Duke @ GT

[305jacket]

Need to find a good mid-major coach who we could afford and is looking to jump to the big boy leagues. Sure he might not stay if he's really successful but at least he would get the program back to relevance before he bolted.

This x100. We have to realize that it is okay to be a stepping stone for a great coach, because it will be better than what we have now. Same for football, go for an up and comer with potential, not the sure thing who you know will be mediocre with a sprinkle of success.

 

[MacDaddy2]

Donnie Tyndall Southern Miss - Look at his track record

 

[forensicbuzz]

Watching this game reminded me of my son's AAU team. They're pretty good and are generally competitive. They have decent players that will continue to develop. However, when we start playing the big boys, the talent differential becomes quite apparent. Against Duke, I think Robert Carter is the only out there last night that truly matches up. Miller and MGH would be good subs, but then the talent level drops precipitously. Our guys can't shoot or dribble well enough to handle the pressure Duke applied last night. If we're going to be competitive in this league (which isn't that impressive this year except for the top), we have to either start with better talent or develop our guys faster. We're just not good enough yet.

 

[jeffgt14]

I like BG As a person a lot, he's a good guy who brings positive influences to our SAs and represents our school well.

Now with that being said, his Xs And Os as a coach is horrific, offensively we look the same as under blewitt just with less ISO plays because we don't really have a go to scorer. We do a lot of standing around after the initial screens or down picks are set and then look lost after the first 10 secs of the play clock.

Defensively we pretty much play man to man 90% of the time and our perimeter defense and guarding the 3 pt line is bad. Teams always get open looks from outside way too easy. One of our perimeter guys gets beat off the dribble then their guy drives and kicks to the open guy since we have to bail to help the guy who is beat and Bam 3pts from a wide open guy in the corner.

It's the same ol song n dance over and over, we really need to hire a Great coach not just a great spokesman for our program. Need to find a good mid-major coach who we could afford and is looking to jump to the big boy leagues. Sure he might not stay if he's really successful but at least he would get the program back to relevance before he bolted.

I can't seem to figure this one out. He always seemed to if anything have great guard play out of his guys at Dayton. Most of the time they couldn't shoot either but they were at least slashers and put a lot of pressure on the ball on D.

 

[GTrob21]

We looked like we are. A team that isn't very good despite many highly ranked players. We have no floor general and we really don't have a person who can consistently beat you off the dribble.

We have a great Big man in Miller, a solid wing in MGH, and not much else.

It is what it is.

 

[kg01]

I like BG As a person a lot, he's a good guy who brings positive influences to our SAs and represents our school well.

Now with that being said, his Xs And Os as a coach is horrific, offensively we look the same as under blewitt just with less ISO plays because we don't really have a go to scorer. We do a lot of standing around after the initial screens or down picks are set and then look lost after the first 10 secs of the play clock.

Defensively we pretty much play man to man 90% of the time and our perimeter defense and guarding the 3 pt line is bad. Teams always get open looks from outside way too easy. One of our perimeter guys gets beat off the dribble then their guy drives and kicks to the open guy since we have to bail to help the guy who is beat and Bam 3pts from a wide open guy in the corner.

It's the same ol song n dance over and over, we really need to hire a Great coach not just a great spokesman for our program. Need to find a good mid-major coach who we could afford and is looking to jump to the big boy leagues. Sure he might not stay if he's really successful but at least he would get the program back to relevance before he bolted.

This is the troubling thing for me. We're getting the post-contract version of the prior regime without any of the success. The cupboards were more bare (yes, more bare) when the prior regime arrived but we made the tourney in years 1 and 3 (title game). We'll be into year 5 before we sniff the tourney ... we hope.

Nothing wrong with being patient. We've only had 2 coaches in the past 20+ years which is a point of pride. Unfortunately, the way we're losing is more concerning than the fact that we are losing (if that makes sense).

 

[GTJason]

Let's be honest, we got F'd by Solo Poole not working out. It's no one's fault, but we were so excited to get a high level PG like that and his brother who was good enough to play for Kentucky. Who wouldn't want that? Maybe we could have seen his discipline issues in HS or w/e but I'd say more often than not high major players are that way. Stacy seems like a great guy and is a super athlete, but I don't think he's that great of a basketball player. Last night he wasn't, but often when he steps onto the court he's the best athlete out there, he just doesn't play like it. He'd be an awesome WR in football or in a lot of the track and field sports, but he just can't seem to finish at the rim.

