Here's my problem with CKG's portal moves this season

[MichaelRR]

We finished last season 13-18, lost all 5 starters, and one of our future building blocks in Monson. We were looking at a team that was going to be VERY young and struggle to win 10-12 games this year. So the coaches panicked, brought in the best one year players they could grab, and now if Lombard, Collier, and Bass all play as well as the biggest optimists here think they might, we are a 13-15 win team. Still a losing season but with the added bonus of likely losing more of the underclassmen to the portal because they have lost faith in the coaches and in their ability to start and play for a meaningful team.

Why do I say we are still staring down a losing season?
Ellis >Lombard
Stevenson>Bass
Madison>Collier
Terry = Amiyah at best
Caitlyn > Puryear/McCarthy

 

[purduedavie]

We finished last season 13-18, lost all 5 starters, and one of our future building blocks in Monson. We were looking at a team that was going to be VERY young and struggle to win 10-12 games this year. So the coaches panicked, brought in the best one year players they could grab, and now if Lombard, Collier, and Bass all play as well as the biggest optimists here think they might, we are a 13-15 win team. Still a losing season but with the added bonus of likely losing more of the underclassmen to the portal because they have lost faith in the coaches and in their ability to start and play for a meaningful team.

Why do I say we are still staring down a losing season?
Ellis >Lombard
Stevenson>Bass
Madison>Collier
Terry = Amiyah at best
Caitlyn > Puryear/McCarthy

Monson was never going to be a future building block, the Stevenson loss sucked no doubt about that one, Stanford is Stanford though, one helluve program and school.

 

[BoilerRingside]

Youre not entirely wrong, especially if Collier, Petree and Lombard are expected to start. Bass is a lock. But I hope they look to the youngsters to fill the roles. Obviously Swanson/Ameyah/Jones are not perfect fillers day one for Ellis/Terry/Layden but I hope they get there.

Thats where player development comes in. Michael will agree and disagree with me. The staff has shown they can improve players. I thought Stevenson/Swanson made good strides last season. Terry cut down silly turnovers more and Harper was more efficient under the basket. But the lack of overall improvement across the board has been concerning.

 

[MichaelRR]

Monson was never going to be a future building block, the Stevenson loss sucked no doubt about that one, Stanford is Stanford though, one helluve program and school.

Monson was never a likely starter, but she was a probable building block as a scorer off the bench. That is if the staff had developed her......

 

[MichaelRR]

Youre not entirely wrong, especially if Collier, Petree and Lombard are expected to start. Bass is a lock. But I hope they look to the youngsters to fill the roles. Obviously Swanson/Ameyah/Jones are not perfect fillers day one for Ellis/Terry/Layden but I hope they get there.

Thats where player development comes in. Michael will agree and disagree with me. The staff has shown they can improve players. I thought Stevenson/Swanson made good strides last season. Terry cut down silly turnovers more and Harper was more efficient under the basket. But the lack of overall improvement across the board has been concerning.

1) IF Petree starts we will suck and the coaches are inept.

2) I think the "improvements" you claim for Harper and Terry are more wishful thinking than reality.

3) the improvements in Stevenson and Swanson were what would be expected from frosh getting significant playing time, even under mediocre coaching. Swanson also showed a lot of improvement simply from getting healthier. She was still only about 90-95% at the end of the year as it was.

Swanson and Bass are the only two players I think anyone can say with confidence should/will be day 1 starters, after that it's all up to what CKG had in mind when she brought in these portal players. If Swanson isn't starting, I'll be shocked and really disappointed in Coach Gearlds. She's our best returning player IMHO.

 

[MichaelRR]

Youre not entirely wrong, especially if Collier, Petree and Lombard are expected to start. Bass is a lock. But I hope they look to the youngsters to fill the roles. Obviously Swanson/Ameyah/Jones are not perfect fillers day one for Ellis/Terry/Layden but I hope they get there.

Thats where player development comes in. Michael will agree and disagree with me. The staff has shown they can improve players. I thought Stevenson/Swanson made good strides last season. Terry cut down silly turnovers more and Harper was more efficient under the basket. But the lack of overall improvement across the board has been concerning.

