I hate giving grades & I feel like so much occurs beyond our knowledge that would potentially swing a grade 50 points left or right that it's a futile exercise. I'm doing it anyway
Recruiting- 80
Credit for the successful recruitment of top big man target Brown and late replacement Josh Carlton. Also a high mark for adding the best available grad transfers to patch losses related to APR sanctions. Credit for landing transfer Terry Larrier, who looks like a future NBA talent. Finally, a high score for collecting a top recruiting recruiting class the 1st year out of the APR sanctions shadow.
Not a perfect score for not using all available scholarships and I was unhappy with the effort and resource allocation for HD, which thankfully ended in a loss but they don't get credit for luck.
This grade could swing 20 points after seeing the contribution of next year's freshmen OR if unbeknownst to us KO has neglected to recruit guys who would have both had interest & are producing at a high level in cbb.
Game coach- 50
I don't like the substitutions, I think the attempts to run one off plays to start games and for inbounds plays and the insistence on running a pick and roll offense for the majority of his time here kills this grade. Calhoun left KO a built coaching staff and I do not believe he works well with it, he certainly has failed to take advantage of the collective knowledge on his bench thus far.
This grade doesn't swing at all, but it's trending up. This season he adopted a motion offense, adapted to run a zone, and has run every kind of defense known to man in order to hide AB's defensive deficiencies. Sometimes even when something doesn't work it's a positive decision.
Development- 90 (tentatively)
Toughest grade to give because it takes longer to offer data. People fail to give credit to KO for taking Bazz, Boat, Niels and DeAndre to the next level but want to throw patchwork projects like AB & Lubin on his resume.
People want to act like JC didn't have guys like Wolf, JCMD, Alex O, okwandu, Madeldove...make this list as long as you want. I'm convinced if KO had Dyson for 4 years he'd be raked over the coals for failing to develop him.
We really need to see what this current class becomes before we can make any sort of educated statements of support or condemnation.
Teacher's Comments-
I've read the moronic statement about Connecticut being a 60 foot heave away from not having a successful season and I'd like to point out just how juvenile that observation is. Every team needs luck at some point to win whether it be shots falling, good health or bad for another team or an opposing player attempting to take a time out in the closing seconds of the championship game when there were no time outs to give. The fact is that the team was in a position to capitalize on their luck, they were in it to win when given the opportunity and that's the entire point of the thing. Coaches give players a chance to win. Watch some basketball if you didn't know that.
Dom's statement about not being impressed with with a team since Bazz took the floor is fair but it's also a statement about the APR sanctions including limiting time on recruiting, loss of scholarships and a post season ban.
It's a statement about the recruitment of Lubin and projects like AB and Kentan without the benefit of being able to reach for a Drummond.
Dom is seriously pushing my buttons with the comments about guys (particularly bigs) not developing. Facey has absolutely developed into a solid ball player who'd benefit from having another solid and consistent big playing alongside him. The fact is that not all projects work out while others take a while to bear fruit.
The last point I want to make is to give credit to Nolan, how anybody could ever say that kid didn't live up to his potential through hard work and high iq is beyond me.