Mind boggling bad coach:
- Thread starter BornRebelRed
- Start date
“They played hard, proud of the effort. We’ll get em next time.”
Standard CKK line after a loss.
Standard CKK line after a loss.
A lot of teams including Florida are getting blown out in the second half because of poor offense against a superior defense. Kansas lost to Baylor after leading by 23. However, ball handling at the center position, poor shooting by Thomas, ball hogging by Thomas because of poor shooting, and in our case, a real effort to win was wasted by poor recruiting at the center position, the PF position, and the lack of ball movement because if you pass it back to Thomas you won't see it again.
I thought Menzies would be the worst we’ve ever seen here.
Knowing how you feel about Menzies... someone help me off the floor!
Difference is KK is a good dude. MM is a used car salesman POS who is more worried about optics than he is about wins.
KK also wasn’t ready to be a HC when he was given the keys to the jalopy that is UNLV BB.
It is just the same mistakes. We do the same thing every time down the court on offense and defense, especially defense. For some reason we love to leave the weak side wing always wide open so we can double the weakside post for some reason. The worst part is the help defender is in poor position to do anything helpful when we do double. He is typically 100% useless in that spot and he leads to wide open shots because of it.
We don't trust our man to handle their assignment with off the dribble regardless of the match up, so our bigs just abandon their guy for an easy dump off at the worst and an easy offensive board at the best. Sure we have a good amount of blocks, but unless we can retrieve the ball after the block, it will lead to an easy second chance bucket every time. Because we have 2 guys out of position.
Our offense is spread the ball out and wings go one on one, with a dribble handoff for Rishwain for a tough, contested shot. We do very little to give Bear the ball and clear out. Now the shine on that has worn off some, but it is still a viable option against most teams in the conference if we give him room to work and a reasonable kickout lane if they double.
It just sucks because I think we have the talent to be much better this year, and especially last year. If we had a less predictable defense and any sort of actual offensive structure that was catered to our strengths, we could easily be a tournament team.
But we keep getting exploited due to our predictable tendencies and we do nothing to change.
We don't trust our man to handle their assignment with off the dribble regardless of the match up, so our bigs just abandon their guy for an easy dump off at the worst and an easy offensive board at the best. Sure we have a good amount of blocks, but unless we can retrieve the ball after the block, it will lead to an easy second chance bucket every time. Because we have 2 guys out of position.
Our offense is spread the ball out and wings go one on one, with a dribble handoff for Rishwain for a tough, contested shot. We do very little to give Bear the ball and clear out. Now the shine on that has worn off some, but it is still a viable option against most teams in the conference if we give him room to work and a reasonable kickout lane if they double.
It just sucks because I think we have the talent to be much better this year, and especially last year. If we had a less predictable defense and any sort of actual offensive structure that was catered to our strengths, we could easily be a tournament team.
But we keep getting exploited due to our predictable tendencies and we do nothing to change.
That and Menzies took a blowtorch to any goodwill or respect he had for his comments about UNLV towards the end of his tenure.
I agree he wasn’t ready, didn’t pay his dues, got in on name. It was short cutting it to a decent job. That’s why merit is the best way to run things, earned.
KK is a much better person than MM in my opinion, Rice was a great dude too.
In the end, it’s results. He’s a 500 coach.
If you look at Menzies resume, it was fine on paper. Won a lot of games at New Mexico State but our AD was too dumb to dig any further and examine the resume a little deeper as NMSU was already winning games, the soft schedules etc.
I’m convinced that like CKK, Menzies got this job because of Lon Krugers recommendation. That was more than enough for TKM after several disastrous attempts to hire a new coach.
My current worry about Harper is that he would be utilizing Lon’s recommendations which will be keep CKK for one more season, let him bring in a great class etc with DTJ returning. Im worried that the local press has NOT mentioned anything about CKK’s seat being warm even, let alone scorching hot.
You know we’re in the midst of a 4 game slide and zero talk about CKKs job security in the press? Doesn’t sit well with me and I think the plan is to blame injuries and point to the incoming class and transfers for reasons to stick with him.
I’m just reading the tea leaves and people need to get ready for another season of CKK. Look at the UNLVMBB X feed, already pumping up their signees for next year.
Menzies was bottom of the barrel, very last choice. He wasn’t even a fallback option. The problem is everything was so butchered and the president said, just give it to him, he will take it, the mess is over. Len Jessup was just as horrible for UNLV as anybody else. They coulda reset. They wanted to. Jessup said no.
Im sure being clowned on by the media, not just locally but nationally as well pressured the administration to just give it to Marv. People like Len and TKM aren’t used to criticism or scrutiny, so when it came they panicked.
Ironic, considering they publicized the search.
But I’m seriously concerned that Harper and UNLV are going to give CKK another go and possibly give him a one year extension.
Might as well just drop the basketball program if KK is really going to be retained for another season. It's not like the 40 remaining basketball fans will even care at that point.
i believe Harper told the media off the record to hold off on any speculation or suggestion that CKK is on the hot seat, because Harper doesn’t want to be boxed in on making a decision regarding CKK.
If you can get a core like DTJ, Whaley, Evans, Pape, Tyrin Jones for 2025-26 with some good transfers, then I guess we have to roll with it. I don’t think Harper wants to do a total tear down unless UNLV completely craters from now until March.
