BG 73 Central State 60

[BleedOrange]

Rollo, thanks for saving me the time to write that myself.

[BGorDeath]

I will give you the obligatory "because Orr's an idiot" response, since it has not appeared yet. Just want to make sure all points of bitching get equal time.

Not sure what is more annoying, people bitching about Orr, or you bitching about the people that bitch about Orr

Yes! I have finally received immortality on Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com because for the first time every I received the "eye roll" emoticom in a response to my post! Yes! Yes! Yes!

[Flipper]

If this team finishes .500 or better, I'll eat nachos from Speedway (that's worse than a bug). YOu have a Sr "shooting guard" that goes 28 minutes against a D2 team and registers a donut stat line? Yeah...we're going places this year with out minature me-me-me PG, bigs with no offense and team leader PF that takes half the game off.

Yippeee......

At least we have a women's program that knows how to play the game...

[hammb]

Like I said earlier I fully expect Crawford to get 30-35 minutes per game and Kraus to get 25+

If that is the case this team will be awful. A me-first PG and a does NOTHING (defense is worthless, IMO) SG? *GAG*

I've got my season tickets and I am excited to get into the Stroh and hang out with good friends and hear some sneakers squeaking, but I don't expect more than 10-12 wins this year. This program needs a new face...BADLY...and I'm shocked that we're stuck with another year of Orr...

[guest44]

While I hoped to show up and see Erger in the starting lineup, my disappointment went away when he was the first Falcon off the bench. It looks as if the Stroh Center rims will get plenty of action this year.

[Globetrotter]

This team is going to surprise all of you. Crawford, Calhoun, Clarke, Sealey and Holmes are all special players. This is a .500 team only if the rest of the MAC is really good. You are all going to be pleasantly surprised and I can't wait to see Flip eat nachos.

The big caveat is that Orr has to play Clarke and Sealey over Kraus and Erger. There is no guarantee of that.

A rotation of
1 Crawford-Kraus
2 Clarke-Henderson
3 Sealey-Orr
4 Calhoun
5 Black-Holmes

Will compete in the MAC. That roster can beat any team in the MAC but won't be consistent enough to win the MAC in my opinion. They will still be really fun and exciting to watch. They will have days where they get run and have bonehead annoying turnovers and days where you think they are the best team in the league.

FWIW I expect a decent scoring year (Motenlike) from Henderson who won't provide much more and a Germain Fitchesque glue kind of year for us as well.

I'll eat something if Sealey and Clarke start more games then they sit and we have a below .500 record.

[Falcon137]

This team is going to surprise all of you. Crawford, Calhoun, Clarke, Sealey and Holmes are all special players. This is a .500 team only if the rest of the MAC is really good. You are all going to be pleasantly surprised and I can't wait to see Flip eat nachos

We'll see. They could easily start 1-6 in the MAC.

Probably get swept by Ohio, Akron, and Buffalo. Hopefully split with Miami and Kent. Then you have to reel some wins against the West off. But, even games like @ Northern and vs. Ball State wont be gimmes for this team. Winning conference record is gonna be tough.

5-11 is my guess.

[hammb]

This team is going to surprise all of you. Crawford, Calhoun, Clarke, Sealey and Holmes are all special players. This is a .500 team only if the rest of the MAC is really good. You are all going to be pleasantly surprised and I can't wait to see Flip eat nachos.

The big caveat is that Orr has to play Clarke and Sealey over Kraus and Erger. There is no guarantee of that.

A rotation of
1 Crawford-Kraus
2 Clarke-Henderson
3 Sealey-Orr
4 Calhoun
5 Black-Holmes

Will compete in the MAC. That roster can beat any team in the MAC but won't be consistent enough to win the MAC in my opinion. They will still be really fun and exciting to watch. They will have days where they get run and have bonehead annoying turnovers and days where you think they are the best team in the league.

FWIW I expect a decent scoring year (Motenlike) from Henderson who won't provide much more and a Germain Fitchesque glue kind of year for us as well.

I'll eat something if Sealey and Clarke start more games then they sit and we have a below .500 record.

