Been saying this EXACTLY since the UNC-G game in his freshman year.
Those are very fair and accurate criticisms of Tim Smith,now. a basketball player who has had 4 years of college ball to improve and develop skills and is now trying to prove he belongs in the NBA. It would not be fair at all to attack a freshman with those charges, he had not been given a chance to grow.learn and develop yet. In the end it is his repsonsibilty but DeChellis and Bartow also share in the blame. DeChellis never tried to harness Smith or teach him the skills he needed. DeChellis had the power but he chose not to use it and let Smith do as he pleased. He could have benched or suspended him until Smith got with the program or got mad and left. DeChellis figured Wadood + Fields + this wild kid would = wins in the SoCon. It did and landed him a better job and he left the mess for Bartow who also didn't have the guts to try and do anything with Smith. Smith being selfish is as much a product of bad coaching as it is bad attitude. When it comes down to it Smith was just doing what he was always told to do. Take the ball and try to win for us, I don't have any game plan for you just go figure it out. Thats the only way he knows how to play. Who knows what would have happened if DeChellis or Bartow hadn't taken the easy way out. Proably Smith would have gotten mad and left ETSU but there is a small chance he would have stayed and learned and who knows how good he could have been. Now it is just wasted talent and what might have been, back when he was a freshman it was a ton of raw talent and what might be. Big difference.
R
Timmy was still playing the hot shot freshman that came in and was the missing piece the ETSU puzzle for trips to the NCAA tournament. He just never developed as a basketball player, which tells me one of two things, A: Murry is an idiot or B: Smith is uncoachable. Of course there is C: It was a little of both.
Smith vs. Hot Sauce on the And1 Mix-tape tour!!!
I pick D. Smith is uncoachable, Bartow is and idiot and DeChellis created the monster by letting Smith run wild as freshman figuring he probably wouldn't be around to have to deal with his creation.
R
Not only did Smith not improve, he got worse in my opinion. Became more of a ball hog as time went on. I think he actually had more turnovers per game later in his career. And as we have stated previously, his turnover stats appeared to be cooked.
This guy was not pulling any punches in his assessment. I think that the entourage that Smith brought ticked him off.
How many times did you read in the paper both DeChellis and Bartow saying we just put the ball in Timmy's hands and told him to try and create something for us. Thats not coaching thats just a cop out and it sure did feed an ego that was already pretty big. Late in his senior year there was even a quote about telling Timmy to drive to the hole and throw it up, if it didn't go in it gave our big men a chance to get the offensive rebound and put back. Thats the kind of plays Bartow ran last year.
R
Smith's presense was an irrelevancy in terms of the Bucs making the NCAAs. It was Fields and Wadood's maturity that pushed them over a hump they were very close from getting over the previous two years.
AND SHAW- believe it or not- I AGREE WITH YOUR CRITICISM OF EDDIE D in his handling of Smith.
Something else, even I believe Smith isn't stupid enough to leave if he spent some time on the bench, especially as a freshman.
Where else would he have gone? A player from Duke might be able to transfer to ETSU, but a player at ETSU is not going to be able to transfer to Duke.
However, DeChellis is still the best coach ETSU has had since Madison Brooks.
I mentioned Smith's performance in the PIT in a previous post. I was at 2 of his games and he looked AWFUL! You know that kid in the pickup game that never passes the ball? That is Smith, pure and simple. The first few times he got the ball, the local crowd was going nuts. There is no question that the guy is quick and his dribble penetration is hard to stop, but it appeared that he had no plan once he penetrated. He would blow past the backcourt and get caught in the air everytime! The big front lines would force him to throw up some of the most awful shots I've ever seen. It got to the point that his teammates would just stand around when he got the ball - they knew they weren't going to touch it.
Dockery is solid, but he obviously didn't have the physical gifts that Smith has. However, you could tell he was well coached and because of that, he shined. I agree that Smith should start narrowing his job search to the And 1 tour, or maybe someone will start a one on one league and he can be the marquee player.
The first time I remember seeing Smith play was his sophomore season. I remember watching the game with my wife and telling her "this guy is going to get the bucs killed." I wasn't talking about a game or a season. He was a program killer. Possibly because no one coached him, possibly because he was a ball hog. I don't know.
