Whay are we so bad?

[Germainfitch1]

Is it just because lack of depth down low?

Looking at the roster we have veteran guards, a great scorer a pair of solid big men

[Jacobs4Heisman]

a pair of solid big men

I'll have to disagree here. Marschall is a year or two away. Lefeld is a warrior, and he has the size, but he just isn't very talented. Our frontcourt has to be among the worst in the MAC, and probably in the bottom third of the country.

As far as veteran guards -- veteran does not equal good.

The great scorer we most definitely have.

The reason we are so bad is because we are so bad. We have very little MAC quality talent that sees the floor. They play their asses off (usually), but they just are not talented enough to compete in this league.

[BleedOrange]

a pair of solid big men

I'll have to disagree here. Marschall is a year or two away. Lefeld is a warrior, and he has the size, but he just isn't very talented.

Matt's problems this year have had NOTHING to do with talent and EVERYTHING to do with fierce bone bruises that prevent him from walking normally. Without these bone bruises, he'd be in the top 5 low post players in the MAC.

Marschall, after a summer on the weights, will be very tough next year as a sophomore, imo.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

a pair of solid big men

I'll have to disagree here. Marschall is a year or two away. Lefeld is a warrior, and he has the size, but he just isn't very talented.

Matt's problems this year have had NOTHING to do with talent and EVERYTHING to do with fierce bone bruises that prevent him from walking normally. Without these bone bruises, he'd be in the top 5 low post players in the MAC.

Marschall, after a summer on the weights, will be very tough next year as a sophomore, imo.

I don't think he'd be top 5. He'd be close just because of his size, but he has never impressed me much as a post presence. I think he plays small.

You may be right though, as there was talk that Matt had improved greatly from last year to this. He did show some flashes early in the year. Unfortunately, because of his feet, we'll never know just how good he could've been.


You're absolutely right about Marschall. If he has the body type to add weight and strength, he can be all MAC.

[BGSU33]

This is a topic you could look at many ways. For me, it boils down to several things, but mainly our constant cycle of “rebuilding” and not “reloading” because of all our transfers which in turn leads to lack of experience, depth, chemistry, leadership and player development. Unlike many teams than reload because of developing a cycle of players leaving via graduation but are replaced by experienced underclassman, we are always rebuilding year after year because of our transfers. You can’t win in this league by rebuilding. Our transfers, for whatever reasons they have left over the years (personal reasons, problems with our system, coaching, school), it keeps killing our development and ability to gel as a team. Every year we start over, looking for a line-up that works on the floor, who are playmakers are, what our players strengths are, etc. As soon as we get things in place and appear to have things in order, it all gets shook up the next season, and the one after that, and the one after that.

All you have to do is look back at our program prior to four or five years ago before this was as big of a problem as it is now, and you will see good BG teams with good records and that was a result of players staying at BG, adding solid depth as underclassman then blossoming into some of the conference’s best players. BG was one of the top teams in the MAC in years such as 1997, 2000 and 2002. Since then, we started losing player after player and have suffered through several losing seasons with this being a big reason why. We can’t keep up with the rest of the good MAC schools because they keep, develop and retain players which leads them to good teams year in and year out. The bottom line is simple, we will not be a good team again in the MAC until we stop losing players and start keeping and developing them. It takes good recruiting, good coaching and good development. We “could” be a good team next season “if” we keep everyone, add Sullivan, Simms and Larsen. But we could also be right back in the same situation we have been if we lose more players again, even guys who don’t play much now. Because when they leave and start to develop, you can see how much they could have helped as an older and more experienced player later like you see them doing at other schools. We need to keep EVERYONE next season and add all three of our newcomers/recruits.

[BleedOrange]

This is a topic you could look at many ways. For me, it boils down to several things, but mainly our constant cycle of “rebuilding” and not “reloading” because of all our transfers which in turn leads to lack of experience, depth, chemistry, leadership and player development. Unlike many teams than reload because of developing a cycle of players leaving via graduation but are replaced by experienced underclassman, we are always rebuilding year after year because of our transfers. You can’t win in this league by rebuilding. Our transfers, for whatever reasons they have left over the years (personal reasons, problems with our system, coaching, school), it keeps killing our development and ability to gel as a team. Every year we start over, looking for a line-up that works on the floor, who are playmakers are, what our players strengths are, etc. As soon as we get things in place and appear to have things in order, it all gets shook up the next season, and the one after that, and the one after that.

