Thoughts on going forward, recruits, scheduling, etc.?

(03-05-2022 01:33 PM)BucDoctor Wrote:  Thoughts on going forward, recruits, scheduling, etc.?

First, looking backwards over past three years - stating the UGLY obvious — from SoCon 1st, to 5th, to 8th, and knocked out of the bottom four round of the tourney by the 9th yesterday. This is with three different coaches.and a revolving door of players. ETSU basketball looks like a train station at present. Thoughts going forward - get a firm handle on this and STABILIZE it. Then recruit, recruit, double down on recruiting, maybe focusing more on the academic side by offering recruits-families the variety of degrees offered by ETSU, that others just don’t offer, resulting in actual jobs upon graduation.

As far as scheduling, the excuse for a terrible home schedule in the recent past has been "teams don't want to play in Freedom Hall because they are afraid to lose". That excuse won't work this upcoming season, and to maintain our season ticket base they need to be aggressive with putting together a home schedule and announce any good matchups as soon as the contracts are signed.

I look forward to see who our recruits are this year. From what I hear they will be pretty good. Going forward let us just emulate our competitor schools and get able transfers who can play immediately and sprinkle in freshmen to fill out the squad then then coach them into a winning team. That formula seems to be working pretty much every where. Go Bucs!

So let me get get this right, first
the coaches are supposed to find good players that ETSU can offer degrees that these players [/align]can't get at other institutions. Second, Coach Oliver has to have a much improved home schedule regardless of whether or not the schools we want to play won't sign a contract.

Sounds like real sound and valuable advise. Wonder why our previous coaches and administrators didn't think of these solutions. Better still, why don't you volunteer your time to work in the athletic dept and contact all the schools you would like the Bucs to play at Freedom Hall. I'm sure Scott Carter and coach Oliver would welcome your help and appreciate any quality D1 opponents you could add to the home schedule.

(03-05-2022 03:17 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  As far as scheduling, the excuse for a terrible home schedule in the recent past has been "teams don't want to play in Freedom Hall because they are afraid to lose". That excuse won't work this upcoming season, and to maintain our season ticket base they need to be aggressive with putting together a home schedule and announce any good matchups as soon as the contracts are signed.

I wish SC would play us in Freedom Hall.

(03-05-2022 04:42 PM)Buc76 Wrote:  So let me get get this right, first
the coaches are supposed to find good players that ETSU can offer degrees that these players [/align]can't get at other institutions. Second, Coach Oliver has to have a much improved home schedule regardless of whether or not the schools we want to play won't sign a contract.

Sounds like real sound and valuable advise. Wonder why our previous coaches and administrators didn't think of these solutions. Better still, why don't you volunteer your time to work in the athletic dept and contact all the schools you would like the Bucs to play at Freedom Hall. I'm sure Scott Carter and coach Oliver would welcome your help and appreciate any quality D1 opponents you could add to the home schedule.

Your remark about degrees was reference to my post. With relation to our recruiting competition at the mid-major, regional university level — yes, ETSU has advantages in academic offerings that it should really highlight in its recruiting. Not saying the coaches don’t— but it’s never in the discussion mix here. Or - have we reached a time where academics have little or nothing to do with college athletics.

I wasn't sure about offensive sets this year. It seemed like the offense relied a great deal on the talents of LA and/or David to create; not sure if that was by design or that we didn't have anything else. Yes, I know it's not particularly specific, but that's the best I got.

It's hard to run sets when you have players that can't handle the ball and rather play one on one than pass the ball.[/align]

Yeah, I still don't know if that is Coach's preferred offensive philosophy or if he has a different preference but just didn't have the personnel nor the energy to retrain/reteach them for one season. I can't blame him for not trying to teach an offense that isn't suited to who's here, particularly if those folks are in their last year. Maybe he taught some of it (like the weave thing) and will try installing more next season.

I did like the press that he broke out occasionally. I hope that is a continuing piece on the defensive side of the ball. Defensively, it seems like we need other options to use beside switch all the time on the pick-and-roll defense.

And I'm not sure how you teach fighting for the ball. Although it improved as the season progressed, it seemed like we couldn't get the 50-50 balls. I thought Ty started really sticking his nose in there more as the season progressed; but I didn't see that as much from the other regulars.