History lesson: lots of players left Majerus’ teams (pre transfer portal)

[McBride of Frankenstein]

A lot of players left Majerus’ teams through the years.  The man was demanding and not always in the best way.  Yet we revere him and his accomplishments (rightly so).  Today, Coach K has to deal with the transfer portal.  I.e., the average number of transfers is much higher today across the country than it was back in the Majerus era.  How much of Coach K transfers are because of the portal, versus because they don’t want to compete with improved recruits, versus the blame on the coaches.   Well, UteHub is focusing on #3 only.  

To me, this seems like a great time to give Coach K the benefit of the doubt.  The team has been on the cusp of doing great things (not yet there) the past few years.  Add to that the best recruiting in the history of the program.  Lets see what happens here people.

 

[Tony (admin)]

I have far more beefs with Coach K than just losing players. I don’t think he’s that good of an x’s and o’s coach. I’m thankful for him digging us out of the depths of hell, but he’s maxed out.  In 3+ years he couldn’t even get Jayce Johnson to shoot a foul shot with two hands. His end of game management is horrible.  Change my mind.

[McBride of Frankenstein]

two quick responses:

His recruiting has gotten progressively better over time.  Clearly NOT “maxxed out”

Arguably he is excellent at player development.

Those two things are worth some weaknesses.

[Tony (admin)]

I hope you are right, but over the last couple of years I haven’t seen anything to lead me to believe it. Is he that good at player development? Kuzma arguably developed more after he left. Jayce basically didn’t develop at all. Yeah those are cherry picks…

 

[chinngiskhaan]

I don’t see how anyone could claim he’s good at player development. The only player that has really noticeably improved was Poeltl. That may have been coach’s doing, but the other seemingly dozens of players that haven’t improved fly in the face of that argument. Kuzma got a little better while here, but underperformed based on the talent we now know he obviously possesses. Loveridge pretty much stayed the same at best. Delon was good the entire time.

The thing that irks me most in regards to the lack of player development is the free throw stuff. We ahve had a few players with OBVIOUS flaws in shooting technique, and those things were never addressed, and in some cases, they got worse. Poeltl doesn’t count here, because he never had issues with technique, he just needed more practice. Jayce’s free throws are the ugliest I’ve seen in my lifetime, and it’s not close. Then there is Chapman… oh boy… His form was fine, but it was obvious that every time he shot the ball (free throw or otherwise), rather than focusing on the rim like you are told to do by every shooting coach on the planet, he immediately focus on the ball the second it left his hand. It was super weird, I’ve never seen anything like it. It is clear to any objective observer that coach never even attempted to address those issues.

 

Tillman did not improve like he could have. In fact, he went from starting one year to being a bench player the next when everyone assumed he would lead the team.

 

I’d say his player development is a mixed bag if you look at it optimistically and assume that every player improvement has been his doing.

Bottom line is that player development is a useless skill if you don’t have players sticking around long enough to be developed.

[Staples]

Keith Van Horn had a rather epic Twitter rant last night on the subject of highly rated players and Majerus. Suffice it to say, some could handle Majerus and all that he entailed, and others couldn’t. I’m not sure Big Rick would make it in today’s game. Van Horn mentioned David Jackson specifically:

https://twitter.com/Coach_Keith44/status/1164336888569827328

Jackson transferred after two years, went to Oregon … and did nothing there.

[Tony (admin)]

KVH’s Majerus stories are possibly the best thing on twitter. Pure gold.

 

[GameForAnyFuss]

I agree, Rick had his share of transfers. But they were mostly single-digit-minute guys, not major contributors if I remember correctly. I don’t recall him losing many significant contributors. I don’t recall him having literally an entirely new team ever.

I don’t mind if a coach is losing benchwarmers. Kids want to play. You’re never going to stop them looking for minutes. But when you’re losing a bunch of guys who play 30+, something’s wrong. That’s what we’re facing with LK.

[loyter]

Rick Majerus went to the NCAA tournament 10 of 14 years. Kids transferred, but until Marc Jackson, I con’t think of a single one who was really an impact player.

Larry K has gone to the NCAA tournament 2 of 8 years, and is a loooong shot to make it in his 9th year. The list of kids who have left is pretty long, and some significant players are on it. Johnson and Tillman and Chapman to name a few.

I would love to see K succeed, but, as they say, the best predictor of future performance is past performance. Every year is the same story “this team is young and will have growing pains, but next year they could be pretty good…” then 40% of them leave and it’s “This team is young and will have growing pains, but next year they could be pretty good…”
Rinse and repeat…forever.

[Charlie]

The good news is that although both Rick and Larry may be hard driving coaches that can push too much, Daniels coming back may benefit Larry much like he benefited Rick.

Also, Larry and many others coaches tend to give folks a chance to grow into a spot with the understanding that if their progress is not good enough they may need to move on to another option. I don’t think 4 year commitments exist any more either direction. Johnson may have left thinking he can’t give Larry what he wants and a new center may be able to do so leaving him as a backup.

There is more to know before concluding that Larry can’t hold on to players. Tillman doesn’t fit this but Jones and Gaskin could be getting replaced because they did not make the cut.

[Author]

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