1) The honorable thing to do would be for Coach Heath to resign effective immediately. He’s lost the locker room.
2) Tell Emonis dad that we love having him on the team but we’re going to coach him like any other player on the squad.
3) Only put players on the floor that are going to play fundamental basketball. In the long run, this will pay off for us.
4) Start a national search and EMU must not get misguided in hiring an alumnus with little or no experience. Hire the Braun blueprint - Bronkema comes to mind.


EMU should be a top tier team in the MAC based on our facilities and proximity to recruiting grounds but You have to give the keys to the ship to a captain with a plan and vision to succeed!

Now you guys know why I’ve been staying away from basketball. I was a pro-Heath guy from day one, but I don’t see how he recovers from this debacle of a season. He’s not getting fired, so here’s hoping he turns it around or resigns.

Emoni is a big problem, simply because you can’t coach him. And if you can’t coach him, you really can’t coach anyone else either. I doubt he’ll be back.

On Bronkema: #HIREHIMNOW

(01-21-2023 08:41 PM)holybovine Wrote:  Now you guys know why I’ve been staying away from basketball. I was a pro-Heath guy from day one, but I don’t see how he recovers from this debacle of a season. He’s not getting fired, so here’s hoping he turns it around or resigns.

Emoni is a big problem, simply because you can’t coach him. And if you can’t coach him, you really can’t coach anyone else either. I doubt he’ll be back.

On Bronkema: #HIREHIMNOW

I'm not an EMU hoops fan. I've said in a few other posts that I went to Oakland (thats the team I support) and sat behind the bench. I was thoroughly disappointed in Bates. He is a PHENOMENAL shot maker and that's about where it stops. Zero defense, zero rebounding, zero care. What a shame. Sometimes the maturity and mental game doesn't match the physical attributes.

The players and parents I sat with were brutal to Heath a d it felt like a garbage high school game.

I want Heath and the program to be successful but it starts with recruiting. You MUST get the right type of players on the bus. Look at what CC did for the football program! EMU has the facilities, momentum in the athletic program, etc. Heath doesn't need to recruit the way he is. If he doesn't change, he's a goner.

I doubt we will fix the MBB program here after what maybe 500 - 1,000 posts. Anything left to say? Or yesterday's food reheated?

(01-21-2023 08:41 PM)holybovine Wrote:  Now you guys know why I’ve been staying away from basketball. I was a pro-Heath guy from day one, but I don’t see how he recovers from this debacle of a season. He’s not getting fired, so here’s hoping he turns it around or resigns.

Emoni is a big problem, simply because you can’t coach him. And if you can’t coach him, you really can’t coach anyone else either. I doubt he’ll be back.

On Bronkema: #HIREHIMNOW

I'm basically with you on all of this. When Bates committed I know a lot of people were very excited and it was sort of...frowned upon to say anything critical of him, I was always skeptical. With Noah back and bring in guys like Geeter, Acuff, and Billingsley I thought they had some potential to make a little noise in the MAC. When Bates came on board I lost a lot of optimism.

I thought he was great when I watched him as a freshman in high school, but he seemed to regress as high school went on. Then there was whole starting their own school, which led to a lot of drama. He goes to Memphis (I understand he basically should have been a HS senior at the time) and doesn't look like a very good player, there is more drama, and the team gets better when he isn't playing.

I don't know him, he may be a great guy, this is nothing personal about him, I just don't see having him on your basketball team bringing a lot of positives.

In regards to Bronkema, I'm fully on board with that! He was the guy I wanted them to target even back when Murphy was around. His team is having another good season at Ferris this year FYI.

(01-21-2023 08:07 PM)Luckeyone Wrote:  1) The honorable thing to do would be for Coach Heath to resign effective immediately. He’s lost the locker room.
2) Tell Emonis dad that we love having him on the team but we’re going to coach him like any other player on the squad.
3) Only put players on the floor that are going to play fundamental basketball. In the long run, this will pay off for us.
4) Start a national search and EMU must not get misguided in hiring an alumnus with little or no experience. Hire the Braun blueprint - Bronkema comes to mind.


EMU should be a top tier team in the MAC based on our facilities and proximity to recruiting grounds but You have to give the keys to the ship to a captain with a plan and vision to succeed!

