I have been watching for so many years I should have known better than to get sucked in this season. I feel bad for Watson right now as it is obvious he is in his own head. Guy deserves better after four years.
A couple questions, points to discuss:
How do you get out a program out of the cellar when you never have been good? The ingredients are recruiting, coaching and culture, all have an impact on results.
Miles approach has been to use transfers, almost exclusively, to augment some marginal talent with upside. The upside, Copeland as an example, you get some quality guys that can play now. Downside is culture suffers. I think the transfers are truly team players, but they also have an agenda thinking they can get to the show. When push comes to shove and the chips are down they go to the individual game. I.E Petteway, Palmer Jr. etc. After seven years we are still in this cycle and not very good culturally. (From my outside view) Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Same poor results, the team fractures under adversity as they go to a 'me first' mentality. It just isn't working. We aren't an NBA feeder school so our transfers are just not able to push us over the hump.
The other approach is to blow up the foundation. (The Frost approach) Start with a coach that can actually in game coach. Get guys that maybe aren't as talented but will play a 'team first' game. I am now in the camp that to make the Husker men competitive the foundation needs to be rebuilt. Get a team first group of guys and develop them over 3-4 years. It will be painful, but look how the WI, IA, NW and those team's do it. They aren't great draws for top tier talent, they develop good players that peak in year 3-4 of their careers. Borchardt fits this mold. The guy comes in and simply competes. He doesn't worry about stats or his game, he just plays hard and shares the ball. I think Watson and Roby could have been this type of fit but not sure what happened in their development. That is on the coaching staff.
Hopefully they play with the energy of the last game (Purdue) the rest of the way and try and salvage something this season. At least they are fun to watch if they show some effort.
A couple questions, points to discuss:
How do you get out a program out of the cellar when you never have been good? The ingredients are recruiting, coaching and culture, all have an impact on results.
Miles approach has been to use transfers, almost exclusively, to augment some marginal talent with upside. The upside, Copeland as an example, you get some quality guys that can play now. Downside is culture suffers. I think the transfers are truly team players, but they also have an agenda thinking they can get to the show. When push comes to shove and the chips are down they go to the individual game. I.E Petteway, Palmer Jr. etc. After seven years we are still in this cycle and not very good culturally. (From my outside view) Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Same poor results, the team fractures under adversity as they go to a 'me first' mentality. It just isn't working. We aren't an NBA feeder school so our transfers are just not able to push us over the hump.
The other approach is to blow up the foundation. (The Frost approach) Start with a coach that can actually in game coach. Get guys that maybe aren't as talented but will play a 'team first' game. I am now in the camp that to make the Husker men competitive the foundation needs to be rebuilt. Get a team first group of guys and develop them over 3-4 years. It will be painful, but look how the WI, IA, NW and those team's do it. They aren't great draws for top tier talent, they develop good players that peak in year 3-4 of their careers. Borchardt fits this mold. The guy comes in and simply competes. He doesn't worry about stats or his game, he just plays hard and shares the ball. I think Watson and Roby could have been this type of fit but not sure what happened in their development. That is on the coaching staff.
Hopefully they play with the energy of the last game (Purdue) the rest of the way and try and salvage something this season. At least they are fun to watch if they show some effort.