What was Nikaās injury? Iāve been baffled at how easily he is beaten on defense. There is not a lot of quickness there.
Knee injuries. Missed all but 5 games of 2022-23.
You donāt ever hire the interimā¦ā¦ We all saw this coming. Healy, Biff, Ron, and Fearne. Absolutely brutal an AD could come up with this. At this point, fire Fearne and letās pay Lutz the bare minimum. Canāt get any worse.
1 Like
Graves hasnāt been here the majority of this season 
Bring on Baseball !
And Softballš„
5 Likes
Dude get real. The Lutz crap is tired and old. Bobby last coached 15 years ago with us. If he was so good why wasnāt he picked up SOMEWHERE to be the head coach?
Just let it go.
Fearne can coach. He has had a year and a half. Give him some time to turn this around.
2 Likes
Fearne is done. Zero collegiate coaching experience other than his time at Charlotte. Weāre stuck. Weak staff, canāt recruit in the portal. Weāre going to go 2-16 in league playā¦. In a terrible league. Thats if weāre lucky.
1 Like
He has the hair of a God.
What I wouldnāt pay for that head of hair.
Donāt give up on Fearne yet.
Need to see how it plays out next year.
6 Likes
When you keep losing your best players to the portal, this is what happens. Each year will be a crap shoot. We need a strong recruiter and big cash diners for the NIL fund.
2 Likes
Excuses. Mid Major teams continue to win. Weāre a 240 Kenpom team. With a 277 ranking non conf schedule. Zero excuse not to be a top 130 team. I can agree all day long that CUSA 1.0 and being ranked may not happen. But no reason not to play quality basketball.
1 Like
We keep talking about losing one guy here and picking up another one here. But listening to this presser Fearne makes it sound a lot more like he needs a sustainable group of guys.
None of us know what happens in practice, so this is all the info we have.
He claims he runs a system that is different than most any other program in the country. One that applies a lot of pressure, requires a lot of athleticism, and one that needs pure focus of the game.
The problem is player retention, not player recruitment. You could argue he brought the absolute best out of our players last year. They were the ones that bought into the system and had been on the team the prior year. This includes LuāCye, Braswell, Igor, Threadgill, Folkes, Graves, Berry, and yes, God himself, Dean Reiber.
All of those players listed were with us the year prior to Fearne taking over (when he was an assistant) and then molded directly into his system after taking the OOC games to get used to it.
Now we take a look at this year. The three best players on this team are Graves, Braswell, and Rosado. Two of which have have been on the team since before last year, one of which is a center. The center that Fearne needs in his system is strong, big, and physical. Dishonest Jackson and Rosado fit that bill and both were/are amazing because of that. Prior experience isnāt needed for the center. Jackson thrived in out system because the offense funnels through the center.
We didnāt just lose depth, we lost so many key players. Reiber has been on this team for a while, I will be the first to say he is not good at this level. He cannot dribble to save his life, second-guesses himself all the time, and has zero physicality. Because of a lack of depth, he is the backup center. Thatās a massive problem. Like I said, the entire offense funnels through the center and heās both slow in decision making and slow on the floor. He wasnāt supposed to be getting these reps, Oden was. This offense would be night and day with him on the floor.
Look at the other positions, look at Thomas, Blackmon, Nika, and Szymczyk. They are the players that are struggling with support. They werenāt here last year. They have been introduced to this different system that Fearne claims he has.
So, to summarize, the offense funnels through the center. The job of the center is to be big, confident, and physical. Our back-up center who fits that bill is out for the year. The other is thriving and the alternative is Reiber (who has always struggled). The supporting cast that is doing well are the returnees from prior years, the ones that are struggling are the fresh faces.
Fearne knows how to coach, he has proven it time and again at the professional level. The difference now is player retention.
1 Like
In other words, Fearne would be great in the old NCAA. He builds players. Itās just a matter on if this program can hold on to these players. Thatās an issue that is out of anyoneās control other than the player. He complains a lot about students jumping from school to school, and I see why.
Graves might not be back but Iām not sure he will get much of an upgrade if he leaves. His three point percentages arenāt good enough for a p4 imo. And he was bad today
1 Like
FAU game Graves first single digit scoring contest this season, which includes five 20+ games and one 30+ game.
BTW, if Graves isnāt back makes me think he wouldnāt transfer to a P5 if his plan is to remain a starter.
Yeah, the story cannot be we run a complicated scheme in the current environment. If you have to have time in the system to run it well, then you have already lost.
This was my big knock on Ron. Unwillingness to adapt.
Nika is in his last year
Recent ruling on JuCo eligibility changed all of that. Of course, Nika may decide heās done with college, that the injuries have taken their toll, etc.
Our offense does not look that complicated. Seems like most schools run a similar style with 4 out and one passer around free throw line for screens and passing. We just missed on every transfer this year. Call it on Fearne for evaluation, or players just did not play up. Graves can be a train wreck. He is better off the ball with his turnover issues. He wants the bag and P4, but hard to see him moving up and doing well. He struggles on defense and contact.
1 Like
I havenāt been this down on our bball program maybe ever. We canāt shoot, refuse to rebound, and our defense is garbage. Halton is a ghost town, there were about 600 people in there last night.
Iāve come to the realization that we are never going to be good again. Are we ever gonna make the damn NCAA tournament again? I just feel like we wonāt. The only way to do that is to get hot in our conference tourney and well we know how that goes every year. Whenās the last night we won a game in our conference tourney? Iām depressed.
2 Likes
@N1NER
Iāve posted the link before but here is the image. This is from Reddit a year ago
