Well of course Holmes allowed all the other players to have better looks. That's like arguing the sun gives you a better chance for a tan. To discredit Jans and how those players developed that year, is basically trying to find a reason why Jans couldn't coach. That team was week and a concussion from the top seed in the tournament. A shot away from it with Holmes on the bench. The MAC had better top level talent that year as a league. How fast it can happen? In a year. Jans showed that. His coaching, his Juco transfers. Hell, Louis Orr found a fluke MAC regular season title in year 2. We all knew it was a fluke because we knew he wasn't the better coach in 85% of the games he coached in. BG was a underdog as the 1 seed in the MAC tournament vs. the 8. That said about as much as you needed to know. Bobby Hurley did it at Buffalo. John Groce at Ohio. And Chris Jans was doing it at BGSU. A bunch of players were going to leave if he stayed? Who cares? What have they won since? Most of those left anyway and it didn't matter either way. Lillard looked like one of the best players in the MAC in Cleveland last March. Now him showing up and scoring 18, is the only chance BG has to win. That's coaching. Being down 5 or 7 at the half and losing by 27 and 18 at home. That's coaching. Did you watch the BGSU/CMU tournament game last year? It was pretty fluky too.FalconTurf wrote:Jans did help Holmes become an NBA player but he didn't make him an NBA caliber athlete. Holmes had tools and ability that had to be tapped. Those tools and ability cannot be put into someone, they are there or they aren't. I don't see anyone on the current roster that is physically or athletically as gifted as Holmes. His teammates benefited because the opposition was concerned about Holmes. They had better looks, open drives to the basket and even rebounds while no less than one guy stayed attached to Richaun the whole time inside and then outside as the shot developed. The team looked better defensively because opposing players feared getting rejected at the basket and ended up altering shots and shot selection. Richaun was also a leader on the court emotionally and for his work ethic in games and practice his senior season. I'm sure this pushed others.guest44 wrote:Yep, that's the easy argument. Jans won because Holmes was an NBA caliber player. Not maybe Jans helped Holmes become an NBA player. My argument was the improvement of Clarke, Henderson, and Denny that season. All played at way higher levels than at any other point.
I think what we see now is the lack of a top tier leader on the team (and that leader needs to be a player, not a coach). Again, just like a top-tier athlete, you cannot make someone fill this role. It can be developed when someone buys in and has that ability within themselves. Unfortunately this program needs more recruits and development. I'm not sure how fast you think this can happen. If the right players are already in place it works quickly but if not patience must kick in.
Clawson built a football program that didn't really look good until the 4th year and then excelled the 5th year. He built it strong enough to last 2 years after he was gone and then it fell apart. Note all the leaders at various positions that graduated or left after that last MAC championship. Each unit on both sides of the ball had a leader that left and obviously very few of the units had found their new leader early in year and some might still be looking.
Clawson was hired based on a resume that he did that in every place he had coached. The turning point was simple. IMO the most game changing quarterback in school history. He gets credit for finding that QB, he gets all he received for that. He did what he isdoing at Wake and did prior. But, football is not basketball. And Mike Jinks hardly has a resume. We hired him without a resume or an agent. Look what happened when Johnson didn't play. BGSU was average. Did Northern Illinois fall off the planet the year after its' last title? The smashed BG this year on like quarterback 3. Do you expect Western to go 1-8 to start this year? Again, Buffalo, Akron, Kent St., UMass, Miami have all basically stunk so bad for years they couldn't hardly get bowl eligible playing each other, even when BGSU sucks. Good coaches don't give up 56 to Memphis with 4 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. So far his resume says 77 points against twice. Assuming Jinks and Huger and every coach BG hires, will replicate Clawson, a guy whose resume said that is his specialty, it's just blind hope. That's what BG does best. Pay and hope. Then when the contract says hope is over, give the next person five years to receive and hope. BG does the same with the people making the choices. It's why several are still here without a plan and hoping. I wonder why Kingston didn't stick around to watch his pay and hope plan unfold? Couldn't I argue if Kingston really had confidence in these coaches, he would have stuck around the reap the rewards?
