I firmly believe Coach Stoudamire definitely has a plan to win and is searching for the right combinations to win, I say again, to win. He will further develop each player, particularly the guards, to win. He knows how to win, playing for 23 years in over a thousand games and winning with over 600 high school, college, and professional games at point guard. He and only scored lots but also knew where the other four players were on the court at all times and how to get them to score. Called Little Flying Mouse, he got up and down the court with much speed and quickness, offensively and defensively.
So he knows the skills it takes to win. He has played for 23 years for the top coaches in the game and had to adapt to at least 8 different coaching styles. He learned how to win from high school HOF coach **** Beachell (159-22), Arizona's Lute Olson, and pro coaches Brendan Malone (known for his defense of Michael Jordon), Darrell Walker (pro point guard), Mike Dunleavy (now GM of the Warriors), Maurice Mo Cheeks (former NBA player an now assistant with the Bulls), Mike Fratello (NBA coach of the year, now Fox sports analyst), and Greg Popovich (now coaching the spurs and all-time winning-est coach in NBA history, I played against him in 1970 when he was a guard on the Air Force Academy team).
Coach Stoudamire has adapted to various coaches as a player and knows how to adapt his players who want to be adapted to his "style" of play in fulfilling their assigned roles to win. Pros recruit to the coach's style even mid-season. College coaches have to develop as well as recruit to their style year to year. If they buy in and adopt to his style, they will win like he did. If not, they may elect to hit the portal, giving him more scholarships for the next year.
It will be very interesting to see how quickly he can create a consistent winning team. It takes a lots of discipline for a player to adapt to the coaches style. I know because I came to Tech as a 22 ppg all American on a state championship team as MVP, playing forward. Coach Hyder, with a center oriented team shuffle style offense, told me to have fun playing on the freshman basketball team in 1968-69. I averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds per game on the freshman team as a 5-11 forward. As a sophomore, he moved me to guard and said to get the ball to Yunkus and play great defense, so I adapted from a 20 ppg to shooting less than 5 shots a game. We had two winning seasons with two NCAA and NIT invites each year and chose the NIT. So the players must and will adapt to Coach's style or not be happy campers. I did and never regretted that I adapted.
I have a gut feeling a wining season may be sooner that later, but maybe not this year. I can see at least 12 teams on the schedule that will be tournament contenders that have not changed coaches since last year.