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Post by 00hmh on Feb 4, 2024 10:39:57 GMT -6
I don’t believe the solution is to recruit less talented players. We simply need more depth and Lewis has to sell his core on staying. The more I’ve thought about it, there’s no reason why we can’t pay Basheer to stay next year a comparable amount to what he may get leaving (150k). If we can keep him I think the others (Pearson, Anderson, Bailey) will stay and if we keep the freshmen (Mason, Middleton and Doughty) now you’ve got a core of six players we can add 2-4 portal jumps to and be a contender. If I’m Lewis, I find the 💰 and recruit Jihad like crazy to stay. I agree, short term we need more talent. But if the problem longer term is getting good BB players with discipline, putting a premium on coachability may mean downplaying the star quality we see in AAU ball or finding a way to keep players long enough to train them This year,take Bell. Please. He has had 2 years coaching and just doesn't get it. Maybe enough raw talent. Getting a less talented but better coached trainable Indiana HS player might have given us a reliable bench player. Getting a player with less tendency to want the big play or score but more intensity and concentration on D might mean less upside but a good 4 year player. Can't have a whole roster like that, I agree. And, definitely agree that if we hold over players starting this year we may see the teaching kick in. I don't think we need a total rebuild at all.
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 4, 2024 10:44:17 GMT -6
I don't really care what players were taught in high school or AAU ball. I know it would help Lewis and staff if kids came in fundementally sound, had great game/situational awareness, etc.
But if Lewis is teaching it now, we should at least be better NOW than we were at the start of the season. If I'm an employee who does the same things wrong every day and am told about it by my boss every day, it's probably not going to take me 3 months to learn to do it right, at least if I want to be a good employee (or win ball games).
I'm not saying players aren't accountable for this, but I am saying it's got to be coaching, too.
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Post by 00hmh on Feb 4, 2024 10:44:58 GMT -6
I don’t really know what the rules are with coaches promoting and encouraging NIL money. But I’m sure you’re going to find that some coaches, as the overall leader and tone-setter of a program, will consistently increase NIL money wherever they go. It’s so obviously a key to program success. Successful people find ways to make the key factors work in their favor, and losers make excuses (note - that was the cue for those among us with the loser mentality to trot out a few choice excuses) If wishes were horses... How exactly do you imagine a coach creates NIL resources magically? "Promoting" NIL requires the money being there. Successful people find ways to use resources. If they don't have them, sure, they work around that, but don't kid yourself, they're less successful.
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Post by CallingBS on Feb 4, 2024 10:49:17 GMT -6
I don’t believe the solution is to recruit less talented players. We simply need more depth and Lewis has to sell his core on staying. The more I’ve thought about it, there’s no reason why we can’t pay Basheer to stay next year a comparable amount to what he may get leaving (150k). If we can keep him I think the others (Pearson, Anderson, Bailey) will stay and if we keep the freshmen (Mason, Middleton and Doughty) now you’ve got a core of six players we can add 2-4 portal jumps to and be a contender. If I’m Lewis, I find the 💰 and recruit Jihad like crazy to stay. As I've said before, if I'm Lewis I find a way to route about half of my $600,000 salary to NIL money. If he wins at BSU it's going to pay off handsomely for him in the long run, so it's a good investment that will be returned many times over if it's truly players (and not coaching) that we lack. I'm sure that's against whatever rules the NCAA has left and, unfortunately, they'd love to come after poor old BSU while ignoring things at larger schools who have the money to fight them. But, screw the NCAA. Where do you guys keep getting $600k from? Lewis makes $335k with a $10k bump per year of the 5-year contract. He also got a $100k signing bonus.
