Maine sucks, equivalent of a IMA team that has a full time div2 womens basketball coach.
Defense:
The defense isnt nearly as good as many people are saying it is. It is heavily reliant on out athleting everyone across the floor. And they get away with it against teams like Maine or in openers in high school gyms in Alaska but it isnt really sustainable long term through a decent Pac12 or for a deep run into the tournament against good teams.
- When in zone, teams are regularly able to get the ball between the top and the base of the zone. - Hop clearly wants to play Mcdaniels across the top of the zone (logical) - Mcdaniels defense at the top is mediocre at stopping the interior pass to the elbow or high post and doesnt help from behind in any way like Thybulle did. - resorting to playing man against Maine rather rather practicing the lock down zone is not good. - The length is great, its covering up fundamental flaws in the defense, the middle of the zone is too easily penetrated and the defense is not collapsing correctly once the penetration has occurred. Stewart is cleaning up many of the top of the zone mistakes.
Offense:
The offense is still the same Chris Petersen Babushka offense. Park Stewart (or timmons) low block and ISO or run Horns... There are so few ball screens, which is insane to me. The team is hyper athletic, have Stewart set a ball screen for Mcdaniels or Naz. The offense is also obviously suffering because no one can just stand in the corner and be a knock down 3pt shooter to spread the floor. I think @Tequilla is also on the right track when it comes to actually executing screens for each other and coming off the screens with a purpose. There is a ton of work to be done on the offense both from a scheme and execution standpoint.
With the youth, athleticism, and size all over the floor the offense should be a motion or ball screen offense not a iso low post block offense.
Other:
- Quade is Gaddy, he has relatively low athleticism and isnt a great shooter. On a bad team is he bad, on a good team he is fine. - Mcdaniels does look like he has a bit of an attitude "thing". IMO he is just to used to dominating the game without really having to focus hard on team play or the little things that make people successful in high levels of play. - Stewart is holding things together and is incredible. Without Stewart the team would fall apart, he is doing more than his job on both the offense and the defense and looks like a great leader.
No surprise I was dialed in before Maine...
Special fuck you to the dumbfucks that parroted the doog line of the team improving more than other teams as the year progresses.
Maine sucks, equivalent of a IMA team that has a full time div2 womens basketball coach.
Defense:
The defense isnt nearly as good as many people are saying it is. It is heavily reliant on out athleting everyone across the floor. And they get away with it against teams like Maine or in openers in high school gyms in Alaska but it isnt really sustainable long term through a decent Pac12 or for a deep run into the tournament against good teams.
- When in zone, teams are regularly able to get the ball between the top and the base of the zone. - Hop clearly wants to play Mcdaniels across the top of the zone (logical) - Mcdaniels defense at the top is mediocre at stopping the interior pass to the elbow or high post and doesnt help from behind in any way like Thybulle did. - resorting to playing man against Maine rather rather practicing the lock down zone is not good. - The length is great, its covering up fundamental flaws in the defense, the middle of the zone is too easily penetrated and the defense is not collapsing correctly once the penetration has occurred. Stewart is cleaning up many of the top of the zone mistakes.
Offense:
The offense is still the same Chris Petersen Babushka offense. Park Stewart (or timmons) low block and ISO or run Horns... There are so few ball screens, which is insane to me. The team is hyper athletic, have Stewart set a ball screen for Mcdaniels or Naz. The offense is also obviously suffering because no one can just stand in the corner and be a knock down 3pt shooter to spread the floor. I think @Tequilla is also on the right track when it comes to actually executing screens for each other and coming off the screens with a purpose. There is a ton of work to be done on the offense both from a scheme and execution standpoint.
With the youth, athleticism, and size all over the floor the offense should be a motion or ball screen offense not a iso low post block offense.
Other:
- Quade is Gaddy, he has relatively low athleticism and isnt a great shooter. On a bad team is he bad, on a good team he is fine. - Mcdaniels does look like he has a bit of an attitude "thing". IMO he is just to used to dominating the game without really having to focus hard on team play or the little things that make people successful in high levels of play. - Stewart is holding things together and is incredible. Without Stewart the team would fall apart, he is doing more than his job on both the offense and the defense and looks like a great leader.
