Listen guys. Larry needs to be given a fair chance.

[gUrthBrooks]

He takes this team from 6 wins to the NCAA tournament and then has a couple down years because of unforced transfers. He’s had to deal with State Audits, players leaving early for the NBA and the pressures of a big contract. Which replacement coach could we actually get that would take that salary and play in that gym that is better than 80k? This post is TIC.

[gUrthBrooks]

That being said, we have one hell of a class coming in next year.

[Tony (admin)]

How many next years do we have to wait?

[gUrthBrooks]

Good question. I’ve forwarded my emotions on the issue till the end of next season because there is NOTHING that can be done until that time except bitch and moan.

[Tony (admin)]

How many years is enough?  TWO tournament bids in 9 seasons.  Two. You can’t blame 100% of the down years on unforced transfers. Just watch the team.  They don’t improve.  They turn the ball over like crazy.  They are missing the basics like screening, inbounding the ball, handling the ball and so on.  That’s coaching. I see little to no adjustments offensively or defensively through a game.  We keep doing the same stuff over and over.  Big Rick would scheme the s**t out of other teams and completely destroy them.  He would ELIMINATE the opposing team’s best player.  K couldn’t even dream of doing that. I could go on.

[gUrthBrooks]

You know my post was a joke, right?

[Tony (admin)]

No I didn’t.

[gUrthBrooks]

It says, this post is TIC(tongue in cheek)

[Ute2]

To be fair I think K has coached them up on the defensive end of the court and in a lot of aspects of the game.

that said, I’ve been a k apologist for a long long long time.

but I’m starting to lose it…

i think these team is truly a field of 64 caliber team talent wise this year!  They’re so talented!

 

but the…..whatever we’re doing on offense scheme is stifling that talent.  I’m so sick of watching dudes sit on the block while their teammates attempt to penetrate into the exact same space.  Our scheme and spacing are just garbage.

 

If we lose both gach to transfer it’ll be a TREMENDOUS failure for the program.  He should’ve been unleashed this year.  Instead his job is to dump the ball on the block to somebody else.

I feel like the problems should be so coachable.  If somebody has some more informed insight on coaching and the offense I’d love to hear it.

im not fire the coach guy.  I haven’t called for a coaches head, assistant or otherwise, in any sport since boylen.  And I’ve been a huge k fan forever.  The transfers never did me in.  I think the kuzma early departure really was bad fortune for him.  And a credit to him as a coach for getting kuzma there.  But watching this fabulously talented team do what theyre doing has me sliding the other way on coach k.  

id be remiss if I didn’t say that he’s done a ton for this program, bringing it up from the gutter of boylen and restoring respect.  He deserves our credit and gratitude for that.  But maybe it’s a Ron McBride time to move on kind of thing.

[Charlie]

Compared to other Pac teams I would not view this team as fabulously talented. Great building blocks but not at all the level of talent of the top of the Pac. If the key players stay with next year we will have the best talent in several years. That talent with experience can give us a chance to compete with the top of the Pac but will not get us to the top related to talent. A run at a championship will require us to use experience to overcome greater talent many which are one-and-done guys.

Larry is heading into his critical moment next year. He will need to show very good progress. Could Rick do better, of course he would. Is the next Rick walking thru that door, it is very unlikely, unicorn possibilities only. We could possibly grow one over time but 11 other teams in the Pac are driven to stay ahead or pass us. Replacement of Larry, I think, is about an equal chance to fall back as improve. Emotionally, that is hard to grasp but you need to realize even the bottom of the Pac work hard on BB with the same resources and possibilities we have.

The new AD I expect is on top of all this and has the information required to determine the point for adjustments. Why would I not let him do his job and suppress my frustrations over this year and hope for improvement next year? In the interest of full disclosure, I pushed my way through the 70s and 80s with FB so I expect I am one of the last in the room to give up.

[Ute2]

I think you underestimate how good this team is.

A baller point guard in Rylan
An nba talent in both gach
A center that can do anything.
Timmy Allen is all conference already.

And some really good supporting cast players
Jantunen is a great defender and post player
Brenchley and Plummer are both really good.

I’m not saying they’re sweet 16 or anything but they’re really good. And could get so much better.

The stuff I’m seeing that is costing us (poor offensive scheme) just seems like that staff should be ironing it out.

I really don’t think it’s youthful mistakes that are holding this team back as much as scheme is…

[GameForAnyFuss]

Honest question for those who want to fire Larry this season: If you could fire him and get a new coach, but that move also meant losing more players via transfer (like Rylan, for example) and losing some of the players from this latest recruiting class (like Ian Martinez), would you do it? Would you be in favor of that tradeoff?

I’m just curious to see how much collateral damage people would accept if it meant a regime change.

[Ute2]

I totally get your point.  Again, I’m not fire coach guy.  I was on your side of the fence until the last couple weeks… a long suffering defender of k.

But what I’m seeing has me shook.  I’m wondering if this staff can coach a team built like ours will be.  Right now they’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole on offense.

add that to the transfer problem which probably won’t go away this summer and it’s getting to be too much for me…

So to answer your question, as excited as I am about that much talent being in the program, I think the scales have finally flipped for me.

[Tony (admin)]

You seem to be asking if we want to risk being a mediocre to bad Pac-12 team on the chances of improving?  What’s the downside?  Being a mediocre to bad Pac-12 team? 

[GameForAnyFuss]

No, I’m asking exactly what I asked. I’m asking if losing players/recruits you like would be worth the tradeoff for getting a different coach.

P.S. I’m not fishing for any particular answer. I’m honestly not sure how I would answer my own question.