Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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02-03-20 03:20 PM - Post#298483
In response to nh2032
I agree with the need for a broader perspective. Especially with how much joy some folks here take in poking fun at the antics and overreactions of a certain purple clad message board it was ironic to see that other thread pop up.
There are without a doubt some legitimate concerns and disappointments from the season but we've also come out on the short end of a lot of 50/50s be it injuries, cold shooting streaks, officiating, etc.
I wish I had time to do the math on number of games missed from our top 6 players vs others but it's an especially stark contrast to the teams ahead of us in the standings. Granted some number of those games just go from blowouts to more competitive losses (@Rider, BU, Princeton) if we are healthy.
I don't know how to defend the automatic 1-5 switching defensive system at this point but trust the coaching staff enough to review and make adjustments moving forward and understand if it's not something they feel comfortable doing in the thick of the season.
I feel strongly our overall talent level (and thus recruiting) is above average for the PL but it is very evenly distributed amongst our players. In a league like ours you're much better off having 2-3 stars than quality from your 6th through 10th players off the bench. The coaching staff admitted coming into the year without a viable POY candidate is a big change and the adjustment has been tougher than expected.
We have some outstanding role players and glue guys who are crying out for a pure scorer to carry the offensive load. I'm willing to be patient until the fall with the slogan "In Deuce We Trust" firmly implanted and reassess from there. Just need to pray we somehow keep teams under 85 a game.
In closing, fire ND? No way. Trade ND for Paulsen? Eh, probably, and don't think that would have been my answer a year ago.
Agree with some of the above. Disagree with some. As for the automatic switching, over the last 5 weeks, I have closely watched 26 college games involving 45 different teams. Not one of those 45 chose to do what the Bison are doing, i.e. voluntarily switching a guard onto a center with no attempt to go over or under the screen or to hedge. And not one of those 45 teams has as bad a defense against 2-point shots as the Bison.
As for recruiting, looking at ND's first four classes, I would say it is maybe average for the Patriot League. Probably good enough to finish 5th or 6th in an average year. Every four-year group of recruits under PF and DP was clearly better.
As for injuries/illness/etc, the Bison are fairly average among PL teams. PL games missed by rotation players for each PL team:
Colgate 2
Boston U 2
Lafayette 11 (or 23 if you include Suffern who transferred out in December)
American 1
Navy 4
Army 1
BUCKNELL 5
Lehigh 11
Loyola 33
Holy Cross 12 (or 18 if you include Lowder who transferred out in early January)
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