No surprise I was dialed in before Maine...
Special fuck you to the dumbfucks that parroted the doog line of the team improving more than other teams as the year progresses.
This team is where it is for a number of reasons:
1) Jaden has the tools to be a high end player but when adversity hit him instead of rising to the challenge he has continuously shrunk. It’s important to remember that regardless of how talented a kid is coming out of HS they have to prove it at the next level.
2) The Quade odyssey set this team back with a poised on court leader that made good decisions
3) It is staggering how bad some basic fundamentals are like screening, cutting with purpose, off ball movement and entry passes are
4) Defensively the effort is inconsistent ... most staggering is players just not getting on the floor
5) I think the light has gone on for Wright, Tsohonis and Battle will be better off for this season and their experience
6) The most concerning part of the program right now is 2020 recruiting ... there is going to be a lot of attrition after this year ... going to need a lot of grad transfers
Maine sucks, equivalent of a IMA team that has a full time div2 womens basketball coach.
Defense:
The defense isnt nearly as good as many people are saying it is. It is heavily reliant on out athleting everyone across the floor. And they get away with it against teams like Maine or in openers in high school gyms in Alaska but it isnt really sustainable long term through a decent Pac12 or for a deep run into the tournament against good teams.
- When in zone, teams are regularly able to get the ball between the top and the base of the zone. - Hop clearly wants to play Mcdaniels across the top of the zone (logical) - Mcdaniels defense at the top is mediocre at stopping the interior pass to the elbow or high post and doesnt help from behind in any way like Thybulle did. - resorting to playing man against Maine rather rather practicing the lock down zone is not good. - The length is great, its covering up fundamental flaws in the defense, the middle of the zone is too easily penetrated and the defense is not collapsing correctly once the penetration has occurred. Stewart is cleaning up many of the top of the zone mistakes.
Offense:
The offense is still the same Chris Petersen Babushka offense. Park Stewart (or timmons) low block and ISO or run Horns... There are so few ball screens, which is insane to me. The team is hyper athletic, have Stewart set a ball screen for Mcdaniels or Naz. The offense is also obviously suffering because no one can just stand in the corner and be a knock down 3pt shooter to spread the floor. I think @Tequilla is also on the right track when it comes to actually executing screens for each other and coming off the screens with a purpose. There is a ton of work to be done on the offense both from a scheme and execution standpoint.
With the youth, athleticism, and size all over the floor the offense should be a motion or ball screen offense not a iso low post block offense.
Other:
- Quade is Gaddy, he has relatively low athleticism and isnt a great shooter. On a bad team is he bad, on a good team he is fine. - Mcdaniels does look like he has a bit of an attitude "thing". IMO he is just to used to dominating the game without really having to focus hard on team play or the little things that make people successful in high levels of play. - Stewart is holding things together and is incredible. Without Stewart the team would fall apart, he is doing more than his job on both the offense and the defense and looks like a great leader.
No surprise I was dialed in before Maine...
Special fuck you to the dumbfucks that parroted the doog line of the team improving more than other teams as the year progresses.
This team is where it is for a number of reasons:
1) Jaden has the tools to be a high end player but when adversity hit him instead of rising to the challenge he has continuously shrunk. It’s important to remember that regardless of how talented a kid is coming out of HS they have to prove it at the next level.
2) The Quade odyssey set this team back with a poised on court leader that made good decisions
3) It is staggering how bad some basic fundamentals are like screening, cutting with purpose, off ball movement and entry passes are
4) Defensively the effort is inconsistent ... most staggering is players just not getting on the floor
5) I think the light has gone on for Wright, Tsohonis and Battle will be better off for this season and their experience
6) The most concerning part of the program right now is 2020 recruiting ... there is going to be a lot of attrition after this year ... going to need a lot of grad transfers
You're words come easy, but this "hoops" team doesn't seem to be worth even that.
