By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:52:29 +0000

UCLA could win the Pac-12 and still be a fringe top 25 team depending on how you feel about Arizona. I think with Lee and Honeycutt developing another year they could have been a #2 seed type contender, especially racking up wins against a weak conference.

I just think Donahue has his head on straight and has a clear cut vision for the types of players he wants to recruit and the type of system he wants to run. He’ll never waver and always has his teams playing extremely hard. I’m not sure his “style” is zero defense, like he just completely ignores that aspect in favor of 3-point shooting practice. The next 3 years it’s going to appear you’re right on the money. The cupboard is that bare. Patience is a virtue.

Montgomery and Skerry will have those teams contending in their conference in a couple years until they move on to bigger jobs, I really do think so. Every program known as a successful mid-major had to start somewhere, right?

By: BOtskey

BOtskey — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:44:56 +0000

Absolutely right on Vandy. I think they’ll be very good on talent alone but they need to play much better defense to make it to the next level.

I don’t think UCLA took that big of a hit actually. Remember, they also have the Wear twins coming in next year as well. Still my pick to win the Pac 12.

Bill Self could very well be the best coach over the last 10 years in the sport. In my opinion, he is. You couldn’t have said it any better. There’s no doubt in my mind those players you mentioned WILL make the jump.

Strongly disagree on Donahue. At the time I thought he was a bad hire and I still believe that to be true. While this coming year is not going to be his fault, this is a guy who could only manage a record 8 games over .500 in 10 years at Cornell. He absolutely lived off one good recruiting class and was mediocre (at best) otherwise. His style of bombing threes to go along with zero defense won’t work in the ACC or any major conference for that matter (well maybe the Pac 12). I also don’t think he’s a good enough recruiter, plus New England isn’t exactly a hotbed for hoops (aside from the prep schools that send their best players to big time programs).

Montgomery and Skerry were definitely great hires but can we really expect them to have great success at programs that have been buried under a mountain of losses over the years? I don’t think so. “Success” would be getting to .500 and possibly making the NIT a few times. A few other good hires were Rob Murphy at Eastern Michigan, Archie Miller at Dayton and Paul Hewitt at George Mason. I’ve obviously never been a Hewitt fan but I really think he can thrive at a mid-major over the long term, especially one like Mason. This probably sounds crazy but I really like the Mark Gottfried hire at NC State. I think he can get that program to compete at a fairly high level.

Comments on: Ten Offseason Scribbles

By: zhayes9

By: BOtskey