Would you knock it off with "the honorable thing to do would be for Coach Heath to resign" utter bull$hit. He is in Year 2 or a total REBUILD. Obviously Emoni Bates is nowhere near as good as projected, even though he is a top tier MAC player, he has a bunch of new players, it is a bad team. Could he have squeezed out another couple wins? Maybe but it is irrelevant, this team in hindsight, was never good enough to win the MAC or make the NIT. We were all fooled by a spectacular performance against Michigan which was an outlier. It is going to take time for this team to get back on the right track. If the team shows no improvement next season, than yeah, we can have the discussion of a coaching change but newsflash: this team is probably going to continue to be bad for it's remaining games this season. Make peace with it.

(01-22-2023 08:25 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I doubt we will fix the MBB program here after what maybe 500 - 1,000 posts. Anything left to say? Or yesterday's food reheated?

Amen. We are just beating a dead horse at this point. I can't even be upset because this is obviously a bad team in the early stages of a total rebuild. File under "it is what it is."

This year is toasted, roasted and burnt to a crisp. But there's still hope for the women's team.

Agree with Bob this is Year 2 of a total rebuild. COVID killed most programs that were not already established. Most teams besides Michigan Football stopped recruiting March 2020. The Team needs a few years in the weight room, they were bullied by the huskies and could do nothing to stop it. Emoni is a treat to watch and not part of the problem, it was a hope he would rocket ship the rebuild but the rest of the team is still very young, inexperienced and needs more time to develop

(01-22-2023 10:15 AM)emussuperfan Wrote:  This year is toasted, roasted and burnt to a crisp. But there's still hope for the women's team.

Yep. Highly unlikely to make the MAC tourney.

(01-22-2023 10:18 AM)fanfrompowellspub Wrote:  Agree with Bob this is Year 2 of a total rebuild. COVID killed most programs that were not already established. Most teams besides Michigan Football stopped recruiting March 2020. The Team needs a few years in the weight room, they were bullied by the huskies and could do nothing to stop it. Emoni is a treat to watch and not part of the problem, it was a hope he would rocket ship the rebuild but the rest of the team is still very young, inexperienced and needs more time to develop

You weren't watching emoni as he was sitting the second half. Not into the game at all. Most everyone else was sitting forward watching while he was lazily sitting back. When timeouts came he was the last one up and the first one to sit. Not listening to anything going on the huddle. Had his towel around his neck. Will at least he wasn't hiding his face this time.

(01-22-2023 10:29 AM)emussuperfan Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 10:18 AM)fanfrompowellspub Wrote:  Agree with Bob this is Year 2 of a total rebuild. COVID killed most programs that were not already established. Most teams besides Michigan Football stopped recruiting March 2020. The Team needs a few years in the weight room, they were bullied by the huskies and could do nothing to stop it. Emoni is a treat to watch and not part of the problem, it was a hope he would rocket ship the rebuild but the rest of the team is still very young, inexperienced and needs more time to develop

You weren't watching emoni as he was sitting the second half. Not into the game at all. Most everyone else was sitting forward watching while he was lazily sitting back. When timeouts came he was the last one up and the first one to sit. Not listening to anything going on the huddle. Had his towel around his neck. Will at least he wasn't hiding his face this time.

I was watching. I thought (not a DR) he had a concussion after he hit the gym floor hard twice. I was surprised he came back out of the locker room.

Dear Bob,
When you say; "If, the team shows no improvement next season", how about some improvement this season? They have already played half a season, and in most respects haven't improved in anything. What is Coach Heath coaching, when you see no improvement at this point in the program? Maybe our team is too dumb to learn anything, because as I have already stated there is no improvement.

(01-22-2023 10:37 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Bob,
When you say; "If, the team shows no improvement next season", how about some improvement this season? They have already played half a season, and in most respects haven't improved in anything. What is Coach Heath coaching, when you see no improvement at this point in the program? Maybe our team is too dumb to learn anything, because as I have already stated there is no improvement.

Exactly Ken - I don’t need a repeat of a 10 year Rob Murphy almost 0.500 plan. I see a lot of recruiting mistakes (these players have limited growth), lack of tactical fundamental schemes (this is not calculus), and lack of energy and passion from many of the players.

Yes - we may improve next season but how about this season!!

Bob, many of you touted we were going to be MAC champs, starting POSTs when is Emoni going to the NBA, etc

My comments were at the beginning of the season perhaps we would finish top 4-5. Basketball doesn’t take 5 years to be competitive. Look at Ohio, they lost a pro, then lost two all-mac players to the transfer portal but yet they are very competitive most nights.

(01-22-2023 10:51 AM)Luckeyone Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 10:37 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Bob,
When you say; "If, the team shows no improvement next season", how about some improvement this season? They have already played half a season, and in most respects haven't improved in anything. What is Coach Heath coaching, when you see no improvement at this point in the program? Maybe our team is too dumb to learn anything, because as I have already stated there is no improvement.

