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BASKETBALL Another returning guard leaves

What a crock.

At least we now know that the problems with the MT athletic department are all (in Shelton-Smidt's mind) God's fault. I knew it.
 
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Question:

I understand there are defections any time a coaching staff changes. But does anyone feel like we've experienced an alarmingly high number of them with this coaching turnover? It's not like we were a bad program replacing a bad coach. We had a coach leave for a better job and had a lot of good players graduate. Shouldn't those players want to stay here and continue the success? We've been a power program for damn near a decade now.,

The amount of players we've lost with the new staff is baffling to me. Something just doesn't feel right to me.
 
Yeah, I wasn't crazy about this coach to begin with and this isn't helping. Meanwhile, Western is putting together a friggin NBA squad up there.
 
This kid isn’t even going to another college. He is dropping out to focus on his religion, according to his statement. I’m not sure Kermit could’ve stopped this one.
 
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This kid isn’t even going to another college. He is dropping out to focus on his religion, according to his statement. I’m not sure Kermit could’ve stopped this one.

Was very disappointed in his progress with all the hype about his potential by ckd. If he was not totally committed to basketball, then it's best he moved on. FWIW, I believe there plenty of examples available of people practicing their faith and doing their chosen vocation well.

I wish he had made this decision months ago when CNM could have made some use of that now open slot on the roster.
 
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Was very disappointed in his progress with all the hype about his potential by ckd. If he was not totally committed to basketball, then it's best he moved on. FWIW, I believe there plenty of examples available of people practicing their faith and doing their chosen vocation well.

I wish he had made this decision months ago when CNM could have made some use of that now open slot on the roster.
Exactly.
 
Question:

I understand there are defections any time a coaching staff changes. But does anyone feel like we've experienced an alarmingly high number of them with this coaching turnover? It's not like we were a bad program replacing a bad coach. We had a coach leave for a better job and had a lot of good players graduate. Shouldn't those players want to stay here and continue the success? We've been a power program for damn near a decade now.,

The amount of players we've lost with the new staff is baffling to me. Something just doesn't feel right to me.

I was curious about that. I checked 5 places and the range was 4-11 players leaving, counting seniors. I saw an article that mentioned that it was typically 8 after a coaching change (not sure how he got his numbers).

IMO, that tells me the turnover is not too far out of the norm. I think CNM's ability to recruit for next year will be the telltale.
 
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The bright side of this is that instead of have a spot locked through 2020 by a end of the bench player, that spot can be utilized to bring in some next help for next season. When I first heard TSS was leaving, I thought there might be some back story behind this with maybe CNM having a grad transfer or a foreign player ready to enroll this fall, but I guess not.
 
8 sure seems high. That's over 60% of the entire roster.....

You said those numbers included seniors....so how many have we lost? Let's count'em, help me out here. We've got the 3 signees who all bailed, Giddy Potts, Antwain Johnson, Tyrik Dixon, Walters, Nick King, Shelton Schzmidt, David Simmons, Davion Thomas, Ed Simpson..........HOLY CRAP I didn't realize it was so many.

We're already up to 12....that's basically an entire roster (13 scholarships for a D1 team are allowed) WTF?!?!?!?!?

I'm sorry but that seem's like too much. Especially for a program that is on the rise and has been very successful for almost a decade now. Like I said, something doesn't feel right here.

Going to be a long, long road to being relevant again.
 
I agree 12 seems high.

The norm seems to be a range of 7 +/- 2. Once you get into the 10+, it does seem more than usual.
 
We will be fine. Im actually glad the spot is freed up for a future McDevitt recruit. I dont think Theron was ever going to be a big recruiter. Kermit was not a good recruiter. I would rather have Mcdevitt have thst spot for one of his guys.
 
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I agree 12 seems high.

The norm seems to be a range of 7 +/- 2. Once you get into the 10+, it does seem more than usual.

It's really unusual when you take into account that we are a budding program that's been VERYH successful. This isn't some dumpster rebuilding job. We are one of the top programs in the G5. Our players should not be wanting to leave unless there's some extreme circumstances where they just don't fit into the picture with the new staff.
 
Going to be a long, long road to being relevant again.
Yeah, because it takes forever to rebuild a basketball team, western totally sucked last year with their new coach and they will suck again this year...

Heck, McDevitt knows nothing about recruiting and probably hasn't ever had a winning season as a head coach so Massaro should fire him before the season begins
 
It's really unusual when you take into account that we are a budding program that's been VERYH successful. This isn't some dumpster rebuilding job. We are one of the top programs in the G5. Our players should not be wanting to leave unless there's some extreme circumstances where they just don't fit into the picture with the new staff.

I don't necessarily agree with this. It's ok to recognize something is outside of the norm w/o projecting what it signifies.

Someone negative about CNM could see it as a sign something is wrong. Someone optimistic could see it as CNM reshaping the program into exactly what he wants/needs w/o personalities/attitudes that could sour team chemistry.

I personally don't know what all of it means. I think we have to let it play out & see where we are in 2/3 years.
 