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Post by CallingBS on Feb 4, 2024 10:51:54 GMT -6
I don’t really know what the rules are with coaches promoting and encouraging NIL money. But I’m sure you’re going to find that some coaches, as the overall leader and tone-setter of a program, will consistently increase NIL money wherever they go. It’s so obviously a key to program success. Successful people find ways to make the key factors work in their favor, and losers make excuses (note - that was the cue for those among us with the loser mentality to trot out a few choice excuses) If wishes were horses... How exactly do you imagine a coach creates NIL resources magically? "Promoting" NIL requires the money being there. Successful people find ways to use resources. If they don't have them, sure, they work around that, but don't kid yourself, they're less successful. What's unrealistic about casting your vision, getting people excited again, and raising $300-400k a year for NIL, especially for a sport BSU donors desperately want to be successful again?
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Post by 00hmh on Feb 4, 2024 10:57:01 GMT -6
I don't really care what players were taught in high school or AAU ball. I know it would help Lewis and staff if kids came in fundementally sound, had great game/situational awareness, etc. But if Lewis is teaching it now, we should at least be better NOW than we were at the start of the season. If I'm an employee who does the same things wrong every day and am told about it by my boss every day, it's probably not going to take me 3 months to learn to do it right, at least if I want to be a good employee (or win ball games). I'm not saying players aren't accountable for this, but I am saying it's got to be coaching, too. It is a mixed bag, but not exactly as bad as you seem to think. We see several players improved. Notably Middleton. We are probably better. Except of course losing Doughty. Several players improved over last which is a result of coaching. Pearson, Jihad, Hendricks, all were panned early this year. I'd say better now. Jones has been pretty good from the start, better than expected. Anderson, Bailey have been up and down. Hey. We never had much depth. Which hurt less early.
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Post by 00hmh on Feb 4, 2024 10:58:37 GMT -6
If wishes were horses... How exactly do you imagine a coach creates NIL resources magically? "Promoting" NIL requires the money being there. Successful people find ways to use resources. If they don't have them, sure, they work around that, but don't kid yourself, they're less successful. What's unrealistic about casting your vision, getting people excited again, and raising $300-400k a year for NIL, especially for a sport BSU donors desperately want to be successful again? Fund raising 300K is not easy. Every year really hard.
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Post by williamtsherman on Feb 4, 2024 11:00:35 GMT -6
I don’t really know what the rules are with coaches promoting and encouraging NIL money. But I’m sure you’re going to find that some coaches, as the overall leader and tone-setter of a program, will consistently increase NIL money wherever they go. It’s so obviously a key to program success. Successful people find ways to make the key factors work in their favor, and losers make excuses (note - that was the cue for those among us with the loser mentality to trot out a few choice excuses) If wishes were horses... How exactly do you imagine a coach creates NIL resources magically? "Promoting" NIL requires the money being there. Successful people find ways to use resources. If they don't have them, sure, they work around that, but don't kid yourself, they're less successful. Oh yeah. I forgot that Ball State has to be the perpetual helpless victim of disadvantages that other mac programs somehow overcome
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 4, 2024 11:04:35 GMT -6
As I've said before, if I'm Lewis I find a way to route about half of my $600,000 salary to NIL money. If he wins at BSU it's going to pay off handsomely for him in the long run, so it's a good investment that will be returned many times over if it's truly players (and not coaching) that we lack. I'm sure that's against whatever rules the NCAA has left and, unfortunately, they'd love to come after poor old BSU while ignoring things at larger schools who have the money to fight them. But, screw the NCAA. Where do you guys keep getting $600k from? Lewis makes $335k with a $10k bump per year of the 5-year contract. He also got a $100k signing bonus. My bad. You're right, or at least closer than I was. From what I've see it's $335 with an additional "annual" supplemental $100,000 that increases by$10,000 each year, so approximately $450,000. I'd still be putting part of that into NIL. It doesn't take $450,000 to live well in Muncie, Indiana.
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 4, 2024 11:08:24 GMT -6
It is a mixed bag, but not exactly as bad as you seem to think. We see several players improved. Notably Middleton. We are probably better. Except of course losing Doughty. Several players improved over last which is a result of coaching. Pearson, Jihad, Hendricks, all were panned early this year. I'd say better now. Jones has been pretty good from the start, better than expected. Anderson, Bailey have been up and down. Hey. We never had much depth. Which hurt less early. Just a reminder. I'm not the one who said players didn't have good game/situational awareness. This conversation was all started based on comments made by the coach.
