BG picked last in the East.....AGAIN!!!

[BGSU33]

Not a surprise one bit. I mean, it's an annual honor for us to be picked last or, if we get lucky, next to last. And if we shock everyone and finish say, fourth....we'll make the pollsters look smart by falling flat on our face in the MAC Tournament anyway. Oh the joys of being a Falcon basketball fan these days.....

http://www.bgsufalcons.com/news/2013/10 ... 30152.aspx

[guest44]

Well, directionally we can't underachieve this season.

[Flipper]

We'll scrape along the bottom and then wham...we'll pop up an bit and take someone by suprise.

Like a carp....

[MarkL]

There's a core of good talent there ... and they play dysfunctionally half the time ...

[h2oville rocket]

There's a core of good talent there ... and they play dysfunctionally half the time ...

I'm guessing there will be a much stronger team effort without Crawford. He had a modicum of talent but if he was as good as Jordan Crawford thought he was he wouldn't have needed anyone else. Whoever runs the offense this year isn't likely to take that approach and I think you'll have more balanced scoring which forces opposing defenses to pay attention to more than just the two scorers you had last year. I don't see many wins but I think the basketball will be less painful to watch.

[guest44]

More balanced scoring for sure, just not nearly enough of it. It will be still be painful to watch. In year 7 of Louie ball, the goal is to "surprise some people." CLUELESS. I still question the level of talent. If Clarke, Henderson, Holmes or any of the bench warmers from past seasons suddenly become all MAC type players, it will speak volumes to how clueless Orr is given last years rotation.

[MarkL]

Holmes is all MAC talent. Million dollar question remains why he didn't play more minutes last year ... very puzzling. If he's not a consistent starter this year I'll be more confused than normal about the program.

[MacGuy]

Holmes is all MAC talent. Million dollar question remains why he didn't play more minutes last year ... very puzzling. If he's not a consistent starter this year I'll be more confused than normal about the program.

Absolutely. I already predicted he'll be first team All-MAC.

[Globetrotter]

I think Holmes could find a role on any roster in the country. He is that good and such a good shot blocker.

[hammb]

He's an amazing shotblocker, and I agree because of that talent he would probably find a role/minutes on just about any team.

I'm not ready to call him All MAC caliber talent though because we still haven't seen him show any ability to do much on offense beyond putbacks/alley-oops. He's got some good raw talent, and he's very good defensively, but we still need him to show the one thing that NOBODY has shown since Orr took over: DEVELOPMENT.

I have a feeling that it'll be more of the same as year's past. We get excited about a promising new player, and we get to watch another season where he looks like the exact same player he came in as. I hope I'm wrong and we see some strides by Holmes and all the other guys this year, but Orr has sapped any optimism from me when it comes to player development. It's just not something he ever seems to get done.

Hoping I'm wrong...

[Globetrotter]

He's an amazing shotblocker, and I agree because of that talent he would probably find a role/minutes on just about any team.

I'm not ready to call him All MAC caliber talent though because we still haven't seen him show any ability to do much on offense beyond putbacks/alley-oops. He's got some good raw talent, and he's very good defensively, but we still need him to show the one thing that NOBODY has shown since Orr took over: DEVELOPMENT.

I have a feeling that it'll be more of the same as year's past. We get excited about a promising new player, and we get to watch another season where he looks like the exact same player he came in as. I hope I'm wrong and we see some strides by Holmes and all the other guys this year, but Orr has sapped any optimism from me when it comes to player development. It's just not something he ever seems to get done.

Hoping I'm wrong...

With these teams I never get excited when certain players have ridiculously high shooting percentages. It just means they should be shooting more in my opinion and the offense isn't dictating it. Holmes shot .633 last year. Which is great, but I would rather see him have taken 100 more shots even if that drops down to like .555. Torian Oglesby or whatever his name was, was exactly the same way. Cam Black too a couple years back. I especially want him to shoot more because of Cam Black. We have a decent rebounder in the paint with him.

[hammb]

He's an amazing shotblocker, and I agree because of that talent he would probably find a role/minutes on just about any team.

I'm not ready to call him All MAC caliber talent though because we still haven't seen him show any ability to do much on offense beyond putbacks/alley-oops. He's got some good raw talent, and he's very good defensively, but we still need him to show the one thing that NOBODY has shown since Orr took over: DEVELOPMENT.

I have a feeling that it'll be more of the same as year's past. We get excited about a promising new player, and we get to watch another season where he looks like the exact same player he came in as. I hope I'm wrong and we see some strides by Holmes and all the other guys this year, but Orr has sapped any optimism from me when it comes to player development. It's just not something he ever seems to get done.

Hoping I'm wrong...

With these teams I never get excited when certain players have ridiculously high shooting percentages. It just means they should be shooting more in my opinion and the offense isn't dictating it. Holmes shot .633 last year. Which is great, but I would rather see him have taken 100 more shots even if that drops down to like .555. Torian Oglesby or whatever his name was, was exactly the same way. Cam Black too a couple years back. I especially want him to shoot more because of Cam Black. We have a decent rebounder in the paint with him.

Yeah, the problem with Holmes (and Oglesby before him) is that it's not just the offense doesn't dictate they get more shots. Neither Holmes nor Oglesby showed anything thus far in terms of having any offensive game. Both guys are long and very athletic. But neither of them has shown the ability to establish post position, or make any sort of move with the ball if they did have position, or make any sort of shot from outside of 3 feet from the rim.

It's easy to say, "I want Holmes to shoot more, even if his percentage drops by 10-15%". The problem is that the ONLY thing that we've seen him do is get dunks and occasional alley-oops. With Black his scoring actually DID show the potential of having some decent post moves, so perhaps you could make the argument in his case, but with Holmes we don't know if he is even remotely capable of doing anything in the flow of an offense. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he turns it over 4-5 times a game and shoots in the 40-45% range if you try and force an offense through him.

Now I'm not saying that he absolutely CAN'T do it. I'm just saying that what we saw last year from him was an athletic shot blocker capable of throwing down some dunks when he gets the ball off the rim. That's great, but I didn't see even a couple flashes that make me say, "We need to get him taking more shots." I hope to see some of those flashes this year.

You would think with the NBA talent we have on the bench the ONE thing they could do is teach these big guys some post game, but they've done about as poor a job of that in their tenure as they have in recruiting/developing a guard. From Polk to Oglesby to Calhoun to Black to Holmes...they've had a lot of reasonable raw talent at the post positions and not one of them showed any consistent development in terms of a post game. Quite sad, really.

[Flipper]

Has this staff made anyone..post players..wings...shooting guards or points....better? They arrive with a skill set and they leave with the same skill set.

[BGSU33]

We sure make those who vote on the preseason predictions smart, don't we.