Creighton Predictions

I love how some can pretend they actually knew the attitudes and personalities of some of the last team that came through here. Rightly or wrongly that NIT team was recruited as your classic boom or bust team. Unfortunately it  did not work out that season. With the personalities on that team and close friendships I have formed with several of the players I can honestly tell you that the best option for them was to not take the court that game. I dont see it acting so much of hubris by rejecting the bid as I do to getting a jump start to the next season and end it knowing you were missing something. And the quest begins after the Selection Sunday to achieve that goal with its constantly motivating you. That is what the team, needed not a meaningless NIT game.

And to say Dom is the only one that worked hard is disgusting and frankly I am insulted. You must have not watched most of the games. Yes sometimes Karr slacked off but hardly ever did Dee, Phil, and Jamal. Especially the last couple years. Even Sheed in games busted his ass and took several charges.

The only ones this season who consistently have done that are Yakwe, Fellix,  and to an extent Sima although he is limited with injury.  Mussini was inconsistent.

And since when did Stith see serious minutes? And Nuri was gone very soon. By the 6 that played I meant Dee, Phil, Dom, Gift, Moe, and Amir which was not as massive as they would have been full class intact intact.  Get your facts straight.

They made the NIT because they deserved the NIT. The coach has a responsibility to have his players ready to go. This group was too good for the NIT in their own heads. Only they weren't too good for it, because it's where they belonged. That in and of itself is enough of a reason to fire Lavin. They were sad that they didn't make the tournament, and that's fine, but grow the f up and act like a man. It was a game that they ALL should have been ready to play.

Kentucky was sad that they didn't make the tournament and they lost to Robert Morris, too. But they're Kentucky, and we're not.

foad-how did you get the $515 a day? You mean per hour? Ha

Yes 500+ an hour. I did not do as well on my math SATs as English.

Quote from: Acrimony on March 01, 2016, 09:57:51 PM

foad-how did you get the $515 a day? You mean per hour? Ha

Yes 500+ an hour. I did not do as well on my math SATs as English.

Ms. Ackerman was some teacher

Quote from: Foad on March 02, 2016, 08:35:27 AM

Quote from: Acrimony on March 01, 2016, 09:57:51 PM

foad-how did you get the $515 a day? You mean per hour? Ha

Yes 500+ an hour. I did not do as well on my math SATs as English.

Ms. Ackerman was some teacher

She was pretty good but my favorite was Miss Stafford, the voluptuous home room teacher.

Quote from: TRabinowitz on March 01, 2016, 04:31:20 PM

Quote from: friendofjohnnie on March 01, 2016, 09:28:35 AM

Quote from: Foad on March 01, 2016, 08:21:35 AM

Quote from: friendofjohnnie on February 29, 2016, 11:48:12 PM

And since when did Stith see serious minutes? And Nuri was gone very soon. By the 6 that played I meant Dee, Phil, Dom, Gift, Moe, and Amir which was not as massive as they would have been full class intact intact.  Get your facts straight.

Yeah, I'll get facts straight. First let me refresh your memory.

You said in trashing Mullin and lauding Lavin - which is the sole myopic point you make - that Mullin's team shows "no effort" and play "dumb basketball." You did this in the context of a discussion of Lavin's third year with his first recruiting class and specifically the game in which they got blown out in the post season by a team from the NEC. Which pathetic performance you (a) participated in and (b) have an excuse for, having studied at the feet of the master excuse maker Steve Lavin, who has spent his professional career taking personal credit for each of his team's victories while disavowing blame for every defeat.

So then I chimes in to point out that in his first year with that highly regarded recruiting class Lavin won 13 games and got the shit kicked out of himself on a regular basis. I made that comparison because this is Mullin's first year with this hastily thrown together recruiting class and comparing Lavin's fourth year with Mullin's first year is pointless and besides which betrays your clear bias.

Then you brilliantly pointed out that those first year guys were all freshmen, which of course they were, that was the point I was making. Your underlying point seems to be that Mullin has the advantage of having great returnees like Felix Balamou and Amir Alibleigiwtch and Chris Jones to help him along while poor Steve Lavin did not, this despite the fact that Mullin's returnees were evidently so atrocious at playing basketball that they rarely saw the floor in their careers prior to this year, this despite the fact that as you point out yourself there were times when Lavin - having given up recruiting early in his tenure in favor of pasta and meatballs - often barely had enough players to field a team.

And now, when it turns out that you were wrong, that they were not all freshmen, you tell me I should get my facts straight because Malik Stith didn't play a lot of minutes. My suggestion to you would be that since you were the one who was wrong - I didn't say anything about anyone's minutes - you get your facts straight, and your logic straight, and while you're at it brush up on your rhetoric, because that's pretty shoddy as well.

Which brings us to the right now, when I tell you to go home and get your shine box.

Thats a lot of assumptions and putting words in somones mouth. You really have no idea what I was talking about and completely misread or have been misreading my posts. Go back to SAT Reading Comprehension then maybe we can talk.

-I never once referred to Lavin as some master force. The comparison in this thread were to players giving reasonable effort forget wins and losses. That freshman team under Dunlap gave it their all 80 percent of the time with 5-6 players regularly as a rotation. There were blowouts but there were also some hard fought games and upsets that this group with more players and depth could only dream of.  This is a group that played A&M, Arizona, and Duke very tough. They even managed to knock off Notre Dame, UCLA, West Virginia, and Cinci as yes ALL freshman. And to further take you down memory lane Stith was barely in rotation first semester AND he left the team second semester making it even harder for them.

