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Post by ptctitan on Jun 29, 2022 18:25:10 GMT -5
I think when Davis was hired it was said he got a seven-year deal. Four down, three to go. It gives him incentive to build beyond AD's time at the school. Plus he made a substantial pledge to the Road to a Championship. Here's hoping that the school is planning some hype and hullabaloo over AD's climb up the scoring ladder. Generate excitement. Home games in the preseason should help. This is the year, I think, when the school is done with contract obligations for coaches no longer coaching. The need to pay those contracts was one reason we had so many road games that came with a five-figure check. Are you inferring that Robert Vowels and Antoine Garibaldi gave Bacari Alexander a 7 year contract? That's what Perry Farrell reported in the Free Press back in 2016. But it would depend upon the terms of the buyout negotiated between the school and Bacari in 2018.
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Post by nctitan on Jun 29, 2022 21:11:51 GMT -5
I think when Davis was hired it was said he got a seven-year deal. Four down, three to go. It gives him incentive to build beyond AD's time at the school. Plus he made a substantial pledge to the Road to a Championship. Here's hoping that the school is planning some hype and hullabaloo over AD's climb up the scoring ladder. Generate excitement. Home games in the preseason should help. This is the year, I think, when the school is done with contract obligations for coaches no longer coaching. The need to pay those contracts was one reason we had so many road games that came with a five-figure check. Are you inferring that Robert Vowels and Antoine Garibaldi gave Bacari Alexander a 7 year contract? No, I did not imply that, although you might have inferred that. Quite a few coaches have left their positions in the past few years. Not just men's basketball.
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Post by hyperion on Jun 30, 2022 7:22:46 GMT -5
You can bet that the road to beat Pete will include a cup cake non-conf schedule. I’d be surprised to see a single Div-I team on the schedule. Madonna, Albion, Concordia, Ram Tech, etc…
Score at all cost…
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Post by nctitan on Jun 30, 2022 16:14:15 GMT -5
Antoine is 933 points behind Maravich, and he's never scored as many as 800 in a season so I think Pete's record is safe. But AD could end up #2: he's 515 behind Freeman Williams.
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Post by uofdfan1983 on Jun 30, 2022 17:50:15 GMT -5
You can bet that the road to beat Pete will include a cup cake non-conf schedule. I’d be surprised to see a single Div-I team on the schedule. Madonna, Albion, Concordia, Ram Tech, etc… Score at all cost… There are ways of making your point and then there's this.....
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Post by Commissioner on Jun 30, 2022 18:45:29 GMT -5
You can bet that the road to beat Pete will include a cup cake non-conf schedule. I’d be surprised to see a single Div-I team on the schedule. Madonna, Albion, Concordia, Ram Tech, etc… Score at all cost… I assume Hyperion knows he's just engaging in a little hyperbole--for one thing, the NCAA doesn't allow more than 4 games against non-D1 competition. Beyond that, Coach has always made clear his disdain for playing non-D1 teams. That said, I do think we'll see an easier schedule this year, maybe even with one or possibly 2 non-D1 opponents. It won't be so that AD can score 50 points in a blowout, however. It will be because of the recognition that the Titans, if they are to have any fan interest, need to put some W's on the board early. Last year, after a bit of pre-season enthusiasm based on a relatively strong 2020 finish, the Titans were 0-6 at the end of November. Enthusiasm gone. In the Covid-delayed 2020-21 season, we were 1-7 at the end of December. In the fall of 2019 the Titans were 1-5 at the end of November and 2-12 at the end of December. In 2018 we were 3-9 at Christmas. In 2017, Bacari's second year, we celebrated the new year at 4-11. And in 2016 we were 2-12 on New Year's eve. You can't start year after year with that kind of record and think that fans are going to give a damn. I understand that beating up inferior opposition is a bit of a sugar high that may not help you come crunch time. But I think it is what the Titans need. You have to break a culture of losing and low expectations, and we need to get fans excited. If I were coach, I'd try to be scheduling to be 5-0 before heading into an exempt event over Thanksgiving, and I'd want that tournament to be with teams we can beat on a neutral floor (something like the Baha Mar Tournament OU is in, the Savannah Invitational that will include Bob Morris, or the Gulf Coast Showcase that includes Northern Kentucky.) Even better--though we've missed the boat on this--I'd want to host an invitational, a la Milwaukee this year. Then I'd play my first guarantee game, hopefully against someone beatable like Penn State. So yeah, I'll admit it--I want a schedule that includes UM-Dearborn, Northwood, Canisius, North Carolina A&T, and Eastern Illinois at home. And then I want Evansville at home, after with our two "guarantee" games and 3 games in an MTE on a neutral court. I want to open the HL season sitting at 9-2 or 10-1, or at least 8-3. I want a schedule that is such that if we're just halfway decent in conference play, say 4-6 midway through out conference season at the end of January, we can think, "hey, we're 13-8 overall. If we can get hot and win a few, we're still post-season contention." I'm sick of being "season over" by Thanksgiving. Is it potentially illusory? Yes. But no more than thinking that we're going to overcome a 2-12 start and go to the post-season. I want to see AD averaging his 26 ppg and people in Detroit wondering around Christmas--Is Detroit really any good, or is it just the creampuff schedule; rather than not thinking about the Titans at all, or thinking, "nothing new a 6 and Livernois." Is it a lot of cream puff calories? Damn right it is. I'm sick of eating spinach and brussel sprouts from November 1 through the New Year.
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Post by udballer on Jun 30, 2022 21:57:15 GMT -5
You can bet that the road to beat Pete will include a cup cake non-conf schedule. I’d be surprised to see a single Div-I team on the schedule. Madonna, Albion, Concordia, Ram Tech, etc… Score at all cost… I assume Hyperion knows he's just engaging in a little hyperbole--for one thing, the NCAA doesn't allow more than 4 games against non-D1 competition. Beyond that, Coach has always made clear his disdain for playing non-D1 teams. That said, I do think we'll see an easier schedule this year, maybe even with one or possibly 2 non-D1 opponents. It won't be so that AD can score 50 points in a blowout, however. It will be because of the recognition that the Titans, if they are to have any fan interest, need to put some W's on the board early. Last year, after a bit of pre-season enthusiasm based on a relatively strong 2020 finish, the Titans were 0-6 at the end of November. Enthusiasm gone. In the Covid-delayed 2020-21 season, we were 1-7 at the end of December. In the fall of 2019 the Titans were 1-5 at the end of November and 2-12 at the end of December. In 2018 we were 3-9 at Christmas. In 2017, Bacari's second year, we celebrated the new year at 4-11. And in 2016 we were 2-12 on New Year's eve. You can't start year after year with that kind of record and think that fans are going to give a damn. I understand that beating up inferior opposition is a bit of a sugar high that may not help you come crunch time. But I think it is what the Titans need. You have to break a culture of losing and low expectations, and we need to get fans excited. If I were coach, I'd try to be scheduling to be 5-0 before heading into an exempt event over Thanksgiving, and I'd want that tournament to be with teams we can beat on a neutral floor (something like the Baha Mar Tournament OU is in, the Savannah Invitational that will include Bob Morris, or the Gulf Coast Showcase that includes Northern Kentucky.) Even better--though we've missed the boat on this--I'd want to host an invitational, a la Milwaukee this year. Then I'd play my first guarantee game, hopefully against someone beatable like Penn State. So yeah, I'll admit it--I want a schedule that includes UM-Dearborn, Northwood, Canisius, North Carolina A&T, and Eastern Illinois at home. And then I want Evansville at home, after with our two "guarantee" games and 3 games in an MTE on a neutral court. I want to open the HL season sitting at 9-2 or 10-1, or at least 8-3. I want a schedule that is such that if we're just halfway decent in conference play, say 4-6 midway through out conference season at the end of January, we can think, "hey, we're 13-8 overall. If we can get hot and win a few, we're still post-season contention." I'm sick of being "season over" by Thanksgiving. Is it potentially illusory? Yes. But no more than thinking that we're going to overcome a 2-12 start and go to the post-season. I want to see AD averaging his 26 ppg and people in Detroit wondering around Christmas--Is Detroit really any good, or is it just the creampuff schedule; rather than not thinking about the Titans at all, or thinking, "nothing new a 6 and Livernois." Is it a lot of cream puff calories? Damn right it is. I'm sick of eating spinach and brussel sprouts from November 1 through the New Year. I tend to agree with this. I think we need to trick the fair weather basketball fan into thinking there is a product down at 6 and Liv. A completely hollow 8-3 start won't do too much to boost the opinions of fans on a basketball message board, but it could pull the wool over the eyes of the every day Joe. In the end, I think we end up an also ran in a bad D1 conference again this season... but I-d rather be an also ran at 19-13 than 14-18. Besides that, going into '23 all the pundits will review is the final record and conference finish. Nothing good comes out of another 2-7 start.
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Post by Commissioner on Jun 30, 2022 22:31:10 GMT -5
And not to be too pessimistic--If the Titans roll at 16-4 in the conference, I'd rather be 25-6 overall and get a decent NCAA seed (#12-13) than 18-13 and seeded 15 or 16. I say this while recognizing the argument at a tough non-conference schedule makes 16-4 in conference more likely.
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Post by nctitan on Jul 1, 2022 0:00:36 GMT -5
When I went to UofD we weren't in a conference, but we always kicked off the season with the always beatable Hillsdale. It was exciting to wonder not if we'd win but if we'd score 100. In '68 Spencer got everyone's attention with the blowout against Assumption. Not great, but probably the best team in Windsor. Of course, we all knew we were in for a long season the year we lost to Wayne State. But, still, we had momentum when we kicked it into gear against our traditional opponents: Notre Dame, Bonaventure, Niagara, Canisius, Marquette, Dayton, Xavier.
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