(08-06-2013 04:21 PM)3601 Wrote:  

(08-06-2013 11:05 AM)HoopDreams Wrote:  

(08-06-2013 11:03 AM)EarthBoundMisfit Wrote:  

(08-06-2013 10:39 AM)HoopDreams Wrote:  

(08-06-2013 10:23 AM)EarthBoundMisfit Wrote:  You're saying Josh did not have to rebuild Memphis?
The players we had left on Josh's first team (with the exception of Elliott Williams) would have been BENCH players or second stringers on previous Memphis teams under Calipari.
Our recruits of note for that season were Martin Ngalaro who hurt his knee and never showed up on campus, DJ Stephens, Will Coleman, and Latavious Williams who also never showed up on campus.

Agree to a point - those remaining players were still mostly highly-rated recruits, higher than anyone on another CUSA roster for the most part, and Mack started on the S16 team the year before. There wasn't elite talent, but there was talent.

And maybe the roster needed an upgrade, but the program didn't need to be rebuilt - from corporate support, ambassador levels, overall donations, facilities, national perception, et cetera, it was light years away from when John was hired.

Agree to a point. John had enough bodies to play 5 on 5 in practice, Josh's first team did not. We had ONE big man who could bang with other big bodies in Will Coleman (don't get me started on Pierre Niles)....but he was a fouling machine. When he got into foul trouble...we had to depend on Spoon to play power forward or center.
Yes Josh inherited 'Memphis' good name', but in the eyes of many kids 'Memphis's time had come and gone.' so the national perception had lost a lot of luster. We couldn't land a bonehead like Eric Bledsoe.
If Josh had been like Cal, he never would have went after local kids.
That is why signing the Bartons, Jackson, Crawford, and Tarik Black was so important.

You are talking about roster, I'm talking about program.

John took over a toxic program.

Like I said, Josh has done fine, but the programs they inherited were at the opposite end of the spectrum.

"Light years" and "opposite ends of the spectrum" may be hyperbole and a bit melodramatic.

After all, we were top 10 in the nation in attendance the year before Cal arrived. It's not like we were UMass when he arrived there. We were only a few years removed from being a Top 10 team. I get your point, but I don't think it was THAT bad.

It wasn't, and Cal took his program with him. Josh had to start his own. Cal would have been fine with the program falling apart as a result of not hiring Barbee.


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