All you have to do is look back at our program prior to four or five years ago before this was as big of a problem as it is now, and you will see good BG teams with good records and that was a result of players staying at BG, adding solid depth as underclassman then blossoming into some of the conference’s best players. BG was one of the top teams in the MAC in years such as 1997, 2000 and 2002. Since then, we started losing player after player and have suffered through several losing seasons with this being a big reason why. We can’t keep up with the rest of the good MAC schools because they keep, develop and retain players which leads them to good teams year in and year out. The bottom line is simple, we will not be a good team again in the MAC until we stop losing players and start keeping and developing them. It takes good recruiting, good coaching and good development. We “could” be a good team next season “if” we keep everyone, add Sullivan, Simms and Larsen. But we could also be right back in the same situation we have been if we lose more players again, even guys who don’t play much now. Because when they leave and start to develop, you can see how much they could have helped as an older and more experienced player later like you see them doing at other schools. We need to keep EVERYONE next season and add all three of our newcomers/recruits.

I another aspect of the attrition that has been brutal (and that has made this program extremely unfun to follow) is that we always seems to be working with a shoe string roster. So often, it seems that we've been down to 6,7, or 8 guys and that we've been very short handed at certain positions.

[hammb]

The reasons why we are so bad have pretty much been hit on already, but I'll provide my take anyways.

The big one is that we have no post presence. LeFeld is playing on feet so bad that he should likely not be playing. If he was fully healthy I don't think he's a dominant player, but he would be solid. As it is he's gutting it out for this team and I admire the hell out of him, but he can barely jog from one end of the court to the other, let alone jump for a rebound.

Our other "big" man is a freshman who looks to have some potential, but only if he can add size. He gets abused defensively just about every game and he's not strong enough to finish around the rim. If he can add some serious bulk he could be a player, but this year he's just not ready yet to play the role we're asking of him.

We have a great scorer, no doubt about that. Samarco also will get after it a little on defense, but he's not outstanding at that aspect. He's also a fairly one dimensional scorer who shoots better from beyond the arc than inside. He gets to the basket only occasionally. Luckily he's outstanding at getting himself open for the catch and shoot, and has a quick, deadly release.

At the guard spots our play is awful. We don't have one single competent point guard on the roster. We have an enigmatic scorer/slasher in Wright. He's the best PG, because he's the only triple threat guy in the bunch, but he turns the ball over way too much. Moon is only a defender, worthless on offense. Until the last 5-6 games I didn't think Floyd belonged on a D1 floor. I'll back off that a little because he's looked a lot better when he hasn't had the ball in his hands. He's still the worst defensive player in the MAC, and there isn't a single player in this conference that he can man up on.

Other than those 6 we have Soler who is sometimes solid, sometimes nonexistent. He can play decent defense, and get some boards. He's not much on offense, but he can occasionally get to the basket for some easy points.

Outside of those guys we're getting almost nothing out of the rest of the team. Moten, Clements, and Dusan have all played sparingly, but not giving much of anything when they have played.

Other than looking at the players we have serious issues as a group as well. We foul a lot, and because of that we spend good portions of a lot of games in foul trouble. Many times this comes because we force this group into man defense and we have very few players that are good man-to-man defenders. We also turnover the ball quite a bit because we don't have any legit PGs or even pure passers at other positions. Worst of all we flat out cannot rebound. We don't box out well and when we do we still don't go up and after the ball, instead waiting for it to come to us.

In all we're a team that is very short on legit D1 talent, or at least devoid of upper tier D1 tatlent. We also lack in almost all the fundamentals of basketball, expect shooting which we do pretty well. Unfortunately it almost doesn't matter how well you shoot when you give the other team so many more shots by being outrebounded and losing the turnover battle. At one time last week we were in last place in the entire country for fouling, and I believe we're close to the bottom in rebounding margin. Combine that with a propensity for turning the ball over it makes for a pretty bad basketball team.

