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Game day. Last road game of the year at GT

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casualcane said:
I’d venture to guess James would stop at Caputo
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In fairness, I don't know how Caputo is with the x's and o's but he and Fisher are really good recruiters.
Caputo may or may not be a bad choice but if Blake James goes this route then Caputo needs a former head coach to fill that open assistant coach role.
I would go with someone like Kevin Ollie. The former UCONN coach and NBA player who has won a National Championship as a head coach. Ollie is also a good recruiter.
The only thing more important than coaching is the talent on the roster.
 
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Blake stayed in-house for baseball and football, so I don't think he'll go that route for basketball, for fear of the vitriol that would surely follow. I also don't think Caputo is any more qualified than Huger or Konkol, who at least have several years of HC experience. Konkol has clearly done the better job of the two and isn't too far off performance-wise than where Mike White was before he left for UF. I still think we need to start completely fresh so I'd love to see Blake target these candidates if he actually runs a competent search, which is probably unlikely:

Anthony Grant (Dayton) - This is absolutely the first call to make. He's local, recruited at an extremely high level at UF for a decade and has proved that he can win at a program that isn't VCU (Shaka Smart has failed to do this). He fizzled out at Bama but his performance at Dayton alleviates a lot of the concerns I would have had. They clearly have the better program at the moment and he's going to be a hot coaching name, but i'm not sure UD will be able to pay him what we can offer, even if he gets a raise. Obi Toppin is going to be a lottery pick to boot so this might not be a bad time to look elsewhere.

Kevin Willard (Seton Hall) - If Grant says no, this would be the next guy on my list. About to make the tourney for the 5th year in a row at a program that was a doormat before he arrived. Is from Long Island so i'd imagine that coaching in the ACC would be appealing to him and, like with Dayton, I'm not sure how much Seton Hall would be able to pony up in order to keep him.

Steve Forbes (ETSU) - A name that many here have probably never heard of but I can assure you that he will be atop many high major coaching searches come April. He's absolutely dominated the SoCon in his time there and has a team this year that can absolutely get to the second weekend of the tourney. Not super young at 54, but reminds me a lot of Brad Underwood's trajectory, who jumped from SFA to Okie St. and then eventually Illinois, and is having good success there now.

Other candidates I'd kick the tires on: John Becker (Vermont), Johnny Dawkins (UCF), Chris Mooney (Richmond), Steve Wojciechowski (Marquette), Tommy Amaker (Harvard), Andy Enfield (USC), Matt Langel (Colgate)
 
hotshot said:
Wasn't Ollie involved in NCAA infractions while at UConn. We don't need that aggro.
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His infractions were allegedly too many phone calls to recruits like Kevin Sampson and Bruce Pearl.
UCONN fired him because he was a Jim Calhoun guy and the University wants to distant itself from Jim for some odd reason. Kevin is suing UCONN to get the rest of his contract money that is owed to him.
 
2-17 from 3

4 assists and 17 turnovers. Absolutely putrid basketball

Like I've said in several other threads, this program desperately needs to find a true point guard. We are full of undersized score first guards and when their shots aren't falling, our offense looks like this.
 
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Keith Stone is really really really bad. He had ONE rebound in 25 mins and can't shoot worth crap. Why is he still playing over Walker?
 
Gables Canes said:
Keith Stone is really really really bad. He had ONE rebound in 25 mins and can't shoot worth crap. Why is he still playing over Walker?
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Because Walker is just as bad of a rebounder and Larranaga has shown a propensity to play seniors if it's close until he's blue in the face.
 
HubSpotCane said:
Because Walker is just as bad of a rebounder and Larranaga has shown a propensity to play seniors if it's close until he's blue in the face.
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That's unfortunate. Walker has a much higher ceiling than Stone will ever have. The season is essentially over, let Walker come in for 10-15 minutes and see if he can contribute. He has provided a spark at times in other games.
 