And just to be totally clear here, just because I don't agree with everything someone says doesn't mean I necessarily think they are wrong, I just see it differently but recognize none of us has all the right answers so I love hearing differing opinions. The more opinions we have and the more voices we hear, the more each of us has the chance to gain new insights. That's what makes a great board imo, lots of differing views but working to respect each other despite our differences.

 

[purduedavie]

One thing I’ll say, Purdue was lousy last year, I think some really overestimate the value of some players that are leaving, look, it was time for them to go, all were flawed. Stevenson was a terrible loss, the others were here forever, time for replacements because they didn’t work. Will Purdue be good? I have my doubts, however, let’s not act like the team lost stud players, they didn’t.

 

[MichaelRR]

One thing I’ll say, Purdue was lousy last year, I think some really overestimate the value of some players that are leaving, look, it was time for them to go, all were flawed. Stevenson was a terrible loss, the others were here forever, time for replacements because they didn’t work. Will Purdue be good? I have my doubts, however, let’s not act like the team lost stud players, they didn’t.

Not studs, but better than the players we will have this next year nearly across the board. Experience matters

 

[BoilerRingside]

Not studs, but better than the players we will have this next year nearly across the board. Experience matters

Thats true. But wouldnt you say they have to gain experience? That was the point I was making with Amiyah,Swanson,Jones. They wont be better than the seniors day one but hopefully their ceiling is higher and can reach it sooner rather than later or another school.

And Terry, Harper might have been wishful thinking... And I agree on Petree.

 

[purduedavie]

Not studs, but better than the players we will have this next year nearly across the board. Experience matters

We don’t know this yet Michael. We’ll find out but it’s not a for sure thing.

 

[purduedavie]

Thats true. But wouldnt you say they have to gain experience? That was the point I was making with Amiyah,Swanson,Jones. They wont be better than the seniors day one but hopefully their ceiling is higher and can reach it sooner rather than later or another school.

And Terry, Harper might have been wishful thinking... And I agree on Petree.

We’ll see, we don’t know for sure that last years players were better than this upcoming years, Stevenson was a terrible loss, after that I’m glad there’s a new group that will take over. I watched 4-5 games, it was boring, pretty bad basketball. I saw a poor offense, I also saw some games where the defense was slow and out of position.

 

[MichaelRR]

Thats true. But wouldnt you say they have to gain experience? That was the point I was making with Amiyah,Swanson,Jones. They wont be better than the seniors day one but hopefully their ceiling is higher and can reach it sooner rather than later or another school.

And Terry, Harper might have been wishful thinking... And I agree on Petree.

Oh totally agree on getting the youngsters all the experience this year they can handle. We aren't going to be good anyway, build for the future. It's why other than Bass I'm not happy with the portal additions. Additionally I would have liked to have seen Monson/Swanson used instead of Madison Layden more and Jones exclusively instead of splitting time with Smith the last 7-8 games once we were realistically eliminated from NCAA contention.

 

[MichaelRR]

We don’t know this yet Michael. We’ll find out but it’s not a for sure thing.

We don't know the suns coming up tomorrow, but it's a really good bet...

 

[MichaelRR]

We’ll see, we don’t know for sure that last years players were better than this upcoming years, Stevenson was a terrible loss, after that I’m glad there’s a new group that will take over. I watched 4-5 games, it was boring, pretty bad basketball. I saw a poor offense, I also saw some games where the defense was slow and out of position.

Those are mostly coaching issues, and all the coaches are back.

 

[purduedavie]

We don't know the suns coming up tomorrow, but it's a really good bet...

I mostly agree with you lately, on this I get your point, however, Purdue wasn’t good last year, let’s see how others can do without saying they’re going to be bad, my guess is they’ll win more than 13 regular season games, maybe 15?

 

[MichaelRR]

I mostly agree with you lately, on this I get your point, however, Purdue wasn’t good last year, let’s see how others can do without saying they’re going to be bad, my guess is they’ll win more than 13 regular season games, maybe 15?

