20/20 reflections
Wanted to post this prior to our CAA run. I agree that Dane should have won coach of the year but to be frank if Tony was still here, we'd have been just as good. This is the least talented CAA in a long time. 3 fringe nba talents left (JWF, Brantlay, Cacok) and NE lost pusica and occeus (2 first team caliber players if they were in the CAA this year). If you look at the player pool in the CAA, we have 2 starters that are a quarter of a foot taller than anyone on another team. Put everyone in a pot and I'd argue we have 2 of the top 5 picks(would go nate, darling, riller, scheffield, andy) and 3 of the top 15 players in the conference with such a sizable gap at number 1. Whenever we step on the court, we have the most talented player, the tallest/most skilled frontcourt (literally no team comes close to matching this, probably in all of mid majors) and the best backcourt defender. The reason no one "expected" success is because no one took stock of the CAA, had seen Andy or the new guys on the court. Preseason picks are about what is known and there was a lot of unknown at the start of the year which made it easy to slate us in at number 7.
Win or lose this year, the issues of past years were on Tony's inability to connect with his players and his players believing they were bigger than the team. When this teams leaders were Tim's, Daniel's, Marcus's, Terry's, and David's, the team exceeded expectations but to be completely frank, as good of a player as Nate is, attitudes shifted with his arrival. He brought a selfish mindset into the locker room that bled into the rest of the team. You could see it in the body language of all the guys. When it was good it was great and when it was bad, guys would sulk and it reached a breaking point when nates class, with JP and Matt became leaders. It led to a power struggle between Nate and the staff in which Nate eventually won.
With that being said, Dane exceeds where Tony failed. Tony ran his system and rarely adapted. Dane plays to the strenghts of his players and for the most part let's them control the flow of the game. With this construction of players Dane is probably better suited to lead than Tony but Tony is probably a better coach. The failures of last year are because of the attitudes of players (if you want to blame that on the coach, ok, but these issues didnt used to exist). The sad part in all of this is Tony recruited these guys. He brought in Nate, Luke, Andy and now the school is throwing money at the program and building a new arena. Had Tony been given this support, where would the program be? Hindsight is always 20/20 but the player issue was Tony. I would have done everything to keep Jonathan (did you see his embrace with Nate and Andy on senior night). With the resources now being given to the team, he would have been able to progress our already excellent recruiting channels (that may no longer exist). Have a sneaking suspicion that Elon is going to start getting some better recruits. My hope is that we didnt sacrifice long term success for a short term gain. If we make the tourney this year, is it worth it if it sets the team back in the long run? Remember when JMU made the tourney as a 16 seed? Was it worth it? Where are they now? Time will bring the answers but the blind loyalty to Dane or the fierce hate is ridiculous. Hes done a fine job but Tony would have likely done the same this year albeit with a frustrated Nate.
This year really shouldn't mean anything bc we would have succeeded either way based on the lack of CAA talent and our relative talent. The only thing this year could result in is an inflated ego for our AD. She will take credit for the success of the team and look to jump ship to a bigger program. And we'll have to wait for that 20/20 hindsight to see what the ramifications are of that.
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