hhcdave

Dane Fife (a guy we interviewed over a decade ago here on HHC) could be a sleeper candidate, too.

The Turgeon name came from someone I consider very credible who thinks Moose has him at the top of his list. As detailed above, Turgeon isn't disliked at Maryland but he isn't beloved, either. He's been there long enough where it might be time to think about moving on, depending how this season ends. His family is in Nebraska (Lincoln) - playing ball at KU - familiarity with NU and how he went WAY out of his way last week at the presser to praise Miles and Nebraska has me thinking there's a little smoke to it. Also, according to the person who told me this, Nebraska could easily pay more than Maryland could and the UNL athletic department is in much better shape than Maryland currently is. Again, I don't think this happens. But I think there ARE some wings to it.

The name I've heard a couple of times is Mark Turgeon. But I don't see how that possibly could happen. So I doubt it.

I do think we would have split Wisconsin and Maryland with Copeland. And would likely win 3-4 more instead of the 2 I predict us to win. But at the end of the day Cope might have meant a possibility of being on the bubble/NIT versus where we are. Both scenarios really aren’t acceptable for year seven of a program.

Obviously I know Petteway and Palmer and multiple others weren’t JUCO players. I saw Petteway play in person twice at TTU. No idea why I typed that but 1 AM and Danny Nee’s old friend Bud Light might explain it. Regardless, the point is the exact same.

As I sit back and reflect on the past 6.5 years, I find myself nostalgic and at a tough time accepting that this program is where it’s at and that the Miles era will likely end with less talent on the next roster than where it started (assuming our stud JUCO doesn’t come and we lose at minimum of one of Roby and Allen). That is literally impossible for me to wrap my mind around. I never saw this ending as possible - never in a million years. Not last month, not last season, not 6.5 years ago. I remember watching the live press conference of Coach Miles being introduced like it was yesterday. I was fired up - I loved this guy!!! My love grew to man crush levels in year two - culminating in No Sit Sunday. I was anongst the first to read and love the book about that season. At that point, the only worry I had was which job would Miles leave us for? How long could we hold on to the next big thing? There were times where I legitimately wondered if Miles were the next household name. But like most of us, much of that was wrapped into his enthusiasm, happy go lucky personality and quirkiness. Coach Miles is a decent man with million dollar charisma. However, the signs of failure were always there. We just loved him like one of our own - he was one of us - a Midwesterner with a dream. So we chose not to see them. Transfers at a scary level. Yes, it happens everywhere, but it can’t happen when most of the guys you rely on are transfers. You tie up scholarships in guys who will play two years after burning a scholarship for a year as a redshirt. You absolutely must have four year program guys around them. This never happened for a variety of reasons, but the main one was that the majority of these transfers were put above the others in the program with a different set of rules. There was internal fighting on a good majority of these teams. Nobody wants to stick around for guys who score and pad their stats based on volume. This is a losing basketball mentality that doesn’t create teamwork, let alone an offense. The biggest failure in the Miles era ended up being taking on transfers and alllowing them to run the show and chase their NBA dreams. Drove off countless talented kids who wanted to be here. Only a select few saw it through. (Webster Shields Watson). In retrospect, the hot February and March of year two was fleeting. It was two transfers hawking up shots - many of which were forced and very bad (Pettaway took AWFUL shots). However, for six weeks they went in. Petteway in a way hurt this program imo by showing Miles the transfer thing worked. James Palmer became the new de facto Pettaway because that’s what worked before and Miles can’t truly coach offense at this level. The truth is Pettaway was two times the player Palmer ever was. Relying on and expecting Palmer to carry this team was always fools gold. Palmer will go down as the most overhyped player in this program since a guy who was way more talented than him - Jaron Boone. 19 PPG means zero when you take horrible shots, shoot 35% from the fiend, can never finish an and one and completely ruin the offense in the process. A good coach takes this team to the tournament because he knows Palmer is scoring option three or four. What’s that? Palmer can get to the rim? So could Lance Jeter. Also a much better college player. I bring up Palmer and Pettaway in this post because they are the symptom of the problem - Coach Miles. The transger thing - not retaining assistants - allowing a kid to declare for the NBA draft when he didn’t stand a chance at getting drafted - having no offense - refusing to play zone for five years - not using timeouts - not ever recruiting shooters or big men - and not keeping players because of “gunners” are why we are where we are. It shouldn’t be surprising if we look back and watch what went down. At the end of the day, we all loved Coach Miles. We are all shocked. And you know what? Even for all of his shortcomings as a coach, I still love the guy as a human being and always will. He will hold a special place in my heart. With that said, let’s enjoy the last five weeks of the Tim Miles era. Let’s treasure these last final moments of the dream we were living, knowing damn well that the alarm clock will soon bring us back to the light of the morning and reality. Thank you for your efforts, Coach. Man to man, there were some fun times. And we will always appreciate your efforts. Me typing this all out and at times being harsh isn’t meant to degrade you. It’s to try to understand how the heck we got to this heartbreaking end. Coping, in a way. I will be traveling back for the Iowa game to cheer on coach one more time, knowing an era of my own life will be ending soon, too, but being thankful that it happened.

I just want everyone to sleep tight tonight knowing that we have Marc Boehm on staff to oversee basketball, and he will lead this program to the promise land. Absolutely nothing to be concerned about here.

Oh well. Maybe Allen and roby will stay and the new coach can keep half of the recruits?

Sadly Illinois has been called for double the fouls and we are still going to lose by 15

Over/under 3.5 more wins this year. You going over or under?

Graduated in 99. You?

I highly doubt we even make the NIT. even with Copeland we were still going to be an NIT team. Even if not in year seven you have to have freaking depth.

Our offense looks like the one I coached when I was in high school and coaching a 3rd grade YMCA team for credit in my Citizenship Issues class at Lincoln East. Absolutely pathetic. I’ve thought this for 2 years. Finally just done with miles so saying it publicly.

We are so poorly coached that it’s alnost unbelievable.

Because indiana turned out to not be that great of a win.