So How Good or Bad are we This Year?

[bpcats]

I am not even going to try to guess what the record of this team will be during Big Sky play. Athletically we are better than last year as a team and there should be less pressure to put together the perfect game in order for them to win.

It just seems on the men's side there really isn't an established program with all the turnover. It will be a big challenge to get all the new faces playing together and playing how Coach Huse expects them to. Hopefully going forward recruiting will have better luck so that we can develop players from their freshman year on.

I do think that this is a critical year for Coach Huse and this program overall to try to establish some type building block for this year and the future.

[NewEra]

...I have no respect for Gidal ......he seems very immature and unprofessional

+1

Well I have no respect for two posters with a combined 14 posts coming on here and badmouthing someone who has been a very good contributor to this board. Maybe you should take a step back and listen for a while, you might learn something...

You are basing the credibility of someone's opinion by how many posts they have? C'mon Man!

[technoCat]

...I have no respect for Gidal ......he seems very immature and unprofessional

+1

Well I have no respect for two posters with a combined 14 posts coming on here and badmouthing someone who has been a very good contributor to this board. Maybe you should take a step back and listen for a while, you might learn something...

You are basing the credibility of someone's opinion by how many posts they have? C'mon Man!

I will when the first thing they do when they start posting is badmouthing another poster.

[PapaG]

...I have no respect for Gidal ......he seems very immature and unprofessional

+1

Well I have no respect for two posters with a combined 14 posts coming on here and badmouthing someone who has been a very good contributor to this board. Maybe you should take a step back and listen for a while, you might learn something...

You are basing the credibility of someone's opinion by how many posts they have? C'mon Man!

I will when the first thing they do when they start posting is badmouthing another poster.

Seems to be a pattern here in recent months.

[Evil_Empire]

So how good or bad are you guys this year?

[cat-o-nine]

We are very good at being bad.

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

So how good or bad are you guys this year?

Too bad and not good enough. That much has become certain.

[Evil_Empire]

What do you guys think of Huse? A lot of people wanted him over Tinks when Larry K left for the Bucks but he hasn't done much at MSU and I don't think the future looks terribly bright with real good young players he's recruited. Fire him? One more year? Give him more time? Love him and want to keep him?

Just want to know your thoughts.

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

I think he's a good coach, but not a good enough recruiter to keep up with Tinkle or whoever is the hot team challenging the Griz (like Weber this year). Without more talent, they'll never be that hot team challenging the Griz, and Huse doesn't bring enough talent in.

Personally, I've seen enough of him. The 'Cats would never buy him out, for budget reasons, but they should let his contract run out if they think they can get someone better.

[ilovethecats]

What do you guys think of Huse? A lot of people wanted him over Tinks when Larry K left for the Bucks but he hasn't done much at MSU and I don't think the future looks terribly bright with real good young players he's recruited. Fire him? One more year? Give him more time? Love him and want to keep him?

Just want to know your thoughts.

i was certainly in the boat that thought huse was a far better coach than tinkle. the rap about the guys was that huse can draw up plays and schemes with the best of them but lacked recruiting power. tinks was just the opposite. he obviously knows the game of basketball but the worry was that he wouldn't be able to handle all game situations but he could get the players. i think he has more than proven that to be true. the dude is one of the best recruiters I have seen in this conference in some time. whether or not he rules at the x's and o's is irrelevent because he does it well enough with his talent to win a lot of games.

i thought huse would be able to get players at least of the same caliber that durham was able to get...only i thought we'd see much more creative schemes on both sides of the ball. needless to say i have been very disappointed so far. drawing up plays is great, but insisting on setting up an offense every time down the floor instead of using your players strengths does not seem to be wise all of the time. to be fair, every now and then you'll see a defensive or offensive call that it just brilliant. there is no doubt that he has the smarts to be a head coach. but i think he needs to get a stud recruiter on his staff, and i think he needs to be more flexible with how he handles his team. sometimes i feel like he tries smashing a square peg into a circle hole.

in a nutshell....i like the guy. and i haven't given up on him yet. i don't use this year as a barometer because pretty much everyone this side of our old poster friend newera knew this was going to be a down year. but if he doesn't get this team in the top 3 next season....i fail to see why we'd sit back and wait much longer for something good to happen.

[TIrwin24]

This is his what? 6th season? You think he needs another 3 to prove that he's a sub-par coach?

[ilovethecats]

This is his what? 6th season? You think he needs another 3 to prove that he's a sub-par coach?

who me? no. i think 3 years is way too many. to be honest...i said he should have been done last season. but they kept him. because of that decision, i don't think this season really counts. we have no experience. can't see any coach in the conference winning with the team we put on the floor. i expect us to be pretty desent next year and return some good talent. if he can't get that team in the top 3 next year.....he needs to go.

[Helcat72]

I have heard from a friend of mine close to the program that Huse uses his assistants more for recruiters than coaches. This may be what happened with Danny Sprinkle. I believe Danny left more because he wanted to do more coaching and not just recruiting. I think George Phifer doesn't really care if he's not included in the coaching....and I don't know about coach Star....but Carson never really hit me as an active coach either. Maybe Preibe left for that reason too!

