I understand everyone’s frustration on how the season ended with two underwhelming performances against the Bobcats and Spiders. It is unfortunate because it overshadowed an excellent regular season by The Rockets. With that said, while I am not in the “Fire TK” camp, I think he needs to take a “deep dive” into what is going on with his teams that they do not perform up to expectations when the bright lights of tournament time are turned on. That means he needs to network with his coaching friends to find out how they prepare their teams before and during the season to be playing their best basketball when tourney time rolls around. He needs to look at his own coaching to determine what improvements he needs to make to put his team in the best position to succeed post season. He needs to look at possibly utilizing sports psychologists to work with his team to help them possibly cope with the weight on their shoulders of 40+ seasons of missing out on The Big Dance. Then there is the obvious one of recruiting talented players that can be molded into a “team” that can play at a championship level both during the regular and post season. It is not all doom and gloom as a lot of people on this board are expressing. We got a good nucleus coming back, including Ryan Rollins who has no reason to transfer as he will be a major option for Toledo next season. We have two players coming off injury that should contribute significantly and help with our depth issues. And we have an excellent recruiting class which might even get better with an additional transfer from the portal. Now TK has to do his part to find out what is truly wrong with the post season failures and attempt to fix it once and for all!

BJones, I love your passion for the Rockets. Most of these threads are positive but realistic at the same time. I feel that if you are the HC at the DI level of MBB, WBB and FB and you have trouble with motivating and coaching your team when you are in the BIG game, that is a flaw, pure and simple. That is a BASIC requirement for the job. Not sure we should be willing to shell out more of my money to hand it over to TK to hire a team psychologist.

If you watched the team play vs. OU and Spiderman, they appeared to get to a point where they looked "lost". He too looked lost when on screen. This is a repeating theme this year and at time in the past.

I do not think TK is going to take us to a higher place. With all that we have coming back in 2021-22 there should be NO Excuses, period, for MBB at Toledo. None at all.

(03-18-2021 09:31 AM)rocket 51 Wrote:  BJones, I love your passion for the Rockets. Most of these threads are positive but realistic at the same time. I feel that if you are the HC at the DI level of MBB, WBB and FB and you have trouble with motivating and coaching your team when you are in the BIG game, that is a flaw, pure and simple. That is a BASIC requirement for the job. Not sure we should be willing to shell out more of my money to hand it over to TK to hire a team psychologist.

If you watched the team play vs. OU and Spiderman, they appeared to get to a point where they looked "lost". He too looked lost when on screen. This is a repeating theme this year and at time in the past.

I do not think TK is going to take us to a higher place. With all that we have coming back in 2021-22 there should be NO Excuses, period, for MBB at Toledo. None at all.

(03-18-2021 08:38 AM)Basketball Jones Wrote:  I understand everyone’s frustration on how the season ended with two underwhelming performances against the Bobcats and Spiders. It is unfortunate because it overshadowed an excellent regular season by The Rockets. With that said, while I am not in the “Fire TK” camp, I think he needs to take a “deep dive” into what is going on with his teams that they do not perform up to expectations when the bright lights of tournament time are turned on. That means he needs to network with his coaching friends to find out how they prepare their teams before and during the season to be playing their best basketball when tourney time rolls around. He needs to look at his own coaching to determine what improvements he needs to make to put his team in the best position to succeed post season. He needs to look at possibly utilizing sports psychologists to work with his team to help them possibly cope with the weight on their shoulders of 40+ seasons of missing out on The Big Dance. Then there is the obvious one of recruiting talented players that can be molded into a “team” that can play at a championship level both during the regular and post season. It is not all doom and gloom as a lot of people on this board are expressing. We got a good nucleus coming back, including Ryan Rollins who has no reason to transfer as he will be a major option for Toledo next season. We have two players coming off injury that should contribute significantly and help with our depth issues. And we have an excellent recruiting class which might even get better with an additional transfer from the portal. Now TK has to do his part to find out what is truly wrong with the post season failures and attempt to fix it once and for all!