Maine sucks, equivalent of a IMA team that has a full time div2 womens basketball coach.
Defense:
The defense isnt nearly as good as many people are saying it is. It is heavily reliant on out athleting everyone across the floor. And they get away with it against teams like Maine or in openers in high school gyms in Alaska but it isnt really sustainable long term through a decent Pac12 or for a deep run into the tournament against good teams.
- When in zone, teams are regularly able to get the ball between the top and the base of the zone. - Hop clearly wants to play Mcdaniels across the top of the zone (logical) - Mcdaniels defense at the top is mediocre at stopping the interior pass to the elbow or high post and doesnt help from behind in any way like Thybulle did. - resorting to playing man against Maine rather rather practicing the lock down zone is not good. - The length is great, its covering up fundamental flaws in the defense, the middle of the zone is too easily penetrated and the defense is not collapsing correctly once the penetration has occurred. Stewart is cleaning up many of the top of the zone mistakes.
Offense:
The offense is still the same Chris Petersen Babushka offense. Park Stewart (or timmons) low block and ISO or run Horns... There are so few ball screens, which is insane to me. The team is hyper athletic, have Stewart set a ball screen for Mcdaniels or Naz. The offense is also obviously suffering because no one can just stand in the corner and be a knock down 3pt shooter to spread the floor. I think @Tequilla is also on the right track when it comes to actually executing screens for each other and coming off the screens with a purpose. There is a ton of work to be done on the offense both from a scheme and execution standpoint.
With the youth, athleticism, and size all over the floor the offense should be a motion or ball screen offense not a iso low post block offense.
Other:
- Quade is Gaddy, he has relatively low athleticism and isnt a great shooter. On a bad team is he bad, on a good team he is fine. - Mcdaniels does look like he has a bit of an attitude "thing". IMO he is just to used to dominating the game without really having to focus hard on team play or the little things that make people successful in high levels of play. - Stewart is holding things together and is incredible. Without Stewart the team would fall apart, he is doing more than his job on both the offense and the defense and looks like a great leader.
No surprise I was dialed in before Maine...
Special fuck you to the dumbfucks that parroted the doog line of the team improving more than other teams as the year progresses.
This team is where it is for a number of reasons:
1) The coach sucks.
2) The players can't score.
3) The tutors for the players suck.
4) The coach sucks.
5) The players don't put in enough time at the IMA
Hop gotta go. Yeah, it’s only one bad year, but he was planning on a great year to give him leeway/get another job and has zero recruits. He fucked us. We should feel stupid for buying in. If we don’t fire him, we are making a mistake.
Hop gotta go. Yeah, it’s only one bad year, but he was planning on a great year to give him leeway/get another job and has zero recruits. He fucked us. We should feel stupid for buying in. If we don’t fire him, we are making a mistake.
I'm almost never a "fire after one season" advocate, but sometimes the hatchet job is so bad it can't be ignored or overcome. The combination of recruiting, in-game blunders, lack of back court development, and somehow letting Quade become ineligible while sacrificing the minutes of Tshonis and Hardy, adds up to a very fireable performance. Incompetence doesn't even begin to explain this season.
Hop gotta go. Yeah, it’s only one bad year, but he was planning on a great year to give him leeway/get another job and has zero recruits. He fucked us. We should feel stupid for buying in. If we don’t fire him, we are making a mistake.
Yeah all signs point to Hop banking on Mcdaniels and Stewart carrying him to another program immediately after this year and already focusing on his move.
ZERO fucking recruiting Letting Quade become academically ineligible Naz and Bey zero off season development No offensive coaching/scheme playing Man defense in dreck preseason games rather than perfecting his defensive system
Everything at the start of the season says short term thinking and checked out of the long term development of the program.
I think he probably now knows that door is shut because he fucked up.
Bey, Tshonis, Battle, and Naz all have enough there that they should be an adequate guard group. Wright is fine as a big wing as long as he isnt asked to do anything with the ball in his hands and he has actually been ok from 3 the past 5 games.
