Im sure there will be lots of "really true Broncos" out there that will bash this but Im going to post it anyway.
Nothing changes. As long as Hawkins has been coaching at Western the players have not improved from season to season. He runs the same offense and defense that everyone knows.
Nothing more obvious than the Miami game. Miami comes in and starts 3 freshman and 2 other underclassmen. Western starts a team that returns 4 upperclass starters from last year plus an improvement in the position that was vacated by last years only senior. Yet, the freshman laden team stays with Western the entire game. That scenerio should be a blowout for the team picked to win the MAC this year.
OK. Western may win the MAC west again. Thats the best that happens. Win the poorest division of about the 16th best conference in the nation. If thats what Western wants, I guess it's ok. Personally it would be more fun to have them drop down a division, get a decent coach, and challenge for something bigger.
Guess thats not going to happen.
Ok, "true Broncos" let me have it.
I don’t completely disagree with you.
But it’s not as simple as freshmen vs. upperclassmen. Miami does have a decent team this year.
I think their youth showed when they led nearly the entire game and blew it on the road in the final minutes.
In the end, I do agree that this season has been a huge disappointment. But I thought they actually played a good game last night. It’s more to do with the season as a whole (and no I don’t buy the Dugan injury being much of a factor in it).
I do completely disagree with dropping down a division. Not a good idea at all.
(02-07-2018 07:51 PM)65Bronco Wrote: [ -> ]Im sure there will be lots of "really true Broncos" out there that will bash this but Im going to post it anyway.
Nothing changes. As long as Hawkins has been coaching at Western the players have not improved from season to season. He runs the same offense and defense that everyone knows.
Nothing more obvious than the Miami game. Miami comes in and starts 3 freshman and 2 other underclassmen. Western starts a team that returns 4 upperclass starters from last year plus an improvement in the position that was vacated by last years only senior. Yet, the freshman laden team stays with Western the entire game. That scenerio should be a blowout for the team picked to win the MAC this year.
OK. Western may win the MAC west again. Thats the best that happens. Win the poorest division of about the 16th best conference in the nation. If thats what Western wants, I guess it's ok. Personally it would be more fun to have them drop down a division, get a decent coach, and challenge for something bigger.
Guess thats not going to happen.
Ok, "true Broncos" let me have it.
How did WMU sweep Miami this year then? WMU is 6-1 vs the MAC excluding Toledo, Buffalo. Only three MAC teams have beat Toledo or Buffalo this season thru the 22 games both of those teams have played. You are just anti- Hawkins which is your right. Jones and Johnson (didn't play Tues) are second year players. Davis is a junior as is Moore. Duggan is playing hurt (he could barely walk after EMU, Buffalo games), Lamont is who he is but if he couldn't go the two months Duggan was out what is WMU's record? If you think Davis, Jones, and Johnson haven't improved you aren't watching the games. Davis will be most improved MAC player, Jones and Johnson will be All MAC candidates the next two seasons. And Wilder has four hands in his face every time he touches the ball.
What is the excuse at Ball State using your evaluation? Several publications had them top of MAC and a sleeper for post season play. They are 6-5 today. Travel down to some of the MAC schools and rate the facilities of a Buffalo, Toledo, CMU, Akron BGSU, Miami vs what we have here in Kazoo. I'm talking practice facility, student athlete services, etc. Do you know Hawkins gets the UA floor about ten hours per week and shares it with cheer team, dance team, VB team, gymnastics, WBB team, track/field, HS basketball. WMU is hovering in the bottom of the MAC for BB support. Try and recruit top Mid Major talent with that over your head.
(02-08-2018 10:13 AM)BuickBronco Wrote: [ -> ] (02-07-2018 07:51 PM)65Bronco Wrote: [ -> ]Im sure there will be lots of "really true Broncos" out there that will bash this but Im going to post it anyway.
Nothing changes. As long as Hawkins has been coaching at Western the players have not improved from season to season. He runs the same offense and defense that everyone knows.
Nothing more obvious than the Miami game. Miami comes in and starts 3 freshman and 2 other underclassmen. Western starts a team that returns 4 upperclass starters from last year plus an improvement in the position that was vacated by last years only senior. Yet, the freshman laden team stays with Western the entire game. That scenerio should be a blowout for the team picked to win the MAC this year.
OK. Western may win the MAC west again. Thats the best that happens. Win the poorest division of about the 16th best conference in the nation. If thats what Western wants, I guess it's ok. Personally it would be more fun to have them drop down a division, get a decent coach, and challenge for something bigger.
