UNLV at San Jose State

[UNLV2001]

7 minutes ago, VincentVegaBond said:

It's absolutely amazing Dave Rice's all-stars could never manage to win 12 games in the MWC.  UNLV has a long history of underachieving in conference play, looks like that's finally starting to turn around under TJ.  Really looking forward to the MW tourney this year... I actually feel we have a chance to make noise!

Yeah - all the talent Rice had & even sme high end Menzies recruits never got 12 wins like this mashed together roster 

This team and season exceeded anything I was thinking early on..........more positives than negatives is the story of this season 

I'd say that Jonah Antonio & Tillman played under my expectations for the most part, but not total busts by any metric...........but the surge from guys like Hamilton & Coleman and the uptick from EML after his 1st injury more than covered for the small issues of Antonio & Tillman...........and lastly TJO & staff have done a masterful job with this roster that the RIce & Menzies staffs couldn't have come close to matching 

[VincentVegaBond]

1 minute ago, UNLV2001 said:

Yeah - all the talent Rice had & even sme high end Menzies recruits never got 12 wins like this mashed together roster 

This team and season exceeded anything I was thinking early on..........more positives than negatives is the story of this season 

I'd say that Jonah Antonio & Tillman played under my expectations for the most part, but not total busts by any metric...........but the surge from guys like Hamilton & Coleman and the uptick from EML after his 1st injury more than covered for the small issues of Antonio & Tillman...........and lastly TJO & staff have done a masterful job with this roster that the RIce & Menzies staffs couldn't have come close to matching 

Great post... Agree 100 percent with your last paragraph, especially the bolded part.  That's as clear as day.  

It's truly amazing what Coleman has done this year, when nobody expected him to be more than a backup bandaid guy.  I've always thought Hamilton had potential to explode like he has in the 2nd half of the year, but he wasn't showing it early on except in brief stretches.  He has really come on strong and just blown up. 

Jonah and Tillman were definitely disappointments; coming into the season many thought those 2 would be among our most indispensible players.  Both have shown stretches incl. Tillman early in the year at Cal and UCLA, but he regressed and his role diminished as the season went along.  Team just seemed to play better without him around.  Jonah was inconsistent with his 3... got himself a lot of open looks, has a beautiful shot, just missed too many open ones.  EML has simply been incredible since right after the UNR overtime loss.  He will definitely be missed.

I think my favorite player this season was Marvin Coleman, with Hamilton a close 2nd.  Coleman defied all odds to make himself a centerpiece to this team, and won us a few games to boot.  

[ph90702]

20 hours ago, VincentVegaBond said:

Diong has been invisible lately, nice to see him bounce back in a big way.

We've been getting much better at ball movement throughout the season as reflected in our dime totals, 19 tonight. Rememner those lackluster early season games when the team would finish with like 8 total assists and 20 to? 

TJ has truly done a phenomenal job this year..

I’m excited to see what he can do with his guys next year!  Plus an off-season with returning players who know what to expect of him.

[ph90702]

I didn’t really watch much of the game yesterday (was at UMC).  However, one thing I noticed was that Bryce Hamilton doesn’t really have a hitch anymore in his shot.  He’s also shooting it with more arc, so it’s not traveling so fast.  If they could measure how fast someone shoots the ball, his speed would be up there.

[PlayersinVegas]

1 hour ago, VincentVegaBond said:

It's absolutely amazing Dave Rice's all-stars could never manage to win 12 games in the MWC.  UNLV has a long history of underachieving in conference play, looks like that's finally starting to turn around under TJ.  Really looking forward to the MW tourney this year... I actually feel we have a chance to make noise!

It's not that amazing the metrics where way different and the league was stronger...

 

Rice was a puuussssshhh over and people wasn't feeling the lisps

[qwelish]

5 hours ago, toonkee said:

Yeah...doesn't Flynn play point guard, lol?

I think Ethan is better.

[qwelish]

2 hours ago, UNLV2001 said:

RIce & Menzies staffs couldn't have come close to matching 

Thats a pretty strong statement. I cant say I agree with it. 

I do think TJ is doing a good job, but I still want to see what his ceiling is with his players in a full season. Hardy, Bham, Mbacke I consider his players since he will have coached them for half or more of their collegiate careers.

[qwelish]

 

2 hours ago, UNLV2001 said:

I'd say that Jonah Antonio & Tillman played under my expectations for the most part, but not total busts by any metric.........

Going from pac12 roy to cant get off the bench for a middle of the pack mw team is a bust in my opinion.

[ph90702]

Based on what I saw on tape for EML and my experience this weekend, I’m guessing a bone bruise.  Hard to believe he tore anything or damaged any ligaments or muscles.  I have a bone bruise now, and it’s somewhat painful.  But he should be feeling okay by Thursday.

[Rebels18]

26 minutes ago, ph90702 said:

Based on what I saw on tape for EML and my experience this weekend, I’m guessing a bone bruise.  Hard to believe he tore anything or damaged any ligaments or muscles.  I have a bone bruise now, and it’s somewhat painful.  But he should be feeling okay by Thursday.

what did that hooker do to you bruh?

[PackNation]

4 minutes ago, Rebels18 said:

what did that hooker do to you bruh?

He will be ok. Word is it was a very small bone that was bruised.

[UNLV2001]

3 hours ago, qwelish said:

Thats a pretty strong statement. I cant say I agree with it. 