We are stuck with Hop, better hope he has some actual development skills, there is enough in the program to still be alright which makes the recruiting fuckup and lack of player development so fucking irritating.
Hop gotta go. Yeah, it’s only one bad year, but he was planning on a great year to give him leeway/get another job and has zero recruits. He fucked us. We should feel stupid for buying in. If we don’t fire him, we are making a mistake.
I'm almost never a "fire after one season" advocate, but sometimes the hatchet job is so bad it can't be ignored or overcome. The combination of recruiting, in-game blunders, lack of back court development, and somehow letting Quade become ineligible while sacrificing the minutes of Tshonis and Hardy, adds up to a very fireable performance. Incompetence doesn't even begin to explain this season.
If he had some recruits I wouldn’t be dead set on wanting him fired. How is this team without Stewart and McDaniels going to be good?
There wasn’t much internal improvement so you can’t count on development. His offenses are horrible.
I thought with the zone he would be able to at least recruit certain types of guys and get them to be solid role players, but he doesn’t even have any recruits. Normally that’s what coaches with a proven scheme do. It’s why Tony Bennett has Virginia respectable this year even tho his whole team is full of bums.
We have no identity. Bad offense every year and now shitty defense. A great coach pulls a lot more out of this team than Hop has. We are choking too which is never a good sign. It’s all really bad and there is nothing to show that it could get better.
It’s a few years away from that being a possibility so you might as well fire Hop because he’s the one that got us in this mess.
He would be outta Seattle so fast if that was a possibility. Boeheim’s son is only a sophomore tho. He’s coaching his son for his whole career. They probably won’t want Hop by then.
The biggest indictment on Hop for me is not that McDaniels sucked or that he recruited some 1 and done guys, it's the guys he's recruited that aren't one and done.
Bey, Hardy, BPJ - all 2nd year players and not a single one looks like they'd see playing time for a team like Santa Clara. Literally no development from any of those guys.
Hameir is in his 3rd year and still fouls 3 point shooters, makes terrible passes, and is clueless on how to block out for a rebound. Yes he has been shooting a little better but he is the Psalm Wooching of this team. His shit play far outweighs his good play.
Naz Carter, 3rd year, still takes terrible shots and is constantly getting his pocket picked. Appears to have regressed this year.
I cant say much about Battle yet because he is a freshman but he is supposedly your "3 point specialist" and aside from 1 game, hes been a wide open brick machine.
Tshonis is the only guy Hop has recruited that looks like he might be a really good player down the road. But then again, thatsxassuming he continues to progress skill-wise, which is far from a guaranteed thing.
The whole "not recruiting anyone even though you have at least 3 guys leaving" thing just adds to the shit pile. Our only hope to be rid of Hop after this season is if he quits or pulls a Sark. Since he's likely here next year, the one thing that absolutely needs to happen is he needs to fire all his assistant coaches and go hard after assistants from schools that actually run an offensive system.
Edit: to add. I'd kick Jaden McDaniels off the team or at least bench him. He's a cancer and it's one of those unlikely scenarios where the team could come together if the cancer is gone.
Hop gotta go. Yeah, it’s only one bad year, but he was planning on a great year to give him leeway/get another job and has zero recruits. He fucked us. We should feel stupid for buying in. If we don’t fire him, we are making a mistake.
On one hand, there's a logical thought process that makes sense.
On the other, I'm struggling to figure out what job(s) would be available that Hop would be jumping towards. I don't see any of the elite jobs coming open this year ... closest that I could possibly come up with would be Texas.
PAC12: Arizona and UCLA would be the only jobs that I think are upgrades over Washington ... neither are coming open.
Big 12: Texas would be the option ... nothing else is coming open that's an upgrade
Big 10: I don't see any of the prime jobs opening up ... the exception could be if Maryland finally gets tired of the mediocre Mark Turgeon
SEC: For as much $$$ as the SEC has, it's not the greatest from a basketball standpoint. It really is Kentucky and then everybody else
ACC: None of the elite jobs would be coming open that I can tell unless you have a retirement at UNC or Duke. Is Georgia Tech an upgrade when they are in the midst of sanctions?
