Interview of Coach Larranaga on "Marching to Madness"

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Thanks for posting. This is what I find interesting.

1. 14-18 was not due to "a lot of injuries." Only Deng Gak got injured. SMH.
2. 7 scholarship players, 2 unused scholarships, one transfer redshirt, one coaching decision redshirt, one injury and one NCAA suspension.
3. 9 guys available for the four exhibition games in Italy. Gak and Stone are not cleared to play and Brooks needs knee surgery. C'mon man.
4. Brooks will have knee surgery when he gets back in August but no mention of the waiver application.
5. No mention of using the last two scholarships on grad transfers but Coach L speaks about lack of depth last season. C'mon Coach L.
6. McGusty fits in the Bruce Brown, Lonnie Walker, Davon Reed and Sheldon Mac role. Fair evaluation.
7. Coach L states all 3 freshman should contribute and Walker is the best athlete of the 3. TBD.
8. 9 guys for Italy? (Lykes, Vasiljevic, McGusty, Wardenberg, Miller return, Wong, Beverly, Walker are newcomers make 8. I guess Herenton is 9).

Did I miss something? I wanted to hear about the plans for the last two scholarships. I don't want to hear Willie Herenton is an answer.
 
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Another thing I heard was what I've been saying all along, i.e., Lykes needs to accept that he is a PG, not a 2G. Thus far, 90% of the time he plays a 2G's game (regardless of what the starting lineup "on paper" might say). He has yet to 'buy in" to what his role should be.

He also needs to play disruptive defense, another concept he hasn't fully accepted. Coach L cites Muggsy Bogues who, at 5'3, was twice as valuable to Wake as Lykes has been for UM. Not even close.
 
Another thing I heard was what I've been saying all along, i.e., Lykes needs to accept that he is a PG, not a 2G. Thus far, 90% of the time he plays a 2G's game (regardless of what the starting lineup "on paper" might say). He has yet to 'buy in" to what his role should be.

He also needs to play disruptive defense, another concept he hasn't fully accepted. Coach L cites Muggsy Bogues who, at 5'3, was twice as valuable to Wake as Lykes has been for UM. Not even close.

Chris Lykes shouldn't be a starting guard on a competitive ACC squad. He is an excellent 6th man and rotation guy
 
Another thing I heard was what I've been saying all along, i.e., Lykes needs to accept that he is a PG, not a 2G. Thus far, 90% of the time he plays a 2G's game (regardless of what the starting lineup "on paper" might say). He has yet to 'buy in" to what his role should be.

He also needs to play disruptive defense, another concept he hasn't fully accepted. Coach L cites Muggsy Bogues who, at 5'3, was twice as valuable to Wake as Lykes has been for UM. Not even close.

That is very hard to do. He is a scorer similar to Jaquan Newton. Once you become a scorer or have a scorer's mentality then flipping the switch and becoming a pass first point guard is very difficult. Almost impossible. It is harder than people realize to re-invent yourself at each level.

This is also why in the 2020 recruiting class, it would be better for Miami to shy away from Deivon Smith or Jamal Mashburn Jr type of point guard and go harder after Dashien Nix or Andre Curbelo. If you want your point guard to pass and create for the other players than recruit a pass first point guard who can score. Stop recruiting point guard sized scoring guards who will look to shot first in your "ball screen offense."

I agree with Coach L about the defensive part but Coach L did recruit Chris Lykes knowing he scored over 2k points in high school. In a way, Coach L is highlighting the lack of skill development in the basketball program right now.
 
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Living in the DC-Baltimore metro area, I've watched and followed Chris Lykes since his first high school game at Gonzaga HS. I was elated when UM signed him. Partly because I'm always touting the excellence of kids coming out of Baltimore and DC HS leagues (especially their Catholic Leagues) and I "knew" Chris had the talent to succeed big-time.

Two years into his UM career, he's been a bit of a disappointment to me. That's both good and bad. Its good because I don't believe Chris has anywhere near shown his upside yet. He's a better shooter, distributor and defender than what he's shown to date. The bad is he takes most of our 3 point shots, while only shooting 32%, and is too often exploited on defense (even taking his lack of height into account).

Allaboutthe95 -- think you are wrong. Lykes is closer to being an all-ACC caliber player than a bench/role player. Hopefully, this is the year all of us get to see that.

DaLuckyOne -- think you are wrong as well in comparing Lykes to Newton. Chris is not a "scorer," he's a jump shooter (something Newton could never be called by even his biggest booster). Chris just needs to use better 3 point shot selection and use the possessions where he really doesn't have an open shot to use his speed to create more for his teammates.
 
Thanks for posting. This is what I find interesting.

1. 14-18 was not due to "a lot of injuries." Only Deng Gak got injured. SMH.
2. 7 scholarship players, 2 unused scholarships, one transfer redshirt, one coaching decision redshirt, one injury and one NCAA suspension.
3. 9 guys available for the four exhibition games in Italy. Gak and Stone are not cleared to play and Brooks needs knee surgery. C'mon man.
4. Brooks will have knee surgery when he gets back in August but no mention of the waiver application.
5. No mention of using the last two scholarships on grad transfers but Coach L speaks about lack of depth last season. C'mon Coach L.
6. McGusty fits in the Bruce Brown, Lonnie Walker, Davon Reed and Sheldon Mac role. Fair evaluation.
7. Coach L states all 3 freshman should contribute and Walker is the best athlete of the 3. TBD.
8. 9 guys for Italy? (Lykes, Vasiljevic, McGusty, Wardenberg, Miller return, Wong, Beverly, Walker are newcomers make 8. I guess Herenton is 9).

