The SHOCKERS!

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I'm becoming a huge fan of Greg Marshall and to all those who thought we should have hired him a long time ago, I apologize for opposing you. Everytime I've watched Marshall's Wichita St teams I've come away more impressed. Those guys play defense like a shield and run their offense like a sewing machine. They and Virginia are my top choices to win the Dance, but Virginia struggled mightily to beat Coastal Carolina last night - a real tribute to Cliff Ellis. Anyway, if you play one of these two teams you better make the most out of every open shot opportunity because their aren't going to be many and on top of staying in your face the entire game, neither team fouls very much. Neither team gives up many point making opportunities at the free throw line, in half court offense, or in transition. These teams are making me see the importance of not fouling.

This is exactly the type concept Frank Martin is teaching and I sure hope our big men are watching and studying the defense of the Shockers and Cavaliers. We foul too much because we're not strong and quick enough to stay in position on defense. Most fouls result from getting behind the guy they're guarding. I'm sure the players are learning to stay in front of their man and their ability to do that will increase as their strength and quickness develops. We just need a great offensive weapon like a Cleanthony Early to shore us up on offense and we'll be right in the thick of things. Can't help wondering where we'd be with Anthony Gill and Demontre Harris, but we're still coming along fine. It's looking like we're going to have a shot with that Delarosa kid from New York and I believe another big man is a big missing piece of the Gamecock puzzle.

 

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oops

 

[FeatheredCock]

Good post, have to agree with you...........

 

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Well, I was wrong about the Shockers, but if Kentucky ends up winning the Tournament, that makes us the default National Champions since we thrashed them on 3/1. That's the way I see it.

 

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Another guy who coaches a dang good devensive scheme is Mike Young of Wofford. The Michigan coach couldn't say enough good things about how every time one of his guys caught a pass their was a Terrier right in front of him staring right in his eyes. Wofford College - in the Dance 3 out of the last 5 years! They don't back down fer nothin'!

 

[ShepCock]

I'm becoming a huge fan of Greg Marshall and to all those who thought we should have hired him a long time ago, I apologize for opposing you. Everytime I've watched Marshall's Wichita St teams I've come away more impressed. Those guys play defense like a shield and run their offense like a sewing machine. 

Apology accepted.

Yes, Marshall's teams are very impressive and well-run, and Wichita State is a joy to watch from a purist basketball point of view.  Yet they are also somewhat painful to watch unless I can successfully block out of my memory that Marshall would have been in his 6th season at South Carolina right now had our administration not been so dumb.  But these are the same folks that it was a good idea to let Frank McGuire go, force a resignation out of George Felton, and then subsequently hire Steve Newton. Hopefully those days are behind us now, but alas I digress.

I know the Shockers lost to Kentucky, but that was the best game of the tournament thus far in my opinion.  Wichita State has NOTHING to hang their heads about, this was an upset, plain and simple.  I am a little upset with the committee for stacking the Midwest against them however.  IMO, given that they were the lowest RPI of the #1 seeds, it is Virginia that should have had the deck stacked like that if it was anyone.

But what's done is done.  And yes, if Kentucky wins it all, or even makes the Final Four then we can take some solace in the fact that we beat them down the stretch.

 

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Well, if we turned back the clock 6 years and were hiring again, I would still be a staunch proponent of hiring a big name coach with a track record of success winning conference championships at a Major Div 1 program, not an untested gamble as Greg Marshall and Darrin Horn were at that time. Now, however, Marshall is a proven brand in coaching and worthy to be hired by a major program for big $$$$$

 

[ShepCock]

Well, if we turned back the clock 6 years and were hiring again, I would still be a staunch proponent of hiring a big name coach with a track record of success winning conference championships at a Major Div 1 program

Regarding Marshall and your criteria:

Big name coach - Marshall actually was this IMO.  He had Winthrop in the Dance 7 out of 8 years, and was the talk of many basketball experts as the Tournament approached every year.  His name was out there A LOT.

Track record of success of winning conference championships - Marshall's record at Winthrop was 194–83 (.700) overall, and 104–24 (.813) in his conference. He also won an NCAA tournament game with Winthrop.....let that sink in.  You think we might be interested in ending our nasty non-winning streak by hiring somebody like that? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Marshall

Major Div. 1 program - Obviously the Big South isn't that.  But Jim Tressel was winning championships at Youngstown State, and did pretty good at Ohio State.  Bobby Cremmins was a winner at App State before making the jump to Georgia Tech, and he did fine there.  There are plenty of examples of coaches from non-major D1 programs that did fine at the next level.  But I think the relevant points in Marshall's case are a) Winthrop is in our backyard, and;

He really wanted to come here to coach (and we didn't even give him a look whatsoever).

 

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I would never consider hiring any coach for this program who had not already proven himself as a successful head coach at a Major Div 1 program. Coaching the basketball team is only one of the attributes necessary to succeed with our program. Martin is perfect for us. However, if something happened with Martin and we needed to hire another coach today, I'd go for Marshall. 

 

[ShepCock]

I would never consider hiring any coach for this program who had not already proven himself as a successful head coach at a Major Div 1 program. 

I can understand that.

We've been burned too many times by those who have failed to meet that criteria (ironically Horn is one of those).

And I agree that Martin is a keeper for as long as we can hold on to him.

 

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Shep, I was practically a lone voice protesting the hiring of Darrin Horn. No way he was qualified to handle the media/PR aspects of the job and that was his undoing. He outperformed by a substantial margin what I thought he's be able to do in recruiting. Horn knows the x's and o's as well as anybody. He does not know the communication part of the job. Anyway, due to that he couldn't hang on long enough to develop his talent.

As for keeping Martin, we are now a destination kind of job - one of the pearls of coaching opportunities in the nation. We most definitely were NOT that before SOS came along. So Martin feels lucky to be here and he's not giving it up unless some major NBA kind of dollars are offered to him. Even in that case, I think he thinks of himself as a teacher and mentor more than a coach so I think he's here to stay. And after he gets us deep into the Dance a couple times, he knows we will make him one of the highest paid coaches in the nation, too.

 

[ShepCock]

I'm not convinced that if the Miami Hurricanes job came open that Martin wouldn't go for that.  He'd at least consider it.

I don't think that Martin would make it in the NBA at all because multi-millionaires aren't going to tolerate all that yelling!

However if he were to go for any reason, that would be a reason to get Marshall to come back, or hey, what about Brad Underwood?  Those 30+ wins at SF Austin make him look like he can get the job done.  There would certainly be other options also.

But I think odds are greater than 50/50 that Martin is here for the long haul.  Say 70/30 that he stays here until his eventual retirement.