[allcat]

I think we should keep him. At least we know we will have a losing season. We will also know that attendance will continue to decline. We also know that we will never have to brag about beating the grizzlies. We also will not have to worry about some other schools stealing our assistant coaches.

[John K]

This is his what? 6th season? You think he needs another 3 to prove that he's a sub-par coach?

who me? no. i think 3 years is way too many. to be honest...i said he should have been done last season. but they kept him. because of that decision, i don't think this season really counts. we have no experience. can't see any coach in the conference winning with the team we put on the floor. i expect us to be pretty desent next year and return some good talent. if he can't get that team in the top 3 next year.....he needs to go.

I guarantee that you could find comments similar to this pretty much every year during Huse's tenure...."we can't expect much this season because we have so many new/young players, but we should be much better next year". It seems like we have so much roster turnover every season, that we're in a constant rebuilding mode, year after year after year. Every season people think we have some good, young talent, and that we're "just a year away" from being pretty good. But every year we lose several of these talented young players, due either to academic issues, injuries or "personal reasons". In the world of MSU hoops, "next year" never comes. If a coach hasn't gotten it done in 6 years on the job, it is highly unlikely that he ever will. That's at least 2 more years than he would have gotten at UM, if he had posted a similar record there.

[ilovethecats]

i am only speaking for myself here. i don't think we have had many good teams under huse. i think that is his biggest problem. remember, i am the guy that had the nerve to suggest that bobby howard wasn't d1 material. and he not only was on our squad...but he was the best player on our squad. people looked at that and used it to tell me how stupid i was. i looked at it and used it to further my point that huse is an awful recruiter. many years, he never has more than one guy that would play for other big sky teams....let alone start. this year is no exception.

the guys that huse has right now....and more importantly the guys that will be returning next year i think will be the best guys he's had since he's been here. and even then....i'm not so sure they are going to be anything special. but incomparison to all his teams, they'll be his best. we knew this year we wouldn't be good at all. our best returning play was rod singleton! did anyone see that (besides newera) and think this was a recipe for success. so because msu decided that huse deserved to stay, i told myself last year that i wasn't going to base any opinion of him on this season. i think we could have bobby knight coaching this team and all it would equal is an extra couple wins and a flying chair here and there.

i said before the season if this team makes the conference tourney i'd be really surprised. if they win a game in the tourney i'll be shocked. anything else is icing on the cake.

for me personally, this season means nothing. that doesn't change my view on huse. i think he's earned himself a sold "d" so far. but i'm willing to let him prove me wrong this season and do something with the best team he's had here. if he fails again, there is no reason whatsoever to keep him. same thing i thought last year. at least then we had senior leadership.....

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

i am only speaking for myself here. i don't think we have had many good teams under huse. i think that is his biggest problem. remember, i am the guy that had the nerve to suggest that bobby howard wasn't d1 material. and he not only was on our squad...but he was the best player on our squad. people looked at that and used it to tell me how stupid i was. i looked at it and used it to further my point that huse is an awful recruiter. many years, he never has more than one guy that would play for other big sky teams....let alone start. this year is no exception.

the guys that huse has right now....and more importantly the guys that will be returning next year i think will be the best guys he's had since he's been here. and even then....i'm not so sure they are going to be anything special. but incomparison to all his teams, they'll be his best. we knew this year we wouldn't be good at all. our best returning play was rod singleton! did anyone see that (besides newera) and think this was a recipe for success. so because msu decided that huse deserved to stay, i told myself last year that i wasn't going to base any opinion of him on this season. i think we could have bobby knight coaching this team and all it would equal is an extra couple wins and a flying chair here and there.

i said before the season if this team makes the conference tourney i'd be really surprised. if they win a game in the tourney i'll be shocked. anything else is icing on the cake.

for me personally, this season means nothing. that doesn't change my view on huse. i think he's earned himself a sold "d" so far. but i'm willing to let him prove me wrong this season and do something with the best team he's had here. if he fails again, there is no reason whatsoever to keep him. same thing i thought last year. at least then we had senior leadership.....

Nitpicking here. Singleton was the only returning starter, but Johnson, Reid & probably Allou are better players.

[ilovethecats]

i agree. in fact, i think we have even more guys better than rod. but he was the guy coming in with the most experience...thus the best guy to try and do what huse expects. what that is.....i'm not certain yet.

[DicTater]

What the past 6 years have taught us, if anything, is that the Cats will never be better than mediocre with Huse at the helm. they will be middle of the pack in the Big Sky conference. That's the ceiling.

[John K]

What the past 6 years have taught us, if anything, is that the Cats will never be better than mediocre with Huse at the helm. they will be middle of the pack in the Big Sky conference. That's the ceiling.

Everyone says that his weakness is recruiting, but that he's a good "x's and o's" coach. If that's true, why do his teams always collapse during the 2nd half of conference play? It seems to me that other BSC coaches must be making better adjustments the 2nd time through the conference schedule. How else do you explain going 6-2 in the first half, and then 1-7 in the 2nd round of conference games, year after year after year?