When Sonny Smith would get on TV and talk about how great he was, or Sports Illustrated would do a story about him, I thought maybe I had missed something. The last time I could remember an ETSU coach mishandling someone so poorly was Coach Jim Hallihan with Charles Thaxton back in the early 80's. Thaxton was a top 100 player nationally, somehow ended up at ETSU over several of the ACC schools. The fans loved him, he seriously produced when he got in the game (which was rare). The only time he would get in the game was when the crowd started chanting "Thaxton...Thaxton." We'd be behind, the crowd would start chanting, and he would come in, score a bunch of points, block a few shots and sit back on the bench for the rest of the game. Hallahan wasn't as bad as Bartow. But he was a bad coach. Ended up (I think he still does this) running backetball clinic around the country.
I'm not saying anything new here. All of you know that if you took Smith's points, then deducted the points he gave away, it wouldn't be a pretty statistic. Here's a stat concerning leading turnover artists during the 2006 season:
NCAA Leaders for Turnovers (Thru games of Apr 3, 2006)
Rank
1 Jamont Gordon Mississippi State 142
2 Tim Smith East Tennessee State 137
3 Jose Juan Barea Northeastern 136
4 Jordan Farmar UCLA 135
5 Mike Trimboli Vermont 134
6 Dwayne Mitchell Louisiana-Lafayette 128
7 Josh Wilson Northern Arizona 127
8t Taurean Green Florida 124
8t Tony Hooper Louisiana-Monroe 124
8t Jeremy Wiley Prairie View A&M 124
Kev- After his freshman year I got the Smith sycophants off my back for a while when I found out he had the WORST turnover-assist ratio in college basketball.
During his freshman year I brought out several criticisms of Smith- even confronted him on his selfishness during a conference call before the NCAAs.
And the sycophants attacked me for it.
I first wondered what I was watching when he was trying to make behind-the-back passes that led to turnovers down by 5 points with 17 seconds left against UNC-G on ESPN in his freshman year.
I would be told on here I didn't know what I was talking about- that I didn't see him play enough- by rubes who were caught up in all the flash and not the lack of fundamentals.
The descriptions of Smith's game above was the exact scenario of the final 11 seconds of the Wake Forest game. He took the ball the length of the court- never even thought about passing- and got caught deep in the corner trying to take a horrible- long-range shot.
I picked on him then. I was the only one. Kelly Hodge made excuses for him- "Oh, he's VOMITING he played so hard!"
Yeah, so was I.
You have to understand here who is covering Smith- and this is how he gets talked about in SI. When the local media is pushing this guy something fierce- along with the athletic dept- then when SI wants to do a story about a mid-major that could be a potential George Mason- that's what they go by.
Remember, Kev-
Sonny Smith- Announcer hired by the So Con to boost the talent in the conference. Even if a coach flubs some strategy he's going to defend him. His job is to be a shill, not a journalist.
Kelly Hodge- Sports editor who got his job through his dad's connections. Never writes anything truly critical of ETSU- often giving Mullins a free pass with columns written from his single-source quotes.
The fact he treats David Mullins with kid gloves- after what that AD did to him by keeping him in the dark on DeChellis' departure- is disgraceful. He's a lap dog, plain and simple.
Don't give me he let's Trey write negative pieces. So what? He leaves him on an island by not coming back with his own criticisms.
Bill Meade- Yeah. Right. The next local figure he takes to task will be his first since Keener Fry- who only was the best AD ETSU ever had.
See, I was all the community had, and the community attacked me because I wasn't nice.
Boo-Hoo-Hoo. Grow a pair and get over it and bask in my wisdom as I succeed with a higher profile!
And you know, I don't attack anyone on here unless they attack me. I am the Poor Little Road Runner who never bothers anyone.
My decision to leave Sports Talk was based on many factors- but one of them was when they refused to run a column I wrote critical of Tim Smith. After my departure they immediately got into bed with ETSU and eventually the paper died because it became nothing but a PR rag.
I really feel sorry for you guys. You had it all, and you blew it.
What the hell are you talking about??? Take it to the smack board, enough. Seriously.
Please. Since when did you become board moderator?
If Rod attacks me on the smack board, I will go over there.
If he attacks me here- I will respond to him here.
Lets try staying on topic folks... The purpose of this board is to discuss ETSU athletics, not attack each other.
if you want to have an argument, take it to private messages.