That is just being flat out unreasonable. I'm guessing there were NEVER 5 min lulls in the offense/defense during Rice's tenure and that's something UNLV fans haven't become accustomed to over the past decade or so (I kid we have, it's nothing new). Factor in we have a mixture of D1 and D2 talent entering conference play and a brand new head coach heading into conference play for the first time; yeah there's gonna be some bad 5 min stretches of basketball.
Solid Win REBELS!
- Thread starter manic water
- Start date
Wow. I think you are touchy. Teams nowadays don't play 35+ minutes of focused basketball. If they do, they're top teams. It's not a criticism of Menzies or any other coach. I'd be happy if he could get them to focus 30+ minutes per game.
I can't think of a single Rebel team since Tark that played complete games regularly. Even Kruger's S16 team had many games with 5+ minute lulls. What's unreasonable, to me, is expecting teams to be focused for 35+ minutes because it's something that doesn't regularly happen.
Somehow you took something I stated about college basketball in general and twisted it to be an argument I'm making against Menzies....
No that's not at all how it was interpreted and since were on the topic of stating what we think, I think most of your beefs that you've stated in this thread have been de-legitimatized or exaggerated at best and the vast majority of your issues seem awfully personal.
I think you’re being awfully tough, Joe. Given that Menzies couldn’t even begin to recruit a team until late April, I think it’s unreasonable to be able to expect them to have the kind of talent, or cohesion to be able to compete at the Duke, Kansas or Oregon level. And even the ASU level, yet. These teams have a system and a coach who has had years to develop his charges. There is just no shortcut to success. Maybe Calipari can pull it off with a dozen All-Americans on his bench every year, but no one else can. Certainly not a thrown-together collection of freshmen, Juco and D-2 players.
When I say, MM can “coach ‘em up” I’m drawing from personal experience. In many games this season, we have seen leads get narrowed, or disappear, as the opponent made the customary surge. College hoops are often games of runs by each team, so this is not unexpected. But in the Riverside, Fullerton, W. Kentucky, So Ill & Wyoming games, when things got dicey, Menzies called a time-out, or switched a defense (ok, not the USU game) and the Rebels pulled away. I can remember, all-too-well the knot in my stomach when these things happened to Dave Rice teams, and we (and he) watched helplessly as the game slipped away. Sure, I’m aware that this isn’t a “Murderer’s Row” of opponents, but many of those MW foes weren’t either. We’ve won games this season that I could easily envision losing in the past 4 years.
The USU game, which you seem to harbor a particular distaste for, wasn’t that bad. It’s hard to plan for a team getting that hot from beyond the arc. Of course, the defense bore a good deal of the blame, but again, we’re a work-in-progress. There are going to be missteps along the way. That was a bad week for the Rebels, as it came on the heels of the Boise St game, which was really the only game in which I was truly disappointed. Not in the outcome, so much as the (lack of) effort. Other than that, I’ve seen these kids trying their hardest, to learn the game.
You say that the New Mexico game is giving you hope. Me too, but I think the Wyoming win was a good one, as well. They were pretty hot coming in, with a good OOC record. As I recall, we were the underdogs in that match-up. So, there have been a few bright spots in this difficult season.
Had we known how far we were going to fall, we probably would have waited on match-ups with Final Four-caliber teams. But as bitter as some of these pills may be to swallow, they should have some positive effects. If for nothing else but to see where we have to get to, to re-claim our place on the national stage.That is the Promised Land. For me, at this moment, Marvin Menzies is Moses..
Go Rebels!
I never liked Beard as a choice, I wanted to see them give Menzies the opportunity, all he has done at NMSU is win championships in that conference. small school hard to recruit big time, yet he kept spanking New Mexico's butts. UNLV has NEVER WON the MWC regular season championship. They will win it in the next 3 years. This guy is a good coach. He seems like a good guy too. MM may surprise people, I said that when he was first hired, but I do know if they would have went with him first instead of Beard he would have had some of the players stay that left. He did a good job just filling a roster. Wait until next year, he may win the MWC next year.I think that, despite the sad circus that was the UNLV coaching search, we wound up with precisely the right man for the job. It’s possible that had Beard stayed for more than a week, he might have convinced more Rebels to stick around, and maybe he could have made them competitive. I’m pretty certain that, under the handicap that Menzies was handed, he couldn't have pulled together as much talent as Marvin did.
