Buckeyes @ Sparty, 2/14/17, 9:00 ESPN

[NFBuck]

Hard to believe this team will finish with a worse record than last year despite the B1G being a WORSE conference than last year. That takes some quality coaching.

Not that the coaching has been good, but this roster is just...well, not good. How many of this starting five do you think would play significant minutes on Thad's better teams? I say zero. Well, maybe Thompson. Nobody on this bench would even play. The recruiting the last 3-4 years has sunk them.

 

[buckeyebri]

56% FT, with missing the front end of a bunch of 1 and 1s, and getting out rebounded doesn't win games. They got out played at the beginning and end of each half. Just a fundamentally unsound team.

 

[Systems_id]

Not that the coaching has been good, but this roster is just...well, not good. How many of this starting five do you think would play significant minutes on Thad's better teams? I say zero. Well, maybe Thompson. Nobody on this bench would even play. The recruiting the last 3-4 years has sunk them.

On paper this team is significantly more talented than those Terrence Dials-led teams Thad took to great heights back in the day. Plus the lack of talent doesn't excuse the absolutely horrible fundamentals this team continues to display. Wisconsin hasn't had a Top 25 recruiting class in 10 years yet they always seem to find a way to put out teams that play quality basketball.

 

[NFBuck]

On paper this team is significantly more talented than those Terrence Dials-led teams Thad took to great heights back in the day. Plus the lack of talent doesn't excuse the absolutely horrible fundamentals this team continues to display. Wisconsin hasn't had a Top 25 recruiting class in 10 years yet they always seem to find a way to put out teams that play quality basketball.

Wisconsin has a proven system that they recruit for. We have five guys running around with no idea what they're doing or where they're going 85% of the time.

But yeah, the fundamentals come down to coaching. It all falls on Thad, but I have to wonder what the rest of these "coaches" are doing during practices. I picture them standing around staring at their phones. I've never considered Matta an elite in game coach, but what he did early in his career was surround himself with quality assistants. Not so much anymore. Do you think any AD's are sniffing around Greg Paulus or Dave Dickerson when they're looking for a coach? I don't.

 

[buckeyebri]

We have five guys running around with no idea what they're doing or where they're going 85% of the time.

It was amazing to watch live. Most of the time guys are just standing around, beyond the arc, until at some point someone tries to go 1 on 1. I didn't see anything that appeared to be sets or called plays. There were a number of times guys caught the ball with an open 3 look only to pass it off. Cam! Or, guys drove in and threw it back out. Loving and Lyle! They hardly ever got the ball in to TT. Tate is out of control most of the time with the ball in his hands.

To be honest Sparty isn't any better and this was a game we could have won.

 

[wigmon]

Seriously Loving

Wasn't really his fault on that play. It was Kams guy that got the put back as Kam left him to double Ward. Loving had to follow his man (Ellis) because he's their best 3pt shooter. Yes, he was closest to Langford who got the dunk, but Loving can't block out two guys (though he didn't block out the guy he was guarding either).

 

[wigmon]

Love Dakich's small point. You have 800 assistant coaches and they all sit on their hands letting Thompson stay in the game in a dead-ball need-to-foul scenario. Does it matter? No, not really. But it's just pathetic. This whole program has lost buy-in.

Yeah, the second we committed our 6th team foul, MSU had a player up to the scorers table to get the poor shooting Nairn out of the game. We left in 2 starters that had 4 fouls knowing we were going to foul the second the ball was in bounded. I can't think of a single excuse for letting that happen. Maybe you leave Tate in because you figure he's one of your best defenders and you need to deny an in bounds pass, but TT should have been out or at the very least been the guy guarding the in bounder so he wouldn't have to be the one committing the foul.

 

[Systems_id]

Wisconsin has a proven system that they recruit for. We have five guys running around with no idea what they're doing or where they're going 85% of the time.

But yeah, the fundamentals come down to coaching. It all falls on Thad, but I have to wonder what the rest of these "coaches" are doing during practices. I picture them standing around staring at their phones. I've never considered Matta an elite in game coach, but what he did early in his career was surround himself with quality assistants. Not so much anymore. Do you think any AD's are sniffing around Greg Paulus or Dave Dickerson when they're looking for a coach? I don't.

Yeah I was more placing the blame on assistant coaches rather than Thad himself although I do think it's on him that he's allowed it to fester this badly. Like, I refuse to believe that Thad all of a sudden completely forgot how to coach. Who knows. And I still don't think lack of talent has anything to do with it since the Shannon Scott classes, D'Russ classes, and Lyle classes were were all in the Top 5-10 range and those teams stunk too after the Sully class left. Who knows, maybe kids these days just aren't buying what they're selling. Maybe OSU needs to get on that Calipari plan if they want to start competing.