While recruiting is HUGELY important, it is on the court and off the court coaching and accountability that we have most sorely missed.

If we would painfully allow ourselves to visit back the onset of the Patton era, one would recall the 'excitement' he generated and the fact that he brought to our campus Silas and Kowal: former Colorado recruits and players...certainly, on paper, a major uptick from what we were used to.

I really love our new hire and hope that our confidence in him is justified. Honestly, his first 3 recruits are very similar to what we have been used to around here (Patton really was not that horrid on the recruiting front....being objective guys)..so, let's hope that Mont gives us the uptick and pulls some rabbits going forward (on the recruiting front), but really...WHAT WE REALLY NEED AND HAVE HORRIBLY MISSED IS A COACH THAT MANAGES OUR PROGRAM AND DEVELOPS OUR PLAYERS (AND KEEPS THEM HERE) AND MAKES GAME-TIME ADJUSTMENTS ECT ECT.

The perception of the program, our image, our reality...I believe that has already begun to change.

agreed, but at the end Patton left a little bit of a mess, so it's important to get some decent players in. You are right though, lack of talent wasn't the biggest issue under Patton in my opinion.

MM has been here less than a month...not a lot of time to get the leftovers in the class of 2011...so given that reality, this has been a damn good recruiting job by MM and Townsend......

Don't really disagree...I'm maybe not up to the "damn good" level yet but certainly he has done a fine job.

Unlike some others...I'll be excited if we land Payne. He played minutes as a true fresh at Iowa...and while Iowa is not MSU...we'll gladly take any of their recruits. Plus, he is a local boy with a big name and a stud younger bro...we can dream.

(04-12-2011 03:23 PM)blackhawk Wrote:  Don't really disagree...I'm maybe not up to the "damn good" level yet but certainly he has done a fine job.

Unlike some others...I'll be excited if we land Payne. He played minutes as a true fresh at Iowa...and while Iowa is not MSU...we'll gladly take any of their recruits. Plus, he is a local boy with a big name and a stud younger bro...we can dream.

Absolutely! Come om Payne! And the MSU Center!

All very good points and well said. Recruiting wasn't the problem. He/they got players here who were good enough. WERE is the key word. They didn't develop or get better. In some cases it looked like they got worse under the criticism or lack of confidence and way they were subbed during games or whatever it was. Players seemed to not be able to play the longer they were here. I keep using Nixon and Storm as examples. Both came in as good players. Both had really pretty good and promising freshmen years. Nixon's sophomore year he looked less sure of himself. Same for Storm. Storm's junior year was maybe even worse where he would hardly play for more than a minute or two at a time, until he got to show some things late in the year after injuries required it. They aren't the only two examples, but are the two that keep coming to mind for me. Did Hall improve? Did Fisher, Ervin, Madlock, Smith, Patton, improve? None of the players seemed to develop and get better. That's what I really want to see from this coach between now and next season, and then with new players they bring in.