Miami #7 in this poll. Only MAC team ahead of us is Akron at #6. Kent is #24.
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I hope we don’t take 0-3 Air Force for granted.
We will not be. We will however force the tempo. Air Force has to play slow. We will not.
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That was the Miami modus operandi for just about every game I remember as a student in the thick of the Charlie Coles era. I kind of liked it to be honest. Especially when we’d play a national powerhouse, and keep it close. Forcing an opponent to your will.
Right. Basketball is about imposing your will.
Will is a good buddy of mine. Not to impose, but I’ll bet you’d like him.
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While I am confident going into this season, Miami OOC schedule will still be a challenge given the number of road games this year. Though they are MAC-level opponents (not MIch or Ind), it’s still tough to win on the road. I’m pleased because the 5 game road stretch in December are all within a reasonable driving distance. Bring it on.
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Miami has the will to whoop their ass!
Seriously though one thing Coles had were good guards. AF does not have particularly good guards. If you get Blue Ribbon Yearbook, look it up.
Air Force is now 0-3. They just lost to LIU. If Miami can’t beat an 0-3 Air Force team we have a problem. AF best player is probably 6’3” freshman Kam Sanders. They do have a big lumbering 7 footer but to say he isn’t fleet of foot is an understatement. AF will not be able to keep up our pace, assuming we are acclimated to the thin air. Steele is taking the team to Colorado a day early to try to get used to the air. What we also have is a deep bench, that now rotates 5 in: Skaljac, Atlason, Perry, Robbins, Waltz. I don’t believe AF has that much quality depth.
Air Force lost at Belmont, at home against Austin Peay, at home against LIU.
Charlie was a disciple of Pete Carril’s famous Princeton Offense.
Although not as glitzy as Quinnipiac’s mountaintop facility, the USAFA facility also offers the opportunity to watch hoops and hockey at the same time. I was there for the Tier 3 championship game of the Pike’s Peak PeeWee tournament back in 2004. Air Force was playing Fresno in hoops at the same time. We could watch hoops at the ice cuts.
No he wasn’t.
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Yes, I don’t believe that was correct either.
Coach Coles ran the Princeton offense for like two years. Stopped in 04-05 and never ran it again. Fan perception was that we were still running it long after we stopped. We continued to play with a slow pace, but ran mostly set plays and some continuity.
Way off topic, but it wasn’t the right offense for the personnel we had. Chet, Juby, Danny, Seals, etc. We had a bunch of long, athletic wings. We actually should’ve been playing at a faster tempo with those guys, but I digress.
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Never fully utilized the talent of that class. Hate to besmirch Coles as I absolutely loved the guy, but that group’s potential was never fully realized.
Talent-wise, I might agree with you, individually. But other than Danny Horace all of those guys needed the ball in their hands to be successful - none were even really decent 3-point shooters - and that’s when the game was seriously evolving toward perimeter play (read: 3-pointers). Like a lot of the older and successful MAC coaches of that era, they all would rather grind out a win over playing faster and more aggressive.