After watching the New Mexico beat down I have a new respect for CKK. Not that I didn't respect him before, but I don't think I fully appreciated the near-impossible task he had to rebuild a watchable team almost from scratch. Watching New Mexico put this in perspective.
New Mexico and the Rebels were in similar situations. New coaches with decimated rosters. (Rebels returned 3 and UNM returned 5) I think Pitino had a bit of a leg up. Returned more players, was a previous P-5 head coach, and had a more famous family name. But nothing is ever exact and this was as close as is reasonable for a comparison.
Last night revealed what a superior job CKK did with roster construction. Our bigs aren't scorers but they're decent on the boards against most competition and they can protect the rim adequately. Our scoring core is adequate if our defense holds up. ( More on this later ). Our points are taking care of the ball and are getting assists.
Most importantly, the team still seems to be a cohesive unit after a failed OOC run, an opening loss to the Aztecs, and an unappreciative fan base. After reading the Albuquerque paper this A.M. the same doesn't seem to be true for the Lobo's.
One area that must both surprise and disappoint CKK is our lack of outside shooting. We have only one player shooting over 40% ( Williams) CKK brought in three players whose previous stats indicated they could shoot. Baker (49%), Nuga ( 39%), and Webster ( 38% ) But this year isn't the same. Baker ( 26% ), Nuga ( 28% ), and Webster ( 29%). If they shot their past percentage it would be a different team with more production from them and more production from everyone else as the floor opened up. None of this is CKK's fault unless you fault him for not being able to see the players' flaws. But he had a short time and went with what appeared good. And he did much better than Richard Pitino.
IMO, if CKK can keep up the same type of roster construction next year and the following years should be bright. ( NIL put aside) But it looks like UNM has a multi-year job of getting back to respectability.
So when I get disgusted with this team all I have to do is think about how bad UNM is and feel a little better. I think we did well for a coach.
New Mexico and the Rebels were in similar situations. New coaches with decimated rosters. (Rebels returned 3 and UNM returned 5) I think Pitino had a bit of a leg up. Returned more players, was a previous P-5 head coach, and had a more famous family name. But nothing is ever exact and this was as close as is reasonable for a comparison.
Last night revealed what a superior job CKK did with roster construction. Our bigs aren't scorers but they're decent on the boards against most competition and they can protect the rim adequately. Our scoring core is adequate if our defense holds up. ( More on this later ). Our points are taking care of the ball and are getting assists.
Most importantly, the team still seems to be a cohesive unit after a failed OOC run, an opening loss to the Aztecs, and an unappreciative fan base. After reading the Albuquerque paper this A.M. the same doesn't seem to be true for the Lobo's.
One area that must both surprise and disappoint CKK is our lack of outside shooting. We have only one player shooting over 40% ( Williams) CKK brought in three players whose previous stats indicated they could shoot. Baker (49%), Nuga ( 39%), and Webster ( 38% ) But this year isn't the same. Baker ( 26% ), Nuga ( 28% ), and Webster ( 29%). If they shot their past percentage it would be a different team with more production from them and more production from everyone else as the floor opened up. None of this is CKK's fault unless you fault him for not being able to see the players' flaws. But he had a short time and went with what appeared good. And he did much better than Richard Pitino.
IMO, if CKK can keep up the same type of roster construction next year and the following years should be bright. ( NIL put aside) But it looks like UNM has a multi-year job of getting back to respectability.
So when I get disgusted with this team all I have to do is think about how bad UNM is and feel a little better. I think we did well for a coach.
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