Fire Steele?

[bleedXblue]

The problem is after those 4 guys the talent drop off is huge. Maybe not so much for hankins but the rest of the guys for sure. Especially in the backcourt. And our severe lack of shooters is a big lack of talent and makes it easy for defenses to take away the things our talented players do best.

Q looks worse and probably is but it might be just as much that he has zero shooters around him and the D packs it in and he cant get anywhere he wants to.

Lets hope we never get in a position again where we have no shooters on the team.

Are any of the recruits good shooters? I dont follow recruiting that closely?

If not a grad transfer proven shooter is a must for next year.

Tandy and Bishop can both shoot.........Freemantle, Ramsey and Miles are classic bigs from what I can tell.

I think if we can lock up Beverly or Harvey for 2019 we are in really good shape.

If Harvey elects for 2020....then yes we would for sure be looking for a grad transfer shooter

[Sonoran Desert Muskie]

Cosign.

Having watched Alford coach for 10+ years out here in the west, hell no. He’s absolutely terrible. And arrogant to boot.

[bleedXblue]

Having watched Alford coach for 10+ years out here in the west, hell no. He’s absolutely terrible. And arrogant to boot.

Amazing people just go for a name...........

I would however take Sean Miller back in a heartbeat.....all baggage included if he signed a long term deal with a HUGE buyout option

[XU 87]

Having watched Alford coach for 10+ years out here in the west, hell no. He’s absolutely terrible. And arrogant to boot.

I think Alford does fine at lesser programs (SW Missouri and New Mexico). He struggles at the larger places (UCLA and Iowa). When I heard that he expressed interest in the XU job last year my thought was, "No thanks."

I also thought the same thing about Miller- he has too much baggage right now.

And I see another Arizona hoops coach is in trouble.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/spor...ps/2798016002/

Similar to Book, I guess Miller had no idea what this was guy was doing.

[hydmuskie]

Can't fire Steele right now.... couple of reasons

1) Every Coach has earned the right to compete with his recruits... so he gets a minimum of 3 years - maybe 4.
2) My biggest issue has been the turnovers. Last 6 games (7, 18, 10, 14, 19, 16) - 14 a game.
3) My second biggest issue has been 3 pt. shooting - across the board abysmal. Annually we tend to hover about 36%. This year we are shooting about 32%.

Hypothetically, if we addressed items 2 & 3 simultaneously, we are probably sitting at 15 wins right now. For me - these things are 30% coaching and 70% execution/talent. If you can shoot better, you are probably not having as many TOs. If you don't have to drive into the paint to score, there are fewer hands slapping away balls and less physical defense.

On his Xs and Os..
- Hard to judge his defensive game plan when there are 14 TOs a game. It is very hard to come back and set up your defense when you are turning the ball over and the other team is running on you.
- His offensive sets have been no worse than Mack - we just don't have the shooters to stretch the floor and that makes it hard for our bigs to operate.

My expectations for next year is that we win 9 games in conf, 2 wins in the BET (I expect the freshmen will need the full season to gel) and are a bubble team. Year after we are solidly a tournament team.

On the recruiting front I am much happier with Steele than Mack. I think we will get consistently higher recruits and the classes will be more consistent.

Finally - this is the BEast - it's not supposed to be easy. Other than us, Creighton and DePaul - everyone else won 9+ OOC games. We are the only ones with a new HC and 3 Grad Transfers... Look at Gtown and SJU's first years with Ewing and Mullins respectively - and we are pretty much in the same boat...

I remind myself to be patient - last year's team probably overachieved, and this year's is underachieving - it all averages out in the end.

[xudash]

Can't fire Steele right now.... couple of reasons

1) Every Coach has earned the right to compete with his recruits... so he gets a minimum of 3 years - maybe 4.
2) My biggest issue has been the turnovers. Last 6 games (7, 18, 10, 14, 19, 16) - 14 a game.
3) My second biggest issue has been 3 pt. shooting - across the board abysmal. Annually we tend to hover about 36%. This year we are shooting about 32%.