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I don't have ACC Network (thanks, Comcast) so I couldn't watch the game, but I checked the box score after and saw that we had 4 assists as a team for the game. It is just difficult to comprehend that we couldn't accidentally generate more assists than that just by swinging the ball around the perimeter and having guys happen to make jump shots. What's even more ridiculous is that Rodney Miller had 2 of the assists, Stone had 1, and McGusty had one. I realize that neither Lykes or Wong are traditional, pass first point guards, but for neither of those guys to have a single assist in a game as the primary ballhandlers is just crazy.
 
RaiseCane said:
I don't have ACC Network (thanks, Comcast) so I couldn't watch the game, but I checked the box score after and saw that we had 4 assists as a team for the game. It is just difficult to comprehend that we couldn't accidentally generate more assists than that just by swinging the ball around the perimeter and having guys happen to make jump shots. What's even more ridiculous is that Rodney Miller had 2 of the assists, Stone had 1, and McGusty had one. I realize that neither Lykes or Wong are traditional, pass first point guards, but for neither of those guys to have a single assist in a game as the primary ballhandlers is just crazy.
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It's embarrassing man. Don't let any of these L apologists on here tell you differently either. Our offense we run is a major issue. Anybody with any sort of feel for the game can tell you this after watching us play for a half.
 
Gables Canes said:
2-17 from 3

4 assists and 17 turnovers. Absolutely putrid basketball

Like I've said in several other threads, this program desperately needs to find a true point guard. We are full of undersized score first guards and when their shots aren't falling, our offense looks like this.
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I agree a true point guard would help but the ball screen offense has really become a one on one contest with a screen. There is no ball movement, nor any player movement and the spacing is terrible. Add into the mix that the bigs don't get any significant touches, which is why Miami struggles to recruit bigs means it is probably time to change the offensive philosophy.

Either this group of players are not executing the ball screen offense correctly or the ball screen offense does not fit this group of players.
 
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In fairness, I watched the condensed version of the game. Miami was tied at 53 with 5:37 left in the game after coming back from 20 point down earlier in the game. This loss is more on the coaches in their ability to manage time and possessions in the later stages of the game.

Down 3 with 55 seconds left in the game and instead of executing a set play, Miami goes with Chris Lykes in a one on one situation. That is on the coaches. The result of the play was Lykes getting his shot blocked and Stone gets the offensive rebound but his shot toward the basket does not touch the rim so Miami is charged with a shot clock violation. Miami actually got the ball with 1:16 left in the game after a Rodney Miller blocked shot and Chris Lykes got the rebound. I think Miami took a timeout when the ball got into the frontcourt.

Ultimately, this was a critical mistake on the coaches in their failure to manage the game situation. Given the time remaining in the game, a set play and a two point basket makes it a one point game, especially if Miami takes the timeout earlier in the possession. Then, Miami can setup a press and attempt to get a defensive stop or if a bad free throw shooter gets the ball, foul him immediately so Miami can get the ball back down by either one or two points with 20 seconds left in the game. I have to wonder what was the strategy or were the coaches overwhelmed by the moment.

The players fought back from down 20 points, at this late stage of the game, it is on the coaches to pull out the win.
 
Da_Lucky_One said:
His infractions were allegedly too many phone calls to recruits like Kevin Sampson and Bruce Pearl.
UCONN fired him because he was a Jim Calhoun guy and the University wants to distant itself from Jim for some odd reason. Kevin is suing UCONN to get the rest of his contract money that is owed to him.
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That may have been what was in the official report. My understanding (know some alums), though, is that his transgressions went much further.
 
hotshot said:
That may have been what was in the official report. My understanding (know some alums), though, is that his transgressions went much further.
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I don't dispute that at all. There are always two sides to every story. My point was he brings a ton of NBA experience and connections to a staff along with a National Championship ring. Especially to an inexperienced staff if Caputo was to get the head job. I am sure he would keep Fisher and Courtney. That would leave one spot open for an assistant coach.

John Calipiri has had infractions at every school he has every coached and he is still doing well. Larry Brown also. Then again, they have actually had schools placed on probation due to their actions.

Bruce Pearl and Kevin Sampson may be better examples of infractions don't mean you are a bad guy or a bad coach.
 
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