Chicagojayfan wrote:go_jays wrote:BTW... don't know if you noticed... but Providence has gotten 3 in 2017 and 2018. Certainly an outlier... but they are in a talent-rich area.
But the point here is... Ed Cooley is considered one of the outstanding coaches in the BE, if not the entire country, right? Yet, they were 20-13, 21-14 and 18-16 over the past 3 years... with 2 NCAA appearances and losing in the 1st Round each time.
So, the point here is... "making the jump", even WITH Top 50 recruits isn't easy... much less having none.
While I appreciate everyone clamoring for Conference Championships and Sweet 16 and beyond... keep things in perspective. And once again, no one here is satisfied with the status quo. But the constant references to Mac's ineptitude is beyond ridiculous. Does he need to constantly be adapting and fine-tuning? Of course he does. Does he need to be working his ass off? Of course he does. But the expectations from some of you are simply WAY out of line.
I was thinking very similar things. Cooley hasn't done as much with his talent as we would want if he'd been our coach and pulling in those players. It's not an easy thing to make the jump. I do think we are pretty well positioned, though.. here's why:
1. We've continued to win with the talent we had to start in the BE and with what we could pull in at times when we were just getting bodies to fill gaps
2. While winning we went from a team that had 0 top 100 recruits to one that should have 5 (depending on how you count Marcus) next year. We're absolutely getting a lot more talent and winning more recruiting battles than we ever did in Creighton's past
3. Our off the radar kids have been VERY good for the most part, especially the local ones -- Patton got his first offer from us (and the thread for him is fun reading with people having no idea he'd changed so much from the year before), Khyri Thomas is in the NBA now, and Martin was a very little known recruit who people had a lot of questions about
4. We can sell a good brand with style of play and fan support. This can't negate the negatives we have entirely, but it can get us in the door for a lot of kids
negatives we still need to work on:
1. Making a run in the tourney. This is very important for landing more of those top recruits, but I'd rather have us build the way we have an then make a run, than make a run and not have a real recruiting base and infrastructure in place (when will Loyola ever make a run again?)
2. Dealing with our location recruiting issues -- we can't move, but we can continue to work hard in areas with opportunity -- Kansas has been great for us, for instance, and we need to continue to get the best recruits in Omaha
Oh boy, the two of you just went there didn't ya?

and this from go_jays was right on the nose........"While I appreciate everyone clamoring for Conference Championships and Sweet 16 and beyond... keep things in perspective. And once again, no one here is satisfied with the status quo. But the constant references to Mac's ineptitude is beyond ridiculous. Does he need to constantly be adapting and fine-tuning? Of course he does. Does he need to be working his ass off? Of course he does. But the expectations from some of you are simply WAY out of line."