Wonder if Kermit . . .

[MTFNBY5]

. . . just might want to reconsider kicking the Point Guard who led his team last year to the finals of the conference tournament off of the team for a nebulous "violation of department policy" reason.

Was the charge that serious? Was the player given a 2nd chance? MT fans will never know - What we do know is that Ivory's concussion issue isn't over, Raymond will never make a quality PG (or anything else for that matter), and Copeland isn't ready. That is obvious after last night's fiasco in Kentucky.

Absolutely no excuse for a team with four returning starters, with supposedly some quality newcomers (being a freshman didn't hinder the little Murray PG from Henning TN (who had played on MT's floor the last two years in the St. Tournament - only other offer ETSU), and a foreign trip with the games and practices that entails facing a virtually rebuilt squad with a new coach to look as bad as we did last night.

With the ESPN Tip Off Marathon on yesterday I had the opportunity to watch a lot of college teams early this year. The only team which looked as ill-prepared and as inept on both ends of the floor as MT did last night was Alabama. I can't express my disappointment.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

The night Ripley played the team from Chatt., I sat with the Murray asst who signed Culbreath and an AAU coach from Chatt. Culbreath was supposed to walk on at Memphis and backed out after Murray offered. Kid can play.

 

[TruBluCop]

I place MT men's basketball on the same level as MT football . Same story year end and year out. Men's basketball over signs, sends players home to make room for more over signing. Then ends up without a good PG year after year with a good one from time to time. I have given up and at the point of not caring about football or men's bb. I feel as if I am throwing good money away year after year on both programs.

 

[blueboro007]

Jumping off buildings after one game??

 

[dukewayne]

24 hours later, I'm still pretty unhappy about the Murray St loss. Usually I settle down with better perspective on a game after sleeping on it.

I know it is only the first game of the season, but there was not much that looked good to me. I didn't even really get that sense of Kermit's tenacious defense in the game. The team just didn't look ready to play.

I also know that the starting PG being out factors into some of the inconsistency. For example, down the stretch of the game. Upshaw finally got on fire as the incredible player that he is. Mo was swinging back MT's way a little. The new backup PG over the next few possessions gets the ball to the new player who hasn't played in 2 years. He bricks the ball each time. Mo lost. A good experienced PG would have seen to it to get the ball into the hot hand of Upshaw.

All of this brings me to this, what has happened to the guards? It looked like at the end of the season last year that MT was finally settling on some depth at PG and backcourt in general. How many seasons with Kermit has this been the trend? Loss of players for unknown reasons. Loss of a player to injury as the season starts. OK, injuries happen, but that is why you have to have quality depth.

After only one loss, I'm not going to panic. Granted, I'm not happy with a fairly experienced team losses to a team with only 3 returners and a 1st year coach in his first game who has 8 new players to the team.

I've been tremendously concerned that the few years of Kermit's and MTSU's success was when coach Towe was on staff. I've been concerned that some of the old trends of years of mediocrity would return when coach Towe departed. While I'm not ready to declare that this is the case after one loss, I am becoming more and more concerned that that it just might be the case after last year and early signs to start this season.

Resumes in March are built early in the season in OOC games when casual fans may not be paying attention. In the NCAA world, those bodies of work are looked at. While a loss at Murray St is not a terrible stain on a record, it is a reasonable positive on the resume to win at Murray St. I do think for a C-USA team, losing at Murray St does hurt a little more. In C-USA, or many other conferences, you have to have a rock solid resume for March. Let's face it: how many conf tourneys has Kermit won while here at MTSU? Resume is almost critically essential for MTSU come March.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

Jumping off buildings after one game??

I hate to think what it will be like in here after the Belmont game Dec 17th