Bill Cowher and Andy Reid are 2 examples in the NFL of coaches who for a long time had a similar reputation to TK: win a lot during the regular season, but not perform well in the postseason and not able to get over the hump and win a championship. But, after 15 years, Cowher finally won a Super Bowl. After 21 years, Andy Reid finally won a Super Bowl. My point is that it is still possible for TK to get over the hump and win the MAC Tournament.

1. The athletic department has a PhD sports psychologist.
2. Assuming that Edu will come back full strength is a hope, not based in fact.
3. TK always says he doesn't want to be short on guards. So we end up with guards and forwards that are 6-5/6-6. If we can't recruit bigger players, who can play, we need to re-evaluate our recruiting.
4. In 19 seasons as a head coach, TK hasn't made it to the NCAA Tournament, but the three times he went to the NIT, ho lost in the first round.
5. This team was a great 3 point shooting team during the regular season, but post-season they had games of 32%, 20% and 23%.

This years ending is easy to explain. When you are only have 7 guys playing, you can’t play well late in games. Still can’t understand how we couldn’t find small amounts of playing time for 6’9” and 6’10” guys, even if in a zone D. Give your core some much needed rest in the middle of a second half, so guys are fresh at the end. We ran out of steam late in games too many times late in the year. Fatigue caught up to us.

Why couldn't we have found a Nate Oats?

(03-18-2021 09:31 AM)rocket 51 Wrote:  BJones, I love your passion for the Rockets. Most of these threads are positive but realistic at the same time. I feel that if you are the HC at the DI level of MBB, WBB and FB and you have trouble with motivating and coaching your team when you are in the BIG game, that is a flaw, pure and simple. That is a BASIC requirement for the job. Not sure we should be willing to shell out more of my money to hand it over to TK to hire a team psychologist.

If you watched the team play vs. OU and Spiderman, they appeared to get to a point where they looked "lost". He too looked lost when on screen. This is a repeating theme this year and at time in the past.

I do not think TK is going to take us to a higher place. With all that we have coming back in 2021-22 there should be NO Excuses, period, for MBB at Toledo. None at all.

With MOB retiring after next season, it will be up to the new Athletic Director to evaluate TK’s performance and determine whether or not his lack of post season success offsets what he has accomplished on the court during the regular season and in the classroom. TK could certainly help his cause in the interim by some way, some how get his team to the Big Dance next season. If he finally does, this conversation goes away. If he doesn’t, it will be interesting to see what the new Athletic Director determines after evaluating all aspects of the program.

(03-18-2021 12:58 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 09:31 AM)rocket 51 Wrote:  BJones, I love your passion for the Rockets. Most of these threads are positive but realistic at the same time. I feel that if you are the HC at the DI level of MBB, WBB and FB and you have trouble with motivating and coaching your team when you are in the BIG game, that is a flaw, pure and simple. That is a BASIC requirement for the job. Not sure we should be willing to shell out more of my money to hand it over to TK to hire a team psychologist.

If you watched the team play vs. OU and Spiderman, they appeared to get to a point where they looked "lost". He too looked lost when on screen. This is a repeating theme this year and at time in the past.

I do not think TK is going to take us to a higher place. With all that we have coming back in 2021-22 there should be NO Excuses, period, for MBB at Toledo. None at all.

With MOB retiring after next season, it will be up to the new Athletic Director to evaluate TK’s performance and determine whether or not his lack of post season success offsets what he has accomplished on the court during the regular season and in the classroom. TK could certainly help his cause in the interim by some way, some how get his team to the Big Dance next season. If he finally does, this conversation goes away. If he doesn’t, it will be interesting to see what the new Athletic Director determines after evaluating all aspects of the program.

I agree, but that also goes for coach Cullop. I think she is in more trouble then TK. This coiming season will will seal her fate, if she goes under 500.

(03-18-2021 03:51 PM)FrickerRon Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 12:58 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 09:31 AM)rocket 51 Wrote:  BJones, I love your passion for the Rockets. Most of these threads are positive but realistic at the same time. I feel that if you are the HC at the DI level of MBB, WBB and FB and you have trouble with motivating and coaching your team when you are in the BIG game, that is a flaw, pure and simple. That is a BASIC requirement for the job. Not sure we should be willing to shell out more of my money to hand it over to TK to hire a team psychologist.

