UW - Maine Gamethread

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.

Miley_Cyrus said:

How do we not have a single recruit for next year?

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?

Lost out on everybody that we targeted and there is a growing trend of players bypassing college altogether

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

RoadDawg55 said:

GreenRiverGatorz said:

RoadDawg55 said:

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.