It would be really nice if some of you arch critics would actually grow a pair and post under your real name.

Since the season is over for you, feel free to find something else to do with your time besides post on this board.

BYE!

WTF???  JerseyArnie aka Arnold Mayberg

Is the Bobcat mafia planning a hit on me now?


Dude, take off your rose colored glasses.  I am only calling a spade a spade. 

No matter what we did in the regular season, this is the view of many.  Since January 1 of this year, only one game matters - win the final game of the MAC Tournament.  Had we beaten Belmont and Akron and then lose the Championship - many on this board would be saying, "Jim Christian will go down as the man who coached the most disappointing season in Bobcats Basketball history"

Only one game matters.  And only one game has mattered.

C'mon Bornacat.  Most people on here know who you are and you've never attempted to hide it.  There are many on here who post under monikers but we know who it is.  For example, JSF, etc.  I am not talking about you folks.  

My point is not rose colored glasses...My point is that there is one major flaw on internet message boards for which there is no real answer:  People can say what they please without the accountability of knowing who they are.  

My question to Coach Christian's critics is this:  IF your identity was known, would you say the same things?  Food for thought.  

NO Arnie, no "Bobcat Mafia" is coming after you or anyone else...I'm just asking a very uncomfortable question about how we all post on the internet.  You can keep posting whatever you like within the rules of this board.

There is no answer to that problem.  We just deal with it and move on.  

There are only two things so far that have me concerned about JC going forward.  First off he isn't a very motivational coach, he is almost like a fan in the game looking distraught when things go bad.  The reason everyone loved Groce was even when times were tough he seemed to always be ready to boost his guys during a timeout with his energy.  The second reason is as others have mentioned he seems to be averse to making any kind of even temporary game plan change when things are going bad.  I mean why not full court press or throw a zone when things aren't working defensively?  This isn't to say JC is a bad coach, but what he has shown us so far is that when things are going bad for us he relies on his players to fix it more often than not.  They are playing the game so no matter what the coaching they still have to perform, but it is also the coach's job to sometimes make a change to help get his team back into rhythm.  And so far we just haven't seen that in any of our losses.

It's funny. Some years ago, after Hunter was fired, the consensus here, it seemed to me at least,  was to hire young coaches who may be inexperienced, but who showed some promise, and who might strike lightning in a bottle, even at the risk of losing them after a few years to a more prestigious program. At the time, I thought it better to have an established coach who could win 19-22 games a year, and have us in the hunt, rather than take a chance. My view on this was reinforced after TOS, figuring TOS was merely a lateral move from Hunter.

Then JG came in and, after his recruits came here and he worked with them for a couple of years, and then seeing how his team competed against teams like Louisville, and then the run in the tournament, missing the Elite 8 only because of a missed free thrown,  I came around to what I thought was the consensus on this board, which was hire young coaches hungry to be a head coach. The excitement from last year was intoxicating, not seen from any coaches at O.U. in my lifetime.

And so I did not like the JC hire. My thought was that JC was an established coach, and his track record was known, and he was a competent coach who would put together teams that could win 19-22 wins, occasional tournament appearances, but his upside was what it was. At the time I thought the administration panicked, because it knew this was a solid returning team, and was afraid of wasting the talent with a young, inexperienced coach. In short, I thought the powers that be were taking a short term approach.

I have no problem losing to teams like Memphis, and some of the other big games they have played this year. I do have a problem with the fact that they have not looked like they even belong on the same floor with those teams. JG lost to Louisville last year, but at least the 'Cats looked competitive with Louisville.

Frankly, I get sick when I read comments about "wait until a coach gets his own players."  That is nonsense. The coach molds his style to his players. He coaches to their strenghts. A coach may love a perimeter game, but if he has horses down low, does he rely on outside shooters? No.

JC is a decent coach. The question is, after JG, do we want a decent coach?

I was not concerned about the JUCO thing. My thought was that his recruiting of any JUCO players was because the Kent State administration accepted those recruits. I trusted the O.U. administration would become involved if that became a problem.

As to TCU, I think a good coach is a good coach. Would the first, perhaps, be a little more difficut? Sure. I can accept that. But a coach should, after a couple of years, be able to learn the ropes. JG has had Illinois, a program that was, by all accounts, a program in dissaray, in a very tough conference, and yet, surprisingly to most, has had them ranked for various periods of the year. So, I don't think JC's assignment at TCU was appreciably more difficult than JG's at Illinois.

I think JC is a good coach. But as good as the records he was able to put together at Kent, they never made any noise in the tournament. Dambrot has had great records at Akron, and the critism of Dambrot here is that he did so playing a cupcake schedule. So, while JC deserves some props for his record at Kent, there is more than the record.

Again, I go back to my original point: Will JC deliver O.U. 19-22 wins a year, and then, perhaps, a tournament appearance every few years? The only question is whether, after JG, that is good enough for most people.

The only problem I have with your proposition Redrustler is that there are only so many John Groce's out there.  Coaches who can take mid-major teams to the brink of the top are few and far between.  Those kind of coaches don't grow on trees.  So I'm not so sure it's so easy to hire those types of coaches. 

And merely because a coach takes a team to the Sweet 16 once is no guarantee he will do it again in the future.  It's incredibly hard to make it to the Sweet 16, 300 teams are looking to do so and only the best of the best make it.  Miami of Ohio hasn't sniffed the Sweet 16 since the Wally Szczerbiak days. 

I think we'd all agree its better to reach the Sweet 16.  Actually getting there is an altogether different proposition.

Guys, we were more LUCKY than GOOD last year.  Average MAC record, lucky MAC tourney final win, nice draw in the NCAA.  Let's wait until the season is over to make a final determination on this year.  Nobody can deny 11 wins is as many as JG ever had in the MAC. And, if Walter hits that three at the end of the game last night JC has more wins than JG ever had in one season.

In closing, didn't one team that JC coached at kent get to the final 8?  If so, he must have won a few NCAA games.

Obviously, his style is different than JG and some players have NOT responded to it.  I think a coach needs a few years to get his players in before he you can really say if he is successful or a failure. At this point, OHIO is about where I had hoped they would be.  Most years we would be #1 in the MAC.  Akron is just having a monster year with really good players and will be tough for us to beat.  They just have fewer limitations than we do! 

This is what people forget. If you put last year's Ohio team through the same scenario 100 times - playing Buffalo, Akron, Michigan and South Florida - they make it to the Sweet 16 maybe five times. Everything went Ohio's way. Last year's team, as it showed in the regular season, wasn't as good as people think. Yes, they started playing amazingly well at the end of the year, but even then, there was a lot of luck involved. The truth is, Ohio finished two games behind Akron in the MAC standings last year and both teams returned practicually everyone. It seems to be that Ohio is performing right in line with realistic expectations.