Exactly Ken - I don’t need a repeat of a 10 year Rob Murphy almost 0.500 plan. I see a lot of recruiting mistakes (these players have limited growth), lack of tactical fundamental schemes (this is not calculus), and lack of energy and passion from many of the players.

Yes - we may improve next season but how about this season!!

Bob, many of you touted we were going to be MAC champs, starting POSTs when is Emoni going to the NBA, etc

My comments were at the beginning of the season perhaps we would finish top 4-5. Basketball doesn’t take 5 years to be competitive. Look at Ohio, they lost a pro, then lost two all-mac players to the transfer portal but yet they are very competitive most nights.

Hm recruiting mistakes, most of you were thrilled about what Heath brought on the first year especially Noah. Endless posts about that. Ditto Heath's class this year filled with transfers that were highly rated out of high school. Again folks here couldn't help but fall over themselves about Heath's recruiting. Endless posts about that. Even "experts" like 247 ranked our transfer class in the top 10 of the nation. Even I was fooled thinking with Bates we would be a conference contender. All the ingredients were there it seemed to bring EMU basketball back from the failures. But what no one could have foreseen is that mixing all the ingredients does not always turn out the perfect product. Call it coaching. Call it attitude. Call it chemistry. Whatever. This year's team hasn't clicked. It fact calling it a team isn't correct. Its Bates with supporting background players. He isn't that good in all phases of his game to carry this team on a consistent basis. For all their setbacks last year's team played fairly hard in most of their games and seem engaged with each other and the coaching staff. This year we should change our name to the Eastern Michigan "Mehs". Other team fans have noticed the same things and commented on how listless and lifeless this year's team is. They also comment that no one is interested in playing defense on this team. If you don't believe go to their boards on this site.

(01-22-2023 10:51 AM)Luckeyone Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 10:37 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Bob,
When you say; "If, the team shows no improvement next season", how about some improvement this season? They have already played half a season, and in most respects haven't improved in anything. What is Coach Heath coaching, when you see no improvement at this point in the program? Maybe our team is too dumb to learn anything, because as I have already stated there is no improvement.

Exactly Ken - I don’t need a repeat of a 10 year Rob Murphy almost 0.500 plan. I see a lot of recruiting mistakes (these players have limited growth), lack of tactical fundamental schemes (this is not calculus), and lack of energy and passion from many of the players.

Yes - we may improve next season but how about this season!!

Bob, many of you touted we were going to be MAC champs, starting POSTs when is Emoni going to the NBA, etc

My comments were at the beginning of the season perhaps we would finish top 4-5. Basketball doesn’t take 5 years to be competitive. Look at Ohio, they lost a pro, then lost two all-mac players to the transfer portal but yet they are very competitive most nights.

Guys, once again we are repeating and repeating and repeating the repeat.

"Basketball doesn’t take 5 years to be competitive. " Luckey, I posted almost the same thing already. What used to be a 4-year rebuild in the pre-portal era is now 3 years or less.

This is why I spend more and more time following Vannzee and Alex on Twitter. They are really good on info and less whatever the staple of fan forums are. Usually, bowels in an uproar, time to hit the keyboard... Not simply repeating and repeating and repeating...

*************
This is my post from Friday evening...

RE: Game Week Kent St (1/17) and NIU (1/21)
(01-20-2023 06:06 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote:
(01-20-2023 04:34 PM)emu79 Wrote:
Any new basketball coach we hired should have been given a 5 year contract with what Murphy left them. Again I wonder if these players LISTEN to their coaches or just ignore them. They play a competitive half and have some success and go back in the second half to their bad habits Kent State was a good example of this. My prediction is that Heath will be more successful in years 3 to 5 than he was his first two years.

I hope you are right.

Still, if the players are not listening, then Stan has lost the locker room. If the players are bad actors, that is on Stan. He recruited all but one of his scholarship players.

(this is me):
Agree with the points. In the TRANSFER PORTAL ERA a coach does not need 5 years to rebuild.

He got a ton of transfers so the rebuild should be expediated. In year #2 should be equal to say year #3 (at least)

(01-22-2023 10:15 AM)emussuperfan Wrote:  This year is toasted, roasted and burnt to a crisp. But there's still hope for the women's team.

Good. Go watch them then. No one else cares.

(01-22-2023 09:18 AM)Sellers dweller Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 08:41 PM)holybovine Wrote:  Now you guys know why I’ve been staying away from basketball. I was a pro-Heath guy from day one, but I don’t see how he recovers from this debacle of a season. He’s not getting fired, so here’s hoping he turns it around or resigns.