Let's see the schedule first, CKG could do a Versyp and load up the pre conference on all cupcakes, or almost all, we have ND at home for sure this season. And we've been lucky with easy conference schedules Gearlds first 3 years, we are due for a hard one, and that could wreck our chances for 15 wins, which I do agree with is probably the outside limit of what we can expect.

 

[Boiler Up Time]

We finished last season 13-18, lost all 5 starters, and one of our future building blocks in Monson. We were looking at a team that was going to be VERY young and struggle to win 10-12 games this year. So the coaches panicked, brought in the best one year players they could grab, and now if Lombard, Collier, and Bass all play as well as the biggest optimists here think they might, we are a 13-15 win team. Still a losing season but with the added bonus of likely losing more of the underclassmen to the portal because they have lost faith in the coaches and in their ability to start and play for a meaningful team.

Why do I say we are still staring down a losing season?
Ellis >Lombard
Stevenson>Bass
Madison>Collier
Terry = Amiyah at best
Caitlyn > Puryear/McCarthy

I fully understand/appreciate the comments and player comparisons from last year to next year. I, for one, am looking forward to watching the new players and see how the new team performs as a unit. Certainly, individual player skills are important, but there are a number of intangibles. Painter has indicated that one of the characteristics he considers important is how a player makes the other players around them better/more productive. Will each player’s skills complement each other? Will the coaches’ offensive scheme maximize the player skills? How much heart is in their play? These are just a few examples. Certainly, there are many unknowns at this time, but I’m personally looking forward to the observing how the new team plays together.

 

[MichaelRR]

I fully understand/appreciate the comments and player comparisons from last year to next year. I, for one, am looking forward to watching the new players and see how the new team performs as a unit. Certainly, individual player skills are important, but there are a number of intangibles. Painter has indicated that one of the characteristics he considers important is how a player makes the other players around them better/more productive. Will each player’s skills complement each other? Will the coaches’ offensive scheme maximize the player skills? How much heart is in their play? These are just a few examples. Certainly, there are many unknowns at this time, but I’m personally looking forward to the observing how the new team plays together.

1) we should not have been 5 games worse this last year than the year before to start with.

2) the scheme is still a very simple high school scheme unless it gets changed over the summer, so its not going to lift up anyone

3) CKG has not shown any ability to build a team that is better than its parts yet.

 

[DubJellison]

Let's see the schedule first, CKG could do a Versyp and load up the pre conference on all cupcakes, or almost all, we have ND at home for sure this season. And we've been lucky with easy conference schedules Gearlds first 3 years, we are due for a hard one, and that could wreck our chances for 15 wins, which I do agree with is probably the outside limit of what we can expect.

Conference opponents are being released tomorrow, which shouldn’t really have any surprises. Everyone once, Indiana twice.

I expect two more Power 5 teams to visit Mackey Arena, in addition to Notre Dame. Plus whoever is in the southern trip, which they are set to do again.

 

[HoopDad317]

Youre not entirely wrong, especially if Collier, Petree and Lombard are expected to start. Bass is a lock. But I hope they look to the youngsters to fill the roles. Obviously Swanson/Ameyah/Jones are not perfect fillers day one for Ellis/Terry/Layden but I hope they get there.

Thats where player development comes in. Michael will agree and disagree with me. The staff has shown they can improve players. I thought Stevenson/Swanson made good strides last season. Terry cut down silly turnovers more and Harper was more efficient under the basket. But the lack of overall improvement across the board has been concerning.

I would agree. That’s why I think it’s critical to have and to bring in only kids who are fierce competitors. Who want to work. Like MA & her mentality. (I know, she’s gone, we have to move on). But clearly she was set apart on this team. She stood out. Partly because she was a freshman who was having success but also because of her work ethic. Both she and Abby. How hard a player is willing to work IS what separates them from one another. Coaches have to develop players of course but there’s also the balance that they have to have every player be willing to work tirelessly to get there. I feel that’s been out of balance for CKG. She needs to correct that. Will we have that moving forward? Time will tell. But we definitely didn’t have it this past season.