Big East: Biggest job that could come open would be Georgetown ... hard to imagine a Syracuse guy taking the Georgetown job
So basically, the best case scenario I could see for Hop would be going to Texas ... or being the favorite for whoever takes the Texas job.
It sounds good on the surface to say he's looking to parlay the job, but the jobs out there that are likely to be available don't really support the theory. Only other possibility would be heading to the NBA ... but I don't see that as realistic at this point.
Hop gotta go. Yeah, it’s only one bad year, but he was planning on a great year to give him leeway/get another job and has zero recruits. He fucked us. We should feel stupid for buying in. If we don’t fire him, we are making a mistake.
I'm almost never a "fire after one season" advocate, but sometimes the hatchet job is so bad it can't be ignored or overcome. The combination of recruiting, in-game blunders, lack of back court development, and somehow letting Quade become ineligible while sacrificing the minutes of Tshonis and Hardy, adds up to a very fireable performance. Incompetence doesn't even begin to explain this season.
If he had some recruits I wouldn’t be dead set on wanting him fired. How is this team without Stewart and McDaniels going to be good?
There wasn’t much internal improvement so you can’t count on development. His offenses are horrible.
I thought with the zone he would be able to at least recruit certain types of guys and get them to be solid role players, but he doesn’t even have any recruits. Normally that’s what coaches with a proven scheme do. It’s why Tony Bennett has Virginia respectable this year even tho his whole team is full of bums.
We have no identity. Bad offense every year and now shitty defense. A great coach pulls a lot more out of this team than Hop has. We are choking too which is never a good sign. It’s all really bad and there is nothing to show that it could get better.
It’s a few years away from that being a possibility so you might as well fire Hop because he’s the one that got us in this mess.
the recruiting just shows he was a complete fuckup already halfway out the door that didn’t care about the program.
IMO this year just reinforces how much more important coaching, development, and evaluation are than just recruiting the highest ranked guy.
for the vast majority of programs: 4 star try hards for 2-4 years > 5 star potential types
If you are going to get a 5 star they need to be Stewart types
If this program had 1-2 decent 4 star type guys coming in and Bey/Naz showed any signs of development this year would still be a failure but I would still have a tiny bit of hope for Hop.
TLDR; Hop somehow fucked up every facet of coaching. Every single one.
Hop gotta go. Yeah, it’s only one bad year, but he was planning on a great year to give him leeway/get another job and has zero recruits. He fucked us. We should feel stupid for buying in. If we don’t fire him, we are making a mistake.
I'm almost never a "fire after one season" advocate, but sometimes the hatchet job is so bad it can't be ignored or overcome. The combination of recruiting, in-game blunders, lack of back court development, and somehow letting Quade become ineligible while sacrificing the minutes of Tshonis and Hardy, adds up to a very fireable performance. Incompetence doesn't even begin to explain this season.
If he had some recruits I wouldn’t be dead set on wanting him fired. How is this team without Stewart and McDaniels going to be good?
There wasn’t much internal improvement so you can’t count on development. His offenses are horrible.
I thought with the zone he would be able to at least recruit certain types of guys and get them to be solid role players, but he doesn’t even have any recruits. Normally that’s what coaches with a proven scheme do. It’s why Tony Bennett has Virginia respectable this year even tho his whole team is full of bums.
We have no identity. Bad offense every year and now shitty defense. A great coach pulls a lot more out of this team than Hop has. We are choking too which is never a good sign. It’s all really bad and there is nothing to show that it could get better.
It’s a few years away from that being a possibility so you might as well fire Hop because he’s the one that got us in this mess.
