I Hope I'm Wrong, but...

[ZuluWarrior]

We all want Coach Orr to succeed. We desperately want and deserve a NCAA Tournament Team, but teams can't have players stomping off like five year olds, technical fouls for not submitting line-ups on time and consistent second half meltdowns. I'm not saying Coach Orr is done, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm predicting trouble i.e. lack of success with this program.

I'll be the first to admit, and will gladly do so if I'm wrong, but I have a very bad feeling about the state of Falcon Men's Basketball.

[KPAFalcon]

Hey Mr. Negative, Orr has been here slightly over a year and you post this crap. You sound like a typical “The glass is half empty” type person. I choose to ignore this attitude.

The real story – Many of the players are improved, the defense is solid, we have a 10 player rotation, Nate’s intensity is back, Eric is finally healthy, solid transfers sitting on the bench and practicing, the freshman are playing and contributing, good recruits coming in next year, solid performance on the road against two Big Ten teams and undefeated at home.

People, ignore Mr. Negative it’s going to be a fun season!

[ZiggyZoomba]

We all want Coach Orr to succeed. We desperately want and deserve a NCAA Tournament Team, but teams can't have players stomping off like five year olds, technical fouls for not submitting line-ups on time and consistent second half meltdowns. I'm not saying Coach Orr is done, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm predicting trouble i.e. lack of success with this program.

I'll be the first to admit, and will gladly do so if I'm wrong, but I have a very bad feeling about the state of Falcon Men's Basketball.

Yep, it's over. Thanks for opening our eyes.

[Dayons_Den]

[renorvis]

You shouldn't have a bad feeling because of Coach Orr. There is a different feel now that he is here aside from DD. Success takes time and this is Coach Orr's second year. And as far as desperately wanting a NCAA berth, I think people in BG need to be patient. Sometime I read these posts and people think they are entitled to a successful season. This is not directed towards you ZuluWarrior in anyway. When ever this team has a hiccup people want to ring the alarm. I say judge the coaches after the players he inherited are gone and he has time to work his guys in.

[hammb]

I'm quite willing to give Coach Orr an extended honeymoon period. He inherited a program that was completely devoid of talent and a total mess. It would take John Wooden a few years before he could start winning here. Right now he has the kids buying into what it takes to win with defense, he just needs to get more talent to run the offense that he's trying to run.

The second half collapses suck, but honestly I think they're inevitable. To me they stem from us having leads against teams that are far superior to us talentwise. Eventually that talent is winning out and our guys are falling in the second half.

The Clements thing sucks, but it happens. I still have seen/heard a lot of things to love about coach Orr. That, along with his track record at Seton Hall, is enough for me to give him at least a couple more years to shape the program in his image. Unlike football, I don't think a hoops coach can turn around a program as quickly.

[Falconboy]

People like Zulu need to get a grip and stop with the overzealous expectations of the team this year. We will not be winning the Mac this year or going to the Big Dance this year. Lets just face that simple fact right now. Patience is a virtue and some of us are going to have to exercise a bit more of it if you're to keep your sanity.

Orr is a fine coach , he needs time to to implement his style with his players. We may need to wait at least one more year to see real results. I don't like waiting that long either but this present team I believe has a ceiling on it. I don't see us being that much better than what we've seen later on. I could be wrong but that's my opinion.

[BleedOrange]

So far, this is the most batshit thread of 2009.

Zulu, you're just on Mars.

Hammbone, the talent situation here isn't anywhere near as bad as you make it sound. "program completely devoid of talent" and "far suprerior to us talentwise"? WTF? You're not even goddamned close.

Someone said "drama queen", which is apt. Take a situation that's less than ideal, magnify the negativity by 10x, and then revel in it for some perverse sense of satisfaction. If we 25 games a year over the next 10 years, you f**kers would probably lose interest in the BG hoops.

[Rollo83]

Here is my take on the Faalcon Basketball program...

1. I was a DD supporter until the end. I got to know Dan a little bit and really liked him as a person. He did a lot for the University and the players who stuck it out with him. Having said that, I completly understand that a coaching change needed to be made.

