RE: Fire Blaine Taylor
I'll always support ODU.....I'll still come to the game and root for us to win.
But I've played basketball my entire life and I recognize good basketball and bad basketball when I see it.
Blaine Taylor is a very good defensive coach. He teaches his guys how to properly play multiple defenses including man to man, a matchup zone and different styles of zone with different players up top (he' used Nick Wright up top in a 3-2 zone before along with Bazemore and James, giving us a fast, long armed perimeter defense). He teaches our players how to be in the proper position to get offensive rebounds off of missed shots, he teaches guys how to box out and overall, he knows his defensive basketball.
However, his offensive "sets" are just flat out terrible. They always have been and always will be. We scored so many buckets off of offensive rebounds and putbacks or through second chance points over the years it boggles the mind. But the primary plays he runs, or really, the lack thereof, are just flat out not good enough.
And in today's college game, you cannot get big time recruits to come play at a school where you are forced to redshirt and play in rock fights. Anyone over a 2 star player probably thinks they can make the NBA (although for about 95% of them at least that never happens), but at 18 years old you can't tell them that.
So the book is out on Blaine. Kids know that playing in his system is not going to get you an NBA look. Bazemore only got to the NBA because with that ridiculous wingspan, jumping ability and freak athleticism, someone was willing to take a chance on him as a shutdown defender. He certainly didn't get there because of his offensive ability.
Even in his senior year, when he was the go to guy every single freaking game, surround by very little other offensive talent, which jet fast moves, outside shooting ability and the ability to go to the rim and attack all day long, he still only managed 15 points a game and shot 40% from the field.
Not even remotely good enough for a player as dynamic as him. On any real team he would have averaged 20 a game. At VCU he might have averaged 25 a game. In fact, I'm almost 100% sure his 15 a game was the most anyone has averaged a game at ODU under Taylor, including both Loughton and Lee.....which is absolutely pathetic when you stop and think about it.
Ill never forget the game where Baze went for 37 and 12 against freaking Drexel's defense last year....he was simply unstoppable. But he could never do that consistently because he played in such a crappy offensive system.
And guess what guys, that is NEVER going to change. We are a rock fight basketball team under Blaine. In fact, he seems to take pride in that. And yeah, it may have won us a few conference titles......but it hasn't had much success in the NCAA tourney and outside of a few upset wins over Georgetown (who was just a perfect matchup for our style of play), Blaine has really never beaten the creme de la creme of the top tier teams we have played. We've come close a couple times (Wisconsin, Michigan State, Baylor, Butler, Mizzou at home) but we never can pull off that one big upset against a Princeton offense style team (Richmond, Georgetown etc.) Notre Dame was ok, but let's face it, they were VERY overrated that year. They were 23-12 that year and 10-8 in the Big East. Not exactly a powerhouse team. And we BARELY beat them in that game.
But regardless, the point stands......big time players don't want to come play for Blaine. He hasn't hit on any diamonds in the rough since Bazemore and because of that, the program is absolutely falling apart. VCU hasn't had this problem. GMU had a down year but nothing anywhere near as bad as what we are seeing right now.
Hewitt and Smart are coaching and recruiting circles around Blaine and that is absolutely an indisputable fact. We will having a losing record this year and the following year looks to be even worse. Bring in fresh blood (like we did with Barefoot), start competing for bigger 757 recruits from our own backyard (not a 6"1 point guard from Hampton average 9 points a game in high school) and hope the program turns around soon.
Shaka Smart went to the Final 4 in only his second year. New blood can be very good for a program. Blaine has had his chance to achieve success and get us over the mountain. He simply hasn't done it. He's had some good years and he's had some stinkers (I'll still never understand how that 05-06 team didn't even make it to the NCAA tourney with Loughton and Hunter as seniors and Williamson, Dahi and VV as juniors with Brian Henderson and John Adams off the bench or last years team barely sneaking into the CIT) but all that pails in comparison to the depths we are currently at.
And there is no real end in sight. We aren't getting that much better this year. Our big men our soft and our guards just cannot shoot the ball ( two games with zero three pointers in the first 4 games of the season?????). Still bad FT shooting and no dominating offensive rebounding to cover up Blaine's poor offensive sets.
Let's look elsewhere. Butler had a good coach in Thad Motta who left and I believe Lickliter took over and then that eventually lead them to Brad Stevens. VCU had Capel who left who led to Grant which eventually lead to Shaka Smart. GMU had Laranagga who left and has handed over the reigns to Hewitt who is landing some BIG TIME recruits in Fairfax.
New blood can be VERY good for a program. Getting a young energetic coach, like a Smart or Barefoot is absolutely the direction ODU needs to take. We need to take advantage of the talent we have in our own backyard and get some of these guys in here and become a real mid major powerhouse.
With as much money and dedication as there is for ODU basketball (far more than Butler, VCU or GMU in terms of money spent on an arena, endowed scholarships, basketball practice facility, what we can afford to pay our coach, season ticket holders, monetary donations etc.) there is zero reason we shouldn't be reloading just like VCU and GMU are doing.
This season is going to be spectacularly bad for ODU. And there is no real help or relief on the horizon with zero frontcourt coming back next year. Blaine has put us in this mess with his piss poor recruiting over the last couple years. Let's go in a new direction and find someone who can sell this program to two three and maybe even a 4 star recruit every now and again instead of projects and guys that Radford was "considering offering too". We should expect better and we simply aren't getting it.
There is an entire thread about the game atmosphere at ODU sucking. Ummmmm, there is a reason for that.....it's because we play piss poor, unattractive and very unexciting basketball. Get a brand new coach with an entirely different philosophy in here and watch the ODU crowd come to life! Our football crowd is one of the best in FCS because of the style of offensive we play which is high speed, in your face, up tempo football where we rack up the points. That is what fans want to see and the type of system players want to play in.
Blaine Taylor sets the game of basketball back 70 years every time his team takes the court. Our offense is slow, predictable, boring and good, top notch players just do not want to play in it. Get a young coach with a better style of play and we will see an uptick in enthusiasm and we may just eventually might be able to make it out of the second freaking round for once in our history.
Come on guys, I know a lot of you are loyal to Taylor and love the guy, but deep down you know I am right. He's let the program slip to drastic levels and the recruiting is just flat out shameful lately. Mitchell, Key and Pimentel all being gone in onr year really should be the straw that broke the camels back.
Either that or the losing season we are about to put together this year followed up by the losing season we put together next year in conference USA. But hopefully it doesn't get to that and he is gone after this year.
|
