In the past some of our best teams featured players who transferred in from bigger programs, sat a year and then started for two years.
Players like Solo, Big Mike Smith, Brandon Patterson to name just a few. or even Jucos like D'Andre, Zach Graber, John Fowler and Shane Edwards. We don't seem to have a player of that quality with much experience this season. Ben Dillard, Javes and Taggart are true Sophomores.
Will is just a Junior and he can't seem to stay healthy. And our point guards are babies. The problem is that we should have some juniors and seniors leading the team. I still believe in the potential of this team, but we should not be in the position we're in right now.

I think we're witnessing the evolution of UALR basketball from a predominately JUCO-oriented squad to a grow-your-own approach. Coach Shields earned "capital" when he made it to the NCAAT, buying the couple of years needed to bridge that gap.

I like the idea of recruiting Freshmen, but I wonder how many of these will be there for their Junior and Senior seasons. If most stay, then the transition has been worth it. If they don't, it wasn't a good idea. I'm really surprised we didn't bring in a seasoned Juco point guard like Graber or D'Andre and one Freshman to have some time to mature. Maybe they couldn't find the right Juco and thought the Freshmen were good enough to handle the job, and hopefully that will materialize as the season rolls on. As we say every year, only time will tell.

(11-16-2012 02:53 PM)Scotto Wrote:  I think we're witnessing the evolution of UALR basketball from a predominately JUCO-oriented squad to a grow-your-own approach. Coach Shields earned "capital" when he made it to the NCAAT, buying the couple of years needed to bridge that gap.

That's good, but what was he doing the first eight years before we got lucky and backed into the tournament?

I can only assume he was preparing to win the tourney.

(11-16-2012 10:11 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  In the past some of our best teams featured players who transferred in from bigger programs, sat a year and then started for two years.
Players like Solo, Big Mike Smith, Brandon Patterson to name just a few. or even Jucos like D'Andre, Zach Graber, John Fowler and Shane Edwards. We don't seem to have a player of that quality with much experience this season. Ben Dillard, Javes and Taggart are true Sophomores.
Will is just a Junior and he can't seem to stay healthy. And our point guards are babies. The problem is that we should have some juniors and seniors leading the team. I still believe in the potential of this team, but we should not be in the position we're in right now.

Start with the loss of Will Coleman and the defection of Chucky Guy a go from there. Those of you with better memories than mine can recite a string of bad luck occurrences that, in part, led us to the situation we are in now about which I am not all that concerned. Excited about seeing our youngsters being coached up.

Wn was one of the guys we missed on and had to wait on but we did get him.