|
|
Post by BSU Card Fan in AZ on Mar 26, 2022 8:28:33 GMT -6
Watched the St. Peter’s game with amazement. What great coaching and disciplined players, who by the way are pretty good players. Not sure how he got it done, but that’s what we need out of a staff.
|
|
|
|
Post by lmills72 on Mar 26, 2022 8:44:16 GMT -6
I know I'm overreacting, but can I buy my season tickets now? Hell, I haven't had those thoughts in a long time.
Truth is we don't know much yet. I know when you're moving on from a coach you didn't like you often want the opposite of that former coach and Lewis certainly seems to be the opposite of Whitford. I like the fact that he played the game and played it at a high level. I like the fact that I've seen him reference "toughness" multiple times and haven't heard "process" or "culture" once. Hopefully toughness will be our culture.
I'm concerned that he hasn't had some HC experience, and I'm sure he'll make mistakes but hopefully he'll learn from them (I don't think Whitford ever did). For someone who wants to be a HC, 18 years seems like a long time to spend as an assistant, but it's probably not. And I like the fact that he's worked at different levels (of success) and worked for a lot of different coaches, successful coaches and a few maybe not so successful. So, hopefully he'll be able to bring all the good together in a style that is his own.
A few quotes from the Dakich interview seem like they'll be repeated in the coming days to his new team:
On teams left in the tournament:
"They have talent, they've got good players, but they're not the 16 most talented teams in the country. They're the toughest, hardest playing, most disciplined teams out there."
On toughness in general:
"The toughest team sets the rules every night."
|
|
|
|
Post by 00hmh on Mar 26, 2022 8:47:55 GMT -6
A wildcard could be is there a current ucla bench player that might want to follow Lewis and be a starter here That would be very good, but if we lose those kids in the portal, it's a rough row to hoe. Not only is it roulette on talent, but you are fitting together new players into a new system with a staff that however good hasn't worked together and may be new to the system.
The best news would be that players return with new energy and have improved over the summer. THAT is reasonably likely, but I doubt next year's roster will look like it will in a couple of years as a new coach gets recruiting under control.
I think a long term variable is player development. You can do that with the system and the rest of the roster in mind and reserve portal recruiting to try for specific needs and of course grabbing the promising kid you may have missed on earlier.
|
|
|
|
Post by 00hmh on Mar 26, 2022 8:53:32 GMT -6
Along the line of how the recruiting picture changes with the portal, the idea we are recruiting some kids who may be one and done if they improve as Freshmen may be something we confront right away with Sparks, Sellers. NO F'ing WAY to tell how that is going to work out long term.
I still think we really need some continuity to get a result like St Peters, where you build a team, maybe add one critical piece. MAC NCAA success stories we have seen all include a core of players with a coach for a couple of years(including UB when they promoted an assistant.
If we play AAU one year time horizon basketball, I am not sure how to judge what kind of coaching and recruiting philosophy will work. When we were discussing the UCinn coach the good question was raised, whether the really talented kids want to play "tough" team oriented or do they want to "showcase" skills, always move up, only come to that realization they are role players on a good team when that is not going to happen? And even then might transfer horizontally or move down a notch?
|
|
|
|
Post by CallingBS on Mar 26, 2022 9:13:13 GMT -6
I, for one, was quite excited about the Whitford hire at the time. I liked his talk about analytics and most especially I thought he would bring some recruiting juice, having been involved, as I believed, in some really successful high level recruiting at AZ. In retrospect, I don't think Whitford had jack squat to do with Arizona's recruiting success. Probably it had more to do with AZ's willingness to be sleazy and the benefits of Nike basically paying the players on behalf of one of their flagship BB programs. (I have no way of knowing if Whitford himself was involved in that part of it.) Lewis is obviously not a Sherman Plan hire, nor do I imagine he was a 00mph plan hire (use an imaginary, magical source of money to outbid everyone for the hottest candidate). I suppose we were spared a bidding war by the same reasons that made it take so long for Lewis to get a head coaching job while being an assistant for so many years. I have no idea what those reasons were....but they temper my enthusiasm for the hire, whatever they might have been. Still, I'm about a hundred thousand times more optimistic than I would have been if we'd kept Whitford...so there's that. Same here. |
|
|
|
Post by 00hmh on Mar 26, 2022 9:17:31 GMT -6
I'm concerned that he hasn't had some HC experience, and I'm sure he'll make mistakes but hopefully he'll learn from them (I don't think Whitford ever did). For someone who wants to be a HC, 18 years seems like a long time to spend as an assistant, but it's probably not. And I like the fact that he's worked at different levels (of success) and worked for a lot of different coaches, successful coaches and a few maybe not so successful. So, hopefully he'll be able to bring all the good together in a style that is his own. Agree, I like all that too.
Disagree only a little. Whitford was able to learn and correct many mistakes he made during a very rocky transition from a bigger program down as HC, but was never able to handle some of the administrative and PR challenges a HC faces, and has never seen before. Not exactly flexible and socially adept....
Whitford also did not handle some talented recruits who stayed on. Mike Lewis needs to have some better luck and skill with the talent, whatever it is, who return, and that they will do it his way. That was a substantial issue with Whitford. He thought he had a lot more leverage and power as a HC to just insist on it. I agree with a generally tougher approach with some kids, but being "tough" minded as coach might or might not change players. Some probably need some TLC. He had some experience with that at Butler where there was that "Butler Way" culture set in place. He worked with better coaches at most stops than Whitford had.
