BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee @ Mississippi, 2PM, Saturday, December 14, 2019

[sWiley]

Agreed. There's going to be no way to know if he's the long-term solution after 2 years. The roster has been greatly mismanaged since Kermit left, you can blame whoever you want for that. Doesn't really matter, he isn't getting fired after 2 years, and we honestly don't know what we've got yet with him.

Starting year 3 and going forward it's on Nick though to have a competent roster and compete for championships and NCAA tournament appearances. No more excuses about roster inexperience, depth problems, etc. 2 years and going on year 3 to build a roster in modern college basketball is an eternity. It's going to be time to put up or shut up at that point.

 

[abarnett]

I agree Must see improvement. I not sure your expectations of 20 wins is obtainable. We will still be very young we don’t need transfers sitting out we will need players ready to play

 

[sWiley]

I agree we will have a lot of fresh faces in Years 3 which is why I have stated poor roster management by Nick McDevitt thus far. He's going to be relying heavily on transfers and unproven players in Year's 3 and likely Year 4. That's bad roster management.

We should be competing for championships in Year 3 onwards and have a very competitive team, regardless of the circumstances. Like others have said, this wasn't a dumpster fire that he inherited and we were just a few weeks out of being an AP Top 25 Team with legit national credibility from our NCAA tournament appearances and wins. Tough situation? Of course. Nobody is disputing that. But it wasn't rock bottom. If anything, the mass exodus gave him room to bring his players in which in theory should make us even stronger in Years 3 and onwards.....

I am not going to give him a pass because he managed the roster poorly and missed on a bunch of recruits early in his tenure (which I'm not saying he did, it's too early, but we'll know in Year 3). It is not unreasonable to expect results in Years 3 and onward. Not unreasonable at all. That's 3 recruiting classes with his name on them including the following players: Jayce Johnson, Junior Farquhar, Darnell Butler, Anthony Crump, Tyson Jackson, Eli Lawrence, Christian Fussell + 1 or 2 more and all of the transfers he's brought in. Outside of Christian and the other 1 or 2 he will sign with the upcoming class, all the rest should be in Years 2 and 3. That's around 10 or more players that he's personally signed to play for MT with the majority of them having at least a year of experience or more (or should if they were still here). Shouldn't he be fielding a competitive team with that ????????? We are talking about the highest paid coach in CUSA here guys.....

He's had adequate time to bring in his guys. Not our fault Darnell Butler is gone, the Farquhar gamble didn't pay off, Crump is a bust/project, etc. CNM needs to start hitting on more players besides Tyson Jackson and maybe Jayce Johnson.

We better not be having this same convo next year, hoping for 21-22 season, because we got our clocks cleaned in our OOC slate because our roster sucks and about to get boat raced in CUSA. If that's the case then I will most certainly believe it's time for a new coach.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

If it makes anyone fell better, FGCU is 2-11 after they elevated their assistant Coach, Micheal Fly, to head coach.

I still think Nick can get the job done. I'm disappointed but I was a student in the Ferrar Weil era. I can wait, but not loooong.

 

[sWiley]

If it makes anyone fell better, FGCU is 2-11 after they elevated their assistant Coach, Micheal Fly, to head coach.

No, not really. FGCU did have a great run, but let's be realistic. They play in the lowly A-sun and probably can't pay their coach 30% of what we pay ours. They were never going to be able to maintain at a level that would bring them consistent national attention and credibility and NCAA tournament success.

Here at MT it is actually feasible. We could become the next Butler, Gonzaga, etc. but right now we gotta just get to a consistent level like a VCU/Wichita State. We were basically there under Kermit and then it all fell apart

 

[crposton]

I agree we will have a lot of fresh faces in Years 3 which is why I have stated poor roster management by Nick McDevitt thus far. He's going to be relying heavily on transfers and unproven players in Year's 3 and likely Year 4. That's bad roster management.

We should be competing for championships in Year 3 onwards and have a very competitive team, regardless of the circumstances. Like others have said, this wasn't a dumpster fire that he inherited and we were just a few weeks out of being an AP Top 25 Team with legit national credibility from our NCAA tournament appearances and wins. Tough situation? Of course. Nobody is disputing that. But it wasn't rock bottom. If anything, the mass exodus gave him room to bring his players in which in theory should make us even stronger in Years 3 and onwards.....