Emoni is a big problem, simply because you can’t coach him. And if you can’t coach him, you really can’t coach anyone else either. I doubt he’ll be back.

On Bronkema: #HIREHIMNOW

I'm basically with you on all of this. When Bates committed I know a lot of people were very excited and it was sort of...frowned upon to say anything critical of him, I was always skeptical. With Noah back and bring in guys like Geeter, Acuff, and Billingsley I thought they had some potential to make a little noise in the MAC. When Bates came on board I lost a lot of optimism.

I thought he was great when I watched him as a freshman in high school, but he seemed to regress as high school went on. Then there was whole starting their own school, which led to a lot of drama. He goes to Memphis (I understand he basically should have been a HS senior at the time) and doesn't look like a very good player, there is more drama, and the team gets better when he isn't playing.

I don't know him, he may be a great guy, this is nothing personal about him, I just don't see having him on your basketball team bringing a lot of positives.

In regards to Bronkema, I'm fully on board with that! He was the guy I wanted them to target even back when Murphy was around. His team is having another good season at Ferris this year FYI.

As one of the lead defenders of Emoni Bates from what I perceive as unfair attacks on this board, I will say it is NOT AT ALL “frowned upon to say anything critical of him.” You can critique his play, the debacle of the Ypsi school, etc. But a lot of the comments on this board are indeed character insults that are baseless- it’s conjecture at best and at times outright slander. I will always take exception to that for ANY player and any individual for that matter.

That said, your post is not one of those situations at all. Feel free to question the the effectiveness of Emoni’s play and contributions and drawbacks, etc. I won’t “frown” on it.

(01-22-2023 10:31 AM)fanfrompowellspub Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 10:29 AM)emussuperfan Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 10:18 AM)fanfrompowellspub Wrote:  Agree with Bob this is Year 2 of a total rebuild. COVID killed most programs that were not already established. Most teams besides Michigan Football stopped recruiting March 2020. The Team needs a few years in the weight room, they were bullied by the huskies and could do nothing to stop it. Emoni is a treat to watch and not part of the problem, it was a hope he would rocket ship the rebuild but the rest of the team is still very young, inexperienced and needs more time to develop

You weren't watching emoni as he was sitting the second half. Not into the game at all. Most everyone else was sitting forward watching while he was lazily sitting back. When timeouts came he was the last one up and the first one to sit. Not listening to anything going on the huddle. Had his towel around his neck. Will at least he wasn't hiding his face this time.

I was watching. I thought (not a DR) he had a concussion after he hit the gym floor hard twice. I was surprised he came back out of the locker room.

Very insightful post all the way around, FFPP! I think when things are going bad, there is a synergistic effect and everything ends up looking horrific. The reverse is also true when things go good everyone looks like a star and Coach Heath looks like a genius.

I think the two main problems on this team in my opinion is Coach Heath and the play of the front court. Coach Heath needs to reconsider his approach to the schemes and management of the team (perhaps what he has brought back from the g league is ill suited for a college team)- he has proven the ability in the past. And Big Men always take longer to developed, let’s see what these guys look like next year with a little more growth and insights into how fast paced college basketball is.

But I think some/most of the “laziness” people are seeing is really frustration of the situation. That goes both for Heath’s coaching and the team’s defense- which both look horrible right now. Most of these players will likely still be working with Coach Heath for the next 2-3 years. Hope it all works out. We’ll see.

(01-22-2023 10:31 AM)fanfrompowellspub Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 10:29 AM)emussuperfan Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 10:18 AM)fanfrompowellspub Wrote:  Agree with Bob this is Year 2 of a total rebuild. COVID killed most programs that were not already established. Most teams besides Michigan Football stopped recruiting March 2020. The Team needs a few years in the weight room, they were bullied by the huskies and could do nothing to stop it. Emoni is a treat to watch and not part of the problem, it was a hope he would rocket ship the rebuild but the rest of the team is still very young, inexperienced and needs more time to develop

You weren't watching emoni as he was sitting the second half. Not into the game at all. Most everyone else was sitting forward watching while he was lazily sitting back. When timeouts came he was the last one up and the first one to sit. Not listening to anything going on the huddle. Had his towel around his neck. Will at least he wasn't hiding his face this time.

I was watching. I thought (not a DR) he had a concussion after he hit the gym floor hard twice. I was surprised he came back out of the locker room.

Hit floor hard? Give me a break Noah hit a lot harder and tried to get back into the game. Emoni hit the floor with his elbows first.