Unfair criticism of Martin?

[Sending an SOS]

I understand the concerns of many in that we are a poor shooting team. But is that really FM's fault? He recruited good shooters - Thornwell and Notice are examples of that. We've seen flashes of it. As far as I can see, this team performs well when those two guys are hitting their shots. Notice has been particularly streaky - and when he's on, we seem to win. The kid went dead cold for most of the SEC schedule.

That happens in basketball. Streaky shooting is commonplace, but you can't blame FM for that. Yes, he needs to recruit more shooters and have a deep bench of capable shooters, but you can't fill a team of great shooters in 1-2 years. It starts by getting talent in the starting 5 and building depth from there.

In the meantime, I think FM has done a great job of controlling what he can control more easily - pushing tough defense and 100% effort on every play. Winning ugly is the best formula for this year, and if we can getting good shooting per pformances from our guards, we can be successful.

Things aren't all bad with this team...give the guy a break.

 

[chick75]

Funny you should post this. I was remembering this morning the woman

sitting behind me yesterday who shouted at Coach to sit down and shut up every time he stood up in the first half. When he turned to one of the players and applauded his play, she sarcastically shouted, "Oh, you LIKED THAT?"

It didn't matter if he was standing up to call a time-out, standing up to say something to the refs, standing at the end of the bench drinking a bottle of water, she yelled. Once she shrieked at him to "get anger management!"

OK. Yes, he does get in players' faces when they do something wrong, something different from what he called in the time-out or from what they planned in practice, but come on, lady, if it's that painful for you to watch him, please stay home.

Thank goodness she stopped near the end of the half and stayed quiet for the rest of the game, but really??

GOCOCKS! BEATOLAYMISS! BEATARK!

 

[world famous 3rd base hecklers]

Re: Funny you should post this. I was remembering this morning the woman

Originally posted by chick75:
sitting behind me yesterday who shouted at Coach to sit down and shut up every time he stood up in the first half. When he turned to one of the players and applauded his play, she sarcastically shouted, "Oh, you LIKED THAT?"

It didn't matter if he was standing up to call a time-out, standing up to say something to the refs, standing at the end of the bench drinking a bottle of water, she yelled. Once she shrieked at him to "get anger management!"

OK. Yes, he does get in players' faces when they do something wrong, something different from what he called in the time-out or from what they planned in practice, but come on, lady, if it's that painful for you to watch him, please stay home.

Thank goodness she stopped near the end of the half and stayed quiet for the rest of the game, but really??

GOCOCKS! BEATOLAYMISS! BEATARK!

I would do a Bobby Knight on the lady, see how quickly she can move...

 

[Poultry King]

Frank Martin is EXACTLY the coach we needed. No excuses accepted....preaches accountability...wins w D first.
We like many schools will struggle to recruit a boatload of McDonalds AA scoring threats. Keep it low scoring and have a chance to win.

Fans and admin need to shut up and leave the man alone.

 

[Mox94]

It is going to take a while. Some folks seem to think that some of these coaches are of the genius category that can change a programs direction with their mere presence. Not true. It's all about talent. His first three years at Duke, K was horrible. Most fans wanted him fired. Then he got talent and became the genius of all geniuses. And USC doesn't have any particular tradition to recruit to like K had at Duke. So Frank needs time to turn around the dumpster fire he inherited from Horn.

 

[waxed_floss]

He needs to get better players.

 

[cockhornleghorn]

Re: Funny you should post this. I was remembering this morning the woman

Originally posted by chick75:
sitting behind me yesterday who shouted at Coach to sit down and shut up every time he stood up in the first half. When he turned to one of the players and applauded his play, she sarcastically shouted, "Oh, you LIKED THAT?"

It didn't matter if he was standing up to call a time-out, standing up to say something to the refs, standing at the end of the bench drinking a bottle of water, she yelled. Once she shrieked at him to "get anger management!"

OK. Yes, he does get in players' faces when they do something wrong, something different from what he called in the time-out or from what they planned in practice, but come on, lady, if it's that painful for you to watch him, please stay home.

Thank goodness she stopped near the end of the half and stayed quiet for the rest of the game, but really??

GOCOCKS! BEATOLAYMISS! BEATARK!

She needs to go become a Clemson fan.

