How would you feel if we had lost to FSU, Louisville, Duke. Like we were supposed to, but had beaten GT, Virginia Tech and wake forest instead to have the same record .
Would you feel more encouraged? More consistency right?
Re: Question about basketball Wins over ranked teams
Mar 6, 2020, 3:11 PM
I think from a fan stand point I am much more encouraged by the wins over the ranked teams, if for nothing else reference points next season, and overcoming some of those hurdles that haunted us in the past. That said, objectively, it just speaks to the state of basketball in general, from pee-wee all the way to the NBA and the incorporation of analytics to the game (shooting more 3's). That's why you can see a team like the Rockets in the NBA beat the Lakers (best record in the NBA) one night and lose to the Knicks (bottom 3) the next. You have to look at our overall record to really get a feel for our team, not cherry picking who we beat on any given year--like the great Bill Parcels said, you are what your record says you are--and we are about a .500 team.
This is all a long winded way of saying as a fan those wins are awesome and made this season much more watchable and engaging, but from a big picture stand point, they mean nothing, you have to look at our body of work and say we are an inconsistent, middle of the road team and program. I think our style of play falls in line with the majority of every other team that is trying to "keep up with the Joneses" so to speak. I like Coach Brownell and think he does a nice job maximizing our talent year in and out and keeping us competitive by getting college players to buy into working hard on the defensive end (not easy to do). The problem is the talent gap between us and consistent NCAA qualifying teams. Credit to Brad, he's trying different things (transfer portal, more foreign born players, etc) to try and close that gap, but it just hasn't yielded consistent results.
If we keep Brad we need to go out and hire the best recruiting assistants in the country and execute the "Brinks Truck" approach-- go offer them an amount of money they cannot turn down and get them in our program to help Brad bring in top tier talent. It might be cheaper to let go of Brad and hire a head coach that is an amazing recruiter (similar to OP) but I really think if we can get Brad the talent, he can bring the results of a consistent, championship caliber program. Anyway, just my overall thoughts on the program. Go Tigers!