BSU has won 6 of their last 8 under their second year coach. This includes their loss in overtime today to Akron, the first East team to beat them. Few expected much out of them this year.
While the Broncos weren't picked to finish on top of the West, a strong pre-conference showing had hopes high and yet this team just hasn't produced the wins and there have been too many games where come crunch time, they've snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
It is truly painful to watch and listen to the waning days of the David Kool era with little to show for the years of having one of the best and most consistent players in the league.
Hawks is not one of the best court-side coaches in the MAC. He's a great recruiter, an adequate X's and O's strategist but an on the floor coach? Not really. We've lost some key games this year due to getting outcoached at game time.
Great recruiter? Really? If Kool hadn't injured his knee in high school he would be playing in East Lansing right now. Other than that, who has Hawk brought in?
I'd say Hutch and Dave Brown are pretty damn good talent for a mid-major. Juwan is good. Drews was good. Reitz was good. Can't knock Hawks for not bringing in talent. Problem is he hasn't done much with it.
Sorry, not sold on the "Hawk as a great recruiter" theory. Maybe "average" at best.
We'll see how his recruits perform next year. I say 8 - 10 wins at best!
(02-06-2010 11:42 PM)broncofan1 Wrote: [ -> ]Great recruiter? Really? If Kool hadn't injured his knee in high school he would be playing in East Lansing right now. Other than that, who has Hawk brought in?
As much as some "fans" think that to be so, he was never offered and wasnt going to be. His knee had nothing to do with MSU. Maybe others.
(02-06-2010 11:42 PM)broncofan1 Wrote: [ -> ]Great recruiter? Really? If Kool hadn't injured his knee in high school he would be playing in East Lansing right now. Other than that, who has Hawk brought in?
There is no way Kool would have been offered to play at MSU. If you look at his performance against Big 11 caliber teams, he gets shut down, primarily because he doesn't have the foot speed to play at that level.
Kool is a more complete player than Scott Skiles, but he has never had the supporting cast. Hard to follow-through when you're double teamed every play.
(02-07-2010 07:59 AM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]Kool is a more complete player than Scott Skiles, but he has never had the supporting cast. Hard to follow-through when you're double teamed every play.
Skiles was before my time so I can't agree or refute that...however, I think Kool is arguably the best player to come through the MAC since Kaman/Szczerbiak. He just lacks that speed to make it to the next level.
(02-07-2010 07:59 AM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]Kool is a more complete player than Scott Skiles, but he has never had the supporting cast. Hard to follow-through when you're double teamed every play.
I'd never thought about comparing Skiles to Kool. Hmmmm, Skiles was more of a gunner, a me first kind of guy, and I think he was a bit more consistent with the deep shot.
Skiles had a swagger that was fun to watch. I remember in the NCAA watching the Georgetown players mocking Skiles, they thought he was some slow pasty talking trash white kid with no game. He lit them up for 40. MSU won.
On the other hand, while Kool is confidnet, he is almost too modest, too team oriented; if Kool were a me first kind of guy like Skiles, two things would happen: He would average 27 per game and WMU would win a bit more; after all who would you rather have pulling the trigger, David or the rest of the team?
While I think Skiles was a better deep threat, Kool is much better taking it to the hole and creating his own shot. Skiles was more of a spot shooter off of a pick or screen, although he could sometimes shoot on the run.
As far as Kool being a more complete player? Maybe, pretty close to call. I will say that Kool is actually quicker and faster than Skiles, and players better "D". Yeah, more I think about it, BP is right
Skiles had a far, FAR better supporting cast at MSU. Think what Kool would be with that team around him!
(02-07-2010 09:49 AM)BroncoPhilly Wrote: [ -> ]Skiles had a far, FAR better supporting cast at MSU. Think what Kool would be with that team around him!
Nother good point. Kool would astonishing with that kind of supporting cast.
I think DK can hang and get the better of any level of talent, to judge him about how he plays against top tier teams with his surrounding cast (including the cast wearing suits on the sidelines) doesn't do the discussion justice. This is a unique talent that we don't see exploited as much as he could be, it's sort of a waste IMO.
In the future, you'll be sorry to have discounted his abilities and saying that he "doesn't have the speed" etc, that's my take.
Yeah, the doesn't have the speed thing is b.s. That's code for "he's white."
He has plenty of speed. He beats damn near everyone in the league off the dribble when he puts his mind to it, and he's our best defender.
Ask Muskegon Heights and Detroit Renn if he has speed. He blew by them coast to coast for 88 points.
Oh come on high school is so different than the NBA it has nothing to do with him being white. If he can play at that level he'll have the opportunity to prove it at some point. I won't even try to play scout since there are guys who go in the NBA draft lottery every year that I have barely heard of and I watch a lot of college hoops, but I wouldn't be suprised if Kool's skill set allows him to find a niche in that league at some point. He might have to start over seas or in the D League first.
(02-07-2010 02:04 AM)broncos24 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-06-2010 11:42 PM)broncofan1 Wrote: [ -> ]Great recruiter? Really? If Kool hadn't injured his knee in high school he would be playing in East Lansing right now. Other than that, who has Hawk brought in?
There is no way Kool would have been offered to play at MSU. If you look at his performance against Big 11 caliber teams, he gets shut down, primarily because he doesn't have the foot speed to play at that level.
Maybe not State, but if you go back to his old old scout info, there's a whole bunch of insider articles from the Michigan site right up until he blows out his knee. It wouldn't have shocked me if he had gone to a Big 10 school based on that before his injury. Mr. Basketball's don't usually come to MAC schools.
Drew Neitzel was a star in the Big Ten. Dave Kool > Drew Neitzel. Bigger, stronger, and just as talented.
Neitzel was always perceived as being the better athlete of the two, but I would attribute that to Kool being on a newly reconstructed knee when he was getting most of his attention from the media.