“Don't mistake activity for strategy.[/QUOTE] Interestingly, there’s a widely known John Wooden quote, “Don’t mistake activity for achievement.” Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops mobile app
I’m not sure Thad has considered this but I think moving forward they should try to land exclusively 5 star HS recruits and limit their transfer search to only the top 10 players in the portal. If they can consistently land the best players in the country — both from high school and the portal — then we should improve. Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops mobile app
Bumba, on one hand you blast this staff for going after mid majors trying to find players who can help us compete, then you come out and say you hope DJ can play the 3?! Have you see this kid shoot a free throw? Have you seen him attempt any shot beyond 5 feet? I’m fairly certain one of our main problems was that we don’t have shooters on our team. Giving Hughes minutes won’t help that. We need players who can shoot AND rebound. We can’t give any more minutes to 1 dimensional players. Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops
He’s telling us he doesn’t know anything about basketball without telling us he doesn’t know anything about basketball.
Being a Lawrence North grad I'm about as big of a DJ fan as you'll find, but IF he is still here next year his role is a depth big who brings energy and 5 fouls. I actually wouldn't be upset for him to stick around because that from your 12th-13th guy is valuable...but if he's playing more than that either we're in trouble or he had a 1 in a million offseason of improvement.
I'm looking at this as a realist. I would rather keep what is left and hold this staff accountable for player development. I don't see any chance of him playing the 4. What's left honestly?
Yeah, that's it buddy. I've been watching BU basketball as a student/alum for 25+ years. We have never been this overwhelmed in terms of our current half empty roster going forward. Excuse me if I don't have as much faith in the process currently. We'll see what happens.
When we moved from the A10 to BE, did we just blow up the roster and start over? No, of course not. Attrition moved kids slowly out of the program and within 3 years they were replaced by actual BE high major high school recruits like Kelan, Wideman, McD, Kamar, etc. Then we used the portal to selectively find missing pieces like T-Lew. It's not like the portal is this magic pot of golden talent at the end of the rainbow. The majority of guys who go in don't find new schools. This is really who you're going to focus on to rebuild the whole roster in one season?
Okay two things and one is totally off base but seems like it would be right up your alley. First- I’m with you. I like the intensity and effort Dj plays with. It’s good to have Indianapolis kids. If we’re gonna have a mistake of a scholarship-this is the right profile to make a mistake with. That being said; DJ can really only play one position, and it’s like a 5. The problem is that size wise he’s probably closer to a 1 than 5. It would be best for both parties to split because I don’t think either side has very much to give or receive from the other- and that’s not to say either is at fault. Second-what are the biggest rivalries amongst Indy area high schools? Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops
Is there no accountability for player development? Honestly, who else is there to turn to on the bench? Here's what I saw this year: We had a decent start but we're obviously overwhelmed by better high major teams (Tennessee, NC State). Then once the mid-major "Thad transfers" got healthy, they were immediately put in the starting lineup and clearly weren't ready (or Hunter just wasn't that good). Finally, anyone who had been with the program & put work in basically said screw Thad and quit on the team. Is the staff not accountable for any of these mistakes? Did Ali or Hunter really deserve the playing time? I think the staff screwed up. They sent both the right guys (Wilmoth, JMM) and wrong guys (Tate, Chuck, Jayden) into the portal at the same time. Just an opinion. Everyone has one. I sincerely hope I'm wrong that our team turns around. We'll know more in 6 weeks when the best transfers find schools.
Not sure how accurate this still is since the Indianapolis area conferences have changed more than the NCAA realignment since I graduated and I definitely don't know the smaller schools well. But the township/district rivalries are always big and their are a few others I'm pretty sure on too. Lawrence North vs Lawrence Central Hamilton Southeastern vs Fishers Ben Davis vs Warren Central Carmel vs Center Grove (they both left their conference in 2021 though and don't play each other anymore) Cathedral and basically all the big public schools The old Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC) was a bear too, football and basketball both. My Freshman year we had 4 future NBA players in the conference with JR Oden & Conley (LN), SR Josh McRoberts (Carmel), and SO Eric Gordon (North Central). In football, from 99-00 to 19-20, the conference won 17 of 20 state titles in football Ben Davis Lawrence North North Central Warren Central Carmel Center Grove Terre Haute South Terre Haute North
I went to see a HS game at Hinkle to watch Oden and Conley. My old HS in Marion County was only ever good at basketball in mainly the early 2000s, making only one football state final game in 2008. We produced David West, Jeff Teague (who was my classmate), and Marquis Teague. Good old dumpster fire Pike. Even our only notable moment in Marching Band was having the whole section of French Horns fall down repeatedly when part of the bass drum section leader's instrument fell off during regionals my freshman year. We made concert band state finals my senior year, and the conductor cut us off the Wind Ensemble at the wrong time, two beats early, screwing us all up.
