out of date?

In this era of pass-oriented, run-and-gun, shotgun football offenses, if someone were to go back to the now-outdated Wishbone offense, it would pose an immediate problem for opponents simply because they no longer see it. They would not in the habit of dealing with it, their defenses would not be set up to handle it, and they would not have recruited players to handle that type of defense. I wonder what the parallels are to the Wishbone in today’s college basketball world? Sometimes, in the fashion of the sports world, what is out of vogue is valuable simply because it is out of vogue.

optimism in spite of ourselves?

Due to having been burned so many times in recruiting, the Little Rock fan base has become pretty jaundiced. However, if we should re-sign Will Neighbour this fall, it will be hard to keep us from being as optimistic as we have been in a while, I am guessing.

GOOD BASKETBALL

Play good basketball! That is the formula for success at the mid-major level. You cannot always guarantee the level of talent you will have, but you can make them play good, smart ball – the type of ball where they don’t beat themselves. Butler and Southern Illinois are two examples of programs which, over the last decade, have enjoyed considerable success at a high level by installing a system of good basketball, and, at least some of the time, getting the talent to make it work better than most. Good basketball can to some degree make up for a lack of talent – but only to a certain extent. You can be good, maybe even consistently good, but you will never be really good without some degree of talent. However, the odds of building a winning program over an extended period of time are better by installing a class culture in the program and close attention to playing good, mistake-free ball than it is by rolling the dice on getting overwhelming talent – which rarely happens at our level.

shooters only?

I hate to disagree with my compatriots, but I cannot subscribe to the “don’t recruit them if they cannot shoot” theory. It just is not true that every player does everything equally well. Every player is stronger at some facet of the game than others. If you recruit so that every player can shoot (which the Princeton schools do), then you will face the same thing they face – they get pounded on the boards and can only play zone defense. Would we turn down Wilt or Shaq because they were terrible shooters? If you recruit based on a single overriding criterium, then you automatically say that the other criteria will of necessity fall by the wayside. You have to recruit so that you have SOME shooters – several of them, and you normally will want your perimeter players to be able to shoot from the perimeter, but do you turn down a John Fowler just because he can’t shoot (and he could) – one of the best defensive players we have ever had? That just does not make sense to me.

trend or hiccup?

I think it would be an accurate statement that the vast majority of programs at our level would consider 20 wins to be a good season. Maybe not what they wanted, but good. In fact, most schools our size would consider 17-18 wins to be a pretty good season.

One year is not a trend. Two years is a small trend. Was last year the start of a trend, or a hiccup? Who knows. I certainly have no idea. We did not have a bad year last year – we had a TERRIBLE year. Attach that to another bad year, and it is a trend. If, at this point of his career, without any post season, if Shields starts a bad trend, he could be gone, and deservedly so. If he proves that last year was a hiccup, he probably earns himself a good bit of slack, and deservedly so.

The Stirps and names

My 86-year-old father (nicknamed "The Stirps" - meaning Head of the Clan) watches a lot of ballgames on TV. This last basketball seasons he made a hobby of noting all the notable names of players that he heard. Southern Illinois will add to his list next season with Mamadou Seck and Devonte Drinkard.

non-conference motivation

The goals and expectations of non-conference seasons differ drastically. At the top level, it is about making your case for an at-large berth, or even for high seeding. At a lower level, it is about preparing your team for conference, and, if things break just right, maybe an outside shot at an at-large. At the lowest level it is about taking bruises to raise money.

"MY STYLE"

Four-star recruit JerShon Cobb will play for Northwestern. He said "they fit my style of play." Northwestern runs the deliberate Princeton offense. So much for the claim that no one wants to go to schools that play at a slow pace.

not too long

Only about six weeks until the preseason magazines come out. I'm ready!

hard sell

Pity poor Robert Morris. They had a great season: 23 wins and an overtime loss to Villanova in the NCAA tournament. But they averaged a home attendance of only 1029 per game.

International

Roster shows two players from Canada, one from Brazil and one from Mexico. Nice international flavor to the team. Still, the strongest connection is to Texas, with five players.

John McGraw was right

Smallball is the way to go. Way more exciting. Much better brand of baseball. McGraw didn't like it when Ruth came along and made baseball a home run derby. If he could see it now! Move back the fences!

perimeter defense

Perimeter defense is just about a "must" for mid-level teams, since because of a lack of quality big men their opponents will have to put an inordinate dependence upon the 3-point shot.

Missouri State?

What happened to Missouri State last year? They started out great guns, winning their first ten games, including wins over Tulsa and at SLU, then took Arkansas to OT at Fayetteville. Then in conference play they were sub-.500. They return their top four scorers, and should be tough again this year.

Gut feel

I just have the gut feel that the downside potential of this team is a lot greater than their upside potential. Don't know why. Maybe it is because we stunk up the place so badly last season, and that smell is still in the air.

Pine Bluff rewarded?

I hope the AD at Pine Bluff rewards the team for their good season by allowing them to play a few games that don't fall into the "take a thrashing for the paycheck" category.

Covered?

Where are we covered, and where are we not? It would look like point is covered - how well we don't know. We will have two incoming points, plus Solo, and even Matt in a pinch. Shooting guard should be in excellent shape assuming Matt is healthy. Small forward likewise with Alex and the incoming juco. From there it gets iffy. The 4 and the 5 are covered, but quality is a question. Probably the point and the front line are the biggest question marks. And defense.

SLU

If you want to follow an up and coming team over the next few years, keep an eye on St. Louis Univ. Their entire roster this past season were freshmen and sophomores. And the thing that most young players do not do well they did superlatively - play defense. They held opponents to 39% overall and a paltry 26% from the arc.

faulty logic

It is interesting to listen to those who consider soccer to be boring. How can it be boring given the constant activity? True, scoring is rare, as though scoring the only activity that counts. Further, if a football game has a score of 21-14, there have only been five touchdowns scored, and some would consider that exciting and a 3-2 soccer match boring even though most of a football game is totally dead time.

predictions

I will be very surprised if we are picked higher than 4th in the division next season. We just didn't warrant it, and are not bringing in any sort of headline recruiting class.