VIDEO: BGSU Men's Basketball Coach Michael Huger offered some sharp criticism of his team after a season-ending loss to Toledo last night: pic.twitter.com/spxZtl46ra— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) March 7, 2017
This video was posted by Jordan Strack at WTOL. This is a pretty big WOW, if you ask me.
You should definitely take a couple of minutes and watch it. Coach Huger gives a pretty bleak look at his program as it stands today.
- Guys with one foot in and one foot out.
- You question how tough your team is. Mentally and physically.
- We played selfish basketball. Offensively and defensively.
- Once it started to go bad, we couldn't stick together.
- It's like it's the last go-round and you are going to show everybody what you can do and you show everybody what you can't do.
- When you inherit guys, it is hard to get them to change. It's hard to change a guy who has been doing it this way for so long and we're trying to change him and it's hard.
- We had the same thing last year with the same issues, and now hopefully we can move forward.
Ouch. Oh, and when he says now, he means that now that all of the players from previous regimes have moved through the program. Those are the guys he inherited. (It actually isn't quite true. He also inherited Worrell and Fox).
Anyway, in yesterday's game, the only "inherited players" who played were Denny, Worrell and Fox. The other seniors were Alcegaire and Ali, both of whom Huger recruited and were not "inherited."
So, I guess I understand what's being said. Denny did shoot 3 of 7. And, he played only 17 minutes. (Worrell had 5 points and 4 rebounds in 20 minutes).
Ultimately, though, they can't possibly be all of the problem that we saw out there last night. A significant part of the issue has to be guys who Huger didn't inherit, because that was who played most of the minutes and the whole team was getting skunked.
Anyway, it was a disappointing way to end the year. BG was playing them relatively tough and with 15:42 left, BG was down only 4. Over the next 8 minutes, BG was outscored 25-5 as UT blew the game wide open and never looked back.
I'm a supporter of Coach Huger and I definitely think he came into a difficult situation. There will be a season review coming up, but in the meantime the team was a little better in conference play and about the same overall in year 2 when compared to year 1. Next year is going to be rough, but starting with next year and extending onward, if guys are "one foot in and one foot out" then there's going to be no doubt where the accountability for it lies.
Erratum: Mailk H. also was committed to BG before Huger took over. We regret the error.
Much like Jinks, Huger took over a dumpster fire. So much so, that although last year goes down into the books under Huger, I, personally, don't really count last year as a year. This due to him in August still trying to just floor a team; forget about anything else. They actually did better than I thought they would but still subpar. This year counts but how do you motivate a non motivational player. He was still left with a majority of last year's players to whom many couldn't commit until they couldn't find any place to go. In my thoughts, he really begins next year. All I would like to see is effort win or lose until the last second ticks off the clock.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the video. The one point I will disagree with Coach Huger is instillining toughness. When Urban Meyer arrived he instilled toughness and those willing to be instilled with toughness had a magical ride and those that didn't - left. Good riddance. Call to question and force the players hand. Lead those that want to be led and those that don't - see ya! Coach has to demand the toughness - play the football players if need be and lose every game while you build a tough, winning program.
ReplyDeleteJoel--You certainly make a good point. Basketball is a little tougher just because the roster is shorter, though Meyer has told stories about being really short on players his first year. I wasn't thrilled with how the season ended and with that specific presser. Huger has almost all his guys here now. Next year might well be the year you talk about, by the way. We have quit kicking the can down the road with JUCO players and have a larger crop of HS players coming in. Similar from last year. Very young team next year.
ReplyDeleteThe university of Dayton is 2hrs south of BG on I75. A private school that has just over 8000 under grads but nonetheless is a D1 basketball school. They have enjoyed a lot of success. But it wasn't until 1995 that they joined the Atlantic 10 conference. Since then they had about an 85% winning record but only in overall not conference play. It wasn't until the mid 2000s and specifically the last 5-6 yrs that they really enjoyed a winning program overall. Since 1995, they have only had 3 coaches.
ReplyDeleteIt has been well established both here and other posts, that Huger took over a barn fire but how far back? A year, several, decades? Unlike football where you have FBS, FCs for D1, D2 D3, things seem to be a little more jumbled for basketball where NCAA D1 is D1. Thus recruits have there fair share of opportunities to select from. So recruiting is highly competitive. And, if we are to reach that competitive level again, we are going to need to obtain quality recruits much like Dayton. So if huger has such a battle to overcome such as decades as we have had, it's could be a process that is going to take some time. Everyone wants a winner but to get there, we are going to need the right recruits that are going elsewhere and that will take steps not over night, much like Dayton.
You make good points. One thing is that Dayton doesn't have D1 football and Hockey competing for its attention. Basketball is the #1 sport there and is the focus, unlike here at BG, where, charitably, it is divided. My view is that the program is more or less a barn fire going back to the day Dakich came back from WVU, which is not the cause but the event that set all this in motion and BG has never dug out of it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for anyone keeping score, we can now eliminate the excuse that Anderson Arena was keeping us from being competitive.
I have a post brewing on this.
Actually, according to their info, they are d1 fcs
ReplyDeleteWell, I'll be damned. You are correct, sir. Living in the past again.
ReplyDeleteI know! When I ran acrossed that initially I had to do some follow up research. Last time I spoke to someone there football was d3 and staying that way so they didn't intefere with basketball. My surprise
ReplyDelete