January 4th 2020 Duke vs Miami (8 pm) pregame predictions, game thread and post game reactions.

You get a waiver for Brooks this season, and get another "Brooks" next season. It's not complicated.

Brooks is a once in a lifetime player. You must sit him and wait until he is about to turn 24 (he turned 23 in December) before you can consider playing him. He needs to be the oldest player by far on our team before he is ready to contribute.

Plus Brooks isn't healthy. He was healthy ENOUGH to play in useless summer exhibition games in Europe, numerous months before the season, but he isn't healthy enough this year.

I was hoping we can apply for a waiver and sit Brooks next year.
 
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Yeah it was his fault that the Adidas BS killed the recruiting for 2 years, Ir was also his fault that Huell was declared ineligible before the start of last season. Coach L will finish out his contract. We have a very good recruiting class coming in and with the returning players, we should be very good next season.

I appreciate Bilas calling out the NCAA for making Huell ineligible last year. It's a much different season if he plays. That being said Jim has not managed the roster well. He gets a pass with the FBI nonsense. Brooks has to give us 30 minutes a game next year. Need to find a grad transfer big. The team will be more characteristic a veteran team that Jim has produced. We are putrid defensively which is a concern.
 
Brooks is a once in a lifetime player. You must sit him and wait until he is about to turn 24 (he turned 23 in December) before you can consider playing him. He needs to be the oldest player by far on our team before he is ready to contribute.

Plus Brooks isn't healthy. He was healthy ENOUGH to play in useless summer exhibition games in Europe, numerous months before the season, but he isn't healthy enough this year.

I was hoping we can apply for a waiver and sit Brooks next year.

You don't think Brooks will be healthy by next September? Him sitting this year is in our best interests that I know.
 
How any of you idiots defend this staff is pathetic. Just because L turned us into a decent ACC hoops school over his tenure does not mean you can’t see the writing on the wall with him. L and his staff do absolutely nothing to make this already garbage team better. He doesn’t know how to utilize any sort of talent. We play like a EYBL team and that is unacceptable in the ACC
 
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First 8 minutes or so was entertaining only because of the inevitable glass jaw. I couldn't believe Coach K was wasting energy complaining about anything.

Just wait

That game would have competitive only if Carey had swapped to the Canes and the Chinese unicycle lady had been swapped into Duke's lineup to replace Carey.

Even then...I'm not sure.

Regardless, that unicycle lady was the best halftime entertainment in the years I have been attending these games. It was stark reality that some endeavors are taken to higher level than others, in terms of what 100% feasible would be.
 
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There is no defending L on his roster mismanagement this season. Leaving scholarships open (again) when it bit us last season. Not applying for a waiver for Brooks. Not realizing how bad we were going to be up front when it was obvious to everybody. This isn't 20/20 hindsight. We all saw this coming and apparently he either didn't, or for whatever reason decided to throw in the towel before the season started. Even giving him his well earned benefit of the doubt, his management for this season was inexcusable atrocious.

Would you rather have open scholarships or Anthony Macks? Guys like Mack are non-contributors. If the choice were between an instant impact guy or an open scholarship, then sure, take the guy who's going to make an impact. But those guys don't grow on trees. It's hard to bring in more than a couple of those guys in any given year, especially coming off the year we had last year.

Given that we were going to be mediocre this year, it makes perfect sense to not apply for a waiver for Brooks. Brooks on this team might be enough to get us from the NIT to a 10-seed NCAAT team. Brooks on next year's team might be the difference from being a bubble team and being a 5-seed type team that has a chance to make a run.
 
I wasn't aware Brooks was Kareem Abdul Jabbar III. Based on the comments on this thread, he must be a special talent that could take an NIT team (at best) and make them a Sweet 16 team.

The fact of the matter is that with or without Brooks, this team was not going to be very good. Personally I rather save him for a year when we have a real chance to be competitive. Assuming we don't have much unexpected attrition, that should be next year.
 
