(02-17-2021 07:22 AM)RealDeal Wrote: First let me preface this with I am not criticizing college aged you adults who are going through tough mental situations. By all accounts no one is getting a true college experience and they are stuck in isolation most of the time.
But that said the overall pattern is concerning. We've had 3 players opt-out and leave their basketball-family not including Dou who left and came back. You compare that to football who has 7X as many scholarship players and had 0 leave; there's no doubt in my mind that's due to the culture Fick has built. I'm not criticizing Brannen, maybe with a rebuilding year it was going to be tough to keep the unit together, but at the very least he can look down the hall to see that the culture is everything to a program. Hopefully with the guys who want to be here that's what Brannen will develop over the next couple years.
I am not disagreeing with you. (Just wanted to say that at the outset...)
I am also NOT trying to reignite any "Mick vs. Bob" debates, or in this case "John vs. Bob" debates.
A little perspective might be good, however. Just to set things into context...
Up until last summer, I lived in Morgantown, WV, home of WVU and, of course, current residence of Bob Huggins. One of the perennial criticisms of Huggins is that he has a fairly high rate of transfers OUT of his program. Every year, he has at least two (2) players who decide not to return, two years ago he lost the majority of his projected starters through disciplinary dismissals and players quitting at the end of a fall semester. This has always been explained as "Huggins is a demanding coach." Players come in, and if they don't do what Huggins wants, he'll yell at them, bench them, and even run them off. Get into Huggins' dog-house, and it's notoriously hard to get back out of it. Huggins will even trash his players in interviews; if you're on his s*** list, everyone will hear about it.
A high transfer rate is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. Huggins weeds out kids who have a poor work ethic or are toxic personalities and what remains is a dedicated and hardworking group. As Nick Van Exel said when his kid was looking at schools: "I didn't go to 'the University of Cincinnati,' I went to 'Bob Huggins U.'" Conversely, if you are in Huggins' good graces, he will move heaven and earth to help you. The kids who make it through "Huggins U" are extremely dedicated to their coach and their teammates.
As others note, it's too early to tell what Brannen is building here. A high transfer rate is troubling, but it may-or-may-not mean anything...especially in this crazy COVID year. Maybe Brannen is in the midst of building a super-dedicated core group that will pay-off in the years to come. Maybe it's a sign of trouble. We're not likely to find out until a couple of years down the line.