Last Edited: 1/9/2011 7:14:43 PM by Flomo-genized

Heading into the season, I thought that while we were being overrated, I nevertheless also believed that anything less than 18-20 wins would be a serious warning sign regarding the coaching staff given the fairly weak schedule we are playing.  Unfortunately, barring a major turn around, the chances of winning 18+ games this season appears remote, which is setting off major warning bells in my mind.  We really should be much better by now, if Coach Groce and Co. were anywhere near as good as many here believe them to be. 

Last Edited: 1/9/2011 10:05:39 PM by Flomo-genized

Last Edited: 1/9/2011 9:31:42 PM by OhioCatFan

1. Flomo-genized is one of the most informed basketball posters we have on this board, so not a lot of sense in calling him in my opinion, Monroe.
2. I'd use "guarded-concern" to characterize the way I feel about this staff. Not panic. Not ready to say that they can't get us to the next level. But there has to be a small amount of concern seeing the average results we've seen through 2 and a half regular seasons now.
3. It's the player turnover that's really the huge problem in my view. Way too many guys coming and going from the program to build anything sustainable in my opinion.
4. 6 home losses (especially already) is a lot, but does anyone else think the decline of the MAC could be leading to that. Certainly today was a loss at home to a conference opponent, but up-to-now we've seen 5 losses to OOC teams. Seems like the MAC used to be much stronger than it is today and maybe some of the OOC struggles aren't just other teams catching up to us, but other conferences catching up to us as well.
5. As a Browns fan watching DJ Cooper reminds me of watching Peyton Hillis. Love the guy, but he can't be the entire offense. We absolutely must get contributions from elsewhere or teams are going to key on him and either tire him out or cause him to be less effective.

I don't have a problem with the way the staff has been recruiting kids. During his 3 recruiting seasons, Groce has brought in more highly regarded HS Seniors than I remember seeing anytime in the past 15 years. The problem is when you have a bunch of attrition for one reason or another from guys who would still be in school this season otherwise ...

Bassett, Coleman, Horne, A. Kellogg, Jay Kinney... all gone. That doesn't even take into account guys like Frankie Dobbs, Zach Nagtzaam, and Maurice Pearson who *could* all still be here. Since the previous administration brought those guys to town, I can't really put their departure on this staff, but that's still 8 guys! More than half a roster! That should really be telling towards the amount of turnover we've seen over the past 4 years (which, honestly you cannot lay all at the feat of Groce, or his staff, but I'm just saying, that's a TON of turnover!)

Again, I am not at all banging the drum against Groce or the staff. These are just things that I would classify as "worrying." Hopefully we get guys sticking for their 4 years (or 2 for the case of JUCOs and Transfers) and this can be a fun "do you remember when conversation." But right now, when people talk about the ill's of the program I've got to point towards the roster turnover.