Guess thats not going to happen.
Ok, "true Broncos" let me have it.
How did WMU sweep Miami this year then? WMU is 6-1 vs the MAC excluding Toledo, Buffalo. Only three MAC teams have beat Toledo or Buffalo this season thru the 22 games both of those teams have played. You are just anti- Hawkins which is your right. Jones and Johnson (didn't play Tues) are second year players. Davis is a junior as is Moore. Duggan is playing hurt (he could barely walk after EMU, Buffalo games), Lamont is who he is but if he couldn't go the two months Duggan was out what is WMU's record? If you think Davis, Jones, and Johnson haven't improved you aren't watching the games. Davis will be most improved MAC player, Jones and Johnson will be All MAC candidates the next two seasons. And Wilder has four hands in his face every time he touches the ball.
What is the excuse at Ball State using your evaluation? Several publications had them top of MAC and a sleeper for post season play. They are 6-5 today. Travel down to some of the MAC schools and rate the facilities of a Buffalo, Toledo, CMU, Akron BGSU, Miami vs what we have here in Kazoo. I'm talking practice facility, student athlete services, etc. Do you know Hawkins gets the UA floor about ten hours per week and shares it with cheer team, dance team, VB team, gymnastics, WBB team, track/field, HS basketball. WMU is hovering in the bottom of the MAC for BB support. Try and recruit top Mid Major talent with that over your head.
Agreed with most of what you said. I do think this team should be performing a little better than what they are currently. But were right there at the top with the rest of the teams in the conference, only lost to buffalo by 6. And buffalo is dang good this year
Buffalo not getting much national respect even though their strength of schedule is better than many Top25. They've lost to some very good teams, Cincy, St Bon, Syracruse and Texas A&M. S Dakota St beat them also but S Dakota St has beat Iowa and Ole Miss this year. Top 25-50 NCAA D1 teams are pretty well even talent wise.
Buffalo lost a few close games to really good teams but didn't get any signature wins. It's a shame really because if they pull off a couple of those they would have a real at large chance.
(02-08-2018 10:13 AM)BuickBronco Wrote: [ -> ]Travel down to some of the MAC schools and rate the facilities of a Buffalo, Toledo, CMU, Akron BGSU, Miami vs what we have here in Kazoo. I'm talking practice facility, student athlete services, etc. Do you know Hawkins gets the UA floor about ten hours per week and shares it with cheer team, dance team, VB team, gymnastics, WBB team, track/field, HS basketball. WMU is hovering in the bottom of the MAC for BB support.
True.
Hawk is definitely a victim here.
Let's hope he has better luck selling his program and his vision over the next 15 years.
"Fight on"
(02-08-2018 07:31 PM)ess Wrote: [ -> ] (02-08-2018 10:13 AM)BuickBronco Wrote: [ -> ]Travel down to some of the MAC schools and rate the facilities of a Buffalo, Toledo, CMU, Akron BGSU, Miami vs what we have here in Kazoo. I'm talking practice facility, student athlete services, etc. Do you know Hawkins gets the UA floor about ten hours per week and shares it with cheer team, dance team, VB team, gymnastics, WBB team, track/field, HS basketball. WMU is hovering in the bottom of the MAC for BB support.
True.
Hawk is definitely a victim here.
Let's hope he has better luck selling his program and his vision over the next 15 years.
"Fight on"
There is a move to build a top notch BB practice facility next to UA. Only takes money. The new locker room is NBA quality on a smaller scale. Football gets so much private money at WMU lately it is hard for BB to compete. I would argue Hawkins has done very well with what he has. Other coaches wouldn't have stayed the course.
(02-09-2018 11:46 AM)BuickBronco Wrote: [ -> ]There is a move to build a top notch BB practice facility next to UA.
There has been "a move" to do that for over 10 years.
Is it gaining some traction now?
If so....AWESOME!
Any specifics?
Quote:Football gets so much private money at WMU lately it is hard for BB to compete.
It really shouldn't be a competition.
Besides.
Hawk had a HUGE head start over PJF.
Meanwhile.....let's hope THIS YEAR'S team doesn't settle. Or make excuses.
You know...because Buffalo and Toledo have practice facilities.
"Fight on"
As per the 'nothing changes', that goes for posters overestimating how good the program is. Been going on for decades.
I didn't share the belief at the start of the season that we were that strong. There were too many weaknesses-toss in a couple of injuries to key players and you'll get pretty much what we got.
