After the Stetson loss I was thinking you have to move on. Then we went on a run and then the usf game took some wind out of our sails. I think we responded okay, after that loss, but it was definitely deflating. The temple game was a bummer, but thatās tourney play. That surprises me less than losing at home in December.
I hope we can build off this season, next season, but weāve been in this cycle for 15+ years now. Hope we win, but not losing sleep over these losses or seasons. It is what it is at this point. I like fearne better than Sanchez tho and Iāll leave it there.
I donāt think him posting should be taken heavily, he is quite active on Twitter. Also says āwe are trending in the right directionā. Iād be more-so worried if he said something along the lines of āthe program is trending in the right directionā.
I still have no clue if this was the correct hire. We extended him on the heels of a heaterā¦ We stumbled down the stretch and shit the bed in the AAC Tournament (again!!!).
If he can recruit/attract talent it was the right call. If notā¦ oooof.
I still think Hill made a panic hire. if Fearne was sitting in the same spot on 3/18 without a contract, I just donāt see schools kicking down doors to hire him- and if they do- make the call to pony up more money. Iād like for us ONCE to kick the tires on a coach thatās has successfully led a DI program. Itās been about 45 years since we have done that.
Saying all of this, I must acknowledge Fearne is a great dude and had a hell of a season. Unfortunately the ācoachingā part is only a piece of what the puzzle of a successful coach looks like. The staff is not an upper echelon AAC group- we need some tweaks. I also really want to see he does now that the program is truly his- What does that mean for the roster? Iām also not saying (Insert Name Here) HC would immediately have more success in recruiting or generating buzz for NIL purposesā¦ Its just we have more ? than normal with a new coach.
Our best coaches over last 40 years have been current assistants. Mullins was selling cars, but both Watkins and Lutz were on the bench which ended up our best hires. Once we let Lutz go it has been a crap show hiring. Fearne may or may not be it, but he led us to our best season in years. If on July 1st someone would told us we would finish 3rd in the AAC we would have gone crazy, but what he did with the team with only 3.5 players that are AAC level players is amazing. We went down hill at the end of the year when teams stop playing defense on Folks who we knew all season could not shoot from farther than 3 feet of the hoop. He did not have any options off the bench so it was still a good coaching season to pull us to this level.
I hope he can recruit since we need some shooters for next year.
We wondered early on why JT was starting over Folkes. Now we have empirical evidence why.
Folkes got to start after JT was injured and had some good moments, but time caught up with him and the team.
If we could add two shooters to this team and keep Patterson graves Jackson and Milicic we could be on to something. We need shooters to open things up for these four.
Time for Fearne to portal the hell out of this thing.
I really hope we shed a bit more of the Sanchez style, in a decent amount of AAC games (and the Temple game), guys werenāt moving off the ball. Playing slowly and being stagnant are two different things. Hope thatās just a relic of the Sanchez era and not his style.
I get what youāre saying in that Jackson was more of a tradiitonal post player and I agree with that. But Ali probably would have led our team is assists, easy baskets for cutters. Different skillsets.
Dishon did miss a lot open cutters this year, but I doubt we will run the same offense next year. Dishonās skillset will be better utilized next year.
Loved Aly but he couldnāt guard the pick and roll well at all. Main reason we saw so many layups last year by guards. Also slow down the court. Watched him at BYU and he is almost last one down court each time.