If you watched the team play vs. OU and Spiderman, they appeared to get to a point where they looked "lost". He too looked lost when on screen. This is a repeating theme this year and at time in the past.

I do not think TK is going to take us to a higher place. With all that we have coming back in 2021-22 there should be NO Excuses, period, for MBB at Toledo. None at all.

With MOB retiring after next season, it will be up to the new Athletic Director to evaluate TK’s performance and determine whether or not his lack of post season success offsets what he has accomplished on the court during the regular season and in the classroom. TK could certainly help his cause in the interim by some way, some how get his team to the Big Dance next season. If he finally does, this conversation goes away. If he doesn’t, it will be interesting to see what the new Athletic Director determines after evaluating all aspects of the program.

I agree, but that also goes for coach Cullop. I think she is in more trouble then TK. This coiming season will will seal her fate, if she goes under 500.

Is under .500 the bar now?

(03-18-2021 12:58 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 09:31 AM)rocket 51 Wrote:  BJones, I love your passion for the Rockets. Most of these threads are positive but realistic at the same time. I feel that if you are the HC at the DI level of MBB, WBB and FB and you have trouble with motivating and coaching your team when you are in the BIG game, that is a flaw, pure and simple. That is a BASIC requirement for the job. Not sure we should be willing to shell out more of my money to hand it over to TK to hire a team psychologist.

If you watched the team play vs. OU and Spiderman, they appeared to get to a point where they looked "lost". He too looked lost when on screen. This is a repeating theme this year and at time in the past.

I do not think TK is going to take us to a higher place. With all that we have coming back in 2021-22 there should be NO Excuses, period, for MBB at Toledo. None at all.

With MOB retiring after next season, it will be up to the new Athletic Director to evaluate TK’s performance and determine whether or not his lack of post season success offsets what he has accomplished on the court during the regular season and in the classroom. TK could certainly help his cause in the interim by some way, some how get his team to the Big Dance next season. If he finally does, this conversation goes away. If he doesn’t, it will be interesting to see what the new Athletic Director determines after evaluating all aspects of the program.

Just speaking for myself ... If I were TK I would load -even overload - the non-con schedule with multiple teams from the Top 7 conferences with the idea of being good enough to win 1-2-3 of those for a creditable NCAA resume. That would take a ton of pressure off the MAC Tournament IMO.

(03-18-2021 04:27 PM)cleveland Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 12:58 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 09:31 AM)rocket 51 Wrote:  BJones, I love your passion for the Rockets. Most of these threads are positive but realistic at the same time. I feel that if you are the HC at the DI level of MBB, WBB and FB and you have trouble with motivating and coaching your team when you are in the BIG game, that is a flaw, pure and simple. That is a BASIC requirement for the job. Not sure we should be willing to shell out more of my money to hand it over to TK to hire a team psychologist.

If you watched the team play vs. OU and Spiderman, they appeared to get to a point where they looked "lost". He too looked lost when on screen. This is a repeating theme this year and at time in the past.

I do not think TK is going to take us to a higher place. With all that we have coming back in 2021-22 there should be NO Excuses, period, for MBB at Toledo. None at all.

With MOB retiring after next season, it will be up to the new Athletic Director to evaluate TK’s performance and determine whether or not his lack of post season success offsets what he has accomplished on the court during the regular season and in the classroom. TK could certainly help his cause in the interim by some way, some how get his team to the Big Dance next season. If he finally does, this conversation goes away. If he doesn’t, it will be interesting to see what the new Athletic Director determines after evaluating all aspects of the program.

Just speaking for myself ... If I were TK I would load -even overload - the non-con schedule with multiple teams from the Top 7 conferences with the idea of being good enough to win 1-2-3 of those for a creditable NCAA resume. That would take a ton of pressure off the MAC Tournament IMO.