(02-11-2018 12:53 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]As per the 'nothing changes', that goes for posters overestimating how good the program is. Been going on for decades.
I didn't share the belief at the start of the season that we were that strong. There were too many weaknesses-toss in a couple of injuries to key players and you'll get pretty much what we got.
Phil, the majority of the league was in a rebuild with the exception of us and Balls. The rest of the MAC got better, and we have regressed. Miami for example is a total rebuild that starts 3 freshmen and a transfer, and they took us to the wire both times. Picking us to win the West was a no brained, but all it took was Toledo bringing in a transfer from Missouri and they passed us by. I only see improvement in Josh Davis, the rest are stuck in neutral or in Dugan and Wilder’s case regressing.
On defense, we’ve constantly given up three to every opponent. That is correctable, but it’s still happening.
Last I checked, we were last or next to last in the league in 3 point field goal perecentage defense. Seems to have been an issue for a few years now.
(02-11-2018 05:29 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2018 12:53 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]As per the 'nothing changes', that goes for posters overestimating how good the program is. Been going on for decades.
I didn't share the belief at the start of the season that we were that strong. There were too many weaknesses-toss in a couple of injuries to key players and you'll get pretty much what we got.
Phil, the majority of the league was in a rebuild with the exception of us and Balls. The rest of the MAC got better, and we have regressed. Miami for example is a total rebuild that starts 3 freshmen and a transfer, and they took us to the wire both times. Picking us to win the West was a no brained, but all it took was Toledo bringing in a transfer from Missouri and they passed us by. I only see improvement in Josh Davis, the rest are stuck in neutral or in Dugan and Wilder’s case regressing.
On defense, we’ve constantly given up three to every opponent. That is correctable, but it’s still happening.
Not sure we regressed, I don't think we were ever that strong in the first place. Take away Thomas Wilder who is GREAT and who do we have that led folks to believe we were such a budding power? Brandon Johnson and Reggie Jones showed a lot of promise as Freshman, but they're not franchise players yet. LaMont and Dugan promised a strong post game, but when Dugan got injured that fell through and LaMont really hasn't progressed since last season. Josh Davis has improved his Offense game, but is still lacking Defense prowess.
Bottom line is we rarely have contests where everybody is at the top of their game at the same time, we're too inconsistent. This is your typical WMU Bronco basketball team-Hawks gets the most out of the talent he has because he's the 1st or 2nd smartest HC in the conference. He squeezes the players for what they have, we just don't have enough game breakers.
Going into this season I just wasn't seeing the sure-thing talent pantry that some were seeing. I'll admit that losing Dugan for so much of the season took some air out of our game, but there wasn't that much air in it to begin with, IMO.
If you liked last year's Bronco team, you'll like this years Bronco team. Very much the same level of talent, very much the same game outcomes. And with TW leaving at the end of this season get ready for more of the same the next two seasons-if we're lucky. In typical WMU Bronco Men's Basketball fashion, Bryce Moore or Josh Davis will find their winning stride the season after we lose our franchise player-Thomas Wilder.
Didn't somebody predict we'd win all remaining games (was 7 games at the time of the prediction)?
I see three more wins with 6 games to go. EMU at UA, CMU at UA and NIU at DeKalb.
We'll lose to the Chimps at Mt. Pee.
We ain't going to the Big Dance again this season. Or the Consolation Dance. Or any of the consolation/consolation dances.
Hope I'm wrong, hope we do better than that. However, in the words of Adrian Monk, 'But I don't think so!'
Broncos are currently playing their best basketball of the year to a large part with improved defence & by minimizing TOs.
I expect them to make the 20 win mark.
(02-11-2018 05:29 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2018 12:53 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]As per the 'nothing changes', that goes for posters overestimating how good the program is. Been going on for decades.
I didn't share the belief at the start of the season that we were that strong. There were too many weaknesses-toss in a couple of injuries to key players and you'll get pretty much what we got.
Phil, the majority of the league was in a rebuild with the exception of us and Balls. The rest of the MAC got better, and we have regressed. Miami for example is a total rebuild that starts 3 freshmen and a transfer, and they took us to the wire both times. Picking us to win the West was a no brained, but all it took was Toledo bringing in a transfer from Missouri and they passed us by. I only see improvement in Josh Davis, the rest are stuck in neutral or in Dugan and Wilder’s case regressing.
On defense, we’ve constantly given up three to every opponent. That is correctable, but it’s still happening.