1. DJ is not a 3. 2. You have to search through the portal and offer. Especially with as many dudes in the portal as there are.
Ok I get that but the reality is those guys weren’t winners. You can say that the staff played the wrong guys and can come up with multiple scenarios to justify the argument. The reality is unless you’re in the locker room you don’t know what is really going on. The fact is Lavall brought in a lot of mid major talent and those guys weren’t going to win anything in the Big East.
Don't know what to think. You figure a guy nearing 500 victories in D-1 basketball couldn't possibly be that bad of a coach. It was embarrassing. On most possessions, on both ends, you could stop the tape and point to bonehead mistakes and bad play and lack of effort by this team, many of which would/could be corrected or minimized with some decent teaching and coaching. The talent wasn't that good, but it wasn't as bad as it played either. Not talking about a winning season, just playing a little more competitiveness and with some less humiliation. So after LJ's first season there were a whole lot of flashing red lights. He inherited a older, experienced team that was potentially a second weekend tournament team. He lost 14 games, and 2 or 3 of those losses were directly related to his late game calls. Remember at St. John's? Still, was willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt since it was basically his first head coaching spot (forget the 1 year at Milwaukee) and maybe, with that older group, he thought he couldn't or didn't need to coach them up. Badly underperformed in any case. Unfortunately, in year two, it was confirmed, he sucked as a head coach. Forget that "Kamar" season. Hell, anyone can roll out the ball and tell Baldwin to have at it. LJ was just in over his head. And we had to live with 5 program-damaging years of that $hit show. Now, like LJ, what are we to think of Matta's first season? Injuries and lesser talent and all the other excuses (they just didn't gel...please) still don't account for the really, really dumb play and lack of basic basketball fundamentals. Diebler was a hell of a shooter. Can't teach a kid to shoot the fricking ball? PT and bench rotations were equally head scratching. Topping the list, I'll go to my grave wondering how as a head coach you roll out Hunter Jr. at the point every single game. Almost like intentionally sabotaging the season.?.?.? So is Matta a whole lot smarter than any of us think? After seeing what he had inherited, did he intentionally "coach" (or not) to get to the point we are at now? Cleaning the roster. He's been around for a long time and unlike LJ, has demonstrated success as a head coach. Granted, not one reliable perimeter shooter on the entire roster. Still, really, really hard to believe how embarrassingly bad that team played the majority of the season. So like with LJ, let's see what Thad does in year 2. I'll give him that. I'll even give him a mulligan on the four transfers. Not necessarily looking for a tourney team next season, although that would be nice, but regardless of who is on the roster, the play needs a major improvement. To that end, upgrading the roster was needed. Was Matta looking for a season-long mulligan toward a longer goal. Sure seemed like it a whole lot of the season. What else could it be? Unless he really is just a great recruiter but a bad coach (...don't know what else to do...."). TBD.
Those are the questions I've been having. Just a really strange situation. I still wonder how we looked so much better when we had at best six players available, even allowing for the difference in the overall level of opponents. There were some good games against decent teams in that stretch.
In football, Ben Davis’ rivals are Carmel and Warren. In basketball, it’s Carmel and Pike - maybe NC. BD and Carmel goes waaaaaay back and will continue beyond the conference situation. In the past, BD always was “little” brother to Washington. That all changed in the 90s.
No idea if DJ could be competitive at the 3. I just don't see him as a 4 in the BE. He's a bit undersized & the competition is too damn good. Maybe I'm wrong. Yes, at this point there isn't much of a choice. Spray and pray offers across the portal. But what happens if someone who doesn't belong pulls a JGB and commits without even seeing campus or because we're the best offer? I don't think that's how you win conference championships.
Just because we are reaching out to and getting to know players does not mean we are making offers. Think of it more as us performing our due diligence and it think you will feel better, or at least less desperate, during the process. Nonetheless, this process is paramount to us re-emerging out of the last 3 years (4/5). Sent from my SM-G977U using Butler Hoops mobile app