1) Looking at next year, there is reason to think that this team can be just fine. Tsohonis is showing that he's going to be an upper half P12 PG and given his athletic ability, probably looking at a 3-4 year player. Battle has a chance to have a huge upside and I could see him in the 15+ points per game next year. Don't be shocked if he's an all conference player and lottery pick after next year. He's got an easy, quick release stroke that has unlimited range. He's raw in certain areas of the game but you can see the talent and potential. Wright has the look of a guy who is seeing the light to start going on in terms of what his game looks like to be successful. I think Roberts still has some strong upside to his game to come. Penn-Johnson is another guy that just needs to get things figured out a bit but you can see the flashes. Brooks will contribute and has a good look to him. Bey just needs to keep improving ... he's a functional player. I suspect that there will be some grad transfers. I have no idea what to expect out of Naz or Quade and whether they stay/go. I'm assuming Stewart and Jaden are gone. I expect Hardy will transfer because he's at best a middle tier WCC PG.
2) Recruiting is going to be something that every program is going to have to figure out what works best for them going forward ... particularly with a number of top recruits choosing to play professionally. Jaden and Isaiah are great examples of what happens with one and dones. You can get a guy like Stewart that comes in, works hard, and is all about team knowing that their future will take care of itself. Then you get Jaden that doesn't fully realize the step up required, has terrible energy, and checks out when adversity hits. The former can help you win big. The latter can torpedo a team.
3) I think people think that offensive basketball is some kind of high end coaching endeavor. It's all about creating opportunities for guys to get the ball in space and then execute off of it. It's promoting the right elements (screening, cutting with purpose, ball movement, etc). I can see good sets that don't get executed on. I can see passes that aren't made that should be. I can see terrible entry passes. I can see terrible shot selection. Yes, Hop deserves ire for a lot of that. I also guarantee that those items are being taught in practice. At some point players have to learn from prior mistakes and learn from them. At some point players need to make plays.
4) Hop's not getting fired because of the length of his contract and the related buyouts to not only him but likely members of his staff. The $$$ isn't there to do that.
5) The defense I think is really a number of details being missed ... compare last year versus this year. You had experienced players last year that executed a lot of smaller details. This year, you have young guys making basic mistakes like losing awareness of where offensive players are, having hands down, not identifying shooters, etc. I can coach up any player on all of those points and details but ultimately it comes down to the players to execute against that.
TL, DR: Hop deserves ire because he's the coach. For whatever reason he hasn't been able to adequately reach some of his players. Likewise, the players also haven't learned from their mistake and taken much accountability towards getting better. It's a maddening set of circumstances all the way around.
I think the development of some of those 2nd year players really highlights something Hop has been saying recently about unreasonable expectations on players ... in football if a player isn't playing a ton in Year 2 we don't think too much of it. In basketball, it's viewed as an indictment of the player.
Bey strikes me as a 4 year role player ... I think it's very possible that he takes a leap between this year and next year. I actually like some of the things I've seen in Penn Johnson ... it also wouldn't shock me if he's a player next year. Hardy should be out of the program ... he's not good enough to play in the P12 IMO.
Hameir is a tough one for me because I can't disagree with anything you said. I do think I've seen signs of him playing better but he's got to sustain that. I'd like to see him play with more conviction. The drive he had last night was decisive and worked well. I'd like to see him, and others, play more with that kind of strength.
Naz is an athlete and not a basketball player to me at this point. I have nothing to base this on, but I think he probably had set in his mind that he'd be able to leave after this year and is playing with that pressure on him. Too often I see him trying to make plays that he's not capable of making. He's best in catch and shoot situations and slashing to the basket off the ball. He's not great with the ball in his hands and is a poor passer.
Battle will be good ... I'd be shocked if he doesn't turn into a high end P12 performer.
I don't think we are far from a tipping point where McDaniels could leave the team. Getting benched last night after about 10 seconds upon re-entering the game may be the final straw for him. I could see people in his ear saying that Hop is ruining him and his draft prospects and it's better to leave than to let Hop keep making him look bad.
Comments
Special fuck you to the dumbfucks that parroted the doog line of the team improving more than other teams as the year progresses.
1) Jaden has the tools to be a high end player but when adversity hit him instead of rising to the challenge he has continuously shrunk. It’s important to remember that regardless of how talented a kid is coming out of HS they have to prove it at the next level.