We may need some patience with it, but if we lose players who don't want to play his way, we probably only regret it if there was something he didn't try with them to make it work, and they had difference making talent. I don't think that will be a problem for Lewis with our returning players...
Partly a transition issue, Whitford also just lost too many key recruiting battles for his top targets, some it just having the wrong targets. Now you might get a few of those same kids promising them development, PT, and exposure with the portal as a way to get to their dream school. The old transfer route brought kids back home only when it didn't work for them at the higher level, but then required a one year sit out. Much less fluid.
|
|
|
|
Post by 00hmh on Mar 26, 2022 9:43:18 GMT -6
Lewis is obviously not a Sherman Plan hire, nor do I imagine he was a 00mph plan hire (use an imaginary, magical source of money to outbid everyone for the hottest candidate). We'll see what his contract is, and his staff budget. In his interview he seemed happy with that, which in my mind was a lot more important than coach speak about toughness and winning.
Not sure how much the money was and where the buyout comes from. It surely is NOT a 3 year contract, and certainly not low enough not to be a problem to buy out.
My "plan" has always been to upgrade coaches and be serious about it, would have preferred a guy with HC experience, but this looks like a good fit. What worried me always was that if you aren't going to make a serious effort, I did not just want a fresh face without a liklihood of much improvement, and that a buyout on top of it asks for trouble. (It hurts other programs unless you find that outside money somewhere.)
Will this lead to dramatic longer term improvement, we'll see. This may be luckiest hire in BSU history since Ray if it is on the cheap and a "magic" fit. OR, in a way just as surprising, it may be a real investment in winning. On top of that we won't know how magic the fit is until the rubber meets the road. I am optimistic, I like an IU guy, and an Indiana guy, being on board. Once we make a change, I hope for the best and am supportive, hopefully realistic.
Best of all, thank god the forum can now just be routinely crazy, and unrealistic. Discussion of Bonzi and Brannen as head coach almost led to me taking a hiatus.
|
|
|
|
Post by lmills72 on Mar 26, 2022 10:02:39 GMT -6
Not only is it roulette on talent, but you are fitting together new players into a new system with a staff that however good hasn't worked together and may be new to the system. God, that could be Whitford talking. Not every coach requires two-thirds of a season to figure out how to put his best team on the floor "get them to play together." If Lewis ever starts talking about how difficult it is to fit together new players into a new system with a staff that hasn't worked together and may be new to the system, fire him immediately. |
|
|
|
Post by 00hmh on Mar 26, 2022 10:06:38 GMT -6
Not only is it roulette on talent, but you are fitting together new players into a new system with a staff that however good hasn't worked together and may be new to the system. God, that could be Whitford talking. Not every coach requires two-thirds of a season to figure out how to put his best team on the floor "get them to play together." If Lewis ever starts talking about how difficult it is to fit together new players into a new system with a staff that hasn't worked together and may be new to the system, fire him immediately. It's not the 5 best players, it's the figuring out the team part that is hard.
Whether he talks about it or not is not the issue, it is hard to do.
|
|
|
|
Post by lmills72 on Mar 26, 2022 10:09:04 GMT -6
A wildcard could be is there a current ucla bench player that might want to follow Lewis and be a starter here I'm sure we'll end up with some transfers. Doubtful from UCLA. However much they might like Lewis, the majority of UCLA's roster is from California or the West. They ain't moving here. A couple of kids from the East. If they transfer, likely not here. If Lewis DOES convince a current Bruin to follow him ... there's a strong possibility we've got a recruiter. |
|
|
|
Post by lmills72 on Mar 26, 2022 10:13:09 GMT -6
The early results are in: If Lewis does suck as a HC, 00 will be in his corner until the bitter end.
|
|
|
|
Post by villagepub on Mar 26, 2022 10:33:17 GMT -6
Not only is it roulette on talent, but you are fitting together new players into a new system with a staff that however good hasn't worked together and may be new to the system. God, that could be Whitford talking. Not every coach requires two-thirds of a season to figure out how to put his best team on the floor "get them to play together." If Lewis ever starts talking about how difficult it is to fit together new players into a new system with a staff that hasn't worked together and may be new to the system, fire him immediately. They did show him to the storage closet where they keep the basketballs, haven't they? Just checking. You never know. |
|
|
|
Post by coastalcard on Mar 26, 2022 11:01:47 GMT -6
Unsubstantiated rumors flying around:
Athletics dumping “We Fly” banners to “Here, Hold My Busch Light”
Dancin’ Charlie makes leap from football to basketball……
|
|
|
|
Post by 00hmh on Mar 26, 2022 11:02:35 GMT -6
The early results are in: If Lewis does suck as a HC, 00 will be in his corner until the bitter end. A little early to worry about that. And terrible has not been the problem with BSU coaches very often in my memory, I believe it has been the awful shame to the inherent and god given right of greatness at BSU, about "mediocrity." Or merely "above average."
But, whatever you want to call terrible, I'd rather support players and coaches who are giving honest good effort than whinging when we can't afford to buyout a contract... |
|
|
|
Post by dc5525 on Mar 26, 2022 11:05:59 GMT -6
I assume the presser will be sometime Monday?
|
|
