|
Post by upbasketballfan on Sept 2, 2024 11:47:42 GMT -5
Monty seems to be following the Brian Wardle template at Bradley when he took over there 10 years ago. Lots of freshmen. It took 2 seasons before it paid off. Since year 3, except for the Covid year, Bradley has been a very solid MVC program. My only question: since the transfer portal has changed the college game so much, is a freshman-dominated squad still an effective way to turn things around? I think it is the right path we need to build some continuity! I would guess the starters will be mostly D1 experienced players to start the season with the Frosh gaining valuable minutes and experience!
|
|
|
Post by JDetroitTitan on Sept 3, 2024 7:54:14 GMT -5
Monty seems to be following the Brian Wardle template at Bradley when he took over there 10 years ago. Lots of freshmen. It took 2 seasons before it paid off. Since year 3, except for the Covid year, Bradley has been a very solid MVC program. My only question: since the transfer portal has changed the college game so much, is a freshman-dominated squad still an effective way to turn things around? It's a guessing game at this point. If we can keep most of them here I would agree with Up but if not this will blow up in our face.
|
|
|
Post by rbj on Sept 3, 2024 10:35:59 GMT -5
Monty seems to be following the Brian Wardle template at Bradley when he took over there 10 years ago. Lots of freshmen. It took 2 seasons before it paid off. Since year 3, except for the Covid year, Bradley has been a very solid MVC program. My only question: since the transfer portal has changed the college game so much, is a freshman-dominated squad still an effective way to turn things around? I would say no. We know that the 5th year Senior P5 flop transfer isn't fruitful. I would recruit freshmen guards and JUCO forwards, with an occasional plug and play 5th year senior.
|
|
|
Post by nctitan on Sept 3, 2024 11:01:31 GMT -5
Monty seems to be following the Brian Wardle template at Bradley when he took over there 10 years ago. Lots of freshmen. It took 2 seasons before it paid off. Since year 3, except for the Covid year, Bradley has been a very solid MVC program. My only question: since the transfer portal has changed the college game so much, is a freshman-dominated squad still an effective way to turn things around? I would say no. We know that the 5th year Senior P5 flop transfer isn't fruitful. I would recruit freshmen guards and JUCO forwards, with an occasional plug and play 5th year senior. I would say it depends on the players recruited. Six or seven freshmen make it difficult, but you gotta start somewhere. Six or seven freshmen each year won't turn the program around, but it's unlikely we have a freshman-dominated team next season.
|
|
|
Post by upbasketballfan on Sept 3, 2024 11:35:18 GMT -5
Monty seems to be following the Brian Wardle template at Bradley when he took over there 10 years ago. Lots of freshmen. It took 2 seasons before it paid off. Since year 3, except for the Covid year, Bradley has been a very solid MVC program. My only question: since the transfer portal has changed the college game so much, is a freshman-dominated squad still an effective way to turn things around? It's a guessing game at this point. If we can keep most of them here I would agree with Up but if not this will blow up in our face. We already know that shopping in the dumpster doesn’t work that well either. Yes we have had some average teams but nothing special and just about every year it has been a complete tear down. I can’t see how you build anything using that path. I think Monty is headed in the right direction. We are probably not going to be a .500 club this year but let’s wait and see. I what Monty has done so far maybe he can actually coach! That would be a huge step forward from what we’ve had. Let’s not forget we still have Vowels and that is probably an anchor around his neck!
|
|
|
Post by ptctitan on Sept 3, 2024 12:00:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by titantarheel on Sept 3, 2024 16:20:54 GMT -5
I might suspect that with the Bradley example, something else is going right in 2023-24 that isn't fully related to having 10 freshmen on the team 9 years prior.
The landscape, and marketplace, continues to evolve at increasing rates of change lately. What worked at one point may not work in the future. Hopefully Coach Monty has seen enough of the years to indeed recognize that and hopefully he can't be pigeonholed to just one approach to roster building (i.e. he will adapt and build the roster in the optimal way, given market conditions, the existing roster, etc).
