(02-28-2014 08:17 AM)EagleSam Wrote: (02-28-2014 07:24 AM)emu79 Wrote: (02-28-2014 06:29 AM)emu steve Wrote: (02-27-2014 08:50 PM)EMUAARON Wrote: (02-27-2014 01:37 PM)emu79 Wrote: Ultimately the question needs to be asked is .500 acceptable each year re men's hoops for us alums, fans, students?
it isn't. i appreciate that Murphy took us from dog food to .500 so quickly, but he plateaued his first season. the team's success has remained constant over two subsequent seasons even while the talent level has improved tremendously. until he pays attention to the offensive side of things, our team will continue to look confused at the end of games, miss free throws and do a poor job of getting our best offensive players the ball in a position to score.
Here is an example of how far we've come:
Here is the 2008/9 season (one of Ramsey's teams):
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sag...onference/
We won six (6 fricking games - total) playing in a conference which was ranked #18 in the country (#13 now).
The SIX MAC West teams were at the bottom and ranked #242 - 312 (I won't mention which MI directional team was ranked #312, but their colors are green and white...).
I'll repeat what I've mentioned before. I did not follow EMU during most of the Ramsey years. We were very busy at work and when I did follow college hoops it was George Mason (I can drive to a Mason game than it takes Hoopster to drive to an Eastern game) and Larranaga had a very, very nice program. (Larranaga left from Miami(FL) and the program is showing signs of regressing).
But is far enough in three years is the question maybe we should all be asking?
Well, assuming we win 2 of our last 3, and then two games in the tournament, that's 20 wins and 10-8 in the conference regular season, which are both improvements over last year. We are going to finish below my expectations for the MAC, but we exceeded them OOC. And I'll never complain about a 20 win season when we are but 3 years removed from embarrassment.
However, all this does is put more pressure on next year, as I expect him to improve even more on this record. We lose 5 guys, but return PLENTY of production, including 3 of our top 4 scorers, our leading rebounder, and leading assist man. Can that team improve on (potentially) 10-8 in the conference? I sure hope so.
Interesting points.
Here is my 'big picture'
Both EMU and the MAC take a significant step BACK next season so our record shouldn't be worse, probably similar.
(I was overly optimistic about our conference record because I COMPLETELY neglected to project how much better the MAC would be this year. I'm guessing the best MAC in say 10 years.
MAC moved up to #13 in the Sagarins, from #16 and has a ton of excellent seniors).
The MAC will lose a LOT of talented seniors like:
1. MCCREA, Javon-UB SR 15 115 0 61 291 19.4
2. BROWN, David-WMU SR 15 76 38 93 283 18.9
3. FOWLER, Chris-CMU SO 15 89 16 82 276 18.4
4. BROWN, Julius-UT JR 15 80 32 57 249 16.6
5. TREADWELL, Demetrius-AKRON SR 15 86 0 70 242 16.1
6. KELLOGG, Nick-OHIO SR 15 84 38 35 241 16.1
7. WHITTINGTON, Shayne-WMU SR 15 92 3 52 239 15.9
8. FELDER, Will-MIAMI SR 15 84 2 54 224 14.9
9. BOND, Chris-BSU SR 15 75 15 51 216 14.4
And we can't forget: Riley, GB III, and the rest of our seniors...
I don't need to do stats on blocked shots.
Here are offensive rebounds in the MAC (mostly seniors):
1. TREADWELL, Demetrius-AKRON SR 15 63 4.2
2. MCCREA, Javon-UB SR 15 59 3.9
3. HOLMES, Richaun-BGSU JR 15 47 3.1
THRELOFF, Jordan-NIU JR 15 47 3.1
5. MAJOK, Majok-BSU SR 14 43 3.1
6. WHITTINGTON, Shayne-WMU SR 15 40 2.7
7. BRYANT, Glenn-EMU SR 15 37 2.5
8. BOND, Chris-BSU SR 15 35 2.3
HENNIGER, Mark-KENT SR 15 35 2.3
RILEY, Da'Shonte-EMU SR 15 35 2.3
11. PEARSON, Rian-UT SR 15 33 2.2