I would be somewhat surprised if our head coach started Clarke & Sealey together even a single time this year. I fully expect Kraus to start most of our games at the SG spot. I can't see him as a backup PG either...that would hurt to watch...him as the primary ball handler...

I hope you're right about this team surprising, but I don't see it. You think Crawford is a good PG, and I think he's among the least reliable in the league. I think Calhoun CAN be special but we've yet to see it on a game to game basis. And the rest of the guys you list have special haven't shown nearly enough for me to even know if they CAN be special, let alone that they are. Sealey & Clarke are nothing more than athletic guys that haven't gotten enough PT to know what we have in them yet. I haven't seen anything of Holmes so who knows.

If Crawford, Kraus, and Orr are all playing major minutes (20+ per game), and I think they all will be, then this team is going to be terrible. Throw in Erger probably still getting a bafflingly large amount of minutes and you have the makings of a truly BAD team...among the worst in the MAC for sure.

This team looks like nothing more than a more athletic version of the crap Dakich used to run out there. Still no PG that can run an offense, still long stretches where we cannot score, and still insistent on playing the same defensive set every possession (zone instead of man this time).

I hope I'm wrong, but I still don't see this team as any better than the same mediocrity we've watched throughout Orr's entire tenure.

[Flipper]

Globe...I love your optimism...wish I could share it...but there's a wiiiiiiide variance in our opinions of what makes a player "special". I guess we'll just have to wait and see. FWIW...I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

[Globetrotter]

This team is going to surprise all of you. Crawford, Calhoun, Clarke, Sealey and Holmes are all special players. This is a .500 team only if the rest of the MAC is really good. You are all going to be pleasantly surprised and I can't wait to see Flip eat nachos.

The big caveat is that Orr has to play Clarke and Sealey over Kraus and Erger. There is no guarantee of that.

A rotation of
1 Crawford-Kraus
2 Clarke-Henderson
3 Sealey-Orr
4 Calhoun
5 Black-Holmes

Will compete in the MAC. That roster can beat any team in the MAC but won't be consistent enough to win the MAC in my opinion. They will still be really fun and exciting to watch. They will have days where they get run and have bonehead annoying turnovers and days where you think they are the best team in the league.

FWIW I expect a decent scoring year (Motenlike) from Henderson who won't provide much more and a Germain Fitchesque glue kind of year for us as well.

I'll eat something if Sealey and Clarke start more games then they sit and we have a below .500 record.

I would be somewhat surprised if our head coach started Clarke & Sealey together even a single time this year. I fully expect Kraus to start most of our games at the SG spot. I can't see him as a backup PG either...that would hurt to watch...him as the primary ball handler...

I hope you're right about this team surprising, but I don't see it. You think Crawford is a good PG, and I think he's among the least reliable in the league. I think Calhoun CAN be special but we've yet to see it on a game to game basis. And the rest of the guys you list have special haven't shown nearly enough for me to even know if they CAN be special, let alone that they are. Sealey & Clarke are nothing more than athletic guys that haven't gotten enough PT to know what we have in them yet. I haven't seen anything of Holmes so who knows.

If Crawford, Kraus, and Orr are all playing major minutes (20+ per game), and I think they all will be, then this team is going to be terrible. Throw in Erger probably still getting a bafflingly large amount of minutes and you have the makings of a truly BAD team...among the worst in the MAC for sure.

This team looks like nothing more than a more athletic version of the crap Dakich used to run out there. Still no PG that can run an offense, still long stretches where we cannot score, and still insistent on playing the same defensive set every possession (zone instead of man this time).

I hope I'm wrong, but I still don't see this team as any better than the same mediocrity we've watched throughout Orr's entire tenure.

I dont see him as a backup pg either...I should have represented that better visually.

[BleedOrange]

I've said before that Crawford can improve his reliability with the added year of experience AND if he has a reasonably athletic 2G along side. Unfortunately, I too have the nagging fear the Kraus will play 25-30 mpg while the vastly more talented Clarke plays 10-15. In my view, Clarke (and Sealey) are just too talented to keep off the floor.