2. If you've read any of my posts on the football coaching situation, you know I don't like BCS retreads. If they were not successful at a bigger school, what makes you think they will be successful at BG or any other mid-major? An exception is Gart Waters at Cleveland State. He didn't get it done at Rutgers he was a great hire for CSU. I wish he would have come to BG.

3. I was not in love with the choice of Orr from the beginning but will give him every opportunity to prove me wrong. One and a half seasons is obvious not enough time to truely judge his stamp on the program. I will give him this year and next before I really evaluate his progress. Three years at one school is enough time to start seeing the program moving in the right direction IMO.

4. The early indications are that we aren't seeing much of an improvement in our recruiting or our on-the-court results. Again, I'll wait until we see where we are after the 2009-2010 season before I make a complete judgement.

Coaching at the college level is such a difference maker. You can usually see the impact of a new coach pretty quickly. You can tell almost immediately if a coach "gets it." The others seem to be in reverse or just treading water.

[vwfalcon]

A couple things kind of stick out to me here.

First: Falconboy when the hell did you become the slightest bit optimistic?

Second: I think this program is actually making a turn. I believe that if you were to put this team under DD's coaching, the results would actually probably be worse than they are now. I personally have started to see progression and improvement from this team. Is it where it needs to be to be a "dancer" in March, probably not, but the steps to the dance are slowly being learned by this program. You can't just expect a program that has struggled to be above .500 since the departure of Reimold and crew to just miraculously become an NCAA contender. I think the perfect reference to this would be U of M in football with Rich Rod. They went 3-9 this year, but I honestly find it hard to believe that they will be that bad next year.

I can honestly tell you that this team is the best one I've seen from the baseline in the past four years that I have stepped foot on the court of Anderson Arena. I have more pride and belief now than any of the past three years.

[ZuluWarrior]

Like I said I hope I'm wrong, and I don't believe its over or that Coach Orr should go...I just don't like a lot of what I'm seeing this year. I've NEVER, EVER heard of a player behaving like Clements did last game, EVER, on any team. That along with how we play in the second half, and errors like the technical for not getting the line-up in are cause for legitimate debate.

Go ahead and shoot the messenger if you want. And those of you firing shots can tell me I was wrong if Coach Orr is successful, and trust me, no one will be happier to have been Chicken Little..which was one of the better responses to this thread.

[hammb]

Hammbone, the talent situation here isn't anywhere near as bad as you make it sound. "program completely devoid of talent" and "far suprerior to us talentwise"? WTF? You're not even goddamned close.

Re-reading my post I was a bit hyperbolic, I guess.

I still don't think this team is very talented. We don't have a single guard that can create his own shot on any sort of consistent basis. We don't have a single ball handler that can consistently create shots for his teammates. Our big men are stout defensively but have not developed any sort of offense in the post, and struggle mightily to catch the ball; both have hands of stone. Our only two players who I think are superior athletically cannot get consistent minutes this year for whatever reason.

So yeah, I'm sorry, but I don't think this team is that talented at all. Certainly not as talented as the top teams in the MAC have been in year's past (cannot speak for this year since I haven't seen any other MAC teams play this year).

I'm not saying that we cannot be a good team. The heart & determination that we show on defense will go a long way as the season goes on. If we can create some offense off of that defense it will help. Throw in some good shooting nights from our guards, and I think we can create enough offense to win a lot of games in the MAC.

My personal opinion is that we play better than our talent level. That speaks to Coach Orr's ability, IMO. If he can get more raw talent on the roster (and those transfers could be the start of it), I think he can be a very good coach for this program.

[TG1996]

no one will be happier to have been Chicken Little..which was one of the better responses to this thread.

The odd thing is, if you look at the URL, the filename for that pic is "falconboy.jpg". Strange.

[Rightupinthere]

[Globetrotter]

Hey Mr. Negative, Orr has been here slightly over a year and you post this crap. You sound like a typical “The glass is half empty” type person. I choose to ignore this attitude.

By responding to a thread you are ignoring it?