I am not going to give him a pass because he managed the roster poorly and missed on a bunch of recruits early in his tenure (which I'm not saying he did, it's too early, but we'll know in Year 3). It is not unreasonable to expect results in Years 3 and onward. Not unreasonable at all. That's 3 recruiting classes with his name on them including the following players: Jayce Johnson, Junior Farquhar, Darnell Butler, Anthony Crump, Tyson Jackson, Eli Lawrence, Christian Fussell + 1 or 2 more and all of the transfers he's brought in. Outside of Christian and the other 1 or 2 he will sign with the upcoming class, all the rest should be in Years 2 and 3. That's around 10 or more players that he's personally signed to play for MT with the majority of them having at least a year of experience or more (or should if they were still here). Shouldn't he be fielding a competitive team with that ????????? We are talking about the highest paid coach in CUSA here guys.....

He's had adequate time to bring in his guys. Not our fault Darnell Butler is gone, the Farquhar gamble didn't pay off, Crump is a bust/project, etc. CNM needs to start hitting on more players besides Tyson Jackson and maybe Jayce Johnson.

We better not be having this same convo next year, hoping for 21-22 season, because we got our clocks cleaned in our OOC slate because our roster sucks and about to get boat raced in CUSA. If that's the case then I will most certainly believe it's time for a new coach.

I think he definitely hit on Jayce. Especially when considering he was going to play FCS football and just decided to switch. A guy does not have to average 20 points a game to be a hit. He definitely still can improve on some things, but I have always been impressed with him for a guy that came out of nowhere. Wonder if our football coaches have ever approached him about playing both sports.

 

[dukewayne]

The time of the season to start seeing some improvement is nigh upon us. Scurry is slated to go for the next game. Milner is supposed to be back soon if not this week. Having some upperclassmen Forwards available is just what the doctor ordered.

Obviously Scurry is not going to be in mid season form in his first few games back, but he is still likely to help the team.

By improvement, playing more competitively in games should be a reasonable expectation rather than getting blown out of the game in the first 10 minutes. If the effort is there like it is supposed to be, MT might even be able to win some games in conference play. Make no mistake, those are fairly meager expectations. Tremendous effort is a must, and they should start making some improvements. If effort is not there, then there are bigger problems. Getting some key players back could be just what the doctor ordered for the team to start exhibiting some growth and improvement.

 

[TrueBlue147]

I think he definitely hit on Jayce. Especially when considering he was going to play FCS football and just decided to switch. A guy does not have to average 20 points a game to be a hit. He definitely still can improve on some things, but I have always been impressed with him for a guy that came out of nowhere. Wonder if our football coaches have ever approached him about playing both sports.

I disagree. Jayce is a turnover machine, a horrible shooter and is bad at free throws. The best thing he does is drives to the basket, but he usually throws up a wild shot hoping to get fouled. He will then miss the free throws. The best thing about Jayce is his attitude and his hustle. He is also not afraid to get in their mix it up with bigger guys. I like his toughens but you can tell he is a football player and not a basketball player. He lacks the finesse. I hope he improved but he should not be starting at a program of our caliber. He would have seen little to no playing time on previous teams here.

 

[crposton]

I disagree. Jayce is a turnover machine, a horrible shooter and is bad at free throws. The best thing he does is drives to the basket, but he usually throws up a wild shot hoping to get fouled. He will then miss the free throws. The best thing about Jayce is his attitude and his hustle. He is also not afraid to get in their mix it up with bigger guys. I like his toughens but you can tell he is a football player and not a basketball player. He lacks the finesse. I hope he improved but he should not be starting at a program of our caliber. He would have seen little to no playing time on previous teams here.

Agree to disagree and I bet there are some previous teams he would be starting on. Jayce's turnovers per game is 1.5. To compare Reggie Upshaw's was 1.8 as a Soph. Reggie had a better FT shooting year his Sophomore year at 64%. Jayce is at 55%. Reggie had two years where his FT shooting % was less than 55% and one of those it was a whopping 49.4%. Jayce FG% this year is 45% and Reggie's was 44% as a Sophomore. Again I do think Reggie was a better player, but pretty much everything you said you do not like about Jayce you could have said about Reggie Upshaw as a Sophomore.

 

[sWiley]

I disagree. Jayce is a turnover machine, a horrible shooter and is bad at free throws. The best thing he does is drives to the basket, but he usually throws up a wild shot hoping to get fouled. He will then miss the free throws. The best thing about Jayce is his attitude and his hustle. He is also not afraid to get in their mix it up with bigger guys. I like his toughens but you can tell he is a football player and not a basketball player. He lacks the finesse. I hope he improved but he should not be starting at a program of our caliber. He would have seen little to no playing time on previous teams here.

Agreed. As I've said before, he is a role player and on a good team should be coming off the bench and giving tough defensive minutes and some decent offense. No offense to him, but we are not winning any championships or big games with him in the starting line up.