[BleedOrange]

The reasons why we are so bad have pretty much been hit on already, but I'll provide my take anyways.

...

Outside of those guys we're getting almost nothing out of the rest of the team. Moten, Clements, and Dusan have all played sparingly, but not giving much of anything when they have played.

...

In all we're a team that is very short on legit D1 talent, or at least devoid of upper tier D1 tatlent.

What kills me about this situation is that we're leaving good D1 talent to rot on the bench. Moten and Clements are very good D1 talents, but they sit and sit and sit while (a) Floyd continues to play full time, (b) Moon continues to play without learning to score, and, the whopper (c) a 6-3 walk-on get inserted into rotation in front of them.

Furthermore, at this point it is very fair to say that Wright has had a disappointing year. He's had time to come back from his foot injury. I'm completely unimpressed with the year that he has had. Beyond that, our senior Soler has been inconsistent as hell and has had no presence whatsoever since the win at Kent.

[orangeandbrown]

What kills me about this situation is that we're leaving good D1 talent to rot on the bench. Moten and Clements are very good D1 talents, but they sit and sit and sit while (a) Floyd continues to play full time, (b) Moon continues to play without learning to score, and, the whopper (c) a 6-3 walk-on get inserted into rotation in front of them.

On what basis are Moten and Clements considered "very good" D1 talents? Recruiting hype? Certainly not based on anything they have done this year. I admit they haven't been given a chance, but I haven't see anything that tells me if they got their chance they'd be anything but average. For all we know, they might not be legit D1 players either.

[BleedOrange]

What kills me about this situation is that we're leaving good D1 talent to rot on the bench. Moten and Clements are very good D1 talents, but they sit and sit and sit while (a) Floyd continues to play full time, (b) Moon continues to play without learning to score, and, the whopper (c) a 6-3 walk-on get inserted into rotation in front of them.

...
I admit they haven't been given a chance, ...

Thank you. Talent? You can SEE it, at least I can anyway. Speed, quickness, jumping ability, handles. What they haven't done is cross DD's "trust em in games" threshold, which is high and very few other freshman have crossed in years past.

[kdog27]

It is crazy to me that our freshmen are not seeing the floor enough

Why can't we get some of the growing pains out now? I'm so tired of this mentality of freshmen not getting playing time, especially on a team as bad as this one.

[Bleeding Orange]

It is crazy to me that our freshmen are not seeing the floor enough

Why can't we get some of the growing pains out now? I'm so tired of this mentality of freshmen not getting playing time, especially on a team as bad as this one.

Just for the sake of argument, is it possible that Coach D. may be subscribing to the philosophy that throwing freshmen on the floor prior to learning the system fully might, in the long-run, ruin their confidence in their abilities to succeed at the D-I level? Could it be possible that watching the team's struggles this year could somehow hammer home the need to train and study hard to succeed in the long-run?

I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with these philosophies, but it seems to me that no one has really asked the question as we have tried to rationalize this season. Might be an interesting perspective, or it might not be. I'm no genius.

[BGDrew]

I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with these philosophies, but it seems to me that no one has really asked the question as we have tried to rationalize this season. Might be an interesting perspective, or it might not be. I'm no genius.

Stop it. It's a lot easier to just throw Dakich under the bus.

[bgsufalcon24]

I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with these philosophies, but it seems to me that no one has really asked the question as we have tried to rationalize this season. Might be an interesting perspective, or it might not be. I'm no genius.

Stop it. It's a lot easier to just throw Dakich under the bus.

It's pretty lame when we resort to sarcasm to stop any positive comment on the subject at hand.

[kdog27]

I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with these philosophies, but it seems to me that no one has really asked the question as we have tried to rationalize this season. Might be an interesting perspective, or it might not be. I'm no genius.

Anything is possible. I mean quite frankly I don't know the first thing about coaching a college team, but it seems silly to be sitting our young players during a lousy season. The only thing I see coming from it is more unhappy faces on the bench.

I just don't get the impression these guys we have playing now learn from their mistakes. For the most part our players don't get any better throughout the season. Some get worse.