(02-12-2018 01:24 PM)okgc Wrote: [ -> ]Broncos are currently playing their best basketball of the year to a large part with improved defense & by minimizing TOs.
I expect them to make the 20 win mark.
(02-12-2018 01:33 PM)okgc Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2018 05:29 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2018 12:53 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]As per the 'nothing changes', that goes for posters overestimating how good the program is. Been going on for decades.
I didn't share the belief at the start of the season that we were that strong. There were too many weaknesses-toss in a couple of injuries to key players and you'll get pretty much what we got.
Phil, the majority of the league was in a rebuild with the exception of us and Balls. The rest of the MAC got better, and we have regressed. Miami for example is a total rebuild that starts 3 freshmen and a transfer, and they took us to the wire both times. Picking us to win the West was a no brained, but all it took was Toledo bringing in a transfer from Missouri and they passed us by. I only see improvement in Josh Davis, the rest are stuck in neutral or in Dugan and Wilder’s case regressing.
On defense, we’ve constantly given up three to every opponent. That is correctable, but it’s still happening.
(02-12-2018 01:24 PM)okgc Wrote: [ -> ]Broncos are currently playing their best basketball of the year to a large part with improved defense & by minimizing TOs.
I expect them to make the 20 win mark.
I wouldn’t go that far. We took 13 more shots than Miami, but they had us on the ropes because they shot 40% from three, while we shot 27% including 0-8 in the first half. Until we can stop the three or start dropping threes we will struggle. The game is changing, we have to change with it.
(02-12-2018 03:13 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-12-2018 01:33 PM)okgc Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2018 05:29 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2018 12:53 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]As per the 'nothing changes', that goes for posters overestimating how good the program is. Been going on for decades.
I didn't share the belief at the start of the season that we were that strong. There were too many weaknesses-toss in a couple of injuries to key players and you'll get pretty much what we got.
Phil, the majority of the league was in a rebuild with the exception of us and Balls. The rest of the MAC got better, and we have regressed. Miami for example is a total rebuild that starts 3 freshmen and a transfer, and they took us to the wire both times. Picking us to win the West was a no brained, but all it took was Toledo bringing in a transfer from Missouri and they passed us by. I only see improvement in Josh Davis, the rest are stuck in neutral or in Dugan and Wilder’s case regressing.
On defense, we’ve constantly given up three to every opponent. That is correctable, but it’s still happening.
(02-12-2018 01:24 PM)okgc Wrote: [ -> ]Broncos are currently playing their best basketball of the year to a large part with improved defense & by minimizing TOs.
I expect them to make the 20 win mark.
I wouldn’t go that far. We took 13 more shots than Miami, but they had us on the ropes because they shot 40% from three, while we shot 27% including 0-8 in the first half. Until we can stop the three or start dropping threes we will struggle. The game is changing, we have to change with it.
Being open against the long ball has been a weakness of this program for some time. I don't understand it, ostensibly we have strength and experience at the post so why are we so quick to fall back into paint and give the other sides hot-hands just enough separation to comfortably put the ball up? We adjust, cut-down on their Jeepers 3-pers but by then we're digging out of a hole.
Hawks plays the percentages out of Hoyles, he's a numbers guy. Smart coach, but sometimes you have to lay it on the line and play for the win-hope Ruthless Fate works in your favor. I have to wonder if the players would respond better by challenging them to raise the level of their game then by playing the percentages all the time? Young men are more passionate about their game than they are cerebral, telling them to man-up usually works.
It’s a simple game.
When we go under ball screens they bury open 3’s
When we go over screens the drive to the hole, we bring help, they kick out, open three.
When we switch on ball screens we end up in mismatches.
I prefer we go over the screen to stop the easy look, pass the dribble driver off to the bigs, and guard the perimeter. We have ten fouls to give between Lamont and Dugan. I’d rather trade twos than trade twos for threes.
We used multiple defenses Saturday. Used a zone briefly and a half court trap. Both took them out of their comfort zone.
(02-12-2018 06:41 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote: [ -> ]It’s a simple game.
When we go under ball screens they bury open 3’s
When we go over screens the drive to the hole, we bring help, they kick out, open three.
When we switch on ball screens we end up in mismatches.
I prefer we go over the screen to stop the easy look, pass the dribble driver off to the bigs, and guard the perimeter. We have ten fouls to give between Lamont and Dugan. I’d rather trade twos than trade twos for threes.
We used multiple defenses Saturday. Used a zone briefly and a half court trap. Both took them out of their comfort zone.
Good analysis.