It hasn't exactly been pleasant watching the massive change in the basketball program since the end of last season. The run of success has been great, and none of us wanted it to come to an end.

It's reasonable and expected that the new HC is going to want to build his team with his type of players. I think it is pretty obvious that CNM is in the process of doing just that.

A couple of observations relating to this:

CNM has repeatedly publicly stated that he has specific player types in mind for guards and small forwards. He has basically described liking versatile players who are tall, athletic, and interchangeable from PG to SG to SF. That pretty much fits the bill of the players he has recruited thus far. 6-4 to 6-7 athletes and I imagine versatile players with certain skills that CNM desires.

Likewise, of the departing players, they have all been guard and wing players where a bunch of new CNM recruits were going to make mins of playing time hard to come by.

Notice none of the frontcourt guys have left....yet. The very same positions many of us having been hoping to see CNM sign added talent. There are plenty of available minutes to go around in the frontcourt, and those players are still on the roster.

Kermit's tenure demonstrated that a unique special type of player could only play in Kermit's system and succeed. For Kermit's first 9-10 years at MT, the team struggled to keep players and rise beyond average. His last 6 years were marked by tremendous success and rarely losing any players with exceptions for injuries. Kermit's level of success was not commensurate with his recruiting rankings or signees ratings. It is not surprising that a number of those same players may not fit with a sudden change to a new HC.

If some of the talk of those familiar with CNM turns out to be true, we are likely to see more consistent recruited classes with versatile guards and wings in the 6-3 to 6-7 range who will also be High School signees. While at UNC-A, CNM had to find undervalued of overlooked talent. Perhaps not as much at MT. Anyways, over a couple of years I suspect CNM will likely be targeting and landing recruits who are more traditionally higher rated.
 
8 sure seems high. That's over 60% of the entire roster.....

You said those numbers included seniors....so how many have we lost? Let's count'em, help me out here. We've got the 3 signees who all bailed, Giddy Potts, Antwain Johnson, Tyrik Dixon, Walters, Nick King, Shelton Schzmidt, David Simmons, Davion Thomas, Ed Simpson..........HOLY CRAP I didn't realize it was so many.

We're already up to 12....that's basically an entire roster (13 scholarships for a D1 team are allowed) WTF?!?!?!?!?

I'm sorry but that seem's like too much. Especially for a program that is on the rise and has been very successful for almost a decade now. Like I said, something doesn't feel right here.

Going to be a long, long road to being relevant again.

As for the 12 number. The three recruits are, in essence, replacements for Potts, Walters, King, and Simpson (assuming that Sims will be the other scholarship recipient). While I don't like an unrestricted release allowing signees to play for upcoming opponents (and especially following our ex-coach who used MT $$$s to initially recruit said players) I do understand granting a release after a coaching change. The turnover number is therefore 6 if graduating seniors and recruits are not counted in the number.

Is 6 a reasonable number of defections, especially if a couple were dismissed rather than left on their own. I don't know. I do know that I'm not overly impressed with the signees McDevitt has brought in so far and without additional signees soon (has school started yet?) we stand the risk of having less that 10 scholarship players eligible next year.

I do know that the '19 class is crucial if MT is not to have an extended trip to the land of %$&-major irrelevancy. And this after being talked about as having a team "built" for the 2nd weekend of the NCAA tournament just a couple of weeks before it all fell apart last season. McDevitt needs to make a real splash in the early signing period to keep this MT BkB fan engaged.
 
I have spent a lot of time with Theron over the last 6 months. I would appreciate you guys not disparaging him. You simply don't know what your talking about. If you knew this kid, all of you would love and appreciate him. He is an amazing young man.
 
I have spent a lot of time with Theron over the last 6 months. I would appreciate you guys not disparaging him. You simply don't know what your talking about. If you knew this kid, all of you would love and appreciate him. He is an amazing young man.


You are so right. He feels he has a higher calling.
 
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I have spent a lot of time with Theron over the last 6 months. I would appreciate you guys not disparaging him. You simply don't know what your talking about. If you knew this kid, all of you would love and appreciate him. He is an amazing young man.
I 100% respect his decision to leave for what he believes he is being lead to do. I know some people can serve God (or whatever they believe) and devout a significant amount of time to something like college basketball, but not everyone is the same. I would rather him quit basketball to serve God more fully than the other way around.
 
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I have spent a lot of time with Theron over the last 6 months. I would appreciate you guys not disparaging him. You simply don't know what your talking about. If you knew this kid, all of you would love and appreciate him. He is an amazing young man.
It’s good to hear that, I’m sure he is. Sounds like this was the right choice for him, personally, the timing of which matters little in the scheme of things but is bound to cause some waves. I hope he finds something that makes him happy and gives him peace of mind.
 
Yeah, because it takes forever to rebuild a basketball team, western totally sucked last year with their new coach and they will suck again this year...

Heck, McDevitt knows nothing about recruiting and probably hasn't ever had a winning season as a head coach so Massaro should fire him before the season begins


Western went to the final 4 in the NIT and farther than us in the tourney. They have a 5 star player and should dominate us this year. I do agree about McDevitt. The whole dang team left.
 
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