Did I miss something? I wanted to hear about the plans for the last two scholarships. I don't want to hear Willie Herenton is an answer.


We get it.
 
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Living in the DC-Baltimore metro area, I've watched and followed Chris Lykes since his first high school game at Gonzaga HS. I was elated when UM signed him. Partly because I'm always touting the excellence of kids coming out of Baltimore and DC HS leagues (especially their Catholic Leagues) and I "knew" Chris had the talent to succeed big-time.

Two years into his UM career, he's been a bit of a disappointment to me. That's both good and bad. Its good because I don't believe Chris has anywhere near shown his upside yet. He's a better shooter, distributor and defender than what he's shown to date. The bad is he takes most of our 3 point shots, while only shooting 32%, and is too often exploited on defense (even taking his lack of height into account).

Allaboutthe95 -- think you are wrong. Lykes is closer to being an all-ACC caliber player than a bench/role player. Hopefully, this is the year all of us get to see that.

DaLuckyOne -- think you are wrong as well in comparing Lykes to Newton. Chris is not a "scorer," he's a jump shooter (something Newton could never be called by even his biggest booster). Chris just needs to use better 3 point shot selection and use the possessions where he really doesn't have an open shot to use his speed to create more for his teammates.

Your evaluation is correct as you went deeper than I did. My point is both Lykes and Newton have a scorers mentality and neither are passing up shots. Granted, Lykes takes more threes but for a point guard, both take too many shots.
 
We get it.

I know some of the fans do but last season didn't "just happen". It was not "one of those seasons" per the interview. There was an element of poor decisions that also caused last season to happen and some of that is on Coach L. The FBI investigation is not his fault but failure to use all 13 scholarships is completely on Coach L.

I will not mention it again but to experience depth issues last season and come back the next season with only 9 healthy scholarship players to start a season is very negligent.
 
If Hot Rod Miller didn't develop into Shaq circa 1995, we aren't going dancing this year. I haven't been one to criticize L, but failing to fill 2 schollys after what happened last year is coaching malpractice. Very disappointed. If we have a repeat of last season, I believe it will be L's last. He'll likely go out Richt style.
 
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Who internally in the UM Athletic Dept is gonna "tell" or "demand" anything of L? I think the answer is no one. That's somewhat understandable, but definitely unfortunate. I think coaches respond better when there's pressure -- from the school president, the AD, big money donors, rabid fans, etc. I see none of those at play here.

To illustrate, look no further than the football program, the school's undeniably "marquee" program. Manny is under all kinds of pressure, which I think is only good for the program!
 
Transfer portal takes some of the pressure off. Next year we'll have 9 of 11 guys returning. Add another 2 man recruiting class to 2 more transfers and we'll be sitting at 13 players.

Its not just about adding bodies. Harlond Beverly, Isaiah Wong and Anthony Walker are the types of players we should use schollys on.
 
Who internally in the UM Athletic Dept is gonna "tell" or "demand" anything of L? I think the answer is no one. That's somewhat understandable, but definitely unfortunate. I think coaches respond better when there's pressure -- from the school president, the AD, big money donors, rabid fans, etc. I see none of those at play here.

To illustrate, look no further than the football program, the school's undeniably "marquee" program. Manny is under all kinds of pressure, which I think is only good for the program!
I don't think it is unfortunate at all. Coach L knows what he is doing, He got screwed due to no fault of his own and trying to build back up the program now.
 
Transfer portal takes some of the pressure off. Next year we'll have 9 of 11 guys returning. Add another 2 man recruiting class to 2 more transfers and we'll be sitting at 13 players.

Its not just about adding bodies. Harlond Beverly, Isaiah Wong and Anthony Walker are the types of players we should use schollys on.

So throw away this season and bring in no one else? At the very least, find some Joe Thomas types and call it a day. As it stands, Rodney Miller is our starting C. A guy that was perfectly “healthy” yet was chosen to redshirt his third season. A guy that has been beyond atrocious at UM. A guy that was easily outplayed by a raw, extremely undersized and inexperienced player (i.e. Gak).

There have been plenty of opportunities/names this off-season. The fact that we have 10 “active” ships before the season starts is pathetic.

Just to review, as it stands at this moment, there are 11 scholarships being used. Of those 11 scholarships:

1. 1 of the 11 is ineligible as he sits via transfer (Brooks) [hence 10 “active” ships],
2. 2 of the 11 are coming off very serious injuries (Stone and Gak),
3. 3 of the 11 are true freshman (Wong, Bev and Walker), and
4. 1 of the 11 is being used by Rodney Miller. A player that has shown absolutely NOTHING in his first three years at Miami.

From a purely numbers perspective, we’re in deep **** and the season hasn’t started. There is still plenty of time for someone to be thrown out of school or transfer. I just don’t understand how we’re still having these roster issues. Since using 13 scholarships is impossible for this staff, how about 12?

When was the last time we started a season with 11 “active” ships?
 
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