UA @ UNH

[Big D]

The "let's make a coaching change" drum beat is premature and counter-productive. Will Brown has earned the right to have a bad year. Over the 4 years before this one, Will is 74-52 with two NCAA appearances and 15+ wins each season. By comparison, Lonergan is 78-49 with 0 NCAA appearances and 3 15+ win seasons. BU under Wolff the last 4 years was 52-67, with 0 NCAA appearances and only 1 15+ win season. No other coaches in the AE have records that are even close to Will and Lonergan.

 

By the way, I also "like Will Brown as a person" but do not have "a personal relationship" with Coach, and have never met him. We are all disappointed with the results this year, but to say Will should be fired is ridiculous.

 

I'm definitely concerned about the prospects for success with this current group of players. I see flashes of potential here and there, but I haven't seen one or two guys who are guaranteed all league type of players. Like some of the critical posters, I don't love Will's offensive system. Recruiting is another concern. We should be able to recruit upper echelon AE talent. UA is a good school, with good facilities, community support, and is a place with a recent tradition of winning basketball. We have alot of advantages over other AE schools, but it has not panned out thus far in the post Jamar/Lucious/Lillis era.

 

My patience is not unlimited, and if we end this season at only 10 wins, and next year is as bad or worse, we can revisit the coaching conversation. But for now, Will Brown deserves the benefit of a doubt and the support of committed UA hoop fans.

[McFan]

The "let's make a coaching change" drum beat is premature and counter-productive. Will Brown has earned the right to have a bad year. Over the 4 years before this one, Will is 74-52 with two NCAA appearances and 15+ wins each season. By comparison, Lonergan is 78-49 with 0 NCAA appearances and 3 15+ win seasons. BU under Wolff the last 4 years was 52-67, with 0 NCAA appearances and only 1 15+ win season. No other coaches in the AE have records that are even close to Will and Lonergan.

 

By the way, I also "like Will Brown as a person" but do not have "a personal relationship" with Coach, and have never met him. We are all disappointed with the results this year, but to say Will should be fired is ridiculous.

 

I'm definitely concerned about the prospects for success with this current group of players. I see flashes of potential here and there, but I haven't seen one or two guys who are guaranteed all league type of players. Like some of the critical posters, I don't love Will's offensive system. Recruiting is another concern. We should be able to recruit upper echelon AE talent. UA is a good school, with good facilities, community support, and is a place with a recent tradition of winning basketball. We have alot of advantages over other AE schools, but it has not panned out thus far in the post Jamar/Lucious/Lillis era.

 

My patience is not unlimited, and if we end this season at only 10 wins, and next year is as bad or worse, we can revisit the coaching conversation. But for now, Will Brown deserves the benefit of a doubt and the support of committed UA hoop fans.

 

I hope my comments are not constued as part of the "let's make a coaching change" drumbeat. Mine are more along the lines of can "coach make the changes necessary". Your four year example above however is a bit unfair to those that are extremely disappointed with the direction of the program. Including the NCAA years and not including this year (which is half over)?

 

Right now it's the trend and the prospects for the next year or two. As much as we want to point at Will Harris, what if we didn't have him? Who do we see as providing offense to this team next year. Some want to point at Tim, good and bad, but if he continues to be inconsistent, where does the scoring come from? Forgetting the Yale game, has our offense looked good at any other point this year.

 

CB just doesn't seem to be willing to change. In my opinion the stagnant offense is three years now. This causes a number of issues, many amplified by losing. Kids want to play a better brand of offense (see Siena) and the offense we run makes it difficult to recruit and will continue to do so. And on the flip side up tempo brings in offensive minded players (and yes they need to play some D too). It is also very difficult to watch. And from the board, and trust me, from the fan base this is a problem. Part of his job is to put fans in the arena. Do I want 100 pts a game, unrealistic. I do want more 70 point games than 50 point games, yes.