2) The Quade odyssey set this team back with a poised on court leader that made good decisions
3) It is staggering how bad some basic fundamentals are like screening, cutting with purpose, off ball movement and entry passes are
4) Defensively the effort is inconsistent ... most staggering is players just not getting on the floor
5) I think the light has gone on for Wright, Tsohonis and Battle will be better off for this season and their experience
6) The most concerning part of the program right now is 2020 recruiting ... there is going to be a lot of attrition after this year ... going to need a lot of grad transfers
ZERO fucking recruiting
Letting Quade become academically ineligible
Naz and Bey zero off season development
No offensive coaching/scheme
playing Man defense in dreck preseason games rather than perfecting his defensive system
Everything at the start of the season says short term thinking and checked out of the long term development of the program.
I think he probably now knows that door is shut because he fucked up.
Bey, Tshonis, Battle, and Naz all have enough there that they should be an adequate guard group. Wright is fine as a big wing as long as he isnt asked to do anything with the ball in his hands and he has actually been ok from 3 the past 5 games.
We are stuck with Hop, better hope he has some actual development skills, there is enough in the program to still be alright which makes the recruiting fuckup and lack of player development so fucking irritating.
There wasn’t much internal improvement so you can’t count on development. His offenses are horrible.
I thought with the zone he would be able to at least recruit certain types of guys and get them to be solid role players, but he doesn’t even have any recruits. Normally that’s what coaches with a proven scheme do. It’s why Tony Bennett has Virginia respectable this year even tho his whole team is full of bums.
We have no identity. Bad offense every year and now shitty defense. A great coach pulls a lot more out of this team than Hop has. We are choking too which is never a good sign. It’s all really bad and there is nothing to show that it could get better.
It’s a few years away from that being a possibility so you might as well fire Hop because he’s the one that got us in this mess.
Got 3 guys leaving, right? Timmins, mcdaniels, Stewart. Hardy is on portal watch as well, and has Quade confirmed to anyone what his plan is?
Bey, Hardy, BPJ - all 2nd year players and not a single one looks like they'd see playing time for a team like Santa Clara. Literally no development from any of those guys.
Hameir is in his 3rd year and still fouls 3 point shooters, makes terrible passes, and is clueless on how to block out for a rebound. Yes he has been shooting a little better but he is the Psalm Wooching of this team. His shit play far outweighs his good play.
Naz Carter, 3rd year, still takes terrible shots and is constantly getting his pocket picked. Appears to have regressed this year.
I cant say much about Battle yet because he is a freshman but he is supposedly your "3 point specialist" and aside from 1 game, hes been a wide open brick machine.
Tshonis is the only guy Hop has recruited that looks like he might be a really good player down the road. But then again, thatsxassuming he continues to progress skill-wise, which is far from a guaranteed thing.
The whole "not recruiting anyone even though you have at least 3 guys leaving" thing just adds to the shit pile. Our only hope to be rid of Hop after this season is if he quits or pulls a Sark. Since he's likely here next year, the one thing that absolutely needs to happen is he needs to fire all his assistant coaches and go hard after assistants from schools that actually run an offensive system.
Edit: to add. I'd kick Jaden McDaniels off the team or at least bench him. He's a cancer and it's one of those unlikely scenarios where the team could come together if the cancer is gone.
On the other, I'm struggling to figure out what job(s) would be available that Hop would be jumping towards. I don't see any of the elite jobs coming open this year ... closest that I could possibly come up with would be Texas.
PAC12: Arizona and UCLA would be the only jobs that I think are upgrades over Washington ... neither are coming open.
Big 12: Texas would be the option ... nothing else is coming open that's an upgrade
Big 10: I don't see any of the prime jobs opening up ... the exception could be if Maryland finally gets tired of the mediocre Mark Turgeon
SEC: For as much $$$ as the SEC has, it's not the greatest from a basketball standpoint. It really is Kentucky and then everybody else
ACC: None of the elite jobs would be coming open that I can tell unless you have a retirement at UNC or Duke. Is Georgia Tech an upgrade when they are in the midst of sanctions?
