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Some BOT members-James and Manny on Notice

Gables Canes said:
So how long are we going to continue to use this as an excuse? How much longer does L get before we finally stop blaming the FBI investigation and we start questioning the state of this program? Do you really think next year is looking any better?

There are plenty of other programs that were under investigation and are doing just fine now. We are 3 years removed from it. Are we going to blame the FBI for why we still can't recruit a single big man on this roster? Are we going to blame the FBI for our horrific shooting? Are we going to blame the FBI for our stagnant, hero ball offense? Are we going to blame the FBI for the lack of development in some of our recent recruits (Beverly, I'm looking at you)?

Sure, the FBI had an impact. But this is a bottom line business, and L and his staff have had 3 years to recover and look at the dumpster fire we are today. At some point, it might be time to start over and move on.
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Our fanbase has this awful habit of calling any explanation of something an excuse, instead of a rational explanation. The FBI investigation played a huge role, and unlike a program like Kansas, Miami couldn't afford to have that momentum snatched away from them. Look at Arizona. They have been mediocre(by their standards) following the investigation and they have ARIZONA money, resources and tradition to fall back on. The FBI investigation basically was putting Miami on probation, without actually doing it. Miami lost all momentum, lost out on a freshman class, and then had to fight negative recruiting afterwards, which limited the talent pool even more. L could have easily just loaded up the roster with transfers and juco guys and won short term, problem is that we would be kicking the can down the road. Miami has to find a way to load up on younger players, to make up for two years of small classes.

I know the typical Miami fan doesn't pay attention to the basketball program and only looks at the record, but as someone who actually watched the games, I can tell you that this team isn't nearly as bad as the record would have you believe. They should have split with VT, and honestly were 2 buckets away from SWEEPING them. Gave other top end teams tough fights, but were unable to close. Look at how they fought against UVA, and that's with 7 bodies, and even a couple of those bodies were beat the F up. They had a lead against UNC, blew it down the stretch. You look at this team, 1-2 additional bodies could have made a world of difference. Miami merely having Chris Lykes play half of the ACC games, instead of missing the entire conference slate, is probably good for at least 3-4 additional victories alone. Miami having guys like McGusty hobbled for huge stretches hurts. Why? Because Miami isn't going to be able to recruit enough talent to overcome huge losses. Miami entered the season with 13 bodies, they are down to 7. Half of your roster is gone. HALF. How is that a coaching failure? When you don't have enough bodies to practice with, you are screwed.
 
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Gables Canes said:
Exactly. Look at next season's roster. We have SEVEN guys eligible to leave (Gak, Sam, Miller, Brooks, Kam, Lykes, Olayni) and we only have three guys committed (all guards and one of them still hasn't signed). Plus Cross already left the program to go to Louisville. If most of the eligible guys leave (I'm sure at least a couple of them are going to stay....if I had to guess, Sam and Olayni will stay and the others will leave), we are going to have to bring in like 4 or 5 transfers just to fill out the roster. Roster management has been and continues to be a mess.
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Miami will hit the transfer portal hard for bigs(L has no choice, that's the only way you can find useful bigs at this point, with recruiting being a greasefire), and all seven aren't leaving. Odds are you will have 3 return(Lykes,Olayni,Gak), 4 leave(McGusty, Brooks, Sam, Miller are goners). 3 guys, plus 3 incoming freshman, plus the guys like Beverly, Wong, Timberlake, Walker. That's before you get into any transfers, which with the issues with COVID will lead to the most fertile portal in history, Miami should have 12-14 bodies next year, which is normal. Let's see whether Miami loses 7 guys due to injuries again. The odds indicate that won't happen, unless someone is actively trying to hurt guys on the roster.
 
Canedude08 said:
Our fanbase has this awful habit of calling any explanation of something an excuse, instead of a rational explanation. The FBI investigation played a huge role, and unlike a program like Kansas, Miami couldn't afford to have that momentum snatched away from them. Look at Arizona. They have been mediocre(by their standards) following the investigation and they have ARIZONA money, resources and tradition to fall back on. The FBI investigation basically was putting Miami on probation, without actually doing it. Miami lost all momentum, lost out on a freshman class, and then had to fight negative recruiting afterwards, which limited the talent pool even more. L could have easily just loaded up the roster with transfers and juco guys and won short term, problem is that we would be kicking the can down the road. Miami has to find a way to load up on younger players, to make up for two years of small classes.
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An explanation only lasts for so long. This is a bottom line business, it some point you have to be able to pivot and overcome it. I'm not expecting us to get back to the 2013 or 2016 levels anytime soon, but is it too much to ask for to field a respectable team 3 years later? Will you use this same FBI "explanation" if we suck again next year?

