After another disappointing season assuming we lose Saturday and hopefully win one game on pillow fight Friday. Do you think Coach Spiker is or should be on the hot seat? Eventually, the CAA will lose schools due to football reasons ( JMU or William and Mary) If we ever want to hop to a good/stable conference we need to start winning again.
I know Spiker inherited a lot of problems and he is finishing up his first year at Drexel. So, obviously he is safe this year but, where does he/the team have to end up next year to earn your trust going further?
My hope for a successful year is in the top 6 especially after a lot of the seniors from UNCW and Coc are leaving.
CofC has all significant contributors back next year. Only seniors on the roster at Peyton Hulsey who's been sidelined with a foot injury since Dec and Terrance ODonohue who plays a couple minutes in a few games.
His seat is as hot as an iceberg in the north pole. As far as our trust, I think he has already earned many people's this season with what we saw. However, at Drexel, it is not the fans who he needs to worry about, it is the AD. As long as he has his trust built with him his seat will be safe for a long time. I also find the topic of this thread in very poor taste because almost all of the fans are excited for what we have seen and the direction we are going
(02-24-2017 07:10 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]His seat is as hot as an iceberg in the north pole. As far as our trust, I think he has already earned many people's this season with what we saw. However, at Drexel, it is not the fans who he needs to worry about, it is the AD. As long as he has his trust built with him his seat will be safe for a long time. I also find the topic of this thread in very poor taste because almost all of the fans are excited for what we have seen and the direction we are going
Totally agree. It's frustrating, but he did inherit a mess of mediocre Bruiser recruits. Outside of Rodney, all of the best players on the team never played for Bruiser. Two of our top players have been injured down the stretch. Seems like we're relied on a 5 8 guy to carry the team the last couple of weeks.
Give Spike a few years and see what he can do building his own team.
I hate to perpetuate this thread because it's simply a foolish, antagonizing and inappropriate topic to ponder.
Spiker's job is completely safe; no one was ever going to judge this season by wins and losses. The positive energy and optimistic outlook that he has instilled, despite the agonizing losses, gives the program direction that was desperately needed. The style of play and coaching prowess shown by him and his staff have been sorely lacking for a while. He's done a great job, now that he's seen the CAA first hand and is starting to build HIS team, give it several more years before even thinking about this again.
I foresee a very good chance for you to win on Fri night. The arena for the tourney has wide open space behind the baskets and no sight lines for shooters. That place has historically been bad for teams that rely on the 3 to win. Good defense and not allowing second chance points win a lot of games in that arena
(02-24-2017 03:33 PM)swampcougar1 Wrote: [ -> ]I foresee a very good chance for you to win on Fri night. The arena for the tourney has wide open space behind the baskets and no sight lines for shooters. That place has historically been bad for teams that rely on the 3 to win. Good defense and not allowing second chance points win a lot of games in that arena
How does that help us? We arent good on defense and we shoot a lot of 3's.
(02-24-2017 03:40 PM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-24-2017 03:33 PM)swampcougar1 Wrote: [ -> ]I foresee a very good chance for you to win on Fri night. The arena for the tourney has wide open space behind the baskets and no sight lines for shooters. That place has historically been bad for teams that rely on the 3 to win. Good defense and not allowing second chance points win a lot of games in that arena
How does that help us? We arent good on defense and we shoot a lot of 3's.
My bad. Was thinking your defense was better than it is and also that you would be playing Hofstra who relies heavily on the 3 and second chance points.
I would like to say I want Spiker and the new dragons to do well and I believe they will. I brought this topic up one because, there were no other posts or discussions occurring and I was bored... so something is better than nothing haha. I was more curious about what you all thought about next years expectations as we did end up in last place.
(02-25-2017 05:15 AM)Dragon For Life Wrote: [ -> ]I would like to say I want Spiker and the new dragons to do well and I believe they will. I brought this topic up one because, there were no other posts or discussions occurring and I was bored... so something is better than nothing haha. I was more curious about what you all thought about next years expectations as we did end up in last place.
There is a way to ask that question without questioning whether a coach is right for the job after one year. To answer that question, we will improve but still bad next year, bottom half. Losing Rodney is going to hurt. Keep in mind next year is his first full recruiting class as his search last year was abbreviated. I do not expect to see a big jump in the standings until year 3
I thought it might be interesting to look back and compare a bit some of our coaching transitions.
Eddie Burke to Bill Herrion:
This coincided with the move from the ECC to the NAC.
Record 12-16 (Burke) to 16-14 (Herrion)
Conf: 7-5 (3rd in ECC) to 9-5 (2nd in NAC)
Conf tournament: lost in first round - lost in championship game (Note Herrion would be in the championship game in 7 of 8 seasons at Drexel.