If I remember right, because of the pandemic limiting out of conference games, both Bradley and Detroit owe us games back at Savage next season. I think we will also be playing Marshall at home and at Cleveland St as part of home and home series we have with both schools. In addition, we might be going to a tournament in the Bahamas that was also cancelled by the pandemic. I don't know about any games scheduled with any "majors" but I know TK tries to schedule 1 or 2 a season that unfortunately are always on the road as they do not ever want to play a Mid Major like Toledo on the road.

Schools are still going to be feeling the COVID affects next season with scheduling. So I would think a trip to the Bahamas might be financially out of the question. I would anticipate a similar regional out of conference schedule similar to this past season. I would love to see an opportunity (maybe at Little Caesars arena) for a tournament with MSU or UM, Toledo, Oakland, etc. I actually wish Rocket Mortgage Arena / the MAC partnership included a preseason tournament or two.

P5 teams should be more likely to play a mid-major in that setting because a potential loss on a neutral site court is less damaging than a home loss when it comes to Quad 1/2/3 wins and losses.

good post Basketball Jones. the tourney drought pressure seems to be an issue, the Tre fletcher team was gonna win the tourney, imo, but then he went down, so there is some bad luck too. one issue I see mentally is that TKs approach is to stay even, don't panic, don't overreach and trust your guys. I think that evenness helps during typical regular season games where we often take a hit but recover. however, in games with a lot riding on the outcome we don't seem to seize the moment or have complete urgency. the fiery coach approach can wear a team down, but it can also motivate a team in a big game. either way, like Jones said I think TK will dig into it and reach out. He's got an arrogant side but also a very personable side that knows he is always learning and making connections. I think our record under TK in postseason play is 12-15; 1-5 in the invitationals (3 NIT, 1 CIT, 2 CBI) and in the MAC tourney it's 11-10. TK is 193-138 in the rest of the games or 189-111 if you mulligan his first year when he had an inherited mess and patchwork roster. Yeah, 20-25 of those wins were weak opponents at Savage but even taking that into account there's a statistical discrepancy in the postseason record

as for scheduling, I'm a proponent of packing the schedule as long as you spread the games out. a few years back when we had a team that looked tourney caliber (Juice, Spoon and them's sr year) TK scheduled up. We started with a 2 games in 3 days coast to coast road trip to vcu and Oregon. had a shot in each but couldn't close and the team lost it's cohesion and drive to a degree. next year we are scheduled to play in the Bahamas in a mid major tourney that should be decent Comp, but not likely to move the needle for tourney consideration. Marshall (home) should be a top 100 team again next year w a lot coming back, not sure if they will be quite good enough to impress the committee. Cleveland st on the road should be a quality opponent unless Dennis gates gets poached for the amazing job he did this year. Bradley finished a disappointing year w their 2 veteran bigs hurt and half the rest of the roster in the transfer portal-who knows what they bring back. Detroit should be decent but not special. I wouldn't be surprised to see wright st on the schedule and they are pretty good. gives us a few more games to schedule and I'd like to see a least 2 good opponents like a mid level big 10 team and solid A10 or AAC type opponent. Travel is a consideration. Playing MW schools is a long plane trip. Valley schools a 5-8 hour bus ride. A-10s don't like to schedule the MAC outside of St Bona playing Buffalo and eastern ohio teams. AAC also is spread out and long trips. Teams that make logistical sense and usually are not on our schedule (but might not want to play us) are Butler, Xavier, Dayton, Notre Dame, Penn St, Duquense, Northwestern, Loyola, Depaul, Northern Kentucky, Pitt, MSU, Purdue, OSU, Indiana. Of that bunch MSU is the most likely being that they sorta owe us a game to make up the cancelled one this year and Izzo and TK have a bit of a relationship. The fact we had a good NET ranking this year will be a little help in scheduling as TK can point to us being a top 75 team 2 of the last 3 years.

The Tre Fletcher team would have lost in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament, with Fletcher healthy and playing, if the Miami point guard had made an open three-pointer at the buzzer. The Rockets then won the semi-final and competed well in the final without Fletcher. We can speculate that having Fletcher would have put us over the top in the final, but there is really no way to know. Basketball is a funny game. Maybe we lose that semi-final to Eastern Michigan if Fletcher plays.