 

[kick#]

i agree, whole-heartedly with poultry king. FM is the coach we need. he will get it done here. no doubt about it.

 

[ReadR00ster]

He definitely needs better players, next year he is getting them. He better have us a least solidly in the NIT next year though, because the "Not enough talent" excuse has an expiration date.

 

[radcock]

I watched the UVA Dook game yesterday with much interest. Dook got to the top years ago with a defense first mentality, before the 5 stars started rolling in. UVA had to shorten the game early on in Tony Bennett's tenure, and still does to some degree. I admit that in his third season, he was already turning things around, but UVA was not the dumpster fire Frank walked into, and I would argue that UVA has more to offer a basketball prospect than we do, as well as better access to players due to location.

It was apparent yesterday that UVA played well enough for 35 minutes to beat Dook. What currently may keep them from truly being a top 5 team and contender is what happened the last 5 minutes. Dook missed contested 3's and open 3's earlier in the game, but when they needed it, the players stepped up, including the freshman. Ultimately, players win games that matter, and we don't have that guy yet. Dook only goes about one deep into their roster which tells you how difficult it is to get, but also develop, truly elite players. On top of that, UVA did not execute their game the last 5 minutes. Instead, they let Dook's momentum take over. Anyone who watched it could see it coming. Even though UVA held onto the lead until the final minute, I would have still taken Dook straight up at the 5 minute mark.

My point is that we will unlikely beat out Dook for even one of their benchwarmers. But, we can get 10 guys who can play ferocious defense and 3 guys that can score and we will be all right in Franks system. This should be the goal and I believe that Frank is trending towards it. To play defense, you have to be able to go to the bench, at least 8 deep. If your 3 top scorers are also the top defenders, you have a great chance to win every night, but that will be difficult for us until we start winning consistently. There has to be a couple pure shooters out there who may not have the quickness to be defenders and thus will be passed over by the great teams, but can play early for us. The deep 3 point shooters are deadly to even the best defenders (although UKs length may even negate them!)

The future? I think Notice, Henry and Thornwell will continue to get better. Stroman is playing well for a freshman. Chat is serviceable and may get better as his confidence grows. The question is who will be the productive 3 guys off the bench. Dozier will be one next year most likely, unless his knee holds him back. Carrera and Kacinas are those guys right now, but I fear they have topped out talent-wise. Sheppard? Will Blanton ever make it back? Is Silva that guy? Is Mckie going to develop a 3 point shot? Does UNC go on probation and we backdoor Woods? A lot of questions out there that will take years to play out.

I do not think we can get rid of a coach every 5 years. It makes for a difficult hire. I think the only way we would fire Frank prior to his 6th season would be if we were unable to reach 9 SEC wins AND had no highly rated recruits committed. Otherwise he gets 6 years. I do not know the Greg Marshall deal. Maybe he wants to come here, maybe he does not. If he does want to come here, and frank can't show improvement measured in wins, then I would think it would be time to bring him in. Until then, I am a fan of franks and believe that he will win here, I just do not know who the player(s) will be that get you those 8-10 close wins necessary to be an NCAA tournament team.

 

[chick75]

Ha! What was almost as interesting (if you can call this "interesting") was

her seatmates. When Marcus Stroman was bringing the ball up the court in the first half, the man behind me said to his friend, "Now, when this player has the ball, do NOT yell at him to 'shoot' because he can't shoot. Just awful."

My thoughts were (and not necessarily in order):

1. "Oh, yeah, 'cause Marcus can totally hear you from up here."
2. "Oh, yeah, 'cause you can totally see from up here what the players are seeing down on the court while they are moving around."
3. "Oh, yeah, 'cause players always listen to the fans to know when they should shoot the ball... regardless of... again, what's going on on the court."

It's like yelling from the stands at WB at the QB when we see a player open downfield. It just isn't that easy, folks.

Annnd right on time, Marcus scored on a nice lay-up and was fouled and hit the FT. I had to bite my tongue.

To his credit, the guy praised the kid for his play.

GOCOCKS! BEATOLAYMISS! BEATARK!

 

[garnet blood]

Re: Funny you should post this. I was remembering this morning the woman


I'm afraid I also have a GTH stare similar to FM that I would have used.