Why is that? Is BI holding out on us?!

I like the sound of that! 2018, 2019 or both?

parentswerebears said:

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I like the sound of that! 2018, 2019 or both?

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2038 - Bird III

Whatever the case, they need more bigs for next year.

philbert said:

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Whatever the case, they need more bigs for next year.

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Exactly.

I'll stay silent. Please support the Bears now. Moraga I wasn't going at you.

Mike Cohen,

Are you certain you can accurately detect a team's "giving up"?

Sure let's see how the season plays out and that was a great win, no doubt. But when I see people talking about "we're young" or "freshman" - I don't get it. I thought that whole young thing ended with the Fab 5. Dominant teams like Duke dominate with freshman. In college basketball, the issue is talent not experience or age.

SmellinRoses said:

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Sure let's see how the season plays out and that was a great win, no doubt. But when I see people talking about "we're young" or "freshman" - I don't get it. I thought that whole young thing ended with the Fab 5. Dominant teams like Duke dominate with freshman. In college basketball, the issue is talent not experience or age.

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Being young and playing a lot of freshman rears its ugly head on defense mostly. When a player is evaluated, elected to all-star games, playing AAU ball, etc, it's always on the basis of his offensive skill. Even around here, most posts about a player are about how he performs offensively. I guess because there are very stats, it's not as actively considered. The fact that there's zero defense played at the AAU level exacerbates the issue. Even the Duke freshman, and they start 4 of them, are skilled offensively but are garbage defensively. I'm sure our frosh will learn to play better defense as they spend time in the program. I just don't know many freshman that come into any program that actually play decent defense. And if you look at the top defensive teams statistically, they are almost always older.

SmellinRoses said:

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Sure let's see how the season plays out and that was a great win, no doubt. But when I see people talking about "we're young" or "freshman" - I don't get it. I thought that whole young thing ended with the Fab 5. Dominant teams like Duke dominate with freshman. In college basketball, the issue is talent not experience or age.

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It's both. Very talented freshmen can succeed; however, in order to succeed with a freshmen-dominated team, they have to be very, very good. Good freshmen--the kind who will be very productive as upperclassmen--need time to develop. Any freshman will be better as a junior or senior than he is as a freshman (barring injury). A few frosh are so good that they can dominate, but that's the very few.

SmellinRoses said:

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Sure let's see how the season plays out and that was a great win, no doubt. But when I see people talking about "we're young" or "freshman" - I don't get it. I thought that whole young thing ended with the Fab 5. Dominant teams like Duke dominate with freshman. In college basketball, the issue is talent not experience or age.

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Those dominant teams with freshman are those with 5 star guys who are usually one and dones nowadays. Cal has a bunch of 3 and 4 star guys that take time to develop and will be here for 4 years.

south bender said:

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Mike Cohen,

Are you certain you can accurately detect a team's "giving up"?

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During some part of the blow-outs, I saw pretty clear toreador defense gestures, which were totally un-characteristic of the guys when they were on all cylinders.

Otherwise, the best I can do is believe in my perceptions of body language.

But, very strongly: Highs and Lows are one thing. Leading the No. 6 team in the country, easily, by 18, and then getting easily blown out by lesser teams, is another.

Also, watching the Dubs, it occurs to me that becoming dis-oriented, and losing all focus, direction, concentration and perspective, may be a lot easier to do than one might imagine.\

What I mean by that is noticing how assiduous Steve Kerr is to call time-outs and make pointed (or, sometimes, experimental) substitutions, so many times, pretty much every game, when that happens TO THE MOST SKILLED AND EXPERIENCED PROS ONE CAN IMAGINE -- which is why I, very reluctantly, attacked our coaches, for almost not doing that at all to help and save our inexperienced, a few-games-out-of-high-school freshmen from obviously floundering around through big, and usually inevitable, runs by opposing teams.

I mean, even just stopping for a few minutes (even if the coaches didn't have the answers), it seems to me, could have helped "our young bears" collect themselves (which their having pulled off a team-only meeting to address the crisis showed that they are capable of); and the high level of quality and experience of a number of our coaches suggests strongly to me that one or more of them would have been very likely to have had some answers that could have helped those situations.

I was greatly encouraged, in the San Diego State game, that the coaches in fact did do those things; and I think that truly accounted for the win; and one thing that was clear I think to all in that game is that, despite the HUGE San Diego State run that took up so much of the last half, during which out guys only scored ONE field goal, NOBODY GAVE UP - which, of course, is what I really care about, and, given the high character and talent level of our guys, I do not believe that giving up should ever happen - unless the coaches don't do their job, which is to provide the direction, i.e., context/template (on a macro and micro level) for the guys to use under pressure.

SmellinRoses said:

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Sure let's see how the season plays out and that was a great win, no doubt. But when I see people talking about "we're young" or "freshman" - I don't get it. I thought that whole young thing ended with the Fab 5. Dominant teams like Duke dominate with freshman. In college basketball, the issue is talent not experience or age.

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We don't have 5-star, one-and-dones (although we have in the past few years and, if the recruiting reporters on this board are to be believed, we may well have that to a greater degree in the near future).

But, we also are not the old Pete Carrill Princeton teams, with four un-athletic guys plus Bill Bradley.

We, now, got a lot of really high talented guys, to go along with others with less talent but other great qualities, to the point that, with a few more filled-spots and a little more depth, essentially in the front court, I believe we can compete for the National Championship - which I think has been shown by the plethora this season of highly ranked teams being defeated by much lesser ranked or un-ranked teams.

The current enthusiasm for basketball, worldwide, has created an explosion in the talent pool which makes a lot of very talented players capable of seeing the value of attending the peculiar educational institution of whose athletic teams we are fans.

exactly there is talent there though

SmellinRoses said:

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Sure let's see how the season plays out and that was a great win, no doubt. But when I see people talking about "we're young" or "freshman" - I don't get it. I thought that whole young thing ended with the Fab 5. Dominant teams like Duke dominate with freshman. In college basketball, the issue is talent not experience or age.

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That's fine if your freshmen are elite players. Ours are not at that level.

I really don't follow their team that closely but I wonder if the trajectory of ASU under Bobby Hurley can give us some encouragement.

You can't say it isn't a talent issue, but more of an experience issue. Especially when given examples of younger talented teams. Saying Duke is filled with 5 stars is proving the point that it's a lack of talent issue. This current crop of freshman will be overshadowed by next years freshman except McNeil and JHD. Bradley will be a day one started and put Coleman on the bench, who may be one of the worst 20 point scorers in NCAA history. He won't sniff pro ball anywhere.

ayetee11 said:

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This current crop of freshman will be overshadowed by next years freshman except McNeil and JHD.

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You misspelled Sueing.

Agree otherwise.

Yogi Bear said:

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ayetee11 said:

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This current crop of freshman will be overshadowed by next years freshman except McNeil and JHD.

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You misspelled Sueing.

Agree otherwise.

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You are a cruel task master. Remember to never, ever correct a wife like that.

In the immortal words of Peter Ustinov, " I tingle."

Dear Ayetee---'coleman will go to the bench?" Not sure I'm crazy about your BB bonafides. your chances of your prediction coming true?//Slim and zero and slim just left town.

Coleman 12-37 from three. Cant make one deep in the second half of games if he plays 40 minutes. If he played less, the percentage would likely go up.