 

His love of Giff is unexplainable. We start every game stagnant. We start every second half stagnant. Common thread is that at best you have four offensive options on the floor. Add to it that our 4's are not offensive threats either, we are at 3 threats on offense.

 

Is Blake Metcalf the answer? Maybe, maybe not, but let's find out. We know what we have with Giff.

 

How do other schools have multiple 3-pt options, and we have one - our small/power forward.

 

Are our redshirts any good?

 

The other real issue is that the number of better players that have left the program. There is always a reason, personality, didn't buy in, homesick etc. The fact is some of our best prospects are gone. Josh Martin was a good PG as a freshmen. Al Turley, offensive threat and tough precense on the floor down low. Raffa, hard nosed, tough, scorer and TO machine. At least two of these would be starters on this team. And if Raffa agreed to be a shooting gaurd, maybe 3. Whatever the reasons (and not the point in this debate), they are gone.

[UA'08]

The "let's make a coaching change" drum beat is premature and counter-productive. Will Brown has earned the right to have a bad year. Over the 4 years before this one, Will is 74-52 with two NCAA appearances and 15+ wins each season. By comparison, Lonergan is 78-49 with 0 NCAA appearances and 3 15+ win seasons. BU under Wolff the last 4 years was 52-67, with 0 NCAA appearances and only 1 15+ win season. No other coaches in the AE have records that are even close to Will and Lonergan.

 

By the way, I also "like Will Brown as a person" but do not have "a personal relationship" with Coach, and have never met him. We are all disappointed with the results this year, but to say Will should be fired is ridiculous.

 

I'm definitely concerned about the prospects for success with this current group of players. I see flashes of potential here and there, but I haven't seen one or two guys who are guaranteed all league type of players. Like some of the critical posters, I don't love Will's offensive system. Recruiting is another concern. We should be able to recruit upper echelon AE talent. UA is a good school, with good facilities, community support, and is a place with a recent tradition of winning basketball. We have alot of advantages over other AE schools, but it has not panned out thus far in the post Jamar/Lucious/Lillis era.

 

My patience is not unlimited, and if we end this season at only 10 wins, and next year is as bad or worse, we can revisit the coaching conversation. But for now, Will Brown deserves the benefit of a doubt and the support of committed UA hoop fans.

 

Yea and over the past 2.5 years his record is 35-44. Theres 2 different ways of looking at it. I still cant fathom as a fan that people can sit bad and watch another dissapointing season go by.

 

McFan brought up a good point... We are all guilty of bashing harris, myself included, but where would we be without him.

[McFan]

The "let's make a coaching change" drum beat is premature and counter-productive. Will Brown has earned the right to have a bad year. Over the 4 years before this one, Will is 74-52 with two NCAA appearances and 15+ wins each season. By comparison, Lonergan is 78-49 with 0 NCAA appearances and 3 15+ win seasons. BU under Wolff the last 4 years was 52-67, with 0 NCAA appearances and only 1 15+ win season. No other coaches in the AE have records that are even close to Will and Lonergan.

 

By the way, I also "like Will Brown as a person" but do not have "a personal relationship" with Coach, and have never met him. We are all disappointed with the results this year, but to say Will should be fired is ridiculous.

 

I'm definitely concerned about the prospects for success with this current group of players. I see flashes of potential here and there, but I haven't seen one or two guys who are guaranteed all league type of players. Like some of the critical posters, I don't love Will's offensive system. Recruiting is another concern. We should be able to recruit upper echelon AE talent. UA is a good school, with good facilities, community support, and is a place with a recent tradition of winning basketball. We have alot of advantages over other AE schools, but it has not panned out thus far in the post Jamar/Lucious/Lillis era.

 

My patience is not unlimited, and if we end this season at only 10 wins, and next year is as bad or worse, we can revisit the coaching conversation. But for now, Will Brown deserves the benefit of a doubt and the support of committed UA hoop fans.

