How much of the criticism of Turgeon is attributable to overrated opinions of this team's talent? As we amassed an impressive record full of close wins over mediocre and poor teams, there were lots of complaints about our ranking and lots of comments about how far this team might go and how much talent this team has.
Three freshman, none of whom are one-and-done elite talents, are starting. That does not happen on a talented team. (To be clear, I like all three freshmen and think they can be a core of a good team in their junior and senior years.) The team is not particularly skilled, with no consistent shooters and more players who cannot catch than players who can pass, and is not athletic, with no above-average athletes for their positions (Cowan probably being the most athletic). We get no fast break points, almost never press on defense and get few loose balls and long rebounds. Dodd can block shots (but his attempt to block every shot is why he's never in position to get a defensive rebound), Bender can pass, and Ceko can finish inside, but none of our bigs rebound consistently or can stretch the defense to allow us to play more than one big at a time. Melo is a warrior, but his shot is mediocre and he doesn't make those around him better.
As for Turgeon, I don't like his offense, but until recently, we never quit, generally played good defense and created a record that was better than our talent. My bigger concern is that we overrated his recruiting. After Gary's indifference to recruiting, it was great to see how aggressively Turgeon and his staff pursued top talent and to see 5-stars list Maryland among their favorites. I think we get less excited about those reports now, given repeated failures to close. We have two bigs redshirting now. Think about how talented they must be to be unable to break into this lineup. Next year might be another tough year, although I'm hoping we'll finally have a big who can become dominant.
I hope we pull out some more wins, but if we don', I'm not going to argue that we've underachieved. We're not that good.
Three freshman, none of whom are one-and-done elite talents, are starting. That does not happen on a talented team. (To be clear, I like all three freshmen and think they can be a core of a good team in their junior and senior years.) The team is not particularly skilled, with no consistent shooters and more players who cannot catch than players who can pass, and is not athletic, with no above-average athletes for their positions (Cowan probably being the most athletic). We get no fast break points, almost never press on defense and get few loose balls and long rebounds. Dodd can block shots (but his attempt to block every shot is why he's never in position to get a defensive rebound), Bender can pass, and Ceko can finish inside, but none of our bigs rebound consistently or can stretch the defense to allow us to play more than one big at a time. Melo is a warrior, but his shot is mediocre and he doesn't make those around him better.
As for Turgeon, I don't like his offense, but until recently, we never quit, generally played good defense and created a record that was better than our talent. My bigger concern is that we overrated his recruiting. After Gary's indifference to recruiting, it was great to see how aggressively Turgeon and his staff pursued top talent and to see 5-stars list Maryland among their favorites. I think we get less excited about those reports now, given repeated failures to close. We have two bigs redshirting now. Think about how talented they must be to be unable to break into this lineup. Next year might be another tough year, although I'm hoping we'll finally have a big who can become dominant.
I hope we pull out some more wins, but if we don', I'm not going to argue that we've underachieved. We're not that good.
