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Martin is late for something so per DD he will sit todays game out. That said Stephen Wright will start. One guy comes back and another sits out. It never ends with this group. Samarco being our best player to date will be missed.

Man....it is ALWAYS something with this team. If it's not one thing, it's another. I'm happy to hear Wright is back, but playing without our leading scorer isn't going to help matters. I'm not saying he should play, DD probably made the right decision, but there's always something going on with this team off the court someway, somehow, and it's just getting so old.

BGSU33 wrote:Man....it is ALWAYS something with this team. If it's not one thing, it's another. I'm happy to hear Wright is back, but playing without our leading scorer isn't going to help matters. I'm not saying he should play, DD probably made the right decision, but there's always something going on with this team off the court someway, somehow, and it's just getting so old.

BGSU33 wrote:Man....it is ALWAYS something with this team. If it's not one thing, it's another. I'm happy to hear Wright is back, but playing without our leading scorer isn't going to help matters. I'm not saying he should play, DD probably made the right decision, but there's always something going on with this team off the court someway, somehow, and it's just getting so old.

Right decision? God knows what's going on. What the hell could he have been late for to merit an entire game suspension? Study hall? Practice? Breakfast? Class? What's the difference? wtf. Let's find reasons to make this season as hard as possible.

Personally, I very, very, very tired of this kind of crap with this program. DD's not happy unless someone's in his doghouse. Every stinking year, we're plagued by personnel issues of one form or another. This year, it has been Samarco, Soler, Moten, Holland, and Sullivan. Would it be fair to suggest that DD is the source of more than his share of these issues? Would a different coach with the same players have just as many personnel issues and generate the same ordinary record?

Aahhh. I feel better now.

We can roll our eyes and complain but if these guys aren't ready to play then they shouldn't be on the court. Coach Dakich is setting a good example for this team. Obviously he isn't playing favorites.

Everyone knows that we aren't going to the NCAA tournament with our record. I'm certain we could win the rest of our games and still not make it. The main thing is to get to Cleveland and win there.

Yes it does get annoying that we can't put a good product on the court but with the injuries that we've had and kids deciding they can't go to school without mommy and daddy what can you do?

I don't think Holland was here long enough to get in DD's doghouse. He just got hit by gas prices that didn't make it practical for him to drive home to Indiana every evening. That's a bitch of a commute anyway, especially at $3.29/gallon.

Look, a kid knows that when he comes to BG, he is going to play for a strict disciplinarian (sorry about the spelling), but Coach Dakich can not let someone slide. The kids know that if they are late for certain important functions, they aren't going to play the next game. I think that everyone needs to lay off the coach and give this TEAM some time to develop. And if I remember correctly, didn't he already get a pretty solid recruit for next year also. Everyone knew that this year was going to be a struggle, so let's just stop acting like we could do a better job.

I hate to do this, but if Penn State would have gotten rid of Coach Paterno a couple of years ago, do you think they would be as happy right now as they are? My gosh, he has won 18 games four times already, that's more than any other coach we've had since 1963-64. Every team is going to have a down year, and this coach is not any different. I know that everyone thinks that it's his fault that players are leaving, but we don't know why kids really leave. These kids have a mind of their own. Let's stop riding him, and wait and see what happens in the future. I am Not ready to write off this year yet. WE HAVEN'T STARTED CONFERENCE PLAY YET. This is only a mini season within the season. I am going to prefer to take the wait and see approach, and not just for this year.

HoustonFalcon wrote:Look, a kid knows that when he comes to BG, he is going to play for a strict disciplinarian (sorry about the spelling), but Coach Dakich can not let someone slide. The kids know that if they are late for certain important functions, they aren't going to play the next game. I think that everyone needs to lay off the coach and give this TEAM some time to develop. And if I remember correctly, didn't he already get a pretty solid recruit for next year also. Everyone knew that this year was going to be a struggle, so let's just stop acting like we could do a better job.