Herrion inherited a relatively full cupboard with 89% of the scoring returning. The top four players were seniors (Michael Thompson, Jon Raab, now CAA ref Clarence Armstrong, and Dan Leahy) however Herrion made some good early recruiting moves bring Brian Holden with him from BU, getting Malik Rose as part of his first full recruiting class, and then Jeff Myers as a transfer from St. Francis leading to 3 trips to the NCAA tournament.
Bill Herrion to Steve Seymour
Record 20-9 to 13-17
Conf 15-3 (2nd in AEC) to 9-9 (5th in AEC)
Conf tournament: lost in championship game - lost in semi-finals
Seymour inherited a relatively full cupboard returning with 70% of the previous year's scoring. However Joe Linderman was a big part of that and was hurt - so 49% is a fairer number.
Steve Seymour to Bruiser Flint
Record 15-12 to 14-14
Conf: 12-6 (3rd in AE) to 11-7 (4th in CAA)
Conference tourney lost in 1st round - lost in 1st round
Flint inherited a pretty bare cupbord returning only 8% of the previous year's scoring and that number would go down to 4% if you discount Jamil Moore who left just 5 game into Flint's 1st year. In addition to losing a high end senior class (at least for the America East) of Starks, Linderman, Kouser, and Sanders, Ashley Howard's career was ending due to medical issues. Flint used returning guys who never got much time like Battle, Whitworth and Schmieder together with a nice group of newcomers Goss, King, Hinds, and Brooks to have surprisingly decent start in the transition to CAA play. Unfortunately the first round tourney loss would be a trend of poor tournament performances and just never quite getting to the big dance.
Bruiser Flint to Zach Spiker
Record 6-25 to 9-21 (with at least 2 games left)
Conf 3-15 to 3-14 (with today's game left)
Tourney: lost in quaterfinals to a surprising last to first Championship and first NCAA appearance in 20 years (okay maybe that is just wishful thinking)
Spiker had 62% of the scoring returning but that quickly was reduced to 35% with the transfers of Terrell Allen and Rashann London
This, like Library Boy's, is a stupid thread, but
HERE'S your answer.
I'm not too worked up that this thread exists. dan10 talks like he was badmouthing coach spiker's kids or something. I don't think it's that bad. He's clearly not getting fired any time soon, but it's reasonable to set some expectations about when we expect to see this turn around. My minimum would be three years. I was bailing on James Franklin at PSU after they got slaughtered by Michigan. He turned it around in his third year when they got a little healthier.
My biggest concern with Spiker is recruiting. You guys know a lot more about what's coming in. I haven't been that blown away by the players he has brought in to this point. I'm sure his hands were tired somewhat since he was just coming into the program. A season like this one is easier to take if you know you're getting valuable time for guys who will be pieces to the puzzle later. I'm not convinced Jonsson and even Lee fall into that category.
(03-01-2017 05:59 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not too worked up that this thread exists. dan10 talks like he was badmouthing coach spiker's kids or something. I don't think it's that bad. He's clearly not getting fired any time soon, but it's reasonable to set some expectations about when we expect to see this turn around. My minimum would be three years. I was bailing on James Franklin at PSU after they got slaughtered by Michigan. He turned it around in his third year when they got a little healthier.
My biggest concern with Spiker is recruiting. You guys know a lot more about what's coming in. I haven't been that blown away by the players he has brought in to this point. I'm sure his hands were tired somewhat since he was just coming into the program. A season like this one is easier to take if you know you're getting valuable time for guys who will be pieces to the puzzle later. I'm not convinced Jonsson and even Lee fall into that category.
I don't think that Jonsson and Lee were meant to be pieces of the puzzle to turn the program around. They were last minute desperate recruits. When Bruiser needed last minute desperate recruits, he got guys like Manojlavic and Goran who barely saw the floor in 4 years. When Spiker needs to recruit a few guys at the last minute, he gets a sharpshooter, and a guy who's on pace to be the all time leading scorer in the program. Lee hopefully won't become the program's all-time scorer, or even become close. But not because I don't want to see him get better and score like crazy for the next 3 years. It's because I want him to become more of a role player around more talented players, so he doesn't have to try to carry the team like he has the last few weeks.
(03-01-2017 05:59 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not too worked up that this thread exists. dan10 talks like he was badmouthing coach spiker's kids or something. I don't think it's that bad. He's clearly not getting fired any time soon, but it's reasonable to set some expectations about when we expect to see this turn around. My minimum would be three years. I was bailing on James Franklin at PSU after they got slaughtered by Michigan. He turned it around in his third year when they got a little healthier.
