Tybot
01-24-2011, 10:15 AM
Since so many people (ok, maybe only 1 or 2) have asked my opinion, here it goes...
Many teams would love to be 13-7. It's just not acceptable to Alford nor our fans due to the bar that Alford has set. Alford is one of the best coaches in the NCAA. You can bet Alford is as frustrated as anyone with the team but he knows how good we'll be in the future.
Staying with Alford, he does not run players off. I think every player that has left either caused it through their off the court actions, on the court (either in practice or in games) or UNM was just not the right fit for them. When you recruit at a high level, players are going to leave. Matt Staff is a very good example. He didn't see himself competing for big minutes and chose to go somewhere he could. No harm in that.
PMac is a very good player. He is in a big slump both mentally and on the court. Alford and PMac will figure it out. Dairese peaked last year and that's nothing but a compliment to Dairese. He is the rock that Alford very wisely built upon and asking more from him this year just isn't fair. He is a bulldog that we can depend upon in the clutch but needs other people to be the go-to guy that he makes better by keeping defenses honest. Fans don't notice turnovers in the 1st half of games but are overyly critical of turnovers in the last minute of close games.
Style of play. Playing with and without a very good big man has it's plus and minuses. Last year we didn't have a strong post player outside of AJ. Zero backup for him and he played very well. Our outside shot fell last year and we executed at a very high level. This year we have a wealth of post players and that is part of the problem. Switching from an outside oriented team to an inside team is not an easy transition. Add to that Drew becoming eligible only recently and the difficulty switching mindsets is very obvious.
Darington. Regardless of what people have said recently, we would have been a legit top 10 team with him back. Ignore the "what ifs" regarding his hip problems. If we only lost 'Ro and added all the new kids this year, we would be a top 10 team. The difference makers in college basketball are often 6'7" versitile guards. Even playing at 75%, Darington was the difference last year. 'Ro was HUGE but obviously he was graduating and not coming back. Darington made the right choice. He was able to not only figure out what was holding him back but he also got top notch medical treatment on the NBA's dime and got a nice paycheck on top of it. In the world of "potential", his age clock was working against him and I support the decision he made to declare.
I always said last year we probably weren't as good as our 30-3 record and #8 ranking illustrated. This year we're not as "bad" as our 13-7 record says. We won games last year that we were lucky to win and this year we've lost games that we were very unfortunate to lose. There are only a couple games that we played very poorly (Wyoming and Utah) that we didn't deserve the win and one of those (Wyoming) came down to a very (un)lucky buzzer beater. There were soooo many "lucky" bounces last year that went our way and they seem to be balancing out this year.
Injuries. We were blessed last year until the MWC tourney. Darington and Dairese got hurt and on top of it they were both worn out. We know how that ended up with our losses to SDSU and Washington. This team is built for NCAA success, just not this year. I think people are really overlooking our injuries this year. EMan was coming into his own when he was forced to sit out. Jamal not playing put a lot of physical pressure on Dairese, especially important considering that Dairese was very sick for a couple of those losses. With EMan playing I have no doubt we win all but 1 or 2 of the games we've lost. We are holding our own rebounding but we've lost some very, very key rebounds at horrible times, most notibly at Wyoming to end the game.
As for EMan, I don't think there's anything we don't know right now. We should all be thankful that EMan gthought enough of us fans to give Alford permission to even discuss the matter with us. I don't think anything is being kept from us...Alford said he is being held out through Jan. and his status will be evaluated then. We're not there yet. At the very least, if he never plays again, UNM will have a great kid in the program. Best case is he comes back and plays again at a high level. Either way we should be very glad UNM "took the risk" on him.
The MWC is better than it's ever been and in fact pretty much every team other than UNM and UNLV is better than last year. 1-4 is not acceptable, especially when 2 of those losses have been poor showings. It took an unreal game by Gay to beat us in the Pit and we played very well for about 37 minutes in Vegas. Heck, even Utah played out of their minds to beat us when we played very poorly. Utah has rattled off 3 wins in a row after being blown out by BYU and losing key players.
Combinations. We've shifted our lineup more times this year than the total number of times over Alford's time at UNM. I'll agree that this team is lacking chemistry, but only on the court. I don't think there's any notable problems off the court. I'm certain the team is frustrated but not with one another. In a perfect world, freshman (other than rare cases) play sparingly their first year and learn the ropes in practice. This year we have a strange combination of not only being very young overall but the "right" combination probably involves a number of freshmen playing big minutes. This is not the norm in college basketball and learning the system during games is much harder than coming on slowly in practice.
There's still a lot of basketball to be played this year and winning the MWC tourney is not out of the question. Losing Dairese after this year will be huge, but we have the pieces we need to be NCAA bound for years to come. 30-5 spoiled us as fans. We've come to expect it. 30-5 was the best record in over 100 years of basketball at UNM. Even with Darington back we probably wouldn't have matched that record. SDSU is a prime example of building for the future. Their future is now. There were many SDSU fans calling for Fisher's head the last couple of years but now the man walks on water. All he did is take 4 years to build a team that was strong at every position. Luckily for Fisher, they lose so much of their roster next year their fans will surely not expect too much. I just think Alford has done such a good job that we as fans expect too much now. This is a rebuilding year for UNM. We lost one of the best glue guys and most popular Lobos ever in 'Ro and an ALL-AMERICAN, do everything player in Darington who also added the cockiness that everyone is begging for now. The future is very, very bright. Yes, I'm disappointed by our record, especially 1-4, but things are just not bouncing our way right now. That will change.
