How will Bruce screw up a final four?
- Thread starter dafarmer
- Start date
At what point in that post did I say Weber would consider going to Iowa City? I'll hang up and listen.
You said something negative about almighty KSU. As such, you obviously have crimson or blue socks on. Surly would appreciate it if you sent him a sock on and sock off picture for his file.
Kstate is a better program at this point. Plus Bruce have never had to rebuild a program from day 1. What he has done with this team is impressive.
Number of things attributing to this K-State run:
1) Easy path: Greg McDermott round 1, featuring a hot headed under-sized 2 guard that played for Weber for 2 years. You don't think he might've known how to stop him?. Then UMBC did them a favor by doing something that nobody in NCAA Men's Tournament has ever done. Now they get another double digit seed to go to the Final 4. Who wouldn't lick their chops at that path to the Final 4? Don't want to knock it too much, because if this happened to Iowa State, I'd probably try to defend it. (And it kind of did in 2016 when Arkansas Little-Rock (12 seed) upset Purdue (5) and became a tasty 2nd round match-up for us.)
2) 30 fouls v.s. Kentucky last night. Weber employs what some on this site wish Iowa State would/could do. Throw bodies in there simply to pick up fouls. Guys I never heard about all season came in to hack and chop at Kentucky, and it made for an ugly game, but it was effective. Mawien fouled out with 0 points. Stockard had 5 fouls in 5 minutes. Wainwright 4 fouls in 9 minutes. McGuirl 3 fouls, 3 points, Diarra 5 points, 4 fouls, Sneed--fouled out while playing the offensive game of his career so far...they mucked it up real good, and it was clear that's what Weber wanted and was the ONLY way KSU was going to win as Kentucky couldn't hit FT's to save their 5-star lives. This, however, is a luxury we just haven't had at Iowa State over the years. Our players are too valuable to pick up careless fouls while slapping at the ball, and we just haven't had the depth in recent years to throw 'bodies' out there to do so.
3) Weber, in all his awkward quirks and tendencies, is actually a good coach. He's a clever tactician that is shoring up his teams play while his best player sits implementing a style that is tough to beat. Right now, he's got his guys playing Huggy-ball except with better offensive weapons.
1) Easy path: Greg McDermott round 1, featuring a hot headed under-sized 2 guard that played for Weber for 2 years. You don't think he might've known how to stop him?. Then UMBC did them a favor by doing something that nobody in NCAA Men's Tournament has ever done. Now they get another double digit seed to go to the Final 4. Who wouldn't lick their chops at that path to the Final 4? Don't want to knock it too much, because if this happened to Iowa State, I'd probably try to defend it. (And it kind of did in 2016 when Arkansas Little-Rock (12 seed) upset Purdue (5) and became a tasty 2nd round match-up for us.)
2) 30 fouls v.s. Kentucky last night. Weber employs what some on this site wish Iowa State would/could do. Throw bodies in there simply to pick up fouls. Guys I never heard about all season came in to hack and chop at Kentucky, and it made for an ugly game, but it was effective. Mawien fouled out with 0 points. Stockard had 5 fouls in 5 minutes. Wainwright 4 fouls in 9 minutes. McGuirl 3 fouls, 3 points, Diarra 5 points, 4 fouls, Sneed--fouled out while playing the offensive game of his career so far...they mucked it up real good, and it was clear that's what Weber wanted and was the ONLY way KSU was going to win as Kentucky couldn't hit FT's to save their 5-star lives. This, however, is a luxury we just haven't had at Iowa State over the years. Our players are too valuable to pick up careless fouls while slapping at the ball, and we just haven't had the depth in recent years to throw 'bodies' out there to do so.
3) Weber, in all his awkward quirks and tendencies, is actually a good coach. He's a clever tactician that is shoring up his teams play while his best player sits implementing a style that is tough to beat. Right now, he's got his guys playing Huggy-ball except with better offensive weapons.
Creaighton is still a good team as is Kentucky. Its funny Kentucky was a hot pick to win it all now that they lost they are all off a sudden bad. You can only beat the teams you play, its not KSU fault the higher seeds lost. The fact is KSU is taking care of business.
I don't disagree, they are taking care of business, and you can't control who you play. Regardless of that, their path has been markedly easy if you're just basing it off where these teams are seeded.
Perhaps the NCAA should re-seed after each round
Well he kind of has. Foster flipped out and he and 3 other of their good places left. He had to start over at KSU at that point. The group he has now are coming up, and the scary thing is they are possibly all back next year. Also, regarding this season, Stokes was on fire for KSU earlier in the season when he had to sit out 5 or 6 games with a foot injury. KSU lost a few games in that stretch and while he is still a good player, he hasn't played as well as he did before the injury. Oh, and losing Wade and still making it to the elite 8 vey beating a team that had just won 9 of their last 10, that is amazing. Bruce is a heck of a coach and I can't believe anyone is questioning that at this point.
Right, because it's a great tactic to have 2 starters foul out, including the guy that scored close to half your points, the first guy off the bench foul out and have two others, including a starter, with 4 fouls. Along with having your best player, 1st team all conference guy being limited to the point of not playing in the second half.
Holy sour grapes. KSU has earned every bit of their Elite 8 appearance.
Different planet? I'd say different solar system. It's not even close. Bruce had more success in the b10 than Fran ever will and that was when the conference was actually decent.
What's lost in all of this argument about Weber's ability as a coach is that ultimately the players play and win games.
I think Weber is a decent coach, but not as good as Surly thinks he is. I have had to revise my opinion and give Weber a little more credit thanks to this season, but I still don't think he's anywhere near a good offensive coach. He wins grind it out games and if you look at K-State's offensive sets, it isn't very impressive at all. Still, he is clearly a good defensive coach and his guys are playing well.
I hope K State keeps winning, but I must say I still don't think Weber is a great coach.
I think Weber is a decent coach, but not as good as Surly thinks he is. I have had to revise my opