Shaughnessy: HC hoops “in shambles”

Nice graphic.  I wonder if Coach Nelson will trademark the saying "Attack and Serve" like John Calipari trademarked "Refuse to Lose" when he left UMass.  I always thought any benefit from the phrase should accrue to UMass, not Calipari.  It became irrelevant when the Minutemen stopped refusing to lose when Cal left.  The best I can figure is that "Attack and Serve" means drive and dish, but maybe it means play aggressively and serve the team, school and community.  IDK.

+1

The program indeed has been "in shambles" but to call this a "home run" before the first game has been played with all these new players is, at best, optimistic. Perhaps "irrational exuberance?" I am prepared to hear from the defenders of this extraordinary turnover rate if we move to another 3 win season that "we have to give Nelson time" because they are so inexperienced and a 4 or 5 win season will be viewed as a triumph or great success because we won more games than the 3 game cellar this past season.  

I'd like nothing better than to see a 10+ win season or more. That won't excuse the loss of a huge "diagonal slice" from the team but would demonstrate there was a plan.

Out of curiosity, we often post here what our standards for success are as we go forward. For all those true believers that think this cleaning house was a good thing, how low are you setting the bar to consider this coming season a failure (or "lack of success" if you prefer)? 

I have in my head that we need to get to 10 wins in order for me to feel decent about where we’re heading. Tough to win much with 2 seniors, 2 sophs (one of whom barely played as a Frosh) and 7 new guys but we have to win some freaking games.

Just a reminder...we didn't win with Pridgen. Even with early inexperience (and, perhaps limited pre-season practice) the keys as I see it will be:
1. solid PG play - with on court leadership from day one out of that position
2. better rebounding - more muscle under the boards at both ends
3. solid defense - underneath and on the perimeter
4. a deeper, healthier team - so no one is as winded late in the game (as happened too often last year)
5. an offensive system that uses the personnel we have.
Inexperience with their new teammates will make some of these points harder, but by PL season time, it may not be as big a factor.
GO CROSS GO!

I think a deeper team is a given here. We have as many incoming players this year as we had play in the rotation last year. What this rotation is is yet to be seen but I think one could safely say that if used properly Nelson had plenty of depth on his hands.

One thing that is amazing is your BFF BBC turned out to be prescient. All last year, before MB or BN were hired, he prescribed the changes he felt the program needed. Enter MB and BN and it's almost like they were given BBC's script and spent the past year implementing it.

The changes felt a bit ham fisted at times but if they work I'll be a happy fan.

Have another!

The program had a very low ceiling with the cast of characters that Carmody had assembled. Nelson has been able turn that roster over and blow up that ceiling in very impressive fashion, particularly for a guy who is apparently a fish out of water and doesn’t understand recruiting with academic standards (if you were to just believe SOV).

No reasonable person believes that this roster transformation is going to lead to a huge turnaround next year, but it does remove that low ceiling that would have been hanging over this program for years to come.

Next year is about stabilizing the program and moving forward with Nelson’s vision for how he wants the team to play going forward. The following year, we start to turn the corner, and then it’s hopefully off to the races.

Nobody knows how successful Nelson will be at HC, but anyone who would take the roster Nelson inherited for the next few years rather than the roster we have now is just lying to him/herself.

To maybe relate this to your days turning around all of the F500 companies, you seem to have wanted Nelson to oversee an “evolution” of continued below-.500 seasons with the sub-par personnel group her inherited, rather than a “revolution” to try and drastically change the trajectory of the program.

So, BBC, this coming season means "stabilizing" and not until the following season will we see the corner being turned? 

And, since the corner won't be turned this season, just stabilization, should we interpret your comments to mean another 3 win season? You know, just keeping things stable. Fewer than 3 wins might then mean lack of success for you? 3,4,5 wins would mean the future looks bright because Nelson has stabilized the program with his much more talented guys and we're all set to win 8-10 wins the following season demonstrating the corner has been turned and with this much higher ceiling we'll be contending for the PL championship after that?

“Turning the corner” means being in the top 4 in the PL.

I don’t really care how many games we win this year as long as progress is being made. Does it really matter if we win 6 or 8 or 12 games or finish in 10th or 8th or 6th place in the PL? Those are all bad seasons.

We have 6 freshman (who likely will not be able to participate in any summer workouts at HC) and another guy likely sitting out this year* so it’s unrealistic to think they are going to come in and immediately start getting this team to compete at a high level right away.

*If Gates becomes eligible immediately and Faw and Butler can make significant strides, we may have a chance to get closer to that corner this year.

Perhaps the 2019-20 experience was the result of a program in distress, but his approach did little to help or even made it worse. Those questions I raised about his performance as a coach are unanswered for a reason.

I am sure he is a great guy, who works incredibly hard at his craft, and yes he needed to address a number of issues day 1, but IMO the team was unprepared and his commitment to winning games was a nice to do but not an imperative. To me that approach was unfair to every player, assistant coach and manager on the team.

So let’s agree that we all want HC basketball to become relevant to the basketball world and an enjoyable experience for all interested parties.

Our current pandemic shutdowns hurts HC more than most.  We are all hoping strides are made forward even if we disagree on the definition of progress.  If there was ever a season when the team needed all the together time possible, this is the season.  Never mind the freshmen getting summer workouts, I don't even think our returning scholarship players will  have a pick up game of 2 on 2.  It's darned unlikely these guys will play together at all this summer, and maybe not until late fall.   With so much new blood, this unit is going to have a larger than normal learning curve with less than the standard time to gel..