Go on the Arkansas message boards. We were always complaining about rebounding and defense. It never got fixed.
My biggest complaints of Anderson were:
1. Recruiting. It didn't seem like he had a plan and we would have really unbalanced classes. Also, he would sign guys that were never going to contribute and would leave after a year.
2. Crazy substitutions. A guy would score 3-4 buckets and get hot and Anderson would pull him.
3. No half-court offense at all.
4. Rebounding.
5. We seemed to always leave a wide-open 3 point shooter alone.
There are other things, but these are enough to frustrate you.
Which coach are we talking about? I’m not announcing Mike Anderson a savior after waxing Mercer, but we hit the glass last night. We also hit the offensive glass, and I’m sure of that because I remember how frustrating it was seeing our guys rarely bother to even try for an offensive rebound, let alone any rebound.
What confuses me about your post is that you’re saying that Mike Anderson wasn’t aware of the current situation at hand. When he got here, it really looks to me like he recognized that our program didn’t emphasize defense. It doesn’t take much to see that, but instead of recruiting 11 shooting guards, he grabbed rebounders in Champagnie and Sears, and defensive minded guards in Rutherford and McGriff.
These additions were destroyed on this board, but what if Mike Anderson’s recruiting strategy was only to add players that complimented what we already had offensively? It seems like a sensible strategy especially considering that there wasn’t a lot of time.
Mullin was faced with a much greater challenge when he took over, but he also didn’t have the frame of reference to look back on past choices and decide if he would make them again. This is just one way that Mike Anderson’s experience, even knowing that some years were lousy, will help this program. We don’t have to watch him learn how to do everything a coach does for the very first time.
Let’s see how they do as the games first become challenging. I would not be surprised if we came out with a couple of early season duds. But that’s because I’m a St.John’s fan, and it’s simply what I know.