Not ready for prime time

[Charleston Pony]

While I'm not there to watch, tonite's game sounded like the same old story. At the critical point(s) of the game, we miss the big shot or we're a step slow getting to the big rebound or we allow the opponent a wide open look. Not quite quick enough, skilled enough, strong enough, etc, etc, etc...

The hard to ignore FACT is that we are a respectable team, but clearly a "middle of the pack" team among the 300 plus Division I programs. Barring tremendous improvement between now and tournament time, we are clearly not ready to join the top 30% of Division I programs who get to participate in post season games.

For those of you who are there to see these games: do you see potential for us to improve this year? If so, what are the keys? Can "The Rack" come on and become the player we hoped Nigel Smith would be? Can Lowe/Miller give us another scorer to take some heat off Bhop/Q/Isham? Will Castro & Simpson continue to develop game after game? Or...are we in for more of the same for the foreseeable future?

[Diehard Pony]

What I witnessed was more crazy substitution patterns, which kills continuity and impedes player development. The first time anybody but BHop and Q make a mistake they get pulled from the lineup. As a result, they become tentative and never develop. We have all seen this with many players during Dement's tenure.

This is an entertaining group with talent...enought talent to be better than middle of the pack, but I'm afraid Dement will keep them there.

[Pony Fan]

Like Copeland said about Mike Cavan last year, have we seen enough? We are the most undisciplined with lack of fundamental basketball skills team I have seen in a long time. It is time for a coaching change.

[Blunt Pony]

I'll tell you what, it is the same old stuff that we have been seeing and it is getting really old. Fresno gave us every opportunity to win that game. They are not a good road team.

Fresno played some in your face man to man and it really showed just how horrible our offense is. Our guys set horrible picks, nobody moves, and package that with a team that does not shoot well and you have a recipe for disaster.

I give the kids credit for not quitting on this game at the end, but the sad fact is that we had to overcome an early deficit, built a lead and then lost it by halftime. We could have put these guys away and built some good momentum for Nevada.

As for Dement, he needs to go. I will put it like this...if we were out there shooting 35% from the field and were getting good looks, I would say, well the coach is getting them in the right positions to score, they just can't shoot. The fact is, we are not getting good looks because we don't run an effective offense. Hard to blame the kids when only two of them can create their own shots.

The Bob Knight example gets old, but watch Tech play and look at the motion and the good solid screens that get their shooters open. Sure Tech loses games, but it can usually be traced to a cold shooting night rather than poor shot selection.

Let's give these guys a chance to win with some coaching. I know that we are not a top 25 team that is is being held back by the coach, but I also know that a better coach could take this group to some kind of postseason play and contend for a WAC title