Hypothetically, if we addressed items 2 & 3 simultaneously, we are probably sitting at 15 wins right now. For me - these things are 30% coaching and 70% execution/talent. If you can shoot better, you are probably not having as many TOs. If you don't have to drive into the paint to score, there are fewer hands slapping away balls and less physical defense.

On his Xs and Os..
- Hard to judge his defensive game plan when there are 14 TOs a game. It is very hard to come back and set up your defense when you are turning the ball over and the other team is running on you.
- His offensive sets have been no worse than Mack - we just don't have the shooters to stretch the floor and that makes it hard for our bigs to operate.

My expectations for next year is that we win 9 games in conf, 2 wins in the BET (I expect the freshmen will need the full season to gel) and are a bubble team. Year after we are solidly a tournament team.

On the recruiting front I am much happier with Steele than Mack. I think we will get consistently higher recruits and the classes will be more consistent.

Finally - this is the BEast - it's not supposed to be easy. Other than us, Creighton and DePaul - everyone else won 9+ OOC games. We are the only ones with a new HC and 3 Grad Transfers... Look at Gtown and SJU's first years with Ewing and Mullins respectively - and we are pretty much in the same boat...

I remind myself to be patient - last year's team probably overachieved, and this year's is underachieving - it all averages out in the end.

I agree with all this.

In particular, let's consider a hypothetical question: assuming Steele ran better sets on offense and defense and his personnel choices were "better", how much better do you believe our record would be?

Where I am going with this is the oft repeated focus on this board about the fact that we have no truly effective, go-to shooters. So, we run a great set, get the ball to a Welage, and he shoots, well, he shoots like he has been shooting, which is to say that he isn't shooting like he apparently did at SJSU.

One more key fact to offer: after some time has passed and Steele brings in top-shelf talent and he starts winning with them in a big way, we'll look back at this year and immediately savor the reboot.

[Masterofreality]

I think Alford does fine at lesser programs (SW Missouri and New Mexico). He struggles at the larger places (UCLA and Iowa). When I heard that he expressed interest in the XU job last year my thought was, "No thanks."

I also thought the same thing about Miller- he has too much baggage right now.

And I see another Arizona hoops coach is in trouble.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/spor...ps/2798016002/

Similar to Book, I guess Miller had no idea what this was guy was doing.

Looks an awful like Phelps is a sacrificial lamb to divert attention away from Miller. There's a lot of flotsam & jetsam floating around the desert raccoon. Can't believe he's gonna survive this mess. Would I support Steele hiring him as an assistant? Uh, probably. Yeah.

[Masterofreality]

Tandy and Bishop can both shoot.........Freemantle, Ramsey and Miles are classic bigs from what I can tell.

I think if we can lock up Beverly or Harvey for 2019 we are in really good shape.

If Harvey elects for 2020....then yes we would for sure be looking for a grad transfer shooter

Greg Christopher on Saturday left the door wiiiiiiiide open for a 7+ man class. Not all freshmen, but, yeah. 7.

[GetUp5]

I know we're not terribly serious about the idea of firing Steele, but that really would be the worst move ever.

We'd lose the entire recruiting class and be this bad for another 2-3 seasons at least.

Always have to give the new coach 3-4 years, especially when they sign a Top 20 class nationally.

[Masterofreality]

Steele can’t comtril turnovers, but he can control playing time. If you make mistakes, you get yanked. Shouldn’t matter who you are, at what point of the game, or if you have to put in a walk on. Make a mistake and you’re out. If not, and there’s no consequences, then the mistakes comituue. That’s on the coach, be it Steel or anyone else.

I saw that exact thing happen in Loyola's game with Valpo yesterday. 2nd half start and Kaifes made two bad turnovers in a row. Immediate yank and some "aggressive counseling" on the sideline from Moser. Loyola was down about 6 points at that point but came back to win.
It has to happen sometime, but Steele hasn't done that much, if at all, this year.