Big East: Biggest job that could come open would be Georgetown ... hard to imagine a Syracuse guy taking the Georgetown job
So basically, the best case scenario I could see for Hop would be going to Texas ... or being the favorite for whoever takes the Texas job.
It sounds good on the surface to say he's looking to parlay the job, but the jobs out there that are likely to be available don't really support the theory. Only other possibility would be heading to the NBA ... but I don't see that as realistic at this point.
I wonder at this point if there's been a concession that anything that they could recruit would be better served by going after grad transfers
IMO this year just reinforces how much more important coaching, development, and evaluation are than just recruiting the highest ranked guy.
for the vast majority of programs:
4 star try hards for 2-4 years > 5 star potential types
If you are going to get a 5 star they need to be Stewart types
If this program had 1-2 decent 4 star type guys coming in and Bey/Naz showed any signs of development this year would still be a failure but I would still have a tiny bit of hope for Hop.
TLDR; Hop somehow fucked up every facet of coaching. Every single one.
2) Recruiting is going to be something that every program is going to have to figure out what works best for them going forward ... particularly with a number of top recruits choosing to play professionally. Jaden and Isaiah are great examples of what happens with one and dones. You can get a guy like Stewart that comes in, works hard, and is all about team knowing that their future will take care of itself. Then you get Jaden that doesn't fully realize the step up required, has terrible energy, and checks out when adversity hits. The former can help you win big. The latter can torpedo a team.
3) I think people think that offensive basketball is some kind of high end coaching endeavor. It's all about creating opportunities for guys to get the ball in space and then execute off of it. It's promoting the right elements (screening, cutting with purpose, ball movement, etc). I can see good sets that don't get executed on. I can see passes that aren't made that should be. I can see terrible entry passes. I can see terrible shot selection. Yes, Hop deserves ire for a lot of that. I also guarantee that those items are being taught in practice. At some point players have to learn from prior mistakes and learn from them. At some point players need to make plays.
4) Hop's not getting fired because of the length of his contract and the related buyouts to not only him but likely members of his staff. The $$$ isn't there to do that.
5) The defense I think is really a number of details being missed ... compare last year versus this year. You had experienced players last year that executed a lot of smaller details. This year, you have young guys making basic mistakes like losing awareness of where offensive players are, having hands down, not identifying shooters, etc. I can coach up any player on all of those points and details but ultimately it comes down to the players to execute against that.
TL, DR: Hop deserves ire because he's the coach. For whatever reason he hasn't been able to adequately reach some of his players. Likewise, the players also haven't learned from their mistake and taken much accountability towards getting better. It's a maddening set of circumstances all the way around.
I think the development of some of those 2nd year players really highlights something Hop has been saying recently about unreasonable expectations on players ... in football if a player isn't playing a ton in Year 2 we don't think too much of it. In basketball, it's viewed as an indictment of the player.
Bey strikes me as a 4 year role player ... I think it's very possible that he takes a leap between this year and next year. I actually like some of the things I've seen in Penn Johnson ... it also wouldn't shock me if he's a player next year. Hardy should be out of the program ... he's not good enough to play in the P12 IMO.
Hameir is a tough one for me because I can't disagree with anything you said. I do think I've seen signs of him playing better but he's got to sustain that. I'd like to see him play with more conviction. The drive he had last night was decisive and worked well. I'd like to see him, and others, play more with that kind of strength.
Naz is an athlete and not a basketball player to me at this point. I have nothing to base this on, but I think he probably had set in his mind that he'd be able to leave after this year and is playing with that pressure on him. Too often I see him trying to make plays that he's not capable of making. He's best in catch and shoot situations and slashing to the basket off the ball. He's not great with the ball in his hands and is a poor passer.
Battle will be good ... I'd be shocked if he doesn't turn into a high end P12 performer.
I don't think we are far from a tipping point where McDaniels could leave the team. Getting benched last night after about 10 seconds upon re-entering the game may be the final straw for him. I could see people in his ear saying that Hop is ruining him and his draft prospects and it's better to leave than to let Hop keep making him look bad.