Coach Huger

[JohnFloyd4Life]

What errors on roster construction? This seems like a very talented group

I think this does look like a talented group and the incoming recruiting class looks to be a big step in the right direction.

My complaints have long been that every year we seem to have had 3 posts who could do nothing beyond 5'. That's a dying position. You really don't need 1 anymore,but 3 is overkill. I.e. this season we got about as much from their scholarships as we did the one we gifted to Ethan Good at the end of the year.

We've also frequently had issues with too many very small guards. And finding ourselves in a position where those small guards were among our best 7 players so we had multiple ok the court at the same time. It's really hurt us defensively. This was helped this year by Plowden moving into major minutes along Turner and Lillard. It has also helped that Fields fits my complaint of small guards but can guard bigger than his size would seem to indicate.

Like I said, I hope he's realized his mistakes, and the latest classes are promising. But we've still got to love with a few of the players.

They certainly have the looks of a balanced roster coming in, adding another PG and wings of 6'5" & 6'7". I agree with Globe though that we need an athletic post to be able to come in and play right away.

[hammb]

What errors on roster construction? This seems like a very talented group

I think this does look like a talented group and the incoming recruiting class looks to be a big step in the right direction.

My complaints have long been that every year we seem to have had 3 posts who could do nothing beyond 5'. That's a dying position. You really don't need 1 anymore,but 3 is overkill. I.e. this season we got about as much from their scholarships as we did the one we gifted to Ethan Good at the end of the year.

We've also frequently had issues with too many very small guards. And finding ourselves in a position where those small guards were among our best 7 players so we had multiple ok the court at the same time. It's really hurt us defensively. This was helped this year by Plowden moving into major minutes along Turner and Lillard. It has also helped that Fields fits my complaint of small guards but can guard bigger than his size would seem to indicate.

Like I said, I hope he's realized his mistakes, and the latest classes are promising. But we've still got to love with a few of the players.

They certainly have the looks of a balanced roster coming in, adding another PG and wings of 6'5" & 6'7". I agree with Globe though that we need an athletic post to be able to come in and play right away.

Unless by some miracle a switch flips for Gadson/Mattos. I wouldn't count on it though. Gadsen is just an enigma...dude looks like an upper echelon athlete. Athletes of his size should be, at the very least, competent MAC big men. Baffled how he has been unable to even get on the floor. And Mattos, while not as athletic as Gadson certainly had a bit of respect as a prospect. Maybe they just didn't fit the rotation last year with 2 senior post players taking the bulk of the minutes, but it'd be rare for guys who barely saw the floor to suddenly produce.

Barring a late addition like you're hoping for, I think we're going to need to get at least 15-20 mpg from those guys next year.

[JohnFloyd4Life]

Yeah I think that's the most likely scenario as well, with a small lineup of Plowden at the 4 and Sierra at the 5. And we could very well be alright with that. I think a Mattos/Gadsen platoon could be effective.

[Globetrotter]

What errors on roster construction? This seems like a very talented group

I think this does look like a talented group and the incoming recruiting class looks to be a big step in the right direction.

My complaints have long been that every year we seem to have had 3 posts who could do nothing beyond 5'. That's a dying position. You really don't need 1 anymore,but 3 is overkill. I.e. this season we got about as much from their scholarships as we did the one we gifted to Ethan Good at the end of the year.

We've also frequently had issues with too many very small guards. And finding ourselves in a position where those small guards were among our best 7 players so we had multiple ok the court at the same time. It's really hurt us defensively. This was helped this year by Plowden moving into major minutes along Turner and Lillard. It has also helped that Fields fits my complaint of small guards but can guard bigger than his size would seem to indicate.

Like I said, I hope he's realized his mistakes, and the latest classes are promising. But we've still got to love with a few of the players.

They certainly have the looks of a balanced roster coming in, adding another PG and wings of 6'5" & 6'7". I agree with Globe though that we need an athletic post to be able to come in and play right away.

Unless by some miracle a switch flips for Gadson/Mattos. I wouldn't count on it though. Gadsen is just an enigma...dude looks like an upper echelon athlete. Athletes of his size should be, at the very least, competent MAC big men. Baffled how he has been unable to even get on the floor. And Mattos, while not as athletic as Gadson certainly had a bit of respect as a prospect. Maybe they just didn't fit the rotation last year with 2 senior post players taking the bulk of the minutes, but it'd be rare for guys who barely saw the floor to suddenly produce.

Barring a late addition like you're hoping for, I think we're going to need to get at least 15-20 mpg from those guys next year.

