Final: Memphis 73 Bradley 45

[tornado]

...Cunningham showing any promise ...Shaw is big disappointment but still better than Morgan and Taylor.....

Cunningham is a freshman - we MUST find someone for him to work with to develop him into a top notch player -
Hire Bayo or Mark Vershaw or Donald Reese...those guys know a little about developing big men.

But your point about Mike Shaw...
he is a 4th year player - as are Omari Grier, Anthony Fields, Wells...

Morgan, Bell (although Dave Snell keeps calling him a sophomore), Jones, Sutherland, and Amerson are 3rd year guys we've invested scholarships in and NEED to develop (not many signs they are).
Shouldn't they be better by now? Shouldn't they show more development by now - that's a very important question.
Guys like Mockevicius, Van Vleet, Baker, Beane. etc... are all 2nd & 3rd year guys in the Valley and they are going to absolutely eat our guys for lunch from what we're seeing...

But then - again - remember - only one of our assistants had ever been an assistant coach on a Division I staff before we hired them, and that was Ronald Coleman who spent less than 1 year on Tim Miles' staff at Colorado State primarily as a recruiter, not a coach - is it any wonder they just don't have the experience and back ground? And they sure don't seem to have very good recruiting connections given the turnstyle approach to reloading with whoever is left each spring without any scholarship offers.

Even Geno - hailed as a lifetime basketball guy - certainly isn't a big-man coach and had only 3 years of experience as a DI head coach before we hired him.
Because we were desperate for a change, we hastily pulled the trigger, and are now left with an inexperienced staff that doesn't seem to be able to recruit the necessary talent or "coach them up".

[Buesch N Chips]

Cunningham is getting better. He will stagnate during the conference season but this freshman year will be a tremendous learning experience for him.

[wizard1]

Final: Memphis 73 Bradley 45

Dick Versace once told me that he believed the number one requirement for a successful coach is to be a great teacher...To be able to take a players basic talents and physical make-up and build on these to develop the player. Attending a Versace practice was a real treat and eye opener. Whenever a player made a mistake in a practice scrimmage, DV would toot his whistle, stop the scrimmage and address the mistake that was made. He never let a mistake pass.
Chuck Osborn used to say that the winning team was almost always the team that made the fewest mistakes. Oz was also a great teacher as was Joe Stowell. IMO, our current coaches are not very good/effective teachers and it shows!!
Wiz

[Chibearsfan10125]

This game was the worst we've played on the season, by far, which was disappointing because I felt the team was playing slightly better over the last 4 games, despite only managing a 2-2 record during that time.

Now this was not a game I expected us to win, but it was also not one I expected us to get blown out in. Memphis is in a rebuilding year, as per their coach. Losing like this to a team of that caliber is an embarrassment. There is nothing that can be said to justify that type of a loss. If I was Geno, I'd take a good hard look at all my players. Outside of Cunningham, and maybe Jones and/or Barnes, none of the guys are playing very well.

None of our bigs deserve the minutes they are getting. I loved Taylor last year, but he doesn't seem to have gotten any better from year 1 to year 2, and may have even regressed some. Morgan and Shaw haven't shown me much. I don't see the harm in giving Wells some more playing time. Even though I don't think he is as "skilled" as some of our others bigs, he plays hard when he's out there and changes the game on the defensive end. Is he ever going to be a star? No, but he deserves more playing time than he's getting, especially with the guys we have in front of him not doing much.

That being said, I'm choosing to remain optimistic. I may be setting myself up for disappointment, but we're still 3-5, not 0-8, and are said to missing "our most important" player in Sutherland. Bell is not a true PG, and should not be getting 35 minutes a night. Even if Sutherland is only OK at the D-1 level, then he'll be able to get Bell closer to 20 minutes a game, where he should be. Only Wichita and UNI have really impressed me thus far this season out of the other Valley Schools, and while I don't expect us to finish 3rd in the Valley, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on this season and say we're destined to finish 10th either. I like Geno, and I want him to succeed here. I still think he can, but he has to prove it, and soon. Most fans will not be as loyal and optimistic as I am.