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Post by realitycheck on Feb 4, 2024 11:16:43 GMT -6
I don’t think Lewis has to divert any of his comp to player NIL. We have donors and bball alums we can tap into for 💰. And 300k is not that much spread across 20 donors. It can and frankly must be done if we’re going to retain and attract talent.
Akron kept most of their core including the presumptive POY. Add a couple transfer impact pieces and you’re instantly the favorite to win the league again. The coach has to make that happen.
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Post by universityjim on Feb 4, 2024 11:32:15 GMT -6
MAC Results 2/3/2024
Ball State 77 at Western Michigan 67 Miami 69 at Ohio 78 Eastern Michigan 66 at Northern Illinois 76 Central Michigan 77 at Bowling Green 76 OT
Friday Kent State 83 at Buffalo 52 Toledo 70 at Akron 77
Current Standings
1 Akron (9-1) 2 Central Michigan (8-2) 3 Toledo (8-2) 4 Bowling Green (6-4) 5 Ohio (6-4) 6 Western Michigan (5-5) 7 Miami (5-5) 8 Kent State (4-6) 9 Ball State (4-6) 10 Eastern Michigan (2-8) 11 Northern Illinois (1-8)
12 Buffalo (1-8)
KenPom Rankings of BSU and Opponents 1/31/2024
Akron (17-5) 91 LOSS Toledo (14-8) 130 LOSS Ohio (12-10) 163 Kent State (11-11) 173 LOSS Bowling Green (15-7) 212 LOSS Miami (11-11) 237 LOSS Ball State (12-10) 252 Central Michigan (13-9) 261 LOSS Northern Illinois (7-14) 290 WIN Western Michigan (8-14) 295 WIN Eastern Michigan (9-13) 337 WIN Buffalo (2-19) 348 WIN
Indiana State (20-3) 35 LOSS Minnesota (14-7) 76 LOSS Evansville (14-9) 204 LOSS Texas State (9-14) 236 Little Rock (12-11) 262 LOSS Southern Illinois Edwardsville (13-10) 270 WIN Old Dominion (6-17) 274 WIN USC Upstate (7-15) 293 WIN Bellarmine (6-18) 307 WIN Arkansas Pine Bluff (10-11) 331 WIN Detroit Mercy (0-24) 359 WIN
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 4, 2024 11:37:05 GMT -6
The thing is this is still college basketball and still the MAC. Solid, steady guard play wins a helluva lot more than it loses.
I would build a roster heavy on skill and experience at the guard position. And it doesn't have to be 6-4/6-5 guards; we can recruit the 6-0/6-2 (maybe even a 5-10 or so) rejects from the bigger conferences for limited NIL. Fill in the roster with a few Mason Jones level players on the wing and 4 post players in the realm of Doughty or Hendriks. I'm convinced you can thrive in the MAC with that mix. The big key is the guards.
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Post by CallingBS on Feb 4, 2024 11:51:58 GMT -6
Where do you guys keep getting $600k from? Lewis makes $335k with a $10k bump per year of the 5-year contract. He also got a $100k signing bonus. My bad. You're right, or at least closer than I was. From what I've see it's $335 with an additional "annual" supplemental $100,000 that increases by$10,000 each year, so approximately $450,000. I'd still be putting part of that into NIL. It doesn't take $450,000 to live well in Muncie, Indiana. Nope. That article is poorly worded. He gets an additional $10k per year on the $335k. The $100k was a signing bonus for the first year only.
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Post by 00hmh on Feb 4, 2024 14:00:40 GMT -6
If wishes were horses... How exactly do you imagine a coach creates NIL resources magically? "Promoting" NIL requires the money being there. Successful people find ways to use resources. If they don't have them, sure, they work around that, but don't kid yourself, they're less successful. Oh yeah. I forgot that Ball State has to be the perpetual helpless victim of disadvantages that other mac programs somehow overcome Which MAC programs are overcoming the NIL deficit? Do we have similar resources?
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