Not trending in the direction we all had hoped..w the news on Elmer you have to wonder what’s on Steele’s mind now. Mid majors cannot compete on NIL..completely unsustainable.
Agree . If not fixed college sports can be ruined
Just bringing this back up again:
With the exception of the Blue Bloods, welcome to the current landscape of NCAA college basketball.
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UNC can’t hire a coach, Kentucky had the highest paid roster, UCLA is a 2nd tier big 10 team, Kansas hasn’t made it past the 2nd round since they won in 2022.
UCONN is the truest blue blood today
=>Not as bad as you think…I promise you!!!
I think where we stand right now was pretty much the happy (even if it doesnt feel good) median for outcomes. If we kept either Byers/Elmer, that would be an unexpected high. If we lose Ip/Skal/Kirby, pretty low.
Have to remember Steele has done pretty well in the portal so far. Suder is the clear home run. Craft a solid triple. Woolfolk maybe a single that stole a base. Almar is obviously still on the base path. Not a strike out by any means, but may just be a solid base hit, but I think he has potential to turn out like Antwone and be considered a clear positive signee once the dust settles. Remember, Antwone was very much thought of similarly after year one, someone who didn’t show much but was a solid MAC player, and now I think we are all pretty happy with him. Probably have overdone the baseball analogy but you get the point.
Ipsaro, Skaljac, Kirby, Atlason is still a good MAC core with a year’s growth, in some combination of starters and big minute rotation guys. If any of the incoming freshmen can give any minutes, if Robbins has continued to develop and can give real minutes as first big off the bench, if we land a portal big and then a solid combo forward that can knock down shots ala Elmer or Byers, this is still a team to compete for a MAC title.
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Agree, repeatable success, and what we can easily sell is an open offensive style, and 7 players who scored in double figures
Honestly, I would not blame Steele for moving on at this point. Just an overall sad state of affairs in college sports.
=>Ball four.
for what? to be an assistant to Sean miller? NBA asst? he wants to be a HC, he wants autonomy, he’s not an nba tier head coach. Miami and Steele are a good marriage.
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In a year when he lost an all MAC player in Kam Craft and a true 7 footer that I believe was equipped to be a very good MAC player in Potter, Steele said he was as happy as he had ever been and was loving coaching. And sure, very easy to say that at 31-0, but losing Elmer, Byers, and Perry isn’t that much more painful, if at all, than losing Craft and Potter.
I think we are forgetting a bit how we felt after losing those 2 and look where it led to.
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Why would he leave? He loves coaching. Also the domesday narrative of mid majors can’t compete is not true. The Fighting Nepobabies of Auburn barely beat Tulsa in OT to win the NIT. Auburn had the toughest schedule in college and I think we’d also have beaten Tulsa.
Plenty of room to keep advancing.
I would disagree a little here. Losing Kraft hurt, but he was a turn-style on defense and we knew we had Byers ready to slide in. Potter hurt, but he was our backup center. Plus, the pain of losing those guys was blunted significantly, but retaining our best Suder and Elmer.
I would argue this is categorically much worse. Especially since on top of the portal losses, Suder and Woolfolk are out of eligibility. That’s the other thing, we had no seniors last year. So anyone we lost was to the portal. Not the case this year.
I say all that to say I don’t think the sky is falling. I think we’ll be fine, but we shouldn’t pretend our losses this year aren’t much more impactful than last year. We effectively lost 1 starter last year. As of this moment, we are losing four.
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=>We lost Mekhi Cooper last year as well who was the starter at PG. That said, he platooned with Evan and Evan was usually in at the end.
Mirambaux is still in the dugout eating Cracker Jacks.
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Not to be a smartass but absent an assistant coach position, not really much open for him right now. His best chance is to reload, and continue to have success.
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He just ate the scoreboard!
Right but I think that was as much our decision as it was his.
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