GATA

Welp, onto the next one. Sure would be nice to close on a quality big.

I looked into a little bit of his time at it appears Miles and Co. had some success with the big men at Colorado State. Hopefully he can develop bigs in the Big Ten, too.

I know nothing about his big men at CSU. Do you have examples?

Yup, better than the black unis! Since the blacks are 0h-for-ever in the win column...if you believe in jinxes...the blacks need to be packed in a secure metal box, locked and loaded within along with heavy metal weights, boarded on a craft cruising over the Mariana Trench and jettisoned once the craft reaches the deepest point of the trench. Yet, if you agree with Cookie's view...the blacks do look cool...(I still wear my black leather cap that went with the old blacks from the Nee era)... But if we do pull some blacks out in the future...then for God's sake, wait until next year and make it against the Sisters of the Poor, so we can win one in them to remove some of the stench! We are 3-8 wearing red uniforms this season. What should we do with those? Wear them at home.

Vooch is the one big man who's been here his entire career and we can't even get him on the court to eat up fouls. vooch is an anomoly...an outlier..ill bet money that our staff can help big men out with the progress, Pitch has made in developing in the post on defensive end, and when smith is on, he is smooth...ill take my chances with them developing Sure, Pitchford has gotten better defensively in the post, but he's absolutely awful offensively in the post. The same goes for Rivers. Smith is OK. I don't want this to be a knock on Miles and his staff, I just don't believe we've proven we can develop big men just yet. If they had turned Vooch into a rotational big then I'd agree. I'm just not there yet, though. your expectations are off...Pitch will never..i repeat NEVER be a back to basket post player... Billy Donovan knew that the minute, he stepped onto Florida's campus, Miles knew this the second he was at NU, Rivers as i pretty decent midrange, game at the 4 spot, if your expectations are for them to be back to the basket frontcourt players, than of course it looks like we cant develop big men, but if you come from the aspect, that these are evolved post players, with the post is extended 15-20 out in some cases for pitch, and rivers, and on defense they are head and shoulders from what they were to begin the season, than that is the expectation we should have. Well, I'm not saying Pitch is gonna develop into a traditional big man, but I don't think it's too much to ask the guy to have the ability to post up and have actual post moves from time to time. The same can go for Rivers. But your post, I think, just underlines my point. We haven't actually developed a true big man yet, so I don't know how anyone could say the "proof is in the pudding." Pitchford is a tall small forward who I agree has become much better defensively as the year has gone by. David Rivers is basically a 4 that shoots midrange jumpers. Leslee Smith has shown some positive things, but he's certainly not someone who I believe has developed a great deal in his short amount of time here. That leaves Vooch, who we all agree hasn't developed a lick. Maybe if we go back to last year we could say that Miles and Co. helped Ubel reach the next level. I really don't want to turn this into me slamming the coaching staff because they've only been here two years and it's not easy to develop big men. My point is that it's far too early and we don't have nearly enough information to say that we are great at developing bigs.

Here's a website that breaks down the top "bracketologists" over the years. Lunardi ranks in the middle of the pack... http://www.bracketmatrix.com/rankings.html

McCaffery could very well be like Bo, where people love him behind the scenes and look past his raving lunatic act. Maybe he likes the campus better. Maybe he likes the academics there. Iowa wouldn't be a bad choice. They're a program on the upswing as well, and they play a very fun style.

What do you mean by "contributor?" 5-10 mpg?

Even first-round NBA draft picks like Meyers Leonard need a full year to become useful players. As a freshman he averaged 8 minutes per game, and he's far more talented than Hammond. I'm going to keep my expectations low for Year 1.

GATA, Tim!

Vooch is the one big man who's been here his entire career and we can't even get him on the court to eat up fouls. vooch is an anomoly...an outlier..ill bet money that our staff can help big men out with the progress, Pitch has made in developing in the post on defensive end, and when smith is on, he is smooth...ill take my chances with them developing Sure, Pitchford has gotten better defensively in the post, but he's absolutely awful offensively in the post. The same goes for Rivers. Smith is OK. I don't want this to be a knock on Miles and his staff, I just don't believe we've proven we can develop big men just yet. If they had turned Vooch into a rotational big then I'd agree. I'm just not there yet, though.

Vooch is the one big man who's been here his entire career and we can't even get him on the court to eat up fouls.

Truthfully, I don't think we have a point guard on the roster, just some shorter guys capable of dribbling up court.

Honestly I think it's more based on the fact not many bigs can make the transition smoothly in year one unless they are extremely special. Plenty of bigs, even when ranked in the 150, redshirt or play limited minutes in year one so the expectations I think are more tempered for that reason. They are like OL in football to me. Takes some time for the ROI. This. Good post.

Smith has an offer from us?

I told BradGuru/B-Section/Guy who has been banned multiple times if he obtained a certain level of reputation he was gone. Just trying to be a man of my word. Is there a certain number that you get to and you're warned? Just curious.

He doesn't have an Iowa offer yet, but apparently he's been to Iowa City quite a few times to check out the Hawkeyes.

I have no problem with Ray shooting the ball, but right now he needs to shoot when he's clearly open or when the shot clock is winding down because he either has zero confidence or his shot is simply b-r-o-k-e. If we're being honest, Ray was never a really good 3-point shooter, he was just a guy who took a lot of 3-pointers. As bad as he's been this year, he's actually shooting better from long range than last season.

I think you're right about Smith. He is trying to do too much, but I think that's because his teammates are doing a terrible job of getting him the ball when he has deep position. There were a few times he had his guy pinned down in front of the basket and didn't get the ball. Then when he did get the ball I think he made his mind up that he was going to get a basket or make a play for someone else to get one.

Yup, better than the black unis!

He's from St. Anthony's, so he's been coached by one of the top high school coaches in the country. “He’s a late developer,” Hall of Fame St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley told SNY.tv. of his point guard after Smith went for 11 points Tuesday in St. Anthony’s 56-41 victory over Camden. “I think he would be intriguing for coaches because I think of the unsigned kids, he’s probably someone that people should look at.” Smith is being recruited by Providence, Creighton, Rhode Island, Lehigh, Delaware, Boston University, Boston College, Fordham and Florida International.

He's a 3-star with a pretty unimpressive offer list... http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Tarin-Smith-152308

Or maybe Tim Miles doesn't want to put all his eggs in the Dickerson basket. That's what recruiting is all about.

Like someone said earlier, this should clinch an NIT berth. If things don't go our way in the next three or four games and we miss out on the Big Dance, at least we have some extra basketball. It's a sign of progress, and I'll still be thrilled.

Yeah, that definitely was ugly.