT -6
If he could extract the full abilities out of the guys he gets we’d probably be ok. But he doesn’t. We don’t play 40 mins and we don’t play with discipline. At least not consistently. He’s not been a coach who maximizes the talent he has. We’ve not met expectations. Failing that he’s gotta get 1st team all Mac talent that has the drive to win on their own or at least are so good they over come coaching. (Ray recruited players like that)
Or maybe the players he gets just aren’t good enough no matter how good a coach he is. It’s got to be one or the other.
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Post by sweep on Feb 20, 2019 22:05:24 GMT -6
Failing that he’s gotta get 1st team all Mac talent that has the drive to win on their own or at least are so good they over come coaching. Sounds like Sean Miller when Xavier was in the A-10.................. |
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