a plan

[citay]

nothing like a harsh defeat to point out your deficiencies. what ensues is nothing startling, much of it old tired yakety-yak that everybody on this board together with our coaches and adminstrators have heard before, but might bear repeating.

coaching...turn the clock back to the first year krysko took over. in the midst of the pat kennedy mess, here's what was ahead: three trips to the ncaa tournament, including a win over nevada and credible showings against boston college and new mexico; three consecutive victories against weber state in big sky championship games, with a stunning upset at ucla tossed in for good measure. so what? so this: it depended on good coaching (and recruiting.) and for something like eight years now, montana has depended on the hometown advantage to get and keep its coaches. this cannot continue. tinkle is too good to stay, and i don't know if our basketball program yet has the appeal of the football program as a stepping-stone for great young coaches on the way up. if we're gonna play, we have to pay. we've got to figure this out.

recruiting...with seconds to go in today's game, and our small knot of griz faithful clinging to one last tiny goal (reach 50 points), jordan wood steps to the line to shoot two. certainly we reach 50. instead, clang and clang, almost a metaphor for jordan wood's career at montana. as good as cherry and jamar have been as recruits, woods and chase adams were as bad. when you only have 13 scholarships available, you can't afford mistakes--and you can't have kids flunk out.

redshirt policy...no, i'm over qvale, but not henderson and gregory. if montana is to be anything but a sacrificial lamb to higher seeds at the big dance, we've got to go in with a few mature experienced fifth-year seniors to help offset the talent gap we'll inevitably be up against. henderson and gregory contributed nothing this year, except some stupid antics from the bench. they would have been better off this year with bullhorns and pompoms standing with the cheerleaders.

scheduling...many times today, you could tell our players were just not used to faster taller opponents. both selvig and stockton made lazy passes that got stolen. on several occasions cherry, jamar and ward had shots rejected or altered at the rim. you can't go from playing big sky caliber basketball one week to competing against the wisconsins or baylors or indianas of the world the next week. we need to do what long beach state did this year, and gonzaga long before that. we need to get out and play some great competition, adjust our sights to a higher level. if that is impossible for administrative purproses, so be it. but the result will show up on the floor. it did today.

[Hammer]

I agree, we need a stronger non conf schedule.

[grizindabox]

citay needs to get over the redshirt issue

[Jaymerz]

Agree with you. As proud as I am of what our Griz teams do in the Big Sky, I am also one of the many Montanans who yearn for more. In many ways, it's exhausting being a fan of Griz teams that, outside of Montana, are viewed more as a novelty than serious programs. U of M administrators and coaches have to decide if this is going to be the pinnacle of achievement of our basketball program each year: making it to the NCAA tourney. I'd love to see our program do what is needed to take the next step, and actually be seen as more than a curiosity to the rest of the country.

[PeauxRouge]

[grizindabox]

Griz/Big Sky Conf = low mid major....results are what they are. Once in awhile one of them gets a first round break through, but dreaming bigger is just foolish.

[stubbins]

I agree with citay on the redshirt issue...don't know why we burn them like that. Pflu got murdered for not redshirting JJ, although that probably helped him a little this past year.

when does the schedule come out? I would assume before summer....

[putter]

As much as I loved the results this team turned in this year a 20+ point loss in the NCAA's is embarrassing. When you have national experts picking you to pull the upset your team needs to show up and be competitive - and today was anything close to what anyone anticipated. Tough way to go out and there are many reasons why this happened.

[garizzalies]

YES! in Doug we trust; the greatest thing to come out of that shitehole Boise.

[Growler1]

Ci-tay needs to face the facts. So do many others. The Big Sky Conference will never be anything more than a 13th or worse seed, and will never been taken seriously. Montana is a part of that. Get over it.

[Spanky]

Growler....the way to get over it is scheduling top teams in non-conference and eventually moving to a credible conference.

[Evizzerate]

I love the idea of a much tougher schedule... and on that note as a Griz fan I might pay particular attention to the top 4 overall seeds in the tourney.

[AllWeatherFan]

Maybe another lesson we could learn is to lower our expectations a little bit. In case nobody noticed, there was some irrational exuberance happening around this forum all week.

[OptimusPrime]

Growler....the way to get over it is scheduling top teams in non-conference and eventually moving to a credible conference.

Which conference?

[Huge]

YES! in Doug we trust; the greatest thing to come out of that shitehole Boise.

You mean in "Dug" we trust.

[GrizDDS]

There's an economic factor to "just scheduling tougher opponents" that I don't think is completely understood, by me, at least. The department has to schedule in an economically friendly way. I think the most logical and perhaps the most economic way of improving the Griz SOS is to attempt to get into more preseason tournaments. Remember the year we played West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Minnesota in a 4-day span? Not to mention, as someone has already pointed out, it does us no good if we lose these games. Playing on a neutral court reduces the chances of getting completely homered by the refs on a major program's home court like when the Griz played @ Washington.

Not coincidentally, the Griz were invited to that tournament the season after getting a 12 seed and getting into the 2nd round.

[Silvertip]

Maybe another lesson we could learn is to lower our expectations a little bit. In case nobody noticed, there was some irrational exuberance happening around this forum all week.

"lower our expectations?"...Really?... If that's any indication of how you live the rest of your life you must indeed be a 24 carat Grade AA loser!

[AllWeatherFan]

Oh well, at least I didn't bet a thousand dollars like your hero did.

[grizindabox]

Maybe another lesson we could learn is to lower our expectations a little bit. In case nobody noticed, there was some irrational exuberance happening around this forum all week.

"lower our expectations?"...Really?... If that's any indication of how you live the rest of your life you must indeed be a 24 carat Grade AA loser!

I think AWF meant people should have more realistic expectations.