You say we have to find a way to load up on younger players, which you're right. Yet we only have 2 guys signed for next year (and one other verbal commit), despite all the holes on this roster. I would think there shouldn't be anymore significant negative recruiting against us, so why are we still struggling to fill spots with capable players?
Canedude08 said:
I know the typical Miami fan doesn't pay attention to the basketball program and only looks at the record, but as someone who actually watched the games, I can tell you that this team isn't nearly as bad as the record would have you believe. They should have split with VT, and honestly were 2 buckets away from SWEEPING them. Gave other top end teams tough fights, but were unable to close. Look at how they fought against UVA, and that's with 7 bodies, and even a couple of those bodies were beat the F up. They had a lead against UNC, blew it down the stretch. You look at this team, 1-2 additional bodies could have made a world of difference. Miami merely having Chris Lykes play half of the ACC games, instead of missing the entire conference slate, is probably good for at least 3-4 additional victories alone. Miami having guys like McGusty hobbled for huge stretches hurts. Why? Because Miami isn't going to be able to recruit enough talent to overcome huge losses. Miami entered the season with 13 bodies, they are down to 7. Half of your roster is gone. HALF. How is that a coaching failure? When you don't have enough bodies to practice with, you are screwed.
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Trust me, I've seen nearly every game this season. This team is maddening. We can play good teams like VT down to the wire and beat a Louisville, but we also have laid some complete stinkers against the mid to bottom level teams (27 point loss to GT, 24 point loss to BC, a loss to lowly Wake). Injuries or not, this does not appear to be a well coached team. We have some of the lowest assist totals in the country. Our offense is pure hero ISO, stagnant ball. We rarely if ever get a good look. We blow leads, commit silly turnovers at the worst times.

And actually, we entered the season with 11 bodies (Olayni wasn't supposed to be eligible, and you counted an extra body somewhere that doesn't exist)
 
Canedude08 said:
Miami will hit the transfer portal hard for bigs(L has no choice, that's the only way you can find useful bigs at this point, with recruiting being a greasefire), and all seven aren't leaving. Odds are you will have 3 return(Lykes,Olayni,Gak), 4 leave(McGusty, Brooks, Sam, Miller are goners). 3 guys, plus 3 incoming freshman, plus the guys like Beverly, Wong, Timberlake, Walker. That's before you get into any transfers, which with the issues with COVID will lead to the most fertile portal in history, Miami should have 12-14 bodies next year, which is normal. Let's see whether Miami loses 7 guys due to injuries again. The odds indicate that won't happen, unless someone is actively trying to hurt guys on the roster.
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The question is WHY is recruiting such a greasefire? It shouldn't be impossible to sign a couple of high school bigs at this point. We have TONS of playing time available. If we rely purely on the transfer portal for bigs every year, it likely will continue to not work out. Guys like Brooks and Keith Stone just aren't going to cut it as starters in the ACC.

And the injuries are not a one year phenomenon. This has happened several times recently. At some point, we have to examine if this is more than just "bad luck". Is it the way we practice? The strength and conditioning program? The amount of injuries to key players, year in and year out, is unheard of.
 
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A bit strange to see this debate that has been going on for some time in the Basketball forum, take root here. It's not a heck of a lot different than the Manny-Slurper-or-fly-the-banner debates that went on here ad nauseum, and the AD and BOT get brought up frequently as well.

Right now basketball is such a dumpster fire that the fly-the-banner (well, maybe a drone into the gym) crowd is perhaps 75-25 over the Slurp-Coach-L. There are lots of complex issues (the posts above captured just a handful), and both sides make salient points.

Welcome to come on over to the BB forum and throw your 2 cents in. You couldn't miss much more than some of our current shooters do.
 
jkdood said:
A bit strange to see this debate that has been going on for some time in the Basketball forum, take root here. It's not a heck of a lot different than the Manny-Slurper-or-fly-the-banner debates that went on here ad nauseum, and the AD and BOT get brought up frequently as well.

Right now basketball is such a dumpster fire that the fly-the-banner (well, maybe a drone into the gym) crowd is perhaps 75-25 over the Slurp-Coach-L. There are lots of complex issues (the posts above captured just a handful), and both sides make salient points.

Welcome to come on over to the BB forum and throw your 2 cents in. You couldn't miss much more than some of our current shooters do.
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It's the few same posters debating on this board that debate on the BB board. Canedude08 is one of the few L homers left on the BB board.
 
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Gables Canes said:
It's the few same posters debating on this board that debate on the BB board. Canedude08 is one of the few L homers left on the BB board.
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He has had his head stuck up the *** of whatever admins are running the school into the ground for over a decade. It goes beyond slurping or homer.

There is no debate. The team sucks from recruiting to development to coaching to gameday performance.
 
wspcane said:
He has had his head stuck up the *** of whatever admins are running the school into the ground for over a decade. It goes beyond slurping or homer.

There is no debate. The team sucks from recruiting to development to coaching to gameday performance.
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Sadly you’re right. At basically any other school, L would have been asked to retire by now
 
Abc123 said:
Am I the only person who wonders if Jackson is being fed false in order to make it seem like the BOT cares more about football than they actually do?
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They're rich. They don't care about what anyone thinks and wouldn't put effort into spin for the Miami fanbase. These statements are fairly specific and strongly-worded to the degree the source doesn't care about program optics. Seems like they're putting pressure to get Zo in there and believe Blake should be dismissed. Someone over there is fresh out of fcuks.
 
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