03-15-2008, 08:03 PM
If it's never the players' fault for doing things they're not coached to do - 22-foot shots in traffic, dribble into doubleteams, play bad defense, play selfish offense, not leading and not listening - then one wonders if it's a player doing the criticizing.
Not to say Mercer didn't have problems and obviously Slonaker didn't correct things as much as he should have, but when does all this 'we have talent' start playing like it? Coaches don't coach players to stupid things, but it's the coach's fault when he doesn't sit somebody on the bench for stupid things. When a player says he did something stupid and keeps doing it and whines, how is that the coaches fault other than for continuing to play him?
Somebody will cry about benching a 'great player' who shot Mercer out of rallies all year and started off 0-for-whatever, or one who has no moves, or one who sometimes plays hard and sometimes doesn't. Great players don't have some of the stats that some Bears had.
(Also, what's Southern Cal's record? And Alabama's record? How many AP Top 25 teams aren't ranked? More than you think.)
At some point, players have to look in the mirror. But whoever said about Florence that he'll either get better or sit or that he'd be deep on the bench at a bigger program is right. He went backwards as a player with more experience around him, and now he like the rest of the team has a transition year facing them when they should be pretty good.
Plus, Mercer has been bad in things for so long - and women's basketball, which had all this hype from coaches and administration before the season, has no light at the end of the tunnel; there are some horror stories, and they went backward with more embarrassing losses than the men. There does need to be a culture change, as they say, but there should have been a culture change - and not by firing Slonaker - a long time ago. He was the best spokesman for an athletic department that had no spokesman. There's a list of people who probably should have been let go before him.
But Mercer and Slonaker will move on and survive. Bring back Bibb!
Not to say Mercer didn't have problems and obviously Slonaker didn't correct things as much as he should have, but when does all this 'we have talent' start playing like it? Coaches don't coach players to stupid things, but it's the coach's fault when he doesn't sit somebody on the bench for stupid things. When a player says he did something stupid and keeps doing it and whines, how is that the coaches fault other than for continuing to play him?
Somebody will cry about benching a 'great player' who shot Mercer out of rallies all year and started off 0-for-whatever, or one who has no moves, or one who sometimes plays hard and sometimes doesn't. Great players don't have some of the stats that some Bears had.
(Also, what's Southern Cal's record? And Alabama's record? How many AP Top 25 teams aren't ranked? More than you think.)
At some point, players have to look in the mirror. But whoever said about Florence that he'll either get better or sit or that he'd be deep on the bench at a bigger program is right. He went backwards as a player with more experience around him, and now he like the rest of the team has a transition year facing them when they should be pretty good.
Plus, Mercer has been bad in things for so long - and women's basketball, which had all this hype from coaches and administration before the season, has no light at the end of the tunnel; there are some horror stories, and they went backward with more embarrassing losses than the men. There does need to be a culture change, as they say, but there should have been a culture change - and not by firing Slonaker - a long time ago. He was the best spokesman for an athletic department that had no spokesman. There's a list of people who probably should have been let go before him.
But Mercer and Slonaker will move on and survive. Bring back Bibb!