As for this year's team I never said the returnees spectacular, I said the team as a whole collectively has not showed enough effort even in losses with the exception of Felix, Yakwe, and Sima who is playing injured. Mussini had his moments as did Amar but in general it was more than being overmatched by talent it was also being overmatched by effort. And yes I did not expect a great season but I damn well thought we could knock off Incarnate, NJIT, and Fordham (another team that D'angelos team beat with 5 yes 5 players) and not get absolutely DESTROYED by a cupcake.  Do you realize how hard it is to play a game with no subs and still win as FRESHMAN, that is is called heart and effort.

And as an aside even though the point here is not Steve Lavin what you just said is pretty disgusting. Lav taking personal credit for everything you could not be more wrong. He was a player's coach and went out of his way to help his players and many former players even from UCLA still communicate with him regularly. And yes blame was taken by him as he always tried to see optimism in defeat. And as some would argue was even OVERPROTECTIVE at times of his players like Sheed so you could not be more wrong there.

Once again: you are comparing Lavin's first class, which he had 15 (FIFTEEN) months to recruit with Mullin's first class which he had 3 (THREE!) months to recruit.  That is a completely unfair comparison. 

And yes, that first year for D'lo/Moe/Dom/etc DID overachieve.  Because Mike Dunlap was their coach.  But again, you are comparing a class in which Mullin had 3 months to recruit with a class that Lavin had 15 months to recruit.  If you know anything about how recruiting works and what players are available in April, 3 months before they need to be on campus, you would know how difficult it is to find any players worth their salt in 3 months.

Also, don't give me that not all the players from that #3 ranked recruiting class didn't make it to school.  All but one of them did, and the one who didn't, Norvel Pelle, is playing Kuzeshitfdfjkdfjkldfstan.

Question for you: when the season was not in session (meaning spring/summer/fall before official practices started), how often was Steve Lavin on campus??  And be honest!!

So are you saying that you need to only  be good prospects of a fractured  highly ranked class to show effort during a season? And its more than Norvel. Jakarr did not get here until the following season and Amir got here second semester.

You have a very inflated view with how "hard" that group played until their senior season.  They quite often did not play hard, especially out of the gates.  You also brought up the toughness of Jamal Branch in an earlier post, a player who missed multiple games with such awful injuries such as a toothache and another extremely soft injury which happens to escape me at the moment.

Yes Amir and Jakarr came in later but the point is they still came in and thus the great majority of that #3 ranked did come in with the exception of a kid who didn't come close to sniffing the league.

By the way, you avoided my question at the bottom of the post

You also brought up the toughness of Jamal Branch in an earlier post, a player who missed multiple games with such awful injuries such as a toothache 

I think it was Jordan that missed the first round Nit loss with a toothache.

By the way, you avoided my question at the bottom of the post
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I did not mention it because frankly it does not matter and is immaterial. If you knew the rules of NCAA compliance one would understand  that. There are limits to coaches appearances during off times and the types of practices that can be conducted. That I am sure of.  It is the assistants' job to run these so called "skills and conditioning practices in the offseason" and even they are limited. The staff was always very solid with that. On many occasions you would see Darrick Martin working with the guys getting them ready to go 1 on 1 getting real work in was there first-hand.  Rico and Tony would also assist as would strength/conditioning coach.

That is how NCAA basketball works.

By the way, you avoided my question at the bottom of the post

I did not mention it because frankly it does not matter and is immaterial. If you knew the rules of NCAA compliance one would understand  that. There are limits to coaches appearances during off times and the types of practices that can be conducted. That I am sure of.  It is the assistants' job to run these so called "skills and conditioning practices in the offseason" and even they are limited. The staff was always very solid with that. On many occasions you would see Darrick Martin working with the guys getting them ready to go 1 on 1 getting real work in was there first-hand.  Rico and Tony would also assist as would strength/conditioning coach.

That is how NCAA basketball works.
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It actually completely matters. When you have Rysheed Jordan leaving campus virtually whenever he pleases to go hang out in Philly, I would say the head coach who is rarely around sets the tone for that kind of culture of absenteeism. Ditto in the case of Chris Obekpa, who struggled to show up on time and adjust to structure new staff provided.  When old coach pretty much wasn't around, it is unsurprising to me or anyone else who has worked with teenagers or young people that his players would follow suit.

You do not need to tell me about off season practice rules. Full-team, real practices are allowed in the summer time for 2 hours per week and the head coach is allowed at that, ass per change in rule in 2012.  They are also allowed to be held for 8 weeks during the summer, but for some reason the old staff did not have their full team brought in for both summer sessions, just one.  The current staff had players in for both summer sessions this past year.  Head coaches around the country are fairly active presences around their office and team during the summer when they are not on the recruiting trail for the designated weeks and weekends in the month of July.

Quote from: Foad on March 02, 2016, 08:35:27 AM

Quote from: Acrimony on March 01, 2016, 09:57:51 PM

foad-how did you get the $515 a day? You mean per hour? Ha

Yes 500+ an hour. I did not do as well on my math SATs as English.

Ms. Ackerman was some teacher

Ohh!  You must be speaking of Val Ackerman, our talented conference Commisoner.