I do think TJ is doing a good job, but I still want to see what his ceiling is with his players in a full season. Hardy, Bham, Mbacke I consider his players since he will have coached them for half or more of their collegiate careers.

over a longer time frame, the jury is still out on TJO........but to win like this with these guys (based on early season projections) getting to 12 MWC wins is a solid coaching job not to mention knocking of #4 SDSU on the road.

Menzies cobbled together a roster but IMO he had a better back court in Johnson & Mooring, not to mention Juiston - Just add those 3 guys to this roster and UNLV might be right bear the top 

Now will this immediately transfer to success going forward, that remains to be seen........but this season should give most fans good vibes on what might be coming .......as of this season TJ has done the most with the least ......Menzies had some talent and Rice failed with the most 

[Rosegreen]

1 hour ago, PackNation said:

He will be ok. Word is it was a very small bone that was bruised.

The coccyx? 

[Rosegreen]

7 hours ago, VincentVegaBond said:

There is a good thread up on Rebel Net about how Mediocre Marv's team last year played 18 games vs. teams ranked 200 or lower, yet still managed to only win 17 games all season with a schedule ranked 157 in the country (which somehow actually improved with the weak MWC conference schedule).

I posted those stats on the can Menzies coach thread by @quickdraw. Historically, Menzies always scheduled soft in OOC and that killed any interest in the program. Last year was terrible and the team took a major step back. Now he’s at GCU helping them to a 12-17 record and in 6th place in the WAC.  Yikes. 
 

7 hours ago, VincentVegaBond said:

Classic example of not challenging the players and striving for mediocrity.  

Yes, he and Ntwambe clashed and Bryce wasn’t happy last year with being benched. I’m not sure Menzies and staff coached up Bryce at all. 

 

7 hours ago, VincentVegaBond said:

One big difference is that while Mediocre Marv took care of all the games he should have won vs. the weaklings of the conference, he very rarely beat any teams ranked higher.  TJ's squad nearly swept a top 10 SDSU team and took down Utah St at home.  If only we had beaten Reno at home like we should have, instead lost in OT.  Otherwise would have finished alone in 2nd place this year.  Phenomenal first year job by COACH TJ!

There were a lot of bad blowouts, I’m sure everyone forgot about those blowout losses to Air Force, Bucknell, SDSU, Nevada last year. The bucknell loss was probably the last straw. 
 

TJO and his staff are a breath of fresh air, they are committed to winning and making the hard decisions to coach these players up.
 

Something we haven’t had since Lon Kruger. 

[UNLV2001]

 

[UNLV2001]

 

[UNLV2001]

 

[qwelish]

20 hours ago, UNLV2001 said:

over a longer time frame, the jury is still out on TJO........but to win like this with these guys (based on early season projections) getting to 12 MWC wins is a solid coaching job not to mention knocking of #4 SDSU on the road.

Menzies cobbled together a roster but IMO he had a better back court in Johnson & Mooring, not to mention Juiston - Just add those 3 guys to this roster and UNLV might be right bear the top 

Now will this immediately transfer to success going forward, that remains to be seen........but this season should give most fans good vibes on what might be coming .......as of this season TJ has done the most with the least ......Menzies had some talent and Rice failed with the most 

Reasonable positions. MM beat loaded reno on the road with his own guys.

Rice beat unc with Lons guys and uofa with his own.

Both TJO and MM got a lot done in a bad mwc, finishing 4th. MM had slightly more young talent, but this team has a lot of experience in the mwc or better conferences. Both TJ and MM had head scratching ooc blow out loses. 

The key to me is what do they do with a roster they stacked. MM underwhelmed with McCoy and kicked what I thought were his two best players to the curb, Braxton and Smith and lost the 3rd turned pro. He got 20 wins and I think lost to sdsu in the semi or mwct championship. TJ has got to exceed that or going into his 3rd year his seat will be warm.

I think he will show a higher ceiling but we will see.

[ph90702]

I have a contusion now.  Ibuprofen doesn’t take away all of the pain.  It’s a matter of pain tolerance for him.  He can’t make it worse by playing.  However, he could injure something else by thinking about and compensating for his knee injury.

[UNLV2001]

20 minutes ago, qwelish said:

Reasonable positions. MM beat loaded reno on the road with his own guys.

Rice beat unc with Lons guys and uofa with his own.

Both TJO and MM got a lot done in a bad mwc, finishing 4th. MM had slightly more young talent, but this team has a lot of experience in the mwc or better conferences. Both TJ and MM had head scratching ooc blow out loses. 

The key to me is what do they do with a roster they stacked. MM underwhelmed with McCoy and kicked what I thought were his two best players to the curb, Braxton and Smith and lost the 3rd turned pro. He got 20 wins and I think lost to sdsu in the semi or mwct championship. TJ has got to exceed that or going into his 3rd year his seat will be warm.

I think he will show a higher ceiling but we will see.

Not sure TJO will "stack" a roster as far as top end recruits go...........nothing like Rice for sure. But then RIce got the least out of those NBA & 4 & 5* recruits.

Menzies had a mix, but his best effort was the 2nd season where his patchwork guards combined with solid recruits 

TJO isn't wowing the 5* recruiting market, but if this season is any indication of what might be, then TJO can get by with guys a step down the pecking order and win in the MWC - TIme will tell on TJO and I've always said this was a toss out season, but as it's turning out, some surprises aren't out of the question which is good. 

Will be interesting to see incoming guys & new recruits mesh with the returning players ...........I think next season could be a decent one with UNLV in the top 4 of the MWC from the get go - Not sure I had UNLV doing that well in TJO's 2nd season, but the emergence of Hamilton & Coleman have raised my hopes......combine them with the new guys and things could be in good shape