Would you rather have open scholarships or Anthony Macks? Guys like Mack are non-contributors. If the choice were between an instant impact guy or an open scholarship, then sure, take the guy who's going to make an impact. But those guys don't grow on trees. It's hard to bring in more than a couple of those guys in any given year, especially coming off the year we had last year.

Given that we were going to be mediocre this year, it makes perfect sense to not apply for a waiver for Brooks. Brooks on this team might be enough to get us from the NIT to a 10-seed NCAAT team. Brooks on next year's team might be the difference from being a bubble team and being a 5-seed type team that has a chance to make a run.

The options should not be Anthony Macks or open scholarships. You fill your scholarships with contributors (see Leonard Hamilton), not necessarily "impact" guys. We're not Duke, but there is no reason for any P5 conference basketball program to EVER write off a season. We should be competing for an NCAAT berth every single year.
 
The options should not be Anthony Macks or open scholarships. You fill your scholarships with contributors (see Leonard Hamilton), not necessarily "impact" guys. We're not Duke, but there is no reason for any P5 conference basketball program to EVER write off a season. We should be competing for an NCAAT berth every single year.

Of course there are reasons why teams should write off seasons. For example, teams coming off sanctions are justified in writing off seasons. In our case, it's the FBI investigation.

How different would this team be if it had 3 sophomores contributing as opposed to 0?

That's what the FBI took away from us. We can't just snap our fingers and make up for a lost class.

I know it happened a long time ago and everyone is tired of talking about it. That doesn't change the fact that there are multiple ACC-caliber rotation players not on this roster due to the FBI. And there is not a limitless pool of ACC-caliber players that we can tap into whenever we want. L can't say, "well last year we added 0 future contributors when we needed 3, so next year we'll just add 6." Especially coming off a losing season, when our brand was at its lowest point in a decade.

There is a lot of season left and this team needs to show improvement. But next year is the year that L should be judged on, not this year.
 
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The options should not be Anthony Macks or open scholarships. You fill your scholarships with contributors (see Leonard Hamilton), not necessarily "impact" guys. We're not Duke, but there is no reason for any P5 conference basketball program to EVER write off a season. We should be competing for an NCAAT berth every single year.

The only options are (a) Anthony Mack or (b) open scholarship. That is it. Nothing else!

Perhaps if we used our scholarships and these roster management issues weren’t prevalent long before the FBI bullchit; we wouldn’t be throwing away a season.
 
Of course there are reasons why teams should write off seasons. For example, teams coming off sanctions are justified in writing off seasons. In our case, it's the FBI investigation.

How different would this team be if it had 3 sophomores contributing as opposed to 0?

That's what the FBI took away from us. We can't just snap our fingers and make up for a lost class.

I know it happened a long time ago and everyone is tired of talking about it. That doesn't change the fact that there are multiple ACC-caliber rotation players not on this roster due to the FBI. And there is not a limitless pool of ACC-caliber players that we can tap into whenever we want. L can't say, "well last year we added 0 future contributors when we needed 3, so next year we'll just add 6." Especially coming off a losing season, when our brand was at its lowest point in a decade.

There is a lot of season left and this team needs to show improvement. But next year is the year that L should be judged on, not this year.

Miami and Louisville were both named in the FBI probe at the exact same time. In fact Louisville fired their HC over it. Yet now Louisville is among the top programs in the nation and we suck. What happened to Louisville's recruiting classes? Sorry, but this is Al Golden's "cloud" all over again...except at least with that one Miami was the entire investigation.

P.S. The FBI investigation had zilch to do with not seeking a waiver for the only current scholarship athlete on the roster who should be a starting big in the ACC.
 
Miami and Louisville were both named in the FBI probe at the exact same time. In fact Louisville fired their HC over it. Yet now Louisville is among the top programs in the nation and we suck. What happened to Louisville's recruiting classes? Sorry, but this is Al Golden's "cloud" all over again...except at least with that one Miami was the entire investigation.

P.S. The FBI investigation had zilch to do with not seeking a waiver for the only current scholarship athlete on the roster who should be a starting big in the ACC.
The faster these guys get it. The easier it will be for them. It's not that difficult.
 
