If you’re a fundamentally sound team that pays attention to details, it shouldn’t matter who you play. You try to meet the standard. Today, and for well, since 2012 the grand majority of the time, we have been neither.
And except for 2012, Charlie’s teams were always ready to play.
What would’ve impressed me today would’ve been a performance similar to the 2008 win at Temple, which came just 4 days after a tough loss to Xavier. That was the lost season in which Kenny got hurt. That team got over the woulda coulda shouldas and played a great game.
I agree the back-to-back D3 was not a good idea, but getting demoralized against top 10 teams wouldn’t have accomplished much, either. Is there such a thing as happy-medium scheduling for Miami? Look at Ohio’s schedule: one non-D1, buy games at UK and LSU, then a bunch of home and road mid-major opponents.
I’ll give White the benefit of the doubt until I see a better replay. He’s our best defender and had to stick with Neese, their best shooter who has a really quick release.
I feel like when you play good teams and lose you learn more than when you play terrible teams and win. If you have any pride as a player, you want to get to the level of those better then you. What demoralizes a player the most IMO is losing to a worse player. I think this is probably why Charlie did what he did (and maybe there were money reasons.) I’ll gladly watch us lose to great teams. Can’t handle watching us lose to pigeons.
There were absolutely money reasons. The death march schedule was used to fund hockey and football, and Charlie went along because he was a consummate company man.
TheChuck, curious to know if you think a tougher schedule is better for success. I personally think it is and would attract more competitive players who want to see how they stack up against the best, but maybe I’m wrong here. Thoughts?
There needs to be balance…it seems in the past 2 decades it’s been one extreme or another. I also know that striking that balance is easier said than done given current college basketball environment.
I have mentioned before, that players need to play in big games in order to learn to win big games. None of these guys have had many big games. A few in the MAC (Buffalo). So yea, the Death March made them play a level above themselves. The problem I had with the Death March is we would end up under .500, maybe by several games at the end of the OOC games, and have to crawl back to .500. Also, his emphasis on def made it necessary for our offense to be very efficient. Often, they were not successful at doing so. But we did win some very big games under that Charlie and his philosophy. But it also is evident that Charlie played with a lot more talent.
All - 2 very tough losses. Also early in the season. Far too early to give up on these guys. We’ve seen top programs struggle early and then excel. Bottom line is they need to right the ship, beat Clemson, win the remaining cupcake games, and perform in the MAC.