My biggest concern with Spiker is recruiting. You guys know a lot more about what's coming in. I haven't been that blown away by the players he has brought in to this point. I'm sure his hands were tired somewhat since he was just coming into the program. A season like this one is easier to take if you know you're getting valuable time for guys who will be pieces to the puzzle later. I'm not convinced Jonsson and even Lee fall into that category.
It's nothing to get worked up about, it's just dumb. We're paying Bru, we paid to buyout Spiker from Army and then gave him a nice contract we'd have to buyout to then pay another coach.
I'd be interested in hearing your reasons for doubting Kurk and Kari's usefulness moving forward as I've found both to be fairly impressive (turnovers notwithstanding). My biggest concern with Spiker remains what it was when I wrote about him last year, defense.
(03-01-2017 05:59 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not too worked up that this thread exists. dan10 talks like he was badmouthing coach spiker's kids or something. I don't think it's that bad. He's clearly not getting fired any time soon, but it's reasonable to set some expectations about when we expect to see this turn around. My minimum would be three years. I was bailing on James Franklin at PSU after they got slaughtered by Michigan. He turned it around in his third year when they got a little healthier.
My biggest concern with Spiker is recruiting. You guys know a lot more about what's coming in. I haven't been that blown away by the players he has brought in to this point. I'm sure his hands were tired somewhat since he was just coming into the program. A season like this one is easier to take if you know you're getting valuable time for guys who will be pieces to the puzzle later. I'm not convinced Jonsson and even Lee fall into that category.
If you're concerned with a recruiting class of Lee and Jonsson, it may not be long until Spiker is on the hot seat. Not that scoring is everything but those two guys are some of the best freshmen Drexel has ever had. Lee is close to the freshman scoring record of John Rankin. Guys that have scored more as a freshman than Kari Jonsson in the recent D1 era at Drexel: Damion Lee, Chris Fouch, Phil Goss, Joe Linderman, Mike DeRocckis, Malik Rose, John Rankin, Michael Anderson, and Bob Stephens. So unless I overlooked someone, he is the 10th best freshman scoring-wise we've ever had. He is just ahead of what Terrell Allen did last year, so if he plays and doesn't score much in the tourney, he could slip behind Allen.
Spiker wants to play a fast paced, high scoring style so it seems to me they fit right in. They rank 1st and 4th in the conference in 3-pt shooting percentage. I'm not sure what more you can ask for. Well maybe a little defense.
I guess we can judge the recruiting a little better next year with the transfers Harper and Isabell (if they are still around) and the new big guys in Doles and Perry. But for me, I don't see concern at least based on the first two as JB put it "last-minute desperate recruits." I can see it maybe if you are comparing to Pat Skerry who got a Naismith candidate Frank Mason III as one of his first commits -- but even he missed out on that little detail of actually having the guy play for him.
Soo.. I guess this thread wasn't a waste of time.. haha. I really just wanted people to think and talk about this year as we did up in the same place we were last year. I hope we can win tomorrow vs JMU and I will be overall happy and see progress. If Kari hits the weight room this offseason and lee and Sammy continues to learn and improve we have a nice guard lineup.
Rumor Report:
I think Harper will be staying but from what I hear Isabell may be gone for off the field drama/transfer.
(03-03-2017 12:04 AM)Dragon For Life Wrote: [ -> ]Soo.. I guess this thread wasn't a waste of time.. haha. I really just wanted people to think and talk about this year as we did up in the same place we were last year. I hope we can win tomorrow vs JMU and I will be overall happy and see progress. If Kari hits the weight room this offseason and lee and Sammy continues to learn and improve we have a nice guard lineup.
Rumor Report:
I think Harper will be staying but from what I hear Isabell may be gone for off the field drama/transfer.
If Isabell leaves, does he have to sit out another year?
And this means another late recruiting scramble to fill his scholarship?
(03-03-2017 07:45 AM)J.B. Wrote: [ -> ] (03-03-2017 12:04 AM)Dragon For Life Wrote: [ -> ]Soo.. I guess this thread wasn't a waste of time.. haha. I really just wanted people to think and talk about this year as we did up in the same place we were last year. I hope we can win tomorrow vs JMU and I will be overall happy and see progress. If Kari hits the weight room this offseason and lee and Sammy continues to learn and improve we have a nice guard lineup.
Rumor Report:
I think Harper will be staying but from what I hear Isabell may be gone for off the field drama/transfer.
If Isabell leaves, does he have to sit out another year?
If you listen to the Dragonscast podcast, they have talked about the Isabell rumors and seem to think he is coming back.
To answer the question though I'm fairly sure he would have to sit another year if he were to transfer to another school. I think the rules say you have to be enrolled a year previous. It doesn't make sense that you could go to one school on scholarship for a year not playing and the decide to go to another school and play immediately.