Re: Thoughts on Marquette

[Chris Sorge]

Uh, we had a number 1 seed in the tourney last season without Dermarr.
Having him for one year cost us nothing.  We miss Little and Grove, that is
the bottom line.

Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "dfairchild" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 8:25 PM
Subject: RE: [UC Basketball] Thoughts on Marquette


> I heard Tom Izzo (MSU coach) interviewed on the radio today.  He was asked
> his opinion regarding players who will only stay for one or two years.
Are
> they really worth having.  His response was a quote of Bobbie Cremins -
> Eventually, it catches up with you.
>
> I do not fault Huggins for recruiting DerMarr Johnson.  Mike Decoursey
> called him the missing piece for a run at the national championship.  But
it
> has caught up with us.  It hurts even more since we have the "What could
> have been" feeling regarding that year.  DerMarr left after one year and
> Satterfield after two.  Then you add the Little and Grove fiascals.  I(
say
> we are fortunate to be where we are.
>
> I am not so much frustrated about the Marquette game, but more at the
DePaul
> game.  The DePaul team played like the Bearcat teams of old.
>
> I remember a couple years ago when the team wasn't playing hard for 40
> minutes.  I believe it was the year the team got locked out of their
locker
> room and had to use the soccer locker room, etc.  Huggins said they had
> gotten away from doing things his way, and they were going to get back to
> that.
>
> One of the ways that the early departures end up catching up  - this comes
> from Izzo - is that you don't have the older guys in practice to teach the
> younger ones how to practice.  Right now there are only 3 scholarship
> players and 2 walk-on who know how to practice.  That's an incredible
> difference compared to the team Lenny had around him his freshman year -
> Kenyon, Tate, Fletch, Pete.
>
> Huggins said recently that the new guys aren't coming in early or staying
> late - if that's the reason they are not seeing minutes in the game - then
> I'm with Huggins.
>
> DF
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 2:03 AM
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: [UC Basketball] Thoughts on Marquette
>
>
> I am a big supporter of Bob Huggins and recognize what the Bearcat program
> would be without him, but I agree that Huggs is due for some criticism for
> the lack of execution of this year's team.  I thought Huggs was badly
> outcoached by Tom Crean in Saturday's game.  Marquette played smart.  They
> had a game plan and executed it to perfection--even after Dwayne Wade got
> two early fouls.  With his team making numerous mistakes, Huggs used
nearly
> every timeout to bait the refs over some alleged missed call--even when UC
> was down 20..  Yes, the refs missed some calls, but in no way did the refs
> cost UC the game. Why not use the timeouts to make changes to your
offensive
> or defensive strategy rather than wasting 30 or 120 seconds on a futile
> attempt to change a referee's call?  UC's pitiful rebounding and atrocious
> inside play, both offensively and defensively, were the reasons UC lost
this
> game.  I also think Huggs is making a big mistake in removing Moore and
> Hicks and Kirkland every time they make one mistake.  Is Pitino doing that
> at Louisville with Dartez, Garcia and Dean?  Which coach is getting more
out
> of their first-year players?  I think it is clear that Pitino is using a
> "positive" approach to build up self-confidence in his young players while
> Huggs uses a "negative" approach---"these guys don't know what they are
> doing, they don't listen, they don't deserve to play", ad nauseum.  If an
> experienced business executive said that about his own employees, it
> wouldn't be long before the executive was out of a job-not the employees.