Coming back to this, I think my post ob the other thread stands here too. The team is riding a short bench while players recover from illness. They’re struggling in the second half because the endurance hasn’t come back. I know everyone likes to talk about how COVID doesn’t kill people who are young and in shape, but it still can drop you. Fighting through that and the team is still on pace for their best record since before the struggling end of Coles’ time at Miami.
This fan base reminds me of Tennessee. Always about the good old days, never learning or adapting. If by some miracle we could afford to bring in McVay for football, this board would be full of posts about how the spread isn’t “Miami football.” @Skins is the very person that Steve Kerr makes fun of of. @NESCACDAD would run an athletic department into the ground and make the school a national laughing stock by dropping basketball, a sport that branch campuses can support, for women’s hockey, a sport that only a select few universities can support.
Best winning percentage since 2008 so far. Harrison and Avance look real, even though they’re young. I’ve seen Mitchell Rylee play, and he’s for real.
This board has struck out on nearly every basketball take they’ve had. When Curry was announced, the immediate reaction was how fat he was. When Beverley committed, the common take was we’re signing no-name white kids from the hollers of Kentucky. When the Weathers brothers committed, people complained about getting two no name kids at the last minute from Kansas. A point guard who has trouble shooting the 3 and his brother who was too big to play guard and too small to be a forward.
I don’t mind the pessimists as long as they still have a kernel of optimism in their ice cold hearts. I found myself getting a little negative about football but have felt a million times better since the bowl win. And if I’m honest, I’d probably be the same way about hockey and hoops if they got hot. Of course, this could also be The Bengals playoff win altering my sensibilities.
I get some points from both sides. But when does an excuse become a crutch? Ohio is 18-5 against us in men’s basketball since January 2011 to January 2021. We can’t beat teams we used to beat with some regularity? So does that mean we just temper our expectations?
With apologies to Sharon Salzberg, “We’re capable of much more than mediocrity, much more than merely getting by in this world.”
We had a longtime coach who stayed for too long and let the program deteriorate. Then we missed on the next coaching hire. Then the guy after that had to deal with a messy roster situation and brought in a bunch of guys late in the recruiting cycle. This meant that we had a few years dealing with some of the issues that come from having guys who were recruited late in the cycle. Those things alone are enough to set a program back a decade plus. The past two seasons as Jack has finally started to fill out the roster with his own guys that he was able to recruit from the start, there has been a marked improvement (although it’s not popular to say that around here). Basketball is easier to rebuild than football or hockey, but it’s not like you can just snap your fingers and get a 25 win team.
My recollection is that people were fired up about every one of Curry, Beverly and the Weathers brothers. I recall Braxton’s HS or AAU coach saying he would have been the best player in the MAC as a HS senior. People were comparing the Weathers brothers to the Pollitz bros., not in terms of position but in terms of getting a high level player because they were a package deal. Curry was the type of big man we’ve never had before.
I guess my question about Miami FB and mens BB is this…are we basically in a spot where mediocrity is our destiny because of the changing college sports landscape? It has nothing to do with coaching or AD leadership, these are just the circumstances we are in and they are inescapable? Just get over it and call one game above .500 a roaring success and wanting anything more is foolishness?
This is a fair point. I’ll use a Bengals analogy here. I didn’t want them to fire Marvin Lewis, but a friend of mine (Eagles fan) was like: “don’t you want a chance to be better than mediocre? You get to the playoffs but never win.” I sorta see his point now.
Frankly, I think that most of the fan base is upset because 1) because this current team lacks talent and direction (while beating GT was nice, they are 1-5 in conference play), our recruiting is terrible, and the first thing necessary for things to turn around is bringing in actual talent, and 2) lack of institutional support/big picture direction.
These items are all tied together- i.e. it is hard to recruit decent talent when there is only 900 fans during in-game visits
The basketball program is a mess, but I think the key is hiring the right coach, that right coach will bring in actual D-1 talent, and everything else will take care of itself
Our net ranking with this veteran team is 162. Should I be happy with that? Is that all there is? Even today I think Miami should strive for better than 162
Probably, 11. I have often imagined how chillingly dangerous it could be if we ever had a student/faculty referendum on campus as to whether Miami should continue to maintain and financially support a D1 athletics program.
To be fair…. We’ve had one winning season and it was a shortened COVID year in a decade plus. While there are some really awful, dopey takes on this board, the play on the court has been atrocious.
Two of our hoops wins this season came at home against Lamar and Stetson who have a combined record of 3-24. We beat Western in a fairly evenly matched game - certainly not a lopsided affair - and they are 2-12. The only team with a winning record we’ve beaten is 7-6 Buffalo. Only four of our seven losses are to teams with winning records.
Well, to be fair, the Eagles owner puts up with no BS. He had no problem firing Andy Reed or Peterson even after he won a Super Bowl. Had that been Cincy, it’s likely the coach would have a statue in front of Paul Brown stadium and still be the coach.