 

Yea and over the past 2.5 years his record is 35-44. Theres 2 different ways of looking at it. I still cant fathom as a fan that people can sit bad and watch another dissapointing season go by.

 

McFan brought up a good point... We are all guilty of bashing harris, myself included, but where would we be without him.

 

And last night unfortunately only makes it easier to bash Mr. Harris. 20 and 11, after what 0 and 4 vs. Vermont?

[Big D]

 

I hope my comments are not constued as part of the "let's make a coaching change" drumbeat. Mine are more along the lines of can "coach make the changes necessary". Your four year example above however is a bit unfair to those that are extremely disappointed with the direction of the program. Including the NCAA years and not including this year (which is half over)?

 

Right now it's the trend and the prospects for the next year or two. As much as we want to point at Will Harris, what if we didn't have him? Who do we see as providing offense to this team next year. Some want to point at Tim, good and bad, but if he continues to be inconsistent, where does the scoring come from? Forgetting the Yale game, has our offense looked good at any other point this year.

 

CB just doesn't seem to be willing to change. In my opinion the stagnant offense is three years now. This causes a number of issues, many amplified by losing. Kids want to play a better brand of offense (see Siena) and the offense we run makes it difficult to recruit and will continue to do so. And on the flip side up tempo brings in offensive minded players (and yes they need to play some D too). It is also very difficult to watch. And from the board, and trust me, from the fan base this is a problem. Part of his job is to put fans in the arena. Do I want 100 pts a game, unrealistic. I do want more 70 point games than 50 point games, yes.

 

His love of Giff is unexplainable. We start every game stagnant. We start every second half stagnant. Common thread is that at best you have four offensive options on the floor. Add to it that our 4's are not offensive threats either, we are at 3 threats on offense.

 

Is Blake Metcalf the answer? Maybe, maybe not, but let's find out. We know what we have with Giff.

 

How do other schools have multiple 3-pt options, and we have one - our small/power forward.

 

Are our redshirts any good?

 

The other real issue is that the number of better players that have left the program. There is always a reason, personality, didn't buy in, homesick etc. The fact is some of our best prospects are gone. Josh Martin was a good PG as a freshmen. Al Turley, offensive threat and tough precense on the floor down low. Raffa, hard nosed, tough, scorer and TO machine. At least two of these would be starters on this team. And if Raffa agreed to be a shooting gaurd, maybe 3. Whatever the reasons (and not the point in this debate), they are gone.

 

 

 

 

I agree with most of your observations. Something will need to change in the next year or so. Hopefully it's the players getting better and winning more games. Again, my point is that Will has earned the right to have a bad year. (I don't consider the previous two years "bad years" in the context of UA Div. 1 basketball history). Drop offs are inevitable at the AE level. UVM went 13-17 the year after Coppenrath/Sorrentine graduated. Look at UMBC. They go from 24 wins and an NCAA berth 2 years ago, to 15 wins last year, to 1-14 so far this year. This is not the ACC, and we are not N. Carolina.

 

You raise good questions about the freshmen and the redshirts. We have seen some good things from Tartt, Aronhalt and Metcalf. None of them look like all league players right now, but we hopefully will have 3 1/2 years to watch them grow as players. I want to see wins this year as much as anyone, but I'm trying to take the longer view, and more to the point, the head coach deserves our patience.

 

 

[Clickclack]

The biggest jump is from freshmen to sophomore year...I really like what Black has done in a couple of games...he's inconsistent as a freshman but that's ok. Look at the two freshmen guards at Siena...neither one of them can even get on the court (they were both billed as surefire gets)...one has academic issues the other one apparently just isn't adjusting well to the college game. Recruiting is a gamble sometimes you hit sometimes you miss.

 

Logan will get better as he get's his feet under him....Puk is up to 240lb...would be nice to get him to 250 for his freshmen campaign...

 

As far as where would we be without Will....someone would be forced to step up!