Huger doesn't seem to think we need another big. I firmly disagree......https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/bgsu ... 0190407040" target="_blank

"While the Falcons are losing Wiggins and backup center Jeffrey Uju, Huger said he isn’t necessarily targeting another post player for next season’s roster."

As an aside that article is pointless. It tells us nothing.

A coach just signed three players. How do they fit on the roster? What's your educated guess Huger? No one is holding you to anything.
Our offense was bad anytime we weren't making threes? Can't you ask him about that? How will that improve?
If we don't have a new post player how do we compete against teams with size?
And the crown jewel. There is one scholarship left.....Why haven't you used all of your scholarships?

I know journalists don't make much money, and he has lots of stuff to cover but there is really zero point of putting out an article like this. If you were in journalism wouldn't you ask these questions? Wouldn't you want to know and write something interesting?

[TalonsDownForWhat]

Watching the NCAA tournament basketball is more guard driven than ever and we have by far the best guard group in the MAC

[hammb]

What errors on roster construction? This seems like a very talented group

I think this does look like a talented group and the incoming recruiting class looks to be a big step in the right direction.

My complaints have long been that every year we seem to have had 3 posts who could do nothing beyond 5'. That's a dying position. You really don't need 1 anymore,but 3 is overkill. I.e. this season we got about as much from their scholarships as we did the one we gifted to Ethan Good at the end of the year.

We've also frequently had issues with too many very small guards. And finding ourselves in a position where those small guards were among our best 7 players so we had multiple ok the court at the same time. It's really hurt us defensively. This was helped this year by Plowden moving into major minutes along Turner and Lillard. It has also helped that Fields fits my complaint of small guards but can guard bigger than his size would seem to indicate.

Like I said, I hope he's realized his mistakes, and the latest classes are promising. But we've still got to love with a few of the players.

They certainly have the looks of a balanced roster coming in, adding another PG and wings of 6'5" & 6'7". I agree with Globe though that we need an athletic post to be able to come in and play right away.

Unless by some miracle a switch flips for Gadson/Mattos. I wouldn't count on it though. Gadsen is just an enigma...dude looks like an upper echelon athlete. Athletes of his size should be, at the very least, competent MAC big men. Baffled how he has been unable to even get on the floor. And Mattos, while not as athletic as Gadson certainly had a bit of respect as a prospect. Maybe they just didn't fit the rotation last year with 2 senior post players taking the bulk of the minutes, but it'd be rare for guys who barely saw the floor to suddenly produce.

Barring a late addition like you're hoping for, I think we're going to need to get at least 15-20 mpg from those guys next year.

Huger doesn't seem to think we need another big. I firmly disagree......https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/bgsu ... 0190407040" target="_blank

"While the Falcons are losing Wiggins and backup center Jeffrey Uju, Huger said he isn’t necessarily targeting another post player for next season’s roster."

As an aside that article is pointless. It tells us nothing.

A coach just signed three players. How do they fit on the roster? What's your educated guess Huger? No one is holding you to anything.
Our offense was bad anytime we weren't making threes? Can't you ask him about that? How will that improve?
If we don't have a new post player how do we compete against teams with size?
And the crown jewel. There is one scholarship left.....Why haven't you used all of your scholarships?

I know journalists don't make much money, and he has lots of stuff to cover but there is really zero point of putting out an article like this. If you were in journalism wouldn't you ask these questions? Wouldn't you want to know and write something interesting?

I read that article this morning and thought the same. This same article could have been written citing this message board as your primary source. We return more talent than anybody else in the MAC. We have a promising recruiting class coming in. We have questions in the post. yadda yadda.

What a colossal waste of having access to the coach to not ask any pertinent questions. Not even draw out, perhaps, the thoughts on the current post players on the roster? How the incoming recruits could possibly contribute? Nothing...

Piotrowicz is still pretty new to the BG beat, but I've not been overly impressed by the reporting yet. I continue to believe Briggs is the only one in the area that covers BG & UT athletics with a willingness to ask tougher questions and voice some of the same criticisms we fans have. I wish they could devote Briggs solely to BG & UT athletics, but alas he's spread all over the place.

[Flipper]

Re our recruiting...Huger may have focused more on talented, smaller guards because the larger, talented guys wound up going somewhere else. We all saw how futile it can be to take an athlete with size with the hopes of developing him when Tisdale was here. At the point our program was in...I'd take talent over size any day.

Re our bigs...we have two actual bigs. Gadson hasn't developed into anything and doesn't profile as much more than a rim protecting rebounder with no offense besides putbacks. Mattos? I have no idea what his skill set is like.