This is a football school and Harper is giving CKK a long leash to make it work because he has a good working relationship with CKK and Lon.
Just my opinion and if we’re all honest, the fact the media is unwilling to be critical of CKK means he’s got the backing of the administration and others.
Bring him back for a year and the Rebels will be playing infront of an even more empty stadium. Revenue for basketball in the tank. Wont even be able to afford to turn the lights on for a few games.
Move it to the cox and let the 5 fans that show hold flash lights sonthey can at.least see the ball.
UNLV basketball is complete trash and wont get better next year with the same coaching staff.
Move it to the cox and let the 5 fans that show hold flash lights sonthey can at.least see the ball.
UNLV basketball is complete trash and wont get better next year with the same coaching staff.
This is as good as it gets when looking at the history of TKM at UNLV. She was as useless as he was!
If Harper ever wants the B12 sniffing around then we can't just sit around and hope CKK will be better in his 5th year. We have to put a product on the floor that they might want.
I have no inside knowledge. But I’m almost certain Kruger is gone soon after our last game. Harper is not dumb. Cannot continue to finish in the middle of the conference every year, and draw two thousand fans a game, and have a vanilla,
schedule, with zero community support. Doesn’t matter who he has recruited. They might stay or go. But Coach Kruger needs to move along. Harper knows it, all our fans know it. We need to hire a run and gun coach. Seems so simple…
schedule, with zero community support. Doesn’t matter who he has recruited. They might stay or go. But Coach Kruger needs to move along. Harper knows it, all our fans know it. We need to hire a run and gun coach. Seems so simple…
They are going to blame injuries for this year’s disaster and point to better recruiting as to why we should keep CKK. “There’s been a lot of close games this season, if only UNLV was totally healthy” will be the mantra. It already is.
My prediction is they’ll give it another go, especially if DJ is committed to taking UNLV back to the Dance.
My prediction is they’ll give it another go, especially if DJ is committed to taking UNLV back to the Dance.
We need an experienced coach with a good track record.
The question is can we buyout CKK, afford a good replacement coach and NIL? I doubt it.
It's possible, but who knows? I really don't know how much better the product will get though. The team has no identity. We're not a running team, we're not a hard nosed defense team, we're not efficient, we don't run a princeton offense, or a syracuse zone defense....
Who are we?
Excuses are just that. Every team gets hit by injuries. Some more impactful than others. But the best way to lessen the impact is with player versatility and some functional depth.
If DJ went out, what were we going to do this year? We lost an undersized powerful guy that rebounded as well as Bear. I think WE DID miss Rob, but he’s not the difference between NCAAT and what we are seeing.
When there’s a lack of urgency with recruiting, when we can’t/wont butt heads with better schools on the recruiting trail, we aren’t going to be good.
When there’s not a revamping, a reimagination of things that clearly don’t work year to year … can’t be surprised when the results are similar. And this year they’re worse, while the conference is worse.
I don’t disagree but the reality is that there’s probably no money to go get an experienced coach. Everything is geared towards football.
Again, zero hint from the media thst CKK is in deep doo doo in terms of job security. The last time the athletic department was in a situation like this was Arroyos last season with the program and does anyone remember the first thing that was written about Arroyo to kick off that final season?
It was essentially a hit piece from the Las Vegas Sun, claiming Arroyo does not welcome or talk to any local HS coaches. It was the weirdest timing, right before the season kicks off and then you fast forward to Harper’s post arroyo presser and his comments about looking at the full body of work etc.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what went on there and it wasn’t some sudden decision. I don’t see any movement on CKK. Money probably isn’t there (it never is, we should know this by now) to do a complete overhaul.
Predict we will just kick the can down the road and bring back several key players to be infused with transfers and hope it works out. Not ideal but perhaps people need to readjust their expectations of what UNLV can afford to do.
Again, zero hint from the media thst CKK is in deep doo doo in terms of job security. The last time the athletic department was in a situation like this was Arroyos last season with the program and does anyone remember the first thing that was written about Arroyo to kick off that final season?
It was essentially a hit piece from the Las Vegas Sun, claiming Arroyo does not welcome or talk to any local HS coaches. It was the weirdest timing, right before the season kicks off and then you fast forward to Harper’s post arroyo presser and his comments about looking at the full body of work etc.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what went on there and it wasn’t some sudden decision. I don’t see any movement on CKK. Money probably isn’t there (it never is, we should know this by now) to do a complete overhaul.
Predict we will just kick the can down the road and bring back several key players to be infused with transfers and hope it works out. Not ideal but perhaps people need to readjust their expectations of what UNLV can afford to do.
They get buyout money, and put it towards the next hire. We got the Iowa State money to pay for CKKs contract, in theory. However I suspect that given the budget issues, it likely went to alleviating that burden. Though if we fired CKK, that costs money for a buyout + new coach and new staff $$$ + NIL deals,
I don’t see where the money comes from. I suspect we’ll wait another year and by then have more clarity on the MWC payments and conference realignment, TV deals etc.
I mean more with regards to the hires that they make, than the money. They seem to make good hires of coaches that put a good product on the court.