I'm also not sure how much having Golden this year helped our team. We seem to rise to a higher level without him and MGH plays much better without him on the court - maybe it's a coincidence maybe not. We'll never know but maybe being "the PG" would have kept Solo from displaying his craziness. Either way it's kind of a sh*t show now and I wish someone was 100% to blame. With no one to blame it's going to fall on the head coach.

 

[AE 87]

My two cents:
We win games against lesser talent. We're competitive but lose more often than not against teams with comparable talent. We're not close to competitive against teams with better talent.

 

[gtdrew]

It's too soon to give up on CBG.

 

[franklinjacket]

It's too soon to give up on CBG.

If he doesn't hit multiple home runs in the 2015 class, he will be gone. I don't think Lammers or Jackson will do much to get us over the hump even though they look like solid players.

 

[GT_B]

The lack any offensive identity is majority of the problem. Mentioning the issue of MGH plAying better with golden off the court ties into my point, when Golden is on the floor he is considered our main scoring threat, but here's the problem, golden is only good scoring in transition and he occasionally hits a 3 here and there, but in the half court set golden doesn't have the shake n bake or speed to beat his guy off the dribble and create. And since he's considered the scorer MGH develops a tiny man syndrome and let's golden try to control the scoring instead of taking charge, when golden has been out MGH knows he is the metophoric alpha dog and starts making things hAppen. MGH thrives when he knows no one else is gonna try to score by themselves so he takes charge.

Gregory's lack of offensive plays and creativity also hurts our plAyers development in that no one gains confidence (shooting, etc) because we struggle to score every game basically. Guys get frustrated because they don't get open looks and have to take tough shots after standing around for 30 secs of the shot clock. We can't even create good spacing to open lanes for penetration. It's like we all stand bunched up waiting for whoever has the ball to do something. I don't get how a D1 coach can't create offensive sets..? we can inbound the ball now, which is an improvement over some recent years...but overall not much has changed offensively. Although this was the knock on Gregory before he started here. His teams typicall rebound and defend but struggle to score a lot. Which makes sense being a izzo disciple or any team from the big 10 that avgs only like 50 pts a game...

 

[ATL1]

Hewitt's contract will be close to being up next year. I like CBG as a person he is personable and cordial and very likable, unfortunately his offensive philosophy was questionable at Dayton and he has brought the same lack of identity to GT. Worse is his recruiting. I'm not sure he'll last pass this season unless he can put together some kind of run.

 

[Eric]

If he doesn't hit multiple home runs in the 2015 class, he will be gone. I don't think Lammers or Jackson will do much to get us over the hump even though they look like solid players.

2015 is make or break recruiting wise. ...if we dont land the highly touted guys and fill our needs. CBG is done.

I have fine with being patient as well but he has to get things turned around soon...Need to see better results next year.

 

[awbuzz]

If we could hit shots, you'd think CBG wasn't a bad coach. Unfortunately we don't have that many good shooters, especially outside the 3 point line. (Yes Bolden can hit some form down town, and did, but not consistently.)

There were times it seemed that Duke had 7 or 8 players on the court playing defense! They pressured, rotated and in general moved well. Makes average shooters look like poop.

Agree that he needs to have some highly rated recruits coming in to hang around after next season.

 

[kg01]

The lack any offensive identity is majority of the problem. Mentioning the issue of MGH plAying better with golden off the court ties into my point, when Golden is on the floor he is considered our main scoring threat, but here's the problem, golden is only good scoring in transition and he occasionally hits a 3 here and there, but in the half court set golden doesn't have the shake n bake or speed to beat his guy off the dribble and create. And since he's considered the scorer MGH develops a tiny man syndrome and let's golden try to control the scoring instead of taking charge, when golden has been out MGH knows he is the metophoric alpha dog and starts making things hAppen. MGH thrives when he knows no one else is gonna try to score by themselves so he takes charge.