I'm not a major fan of the giant tear down each year that then leads to adding in a slew of 5th year guys who then all leave, and then 10 more new guys, and then they leave...and so on. We saw that with the Davis years, and heck we had the great AD to build around and that model didn't play out at all positively for our record.
I think if we're being realistic having any player for 2 years is a goal and hopefully the base expectation when they sign up to be a Titan. If they stick around longer then hopefully that means they've bought into whatever Coach Monty is selling, or it could mean they don't see a greener grass out there (for better or for worse).
|
|
|
Post by upbasketballfan on Sept 3, 2024 16:25:42 GMT -5
I might suspect that with the Bradley example, something else is going right in 2023-24 that isn't fully related to having 10 freshmen on the team 9 years prior. The landscape, and marketplace, continues to evolve at increasing rates of change lately. What worked at one point may not work in the future. Hopefully Coach Monty has seen enough of the years to indeed recognize that and hopefully he can't be pigeonholed to just one approach to roster building (i.e. he will adapt and build the roster in the optimal way, given market conditions, the existing roster, etc). I'm not a major fan of the giant tear down each year that then leads to adding in a slew of 5th year guys who then all leave, and then 10 more new guys, and then they leave...and so on. We saw that with the Davis years, and heck we had the great AD to build around and that model didn't play out at all positively for our record. I think if we're being realistic having any player for 2 years is a goal and hopefully the base expectation when they sign up to be a Titan. If they stick around longer then hopefully that means they've bought into whatever Coach Monty is selling, or it could mean they don't see a greener grass out there (for better or for worse). Or they love the University and want to become Titan Alumni 🤔
|
|
|
Post by motorcitysam on Sept 3, 2024 17:56:55 GMT -5
Monty seems to be following the Brian Wardle template at Bradley when he took over there 10 years ago. Lots of freshmen. It took 2 seasons before it paid off. Since year 3, except for the Covid year, Bradley has been a very solid MVC program. My only question: since the transfer portal has changed the college game so much, is a freshman-dominated squad still an effective way to turn things around? That's a really good question. I'll say two things about it. One, I'm not sure that Monty is going to follow this template going forward. We came off a historically bad season, returning only a few players who appreared to be capable of contributing in D1 at a consistent level, and the best of them left. Most of the capable players in the portal were already committed or well into their recruitment by the time Monty took over the Titans. I think Monty was focused on filling out a roster quickly so he could get on with the task of building a culture and program, rather than taking the risk of trying to find better players later on in the Spring/Summer who he might convince to come on board, or who might be looking for a place to land as the end of Summer approached. I think that's why he went after so many freshmen. I think there is potential among the freshman class that signed with us, but there's also the reality that they were still unsigned this late in the game. Granted, I think the focus on the portal means that some good high school players end up being underrecruited as coaches chase transfers, so hopefull our guys will exceed their rankings. My guess would be that future recruiting classes will be less dependent on high schoolers. Two, I don't know if it is going to be possible for a mid major program to have a "this is the way we will recruit" template. Coach Cal at Arkansas can have a year in and year out plan; they'll land their fair share of five stars and then go after some impact transfers, all with that Tyson Chicken Money smoothing the way. We're going to have to vary our approach each year, depending on a lot of factors. Like I always say, recruiting is finding the intersection between the players you want and the players you can get. The Titans should try all sources to find enough good players. We've bashed on coaches on this message board for a long time, but there's not a lot to attract a player to U-D, especially in this modern NIL/Portal era.
|
|
|
Post by ptctitan on Sept 4, 2024 7:37:56 GMT -5
Wardle's first two years at Bradley should help us set expectations for what will be the likely results in Monty's first 2 seasons here. At least, IMO, it gives us a similar situation against which to measure Monty's progress.
|
|
|
Post by ptctitan on Sept 14, 2024 5:27:43 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by ptctitan on Sept 15, 2024 6:12:04 GMT -5
|
|