Many teams would love to be 13-7. It's just not acceptable to Alford nor our fans due to the bar that Alford has set. Alford is one of the best coaches in the NCAA. You can bet Alford is as frustrated as anyone with the team but he knows how good we'll be in the future.
Staying with Alford, he does not run players off. I think every player that has left either caused it through their off the court actions, on the court (either in practice or in games) or UNM was just not the right fit for them. When you recruit at a high level, players are going to leave. Matt Staff is a very good example. He didn't see himself competing for big minutes and chose to go somewhere he could. No harm in that.
PMac is a very good player. He is in a big slump both mentally and on the court. Alford and PMac will figure it out. Dairese peaked last year and that's nothing but a compliment to Dairese. He is the rock that Alford very wisely built upon and asking more from him this year just isn't fair. He is a bulldog that we can depend upon in the clutch but needs other people to be the go-to guy that he makes better by keeping defenses honest. Fans don't notice turnovers in the 1st half of games but are overyly critical of turnovers in the last minute of close games.
Style of play. Playing with and without a very good big man has it's plus and minuses. Last year we didn't have a strong post player outside of AJ. Zero backup for him and he played very well. Our outside shot fell last year and we executed at a very high level. This year we have a wealth of post players and that is part of the problem. Switching from an outside oriented team to an inside team is not an easy transition. Add to that Drew becoming eligible only recently and the difficulty switching mindsets is very obvious.
Darington. Regardless of what people have said recently, we would have been a legit top 10 team with him back. Ignore the "what ifs" regarding his hip problems. If we only lost 'Ro and added all the new kids this year, we would be a top 10 team. The difference makers in college basketball are often 6'7" versitile guards. Even playing at 75%, Darington was the difference last year. 'Ro was HUGE but obviously he was graduating and not coming back. Darington made the right choice. He was able to not only figure out what was holding him back but he also got top notch medical treatment on the NBA's dime and got a nice paycheck on top of it. In the world of "potential", his age clock was working against him and I support the decision he made to declare.
I always said last year we probably weren't as good as our 30-3 record and #8 ranking illustrated. This year we're not as "bad" as our 13-7 record says. We won games last year that we were lucky to win and this year we've lost games that we were very unfortunate to lose. There are only a couple games that we played very poorly (Wyoming and Utah) that we didn't deserve the win and one of those (Wyoming) came down to a very (un)lucky buzzer beater. There were soooo many "lucky" bounces last year that went our way and they seem to be balancing out this year.
Injuries. We were blessed last year until the MWC tourney. Darington and Dairese got hurt and on top of it they were both worn out. We know how that ended up with our losses to SDSU and Washington. This team is built for NCAA success, just not this year. I think people are really overlooking our injuries this year. EMan was coming into his own when he was forced to sit out. Jamal not playing put a lot of physical pressure on Dairese, especially important considering that Dairese was very sick for a couple of those losses. With EMan playing I have no doubt we win all but 1 or 2 of the games we've lost. We are holding our own rebounding but we've lost some very, very key rebounds at horrible times, most notibly at Wyoming to end the game.
As for EMan, I don't think there's anything we don't know right now. We should all be thankful that EMan gthought enough of us fans to give Alford permission to even discuss the matter with us. I don't think anything is being kept from us...Alford said he is being held out through Jan. and his status will be evaluated then. We're not there yet. At the very least, if he never plays again, UNM will have a great kid in the program. Best case is he comes back and plays again at a high level. Either way we should be very glad UNM "took the risk" on him.
The MWC is better than it's ever been and in fact pretty much every team other than UNM and UNLV is better than last year. 1-4 is not acceptable, especially when 2 of those losses have been poor showings. It took an unreal game by Gay to beat us in the Pit and we played very well for about 37 minutes in Vegas. Heck, even Utah played out of their minds to beat us when we played very poorly. Utah has rattled off 3 wins in a row after being blown out by BYU and losing key players.
Combinations. We've shifted our lineup more times this year than the total number of times over Alford's time at UNM. I'll agree that this team is lacking chemistry, but only on the court. I don't think there's any notable problems off the court. I'm certain the team is frustrated but not with one another. In a perfect world, freshman (other than rare cases) play sparingly their first year and learn the ropes in practice. This year we have a strange combination of not only being very young overall but the "right" combination probably involves a number of freshmen playing big minutes. This is not the norm in college basketball and learning the system during games is much harder than coming on slowly in practice.
There's still a lot of basketball to be played this year and winning the MWC tourney is not out of the question. Losing Dairese after this year will be huge, but we have the pieces we need to be NCAA bound for years to come. 30-5 spoiled us as fans. We've come to expect it. 30-5 was the best record in over 100 years of basketball at UNM. Even with Darington back we probably wouldn't have matched that record. SDSU is a prime example of building for the future. Their future is now. There were many SDSU fans calling for Fisher's head the last couple of years but now the man walks on water. All he did is take 4 years to build a team that was strong at every position. Luckily for Fisher, they lose so much of their roster next year their fans will surely not expect too much. I just think Alford has done such a good job that we as fans expect too much now. This is a rebuilding year for UNM. We lost one of the best glue guys and most popular Lobos ever in 'Ro and an ALL-AMERICAN, do everything player in Darington who also added the cockiness that everyone is begging for now. The future is very, very bright. Yes, I'm disappointed by our record, especially 1-4, but things are just not bouncing our way right now. That will change.