Gregory's lack of offensive plays and creativity also hurts our plAyers development in that no one gains confidence (shooting, etc) because we struggle to score every game basically. Guys get frustrated because they don't get open looks and have to take tough shots after standing around for 30 secs of the shot clock. We can't even create good spacing to open lanes for penetration. It's like we all stand bunched up waiting for whoever has the ball to do something. I don't get how a D1 coach can't create offensive sets..? we can inbound the ball now, which is an improvement over some recent years...but overall not much has changed offensively. Although this was the knock on Gregory before he started here. His teams typicall rebound and defend but struggle to score a lot. Which makes sense being a izzo disciple or any team from the big 10 that avgs only like 50 pts a game...

Only thing I disagree with here is the notion that MichSt can't score. They do a good job mixing their rebounding goons with pretty good guard play and sets. They're up over 80+ pts/game. I think you're dead on with regards to Golden's impact. It sounded great at the time but, hindsight being perfect vision, it was probably the proverbial bandaid on a broken leg. Would Poole have imploded had he been given more responsibility? Well, probably. He seemed destined for that fate.

As it is, we don't handle well. We don't pass well. We don't screen well. Even if we have a good play drawn up it breaks down due to these deficiencies.

@awbuzz, I'd venture to say we don't really know how good a shooting team we have, relatively speaking. Duke has 4-6 knockdown shooters but that's not the norm. The average team just works to get better quality shots. We can't seem to do that. JMHO

 

[Ggee87]

Recruiting.is.the issue. We have nobody in the pipeline either thats a solid commit. Were in big trouble again next year due to bad recruiting.and not keeping quality players at Tech once they get here. CBG needs a couple good recruiting classes in a row and I just dont think Mbob thinks enough of him for him to last. Mbob will want to get his own guy in the fold sooner rather than later unless something drastic occurs. RCJr and Danirl Miller are our only really good players. Stephens is headed that direction, and maybe MGH if he gets his mind right. Our guard situation is atrocious and by the time its cleared up the big man situstion will be bad

 

[franklinjacket]

If we could hit shots, you'd think CBG wasn't a bad coach. Unfortunately we don't have that many good shooters, especially outside the 3 point line. (Yes Bolden can hit some form down town, and did, but not consistently.)

There were times it seemed that Duke had 7 or 8 players on the court playing defense! They pressured, rotated and in general moved well. Makes average shooters look like poop.

Agree that he needs to have some highly rated recruits coming in to hang around after next season.

I think that the lack of shots being made is a direct symptom of our lackluster offensive sets. We don't get many open looks and usually end up forcing contested shots late in the shot clock. If we had a few studs that could either create their own shot or break their man down on the dribble and kick out, Gregory would look like a better coach. We have a solid roster on paper, but either they are limited by the system or the system is limited by the players. Either way you look at it, it's hard to not fault CBG.

It would be much easier for something to click and we go on a run and everything work out. With the available evidence and the incoming class, I just can't see this. I won't stop rooting for the team, but it's hard to be positive.

 

[yellowRambler]

From this year's team Gregory inherited Miller, Morris and Holsey. Morris has been banged up his whole career.
Gregory didn't have anytime to sign anyone when he got here. From 2011 class Bobby Parks never enrolled and Julian Royal transferred.

His first recruiting class was fine. Carter, Bolden, MGH, Heyward, Poole(5* bust)

His second recruiting class is TBD. Stephens looks to be good and sadly Jorgensen got hurt. (Thought it should have been better class with a big man)

He's worked the transfer wire pretty well. Reed stayed 2 years, then left. Poole Jr isn't what we thought he was. Golden has been big this year. Robert Sampson is eligible next year.

This is only Gregory's third recruiting class which includes a currently injured Ben Lammers and Tadric Jackson who can dunk like no one we've seen here lately. (still need another big man)

Coming into 2010-2011 with Shump going pro, Oliver transferring, and Rice Jr getting kicked out we had zero talent. It's hard to turnaround a program where it was in a huge hole just 3 years ago. Not saying Gregory is going to pull a K, but look at Coach K's first 4 years at Duke, 10-17 his 2nd year then 11-17 his 3rd year. It takes patience, but 2015 needs to be a good recruiting year or his chances of staying diminish.

Jaylen Brown and Daniel Giddens come on down.

 

[franklinjacket]

Jaylen Brown and Daniel Giddens come on down.

We won't be getting Giddens. Doral Moore is the most likely big to hope for. I'm holding out for Dickerson, but I think he's probably going to Georgetown.