Either way...I don't see that as a big issue. Just because soem teams favor 5's that can stretch the floor...it doesn't mean we have to. There's a lot of ways to get the ball into the basket.

Re the media coverage...someone from the Blade wrote a superficial fluff piece that said nothing that the average fan didn't already know? The hell you say....

[Siborg]

Agreed that was a useless article.

Being an optimist, perhaps Huger sees some progress from our current set of bigs so no new additions are necessary. Matiss, Mattos and Gadsen are all virtual unknowns to us so perhaps one or more might surprise us. I like this time of year for both FB and BB because anything is theoretically possible especially with young people still developing their game and bodies.

Another possibility is motivation for them to compete for the available minutes and showing some confidence in them.

[Globetrotter]

C could be fine. We certainly have 3-4 guys who could play there. If I was head coach I would leverage all the good we had going for us and go get a Grad xfer who I knew would be good to play there.

[mbenecke]

OFFICIAL: Huger received a 3-year extension through 2023-2024.

[mbenecke]

My thoughts:

I like the deal, but I don’t love the deal.

3 years is a long time. But it also helps with recruiting - to know that a coach is going to be there beyond next season.

If last year is what the program looks like in the future, I like this move a lot - that's where we should be, is competing for a MAC championship and winning 20+ games. However, if it was an anomaly...we just set our program back 5 years.

I'm hoping for the best - I really like Coach Huger.

[BillyLP]

My thoughts:

I like the deal, but I don’t love the deal.

3 years is a long time. But it also helps with recruiting - to know that a coach is going to be there beyond next season.

If last year is what the program looks like in the future, I like this move a lot - that's where we should be, is competing for a MAC championship and winning 20+ games. However, if it was an anomaly...we just set our program back 5 years.

I'm hoping for the best - I really like Coach Huger.

I agree with your sentiments. I think an extension was necessary/warranted, but was hoping to see a 2 year deal for the reasons you said.

That said, Huger has really righted the ship, in my opinion. His recruiting classes have improved each year and depth is improving with that. I think his in-game coaching is better than it was when he started, and his players really seem to respond to him. This is the first time since I started at BG in '06 that men's basketball is the sport I'm most looking forward to going into a new year.

[hammb]

So stupid and unnecessary, but very fitting with what we know of BG athletics.

Let's hope like hell the progress we saw last year was real progress and not an anomaly. Just asinine from our perspective, because if last year WAS the start of something real he'll still be gone in a year or two to a bigger offer anyhow. And if it was just an anomaly we're now handcuffed for an additional 3 years.

[BillyLP]

So stupid and unnecessary, but very fitting with what we know of BG athletics.

Let's hope like hell the progress we saw last year was real progress and not an anomaly. Just asinine from our perspective, because if last year WAS the start of something real he'll still be gone in a year or two to a bigger offer anyhow. And if it was just an anomaly we're now handcuffed for an additional 3 years.

It's a pretty safe bet that they are going to have a decent season this year with the amount of talent they have returning, so if they do have another 20+ win season and he gets an offer to a bigger program, at least BG has (I assume) about $1MM buyout coming their way. It's a calculated risk and it makes sense.

[hammb]

So stupid and unnecessary, but very fitting with what we know of BG athletics.

Let's hope like hell the progress we saw last year was real progress and not an anomaly. Just asinine from our perspective, because if last year WAS the start of something real he'll still be gone in a year or two to a bigger offer anyhow. And if it was just an anomaly we're now handcuffed for an additional 3 years.

It's a pretty safe bet that they are going to have a decent season this year with the amount of talent they have returning, so if they do have another 20+ win season and he gets an offer to a bigger program, at least BG has (I assume) about $1MM buyout coming their way. It's a calculated risk and it makes sense.

If Turner returns (which I expect) I do think they're poised for a big year next year. A year that very well could garner Huger additional offers from larger programs.

But, keeping in mind that he was still under contract for the 2020-2021 season as well all this new deal could potentially be doing after next year is increasing the buyout numbers. IF we assume it was a calculated risk (at this point I"m cynical about BG's athletic dept really calculating anything), I'd really like to see the numbers of that calculation. I mean how much was the buyout raised in order to gamble another 3 seasons of our basketball program. I get that to many of them 3 years is nothing, but to some of us that's a lot of time.

I do have high expectations/hopes for next season. And I'll readily admit Huger made progress as a coach this season. But giving an extension early based one good season when his previous 3 were actually WORSE than the Louis Orr experience is foolish to me.