This thread is nutty. The X's and O's weren't the problem. This team was awful. The fact that we're even in games against Xavier, Marquette, Seton Hall and even Nova somewhat is amazing.
To call this thread nutty is to completely misunderstand the point of it. This year was a free pass period and no one is debating why we were bad, its clear-lack of talent, youth and new staff. Now moving forward considering we have a boatload of talent on the way and growing experience, lets make sure its not wasted over the next few seasons. As was mentioned earlier Xs and Os with a competitive team need to be evaluated this season so by the the time they are sophomores (Lovett class) and juniors (Yakwe class) in a couple years they can make a real push. Hopefully the door is fully knocked down or close to it by year 4 and the program is completely rebuilt. That is the plan, and this is just assessing the steps that need to be taken to reach this goal.
A clear lack of youth?
I think you are right. I have misunderstood your point. Completely.
Here is my list of what I think the team needs for next season:
1. A F' king point guard. And that's LoVett.
2. A 2 guard who can put the ball on the floor and get his own shot. That's Ponds.
3. Durand Johnson not launching a 3 when he isn't open. He's gone.
4. Ron M'vouika getting significant playing time. Thank God he's gone.
5. A committmentto getting better in the off season. We now know that Sima and Mussini, two string beans, will remain on campus to get stronger, and work on their games.
6. Depth. We'll have more players.
7. Experience. We won't have much of this, and not much can or should be done about that in the near term.
8. Athletes who can play defense. I expect LoVett, Ponds, Owens and Ahmed to give us more defensively than Johnson, M'vouika, Balamaou, Alibegovic and Jones if only because how on earth could anyone else be worse?
I think you massively underestimate just how bad our players were. St.Jean did what he could with a heaping pile of shit. You watched them. You could see that they were significantly less talented that Norm's first team (9 wins) that had 6 scholarship players, and Mohammed Diakite was one of those players.
Without a ball handler, it was completely obvious to anyone with the slightest ability to open their eyes and look that if you press us we have no chance to compete. Not against anyone at a level higher than the MAAC. As good and as unique as the strategy was against SU, it made it clear to anyone that wasn't Mike Hopkins that there is no reason to immediately fall back into a zone against St.John's.
Mullin, in his opinion has his Dunlop. He believes that's St.Jean. I mean, it's spelled differently, sure, but his f'ing name is St.J. Maybe, quietly, he's the savior we've been waiting for all along?