But even if you believe that Beard would have been better, you can’t ignore the fact that he’s a coaching nomad. If it weren’t Texas Tech, he still would have bolted at the first step up he was offered.
Some on this board want to make much of MM’s many years in the business, and his failure to get better offers over that time.As if that, so there logic goes, should tell us that he's a less-than quality coach. I think he wasn’t considered for other jobs because he’s black.
Before the anti-PC proponents completely lose their s^*t on me, you should read the link below. If you’d rather not take the time. I’ll recap: There are currently 25.5% black head coaches in Div. I baskets. Yet 58% of the players are Afro-American (it seems like more than that). Coaches of color are getting dumped/resigning and being replaced by whites. There numbers are steadily dwindling.
Menzies has been successful at every opportunity that he's received. I applaud UNLV for hiring a black coach (even if they needed some arm-twisting to get there), and I believe that, given a couple of years to develop his own team, he will return The Rebels to the elite college basketball community. The differences between Menzes’ bench-coaching during games to his predecessor is stark. He has already proven his ability to recruit nationally (Louisville), and to relay his message to his players (New Mexico St).
Good times lie ahead for The Runnin’ Rebels.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-black-coaches-ncaa-spt-0402-20150401-story.html
Go Rebels!
If someone told me before the season that we would be 9-9 going into SDSU tonight and only -5pt dogs, I would take it.
I really believe you're being too harsh on the team. Yeah, the Duke debacle wasn't fun to witness. But your mistaken about how The Blue Devils have handled some other teams. I disagree with some of your conclusions, but this is just about your comment about other Duke match-ups.
As for their record in exhibitions, Virginia State hung tough enough to only lose by 31. But their other exhibition was against Augustana (?). The final score was 98-45. A 53-point spread. So there!
But a real shocker was their game against Georgia Tech two weeks ago (1/4). 110-57. I don't know anything about those teams, but I'm willing to bet that they aren't all freshman, jucos, and D2 cast-offs who had never heard of each other, let-alone played together before a few short months ago. Georgia Tech is in the middle-of-the-pack in the mighty ACC, the #1 conference in America, having defeated the likes of North Carolina, NC State and Clemson. And they got beat by 53!
I'm not taking pride in the fact that there were other squads that suffered even greater humiliation than The Rebels. Just that it's understandable that, given the handicaps that our team has operated under, they were doomed before they set foot on the court. I wish we had scheduled Duke, Kansas and Oregon in a season where we stood a chance. Hopefully we'll get another shot when we've got it together.
Your "guess" about Duke's other opponents is incorrect. I'm just sayin'...
Go Rebels!
Not sure if Menzies is the real deal and he's got a mountain to climb. Knights NHL starting next winter and possible Raiders, it's not gonna get any easier to draw a crowd to the Mack. If he can recruit to Rice's level, maybe he can pull it off (make the Rebels relevant again). Sure hope the imbeciles hire a competent, go-getter AD.
It might be over for this year, but we knew that before the year tipped.
But its not over for UNLV basketball. Not by far. The immediate future could look a lot like Lon Kruger era - that's not a bad thing. To expect the Tark days, well, yeah, I think that's pretty much an era that has passed us by.
The far future? Who knows. Its a haves and have nots system and its only getting worse. I wouldn't be surprised if the future is a complete breakaway from NCAA by P5 leagues leaving everyone else to carve out their own division of play in all sports.
But its not over for UNLV basketball. Not by far. The immediate future could look a lot like Lon Kruger era - that's not a bad thing. To expect the Tark days, well, yeah, I think that's pretty much an era that has passed us by.
The far future? Who knows. Its a haves and have nots system and its only getting worse. I wouldn't be surprised if the future is a complete breakaway from NCAA by P5 leagues leaving everyone else to carve out their own division of play in all sports.