I hate to do this, but if Penn State would have gotten rid of Coach Paterno a couple of years ago, do you think they would be as happy right now as they are? My gosh, he has won 18 games four times already, that's more than any other coach we've had since 1963-64. Every team is going to have a down year, and this coach is not any different. I know that everyone thinks that it's his fault that players are leaving, but we don't know why kids really leave. These kids have a mind of their own. Let's stop riding him, and wait and see what happens in the future. I am Not ready to write off this year yet. WE HAVEN'T STARTED CONFERENCE PLAY YET. This is only a mini season within the season. I am going to prefer to take the wait and see approach, and not just for this year.

HF, I like your post, but you miss the point to a certain extent. In each of the last 5 years, we've had personnel issues that have led to us playing the season on a compromised, shoestring roster with players forced to play out of position. Every college basketball team will have a certain amount of injury and attrition, but why do we have SO MUCH so consistently? How many other MAC, Horizon, and MVC programs have had the problems we've had, year in and year out? Is it possible to have disciplined program without the unending array of crap that we've had? Is there a problem somewhere with our "formula"?

I want desperately to believe that this team will gel and that our guys will gel, and I think I see more potential than many other posters. There's a lot that I really, really like about DD as a guy. However, if we knew that this system will generate another 4 years much like the last 4 years, what then? We have a right, at some point, sooner or later, to see some of these personnel issues settle down to a normal level. And if they can't, then what is BG doing? I don't know what the Samarco situation was, but it fits a general pattern. This kind of situation is beyond old, and when I look around the MAC, I see a significantly less of it.

I will never criticize a coach for benching a kid because he is late, not following rules, or what have you. There are more important things than winning a non-conference basketball game. Dakich is molding men as much as he is players, and you cannot send a better message to your team than being willing to bench your #1 scorer because he was late.

Start giving different rules to your "stars" and you will lose the team. It could've cost us the game, but it was the right decision.

Exactly, hammb.

If Samarco had played and it came out that he was late for class/meeting/dinner/whatever, I guarantee there'd be three or more threads here about how DD lets the stars (if not the whole team) do what they please.

I saw in the Little Rock paper that he was late for the bus.

Here's the thing. You're going bad, but you gotta keep the rules. Then more than ever.

At Junior Falcons, coach told the kids once that bad habits are hard to break. So are good ones.

First of all, I am all for discipline and keeping order over the players. But... isn't having to sit out an entire game a stiff penalty for being late, especially if this is the first occurence? I mean talking back to the coach, causing disruptions in practice, not practicing hard, etc are one thing. But simply being late for practice/bus/meeting/etc can happen to anyone. How about sitting out 1 min for each min late or something like that? i just think the penalty looks a little stiff. I don't know the entire circumstances, but if it is simply "late for the bus", I think the penalty was too hard.

FWIW, I think the Bengals LB Odell Thurman was late for something last week. The penalty? He didn't start against the Browns. But I think he was on the field for the second play.

WH,

I thought the same thing. Unless there were some extenuating circumstances where he was REALLY late, or got shitty with coaches when they called him on it, I could see maybe sitting him for a half. Then again, maybe it was starting to become a trend with a number of players rolling in late for things, and DD wanted to shock them back into line. On the surface, a full game for being late to the bus seems harsh, but maybe there's something more to it.

I'm just glad it wasn't a hair issue that got him in trouble.

Warthog wrote:First of all, I am all for discipline and keeping order over the players. But... isn't having to sit out an entire game a stiff penalty for being late, especially if this is the first occurence? I mean talking back to the coach, causing disruptions in practice, not practicing hard, etc are one thing. But simply being late for practice/bus/meeting/etc can happen to anyone. How about sitting out 1 min for each min late or something like that? i just think the penalty looks a little stiff. I don't know the entire circumstances, but if it is simply "late for the bus", I think the penalty was too hard.

My guess is he won't be late again. If that is the case then Dakich taught him a valuable lesson.