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Miami and Louisville were both named in the FBI probe at the exact same time. In fact Louisville fired their HC over it. Yet now Louisville is among the top programs in the nation and we suck. What happened to Louisville's recruiting classes? Sorry, but this is Al Golden's "cloud" all over again...except at least with that one Miami was the entire investigation.

P.S. The FBI investigation had zilch to do with not seeking a waiver for the only current scholarship athlete on the roster who should be a starting big in the ACC.

Yes. Recruiting at Miami is the same as at Louisville. Exactly the same.

You know, two elite basketball programs with championship pedigrees. (Also, Louisville actually cheats while Miami only gets wrongfully accused)

I swear this board is a competition of who can post the literal dumbest thing.

And Nysier Brooks wasn’t fully healthy and Cincinnati would have opposed a waiver because they wanted him to stay.

But y’all desk jockeys definitely know more than the coach who took this program from Haith’s basement to winning the ACC regular season and tournament and bringing a 1 and done to Miami before the FBI debacle.
 
Yes. Recruiting at Miami is the same as at Louisville. Exactly the same.

You know, two elite basketball programs with championship pedigrees. (Also, Louisville actually cheats while Miami only gets wrongfully accused)

I swear this board is a competition of who can post the literal dumbest thing.

And Nysier Brooks wasn’t fully healthy and Cincinnati would have opposed a waiver because they wanted him to stay.

But y’all desk jockeys definitely know more than the coach who took this program from Haith’s basement to winning the ACC regular season and tournament and bringing a 1 and done to Miami before the FBI debacle.
Coach L will coach out his contract barring illness, I am extremely confident of that. I'm expecting the 20/21 team to be very good.
 
Yes. Recruiting at Miami is the same as at Louisville. Exactly the same.

You know, two elite basketball programs with championship pedigrees. (Also, Louisville actually cheats while Miami only gets wrongfully accused)

I swear this board is a competition of who can post the literal dumbest thing.

And Nysier Brooks wasn’t fully healthy and Cincinnati would have opposed a waiver because they wanted him to stay.

But y’all desk jockeys definitely know more than the coach who took this program from Haith’s basement to winning the ACC regular season and tournament and bringing a 1 and done to Miami before the FBI debacle.

No, recruiting at Louisville and recruiting at Miami are not the same thing. But Louisville fired their coach. Their program was in chaos with the strippergate thing and then the FBI. Yet they were able to continue to function as a program, and are dominating now, and we enter 2019-2020 starting Rodney Miller Jr. at Center. Give me a break.

Brooks was playing in Europe this summer. This injury talk is nonsense. What in the world makes you think Cincinnati would have opposed the waiver? He already transferred to Miami. What would Cincinnati care if he played for us this year or next year?

Stop apologizing for horrendous recruiting and roster management. L is a great guy, did great things for UM basketball. Past tense. This season has been thrown away due to obvious coaching mistakes.
 
No, recruiting at Louisville and recruiting at Miami are not the same thing. But Louisville fired their coach. Their program was in chaos with the strippergate thing and then the FBI. Yet they were able to continue to function as a program, and are dominating now, and we enter 2019-2020 starting Rodney Miller Jr. at Center. Give me a break.

Brooks was playing in Europe this summer. This injury talk is nonsense. What in the world makes you think Cincinnati would have opposed the waiver? He already transferred to Miami. What would Cincinnati care if he played for us this year or next year?

Stop apologizing for horrendous recruiting and roster management. L is a great guy, did great things for UM basketball. Past tense. This season has been thrown away due to obvious coaching mistakes.

Brooks has an insanely serious condition called “Notin Europeitis”. The serious condition only impacts him in the USA. If we somehow played our games in Europe, where they have the cure, he would be fine for this year.

As for the waiver, Coach L and Miami can’t be bothered with paperwork in regards to a waiver. They knew his condition was too serious to consider filling out useless paperwork.

And whatever you do, don’t google Laquill Hardnett.
 
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