It is -- but I refuse to believe a quality coach couldn't have this team prepared to win a game against one of the worst teams in the conference. And it's not like we haven't seen this level of underachieving the majority of seasons with Miles as head coach -- regardless of the players. I've seen this same song and dance for far too long with Miles now.
It's tough, brother, I want to like the guy, heck, I do like the guy, but I don't like the brand of basketball, and preparation of the team.
We have some talent. We have some guys who were pretty raw coming in, guys who were perfect to build into very good players, if we just took the time to work on some weaknesses. We haven't seen Roby become anything close to what he could be, and should be. Palmer was a darling because he came from Miami with little to no production, only to become the leading scorer. But was his lack of time at Miami because they couldn't count on him to shoot consistently? Was it because he had a tendency to be a black hole? I don't know, I'm just curious. Just as we saw happen with Petteway, Pitchford, White, we suddenly have a team that seems controlled by an individual player, a player who isn't told and shown that there is such a thing as a BAD SHOT. This loss certainly isn't just on Palmer, but the way Miles has used Palmer, we don't have others ready and able to step up, and have a TEAM stand together, and make the plays needed to win.
I know you guys think using personal experience is BS, but I played for a team that held our program record for most wins in a season for over 20 years, and we did it without a single star player, without any one guy with a scoring average above 13.6 points a game, and scoring just under 92 points a game, and no 3 pt line. How did we do that? Do the math, we played 7-9 guys a game, and everyone had a 7-13 point a game average. Roby should be getting 12-15 a game. Palmer could do the same. Copeland as well. So could Watson. You might even kick in Allen in that range as well. That's 75 points, without even touching the bench, and Nana, Harris, Borchardt and Heiman should be able to manufacture 10 points between them. Guys coming off the bench need to be expected and encouraged to score, not just fill a jersey and try to stay out of the way. If you expect them to score as Jrs and Srs, then they should be able to get a few as a reserve. And don't misunderstand, there are always games that Roby only gets 9, and Palmer or Watson may get 20, but the point is, you have a balance, you have 5, 6, 7 guys who know what it's going to take to win. They know that on a particular night, they may have to forget about offense, and play extremely tough D, and focus on controlling the boards. Prepared players know this, are prepared to do what it takes to win, and work together to achieve. That comes from leadership and preparations. We lack both.
+1000
