(01-21-2017 07:09 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  The (lately) battle cry of Rocket Nation, in just about any sport: "There's always next season".

Don't forget, "We'll get hot in March when it really matters."

(01-21-2017 08:11 PM)rkt Wrote:  

(01-21-2017 07:09 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  The (lately) battle cry of Rocket Nation, in just about any sport: "There's always next season".

Don't forget, "We'll get hot in March when it really matters."

Hah. Unfortunately, getting hot in March does us no good in football...

(01-21-2017 08:25 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-21-2017 08:11 PM)rkt Wrote:  

(01-21-2017 07:09 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  The (lately) battle cry of Rocket Nation, in just about any sport: "There's always next season".

Don't forget, "We'll get hot in March when it really matters."

Hah. Unfortunately, getting hot in March does us no good in football...

If it gets hot in March they can have spring practice outside. Just sayin'....

(01-21-2017 06:55 PM)flying dutchman Wrote:  I'm sorry but they have the talent they played well enough to give UCLA a run. They had a great OOC run and showed they have talent. They beat a very good Dayton team in front of over 5000 screaming kids. That's bull. Something changed from OOC to MAC and the coaches need to examine that and go back to what they did in OOC. This is not a player issue.

I go back n forth regarding talent. With exception to Naama, Cullop hasn't recruited one solid scorer since she has been here...a 15-20 guaranteed ppg a night similar to a Crystal Bradford, Rachel Tecca or even a Lauren Prochaska that you can count on every night. She does recruit good to solid role players over the years like an Ingersoll, Goodall, and even Inma. Still, even with the talent we have brought in one would assume by a stroke of luck one of these teams would've found a way into the NCAAs. I don't think anyone is calling forCullop's job at this point but how many more recruiting classes do we allow to graduate with no MAC tourney titles before someone in the athletic department has the balls to put her job on the line..

(01-21-2017 08:55 PM)Rocket_Fanatic Wrote:  

(01-21-2017 06:55 PM)flying dutchman Wrote:  I'm sorry but they have the talent they played well enough to give UCLA a run. They had a great OOC run and showed they have talent. They beat a very good Dayton team in front of over 5000 screaming kids. That's bull. Something changed from OOC to MAC and the coaches need to examine that and go back to what they did in OOC. This is not a player issue.

I go back n forth regarding talent. With exception to Naama, Cullop hasn't recruited one solid scorer since she has been here...a 15-20 guaranteed ppg a night similar to a Crystal Bradford, Rachel Tecca or even a Lauren Prochaska that you can count on every night. She does recruit good to solid role players over the years like an Ingersoll, Goodall, and even Inma. Still, even with the talent we have brought in one would assume by a stroke of luck one of these teams would've found a way into the NCAAs. I don't think anyone is calling forCullop's job at this point but how many more recruiting classes do we allow to graduate with no MAC tourney titles before someone in the athletic department has the balls to put her job on the line..

Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

I like watching UT women play basketball and I'm smart enough to know that these losses don't really matter. The only games that matter happen in Cleveland during the month of March because the MAC is never going to be a two bid league in any of our lifetimes. Of course, Toledo's track record at the MAC Tournament is abysmal so my hopes aren't high for this year but you never know.

Now having said all of that... The problem is the coaching staff. Whether that's because of recruiting or game plans (I personally think it is both) shouldn't really matter.

I think their recruiting here state side has been sub par. The American kids they've recruited typically come from tiny schools in the middle of nowhere who dominate against inferior competition and then are outclassed once they get to even a small time Division 1 conference like the MAC.

The international players they do snag have been talented almost across the board though so I have no complaints there. Bravo-Harriot is a great shooter even if she's sometimes being forced into this strange post-up role since they played Notre Dame. Monakana is going to end her career with great numbers even though she wears a brace that makes her leg look like it belongs to a robot. Santucci, while in a bit of a rough patch as of late, has potential to be one of the best if they show a little patience with her growing pains. They haven't had a guard with her kind of court vision since Naama.

My biggest problem with this current team is the offense and I'm sure you'd all agree. It's absolutely brutal and too predictable to watch. If one section of the gym stood up and walked out of Savage every time they ran one of those motion sets around and around the three point line the whole place would be empty by the end of the first quarter. The idea that it is the players fault is hard for me to believe because rarely does an entire 15 player roster go so cold at the same time. A slump like this is systemic in nature and that's on the coaching staff.

People love Cullop, and presumably her staff, and she seems like an incredibly nice woman and my hunch is that donors will never allow a change to be made. And maybe that's a smart move because attendance and interest seems to be at an all-time high which is partly why this bad stretch of game is so bothersome to fans.

Then again basketball is a weird sport and these girls could start a thermonuclear hot shooting streak any day now and make me feel stupid for writing all of this.

(01-21-2017 06:38 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  BTW, we could be seeing a second year in a row without one men's or women's team winning a MAC title.

You are being way too generous. My benchmark is winning the MAC Tourney and getting to the NCAA Tournament in which case likely failures this year would make the respective droughts 16 years & still counting for the women and 37 years & still counting for the men.

Cannot an "official" division championship or a regular season championship be won in WBB?

(01-21-2017 09:38 PM)bjplink Wrote:  I like watching UT women play basketball and I'm smart enough to know that these losses don't really matter. The only games that matter happen in Cleveland during the month of March because the MAC is never going to be a two bid league in any of our lifetimes. Of course, Toledo's track record at the MAC Tournament is abysmal so my hopes aren't high for this year but you never know.

Now having said all of that... The problem is the coaching staff. Whether that's because of recruiting or game plans (I personally think it is both) shouldn't really matter.

I think their recruiting here state side has been sub par. The American kids they've recruited typically come from tiny schools in the middle of nowhere who dominate against inferior competition and then are outclassed once they get to even a small time Division 1 conference like the MAC.

The international players they do snag have been talented almost across the board though so I have no complaints there. Bravo-Harriot is a great shooter even if she's sometimes being forced into this strange post-up role since they played Notre Dame. Monakana is going to end her career with great numbers even though she wears a brace that makes her leg look like it belongs to a robot. Santucci, while in a bit of a rough patch as of late, has potential to be one of the best if they show a little patience with her growing pains. They haven't had a guard with her kind of court vision since Naama.

My biggest problem with this current team is the offense and I'm sure you'd all agree. It's absolutely brutal and too predictable to watch. If one section of the gym stood up and walked out of Savage every time they ran one of those motion sets around and around the three point line the whole place would be empty by the end of the first quarter. The idea that it is the players fault is hard for me to believe because rarely does an entire 15 player roster go so cold at the same time. A slump like this is systemic in nature and that's on the coaching staff.

People love Cullop, and presumably her staff, and she seems like an incredibly nice woman and my hunch is that donors will never allow a change to be made. And maybe that's a smart move because attendance and interest seems to be at an all-time high which is partly why this bad stretch of game is so bothersome to fans.

Then again basketball is a weird sport and these girls could start a thermonuclear hot shooting streak any day now and make me feel stupid for writing all of this.

They could always make a job for her in the Athletic Department. She strikes me as someone who now bleeds midnight blue & gold.

(01-21-2017 09:46 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  They could always make a job for her in the Athletic Department. She strikes me as someone who now bleeds midnight blue & gold.

Maybe a role like that would make sense after her coaching days are over.

I wonder what her current results and record at Toledo would get her on the job market right now. My guess is nothing better than a lateral move to a similar school. Her best window of opportunity so far came around 2010/2011 but even that wasn't enough for a Tournament bid and a better job elsewhere.