Diamond Head Classic - South Carolina

[akronzips71]

We lose a couple of games and you guys get all down on the coach.

Feh.

iCoach won 2 games in 2 years. HAD TO GO.

Anyone want to challenge KD's record?

He is a coaching GOD. And this is Akron, NOT Kentucky or OSU. Get over it.

[tomzip]

We lose a couple of games and you guys get all down on the coach.

Feh.

iCoach won 2 games in 2 years. HAD TO GO.

Anyone want to challenge KD's record?

He is a coaching GOD. And this is Akron, NOT Kentucky or OSU. Get over it.

We are simply asking the question, can he elevate this program anymore? We are a one and done team in the NCAA, but hey that's something I used to think I would never be able to say (Zips BB and NCAA). He is not a "God" of basketball coaches, if that is the logic, what would be the coaches at Can't State or OU who made decent runs in the tourney be called?

[akronzips71]

We are simply asking the question, can he elevate this program anymore? We are a one and done team in the NCAA, but hey that's something I used to think I would never be able to say (Zips BB and NCAA). He is not a "God" of basketball coaches, if that is the logic, what would be the coaches at Can't State or OU who made decent runs in the tourney be called?

The point is, he has elevated this program into a top shelf mid major that was nationally ranked last year.

We lost a couple of non conference games. NOT the end of the world.

If we don't make it to Cleveland we can revisit this question.

[Balsy]

The point is, he has elevated this program into a top shelf mid major that was nationally ranked last year.

We lost a couple of non conference games. NOT the end of the world.

If we don't make it to Cleveland we can revisit this question.

+1.

[LZIp]

Not trying to be "that guy", but I just cannot consider ourselves a "top-shelf" mid-major program. I consider us an above average mid-major program. We have never won a NCAA tourney game nor beaten a ranked program. Top shelf programs shake things up on a national scale, not make it to their 1 bid conference tourney champ game usually and win ~50% of the time.

[Zipgrad01]

Not trying to be "that guy", but I just cannot consider ourselves a "top-shelf" mid-major program. I consider us an above average mid-major program. We have never won a NCAA tourney game nor beaten a ranked program. Top shelf programs shake things up on a national scale, not make it to their 1 bid conference tourney champ game usually and win ~50% of the time.

I agree.....we cant consider ourselves a top mid-major. The top mid-majors make noise on a national scale. We havent.....ever

[Dr Z]

I agree.....we cant consider ourselves a top mid-major. The top mid-majors make noise on a national scale. We havent.....ever

We beat up on cupcakes, and upset nobody. The Mac has been bad to mediocre for a decade now. Some fans are happy with that, some are not. If this was Columbus, would their fans be happy with that? I don't even think Bobcat fans would be. This talk happens every year at this time, then we beat up on some MAC cupcakes and the talk goes away. Hopefully the MAC can elevate to the status of a two bid conference like we used to be, and we will get a more accurate evaluation of how this staff competes.

"Top" mid major? I'm not sure, or care, what a top mid major is, but here are your rankings.

[GP1]

Not trying to be "that guy", but I just cannot consider ourselves a "top-shelf" mid-major program. I consider us an above average mid-major program. We have never won a NCAA tourney game nor beaten a ranked program. Top shelf programs shake things up on a national scale, not make it to their 1 bid conference tourney champ game usually and win ~50% of the time.

I agree. I'm also not down on KD and I just think he needs to challenge himself and the program a little more. If not, stagnation follows closely behind and that's the worst place to be.

[GP1]

We beat up on cupcakes, and upset nobody. The Mac has been bad to mediocre for a decade now. Some fans are happy with that, some are not. If this was Columbus, would their fans be happy with that? I don't even think Bobcat fans would be. This talk happens every year at this time, then we beat up on some MAC cupcakes and the talk goes away. Hopefully the MAC can elevate to the status of a two bid conference like we used to be, and we will get a more accurate evaluation of how this staff competes.

But, I trust KD to beat up on cupcakes and make the punch drinkers feel better......

[Dave in Green]

@GP1, a few comments about some of your comments:

Weigand, McFadden, Thomas and McNees are on court coaches and spend their time directly impacting game day decisions.

By NCAA regulation, each school is allowed to have only 3 assistant coaches. Steve McNees has not been part of the coaching staff. He is formally listed as a member of the support staff, and his official title is video coordinator. There are 5 other members of the support staff -- another video coordinator and 4 graduate assistants (including Brian Walsh) -- who support the coaching staff. The support staff is technically not allowed to "coach" the players, but can work with them in any number of helpful ways within the NCAA rules. Steve was just recently named to fill in as director of basketball operations during Dan Peters' medical leave of absence. At UA, that position along with the head coach and 3 assistant coaches are listed together as the 5-man coaching staff. Since NCAA regulation limits the total number of coaches to 4 (1 head and 3 assistants), Coach Peters should really be listed under support staff. What UA lists as coaching staff might better be described as senior staff, as Coach Peters obviously has way more experience and knowledge of coaching than anyone listed on the support staff.

Coach Peters retirement will not impact game decisions in the least or the coaching of the players. His retirement will represent a zero percent change in on court coaches.

Even though Coach Peters can't technically be an assistant coach to the players, he can and has been a coach to the coaches. He has attended virtually every Zips practice and has been on the bench at almost every Zips game. He has a keen eye for how the players are performing, and the coaches value his advice. So even if the 3 formal assistant coaches remain the same next season, there will be a major loss in input from Coach Peters. If Steve McNees ends up taking Coach Peters' position on the senior staff next season, his input will be quite different. Steve's father was a coach, Steve thinks like a coach, and Steve would be able to give the coaches good input from a recent player perspective. The current players all respect Steve, and promoting him to a higher position would enhance his ability to influence the direction of the team.

I find it impossible to believe that a mastermind of a coach like KD couldn't use of all of his vast experience and know-how to replace a couple of assistance that may have been around too long.

I agree with your analysis of Coach Dambrot. The key word is "may." No matter how long an assistant coach has been around, it's not "too long" as long as they are performing at a high level and continuing to advance their games. Since Coach Dambrot is judged by the performance of the team, and the assistant coaches are at least partially responsible for team performance, it's in Coach Dambrot's best interests to have the best assistant coaches he can find. If he chooses to keep assistants 9 or 10 years, I suspect it's because he has done a thorough analysis and sees no better options.

At some point, KD can't continue to challenge the character of his own players every time things don't go well. At some point, he has to look elsewhere.

And how do we know that he doesn't? How do we know whether or not he has challenged his assistant coaches to raise the level of their games, and how do we know if they have delivered? Look, I understand that every time the Zips lose games we really want them to win that we start speculating about anything and everything that might make a difference. It's fair for anyone to advance any theory and it's fair for anyone else to try to shoot holes in any theory. This can be a good discussion where each of us might learn something we didn't know before. I tried to assemble some information in this post from what I already knew along with some things that I just looked up. I already feel somewhat more knowledgeable about the coaching situation and hope to learn more as the discussion goes on.