I think a starting lineup of

Crawford
Clarke
Sealey
Calhoun
Holmes

...with the bench rotation of
Henderson
Orr
Parker
Black

...could be competitive in the MAC. Unfortunately, we don't have the head coach able to make that happen.

[Globetrotter]

I've said before that Crawford can improve his reliability with the added year of experience AND if he has a reasonably athletic 2G along side. Unfortunately, I too have the nagging fear the Kraus will play 25-30 mpg while the vastly more talented Clarke plays 10-15. In my view, Clarke (and Sealey) are just too talented to keep off the floor.

I think a starting lineup of

Crawford
Clarke
Sealey
Calhoun
Holmes

...with the bench rotation of
Henderson
Orr
Parker
Black

...could be competitive in the MAC. Unfortunately, we don't have the head coach able to make that happen.

Kraus is fine as a fiesty annoying 2 who plays next to a scoring 1. Other than that I entirely agree with you.

[guest44]

Once your best attribute is fiesty, you know the player is limited.

[hammb]

I especially don't see the value in a "feisty" defensive specialist when you play 99% 2-3 Zone.

Moreover if you're a supposed defensive specialist HC you should be able to teach any guard on your roster to PLAY that role in the 2-3 Zone.

It's not like we're asking Kraus to go out and man up the other teams' best ball handler night in/night out. We're asking him to play the perimeter in a zone which is something that any Division 1 guard should be able to handle capably after a year in the system.

The reasons my expectations for this team are so low are largely the track record Orr has compiled. I would be inclined to agree that this team could be good if: A) Crawford improves as a floor leading PG...must drastically reduce turnovers, B) Calhoun steps up and finally shows the ability to consistently take over games, and C) Kraus & Erger play limited roles in the 10 mpg range (at most) while the vastly more athletic Clark/Henderson/Sealey show improved play with the bulk of the minutes.

My problem is that Orr's track record makes me feel as though any of those things are very unlikely to happen, let alone all 3 coming together at once. I'm pessimistic about A & B because I have yet to see Orr ever really develop a player. Both of those guys are largely the same as they were when they first began playing, and the same has held true for most of Orr's recruits...we see promise early, but it's never really blossomed for any of them. And I don't have much hope for C either since his rotations/sub patterns have never made since on a game to game basis and he always seems to find way too much PT for the Dee Browns, James Ergers, and Marc Larsons of the world rather than letting the more athletic but raw players get playing time.

[Globetrotter]

I especially don't see the value in a "feisty" defensive specialist when you play 99% 2-3 Zone.

Moreover if you're a supposed defensive specialist HC you should be able to teach any guard on your roster to PLAY that role in the 2-3 Zone.

It's not like we're asking Kraus to go out and man up the other teams' best ball handler night in/night out. We're asking him to play the perimeter in a zone which is something that any Division 1 guard should be able to handle capably after a year in the system.

The reasons my expectations for this team are so low are largely the track record Orr has compiled. I would be inclined to agree that this team could be good if: A) Crawford improves as a floor leading PG...must drastically reduce turnovers, B) Calhoun steps up and finally shows the ability to consistently take over games, and C) Kraus & Erger play limited roles in the 10 mpg range (at most) while the vastly more athletic Clark/Henderson/Sealey show improved play with the bulk of the minutes.

My problem is that Orr's track record makes me feel as though any of those things are very unlikely to happen, let alone all 3 coming together at once. I'm pessimistic about A & B because I have yet to see Orr ever really develop a player. Both of those guys are largely the same as they were when they first began playing, and the same has held true for most of Orr's recruits...we see promise early, but it's never really blossomed for any of them. And I don't have much hope for C either since his rotations/sub patterns have never made since on a game to game basis and he always seems to find way too much PT for the Dee Browns, James Ergers, and Marc Larsons of the world rather than letting the more athletic but raw players get playing time.

I agree with all of this. I think its just going to be too obvious this year and he will be forced to play Sealey and Clarke.