[quote='Lester' pid='17336363' dateline='1616152549']
The Tre Fletcher team would have lost in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament, with Fletcher healthy and playing, if the Miami point guard had made an open three-pointer at the buzzer. The Rockets then won the semi-final and competed well in the final without Fletcher. We can speculate that having Fletcher would have put us over the top in the final, but there is really no way to know. Basketball is a funny game. Maybe we lose that semi-final to Eastern Michigan if Fletcher plays.

Good point. If Fletcher played in the semis against EMU, then maybe Jackson doesn’t get the chance to go nuts on them from deep cause we’re trying to pound it inside to Fletcher against that zone that eventually got the coach fired.

(03-19-2021 01:18 AM)pono Wrote:  good post Basketball Jones. the tourney drought pressure seems to be an issue, the Tre fletcher team was gonna win the tourney, imo, but then he went down, so there is some bad luck too. one issue I see mentally is that TKs approach is to stay even, don't panic, don't overreach and trust your guys. I think that evenness helps during typical regular season games where we often take a hit but recover. however, in games with a lot riding on the outcome we don't seem to seize the moment or have complete urgency. the fiery coach approach can wear a team down, but it can also motivate a team in a big game. either way, like Jones said I think TK will dig into it and reach out. He's got an arrogant side but also a very personable side that knows he is always learning and making connections. I think our record under TK in postseason play is 12-15; 1-5 in the invitationals (3 NIT, 1 CIT, 2 CBI) and in the MAC tourney it's 11-10. TK is 193-138 in the rest of the games or 189-111 if you mulligan his first year when he had an inherited mess and patchwork roster. Yeah, 20-25 of those wins were weak opponents at Savage but even taking that into account there's a statistical discrepancy in the postseason record

as for scheduling, I'm a proponent of packing the schedule as long as you spread the games out. a few years back when we had a team that looked tourney caliber (Juice, Spoon and them's sr year) TK scheduled up. We started with a 2 games in 3 days coast to coast road trip to vcu and Oregon. had a shot in each but couldn't close and the team lost it's cohesion and drive to a degree. next year we are scheduled to play in the Bahamas in a mid major tourney that should be decent Comp, but not likely to move the needle for tourney consideration. Marshall (home) should be a top 100 team again next year w a lot coming back, not sure if they will be quite good enough to impress the committee. Cleveland st on the road should be a quality opponent unless Dennis gates gets poached for the amazing job he did this year. Bradley finished a disappointing year w their 2 veteran bigs hurt and half the rest of the roster in the transfer portal-who knows what they bring back. Detroit should be decent but not special. I wouldn't be surprised to see wright st on the schedule and they are pretty good. gives us a few more games to schedule and I'd like to see a least 2 good opponents like a mid level big 10 team and solid A10 or AAC type opponent. Travel is a consideration. Playing MW schools is a long plane trip. Valley schools a 5-8 hour bus ride. A-10s don't like to schedule the MAC outside of St Bona playing Buffalo and eastern ohio teams. AAC also is spread out and long trips. Teams that make logistical sense and usually are not on our schedule (but might not want to play us) are Butler, Xavier, Dayton, Notre Dame, Penn St, Duquense, Northwestern, Loyola, Depaul, Northern Kentucky, Pitt, MSU, Purdue, OSU, Indiana. Of that bunch MSU is the most likely being that they sorta owe us a game to make up the cancelled one this year and Izzo and TK have a bit of a relationship. The fact we had a good NET ranking this year will be a little help in scheduling as TK can point to us being a top 75 team 2 of the last 3 years.

I would love for Toledo to play the Dayton's and Butler's of the World but TK has repeatedly said that these regional Upper Mid Majors won't play us. With that said, I would try to get some more Missouri Valley teams like Loyola of Chicago (who we've played previously), Drake and Missouri State on the schedule as they would definitely bump up our strength of schedule. Getting Wright State back on the schedule would be good as well. I know MSU owes us a game at Savage from many years ago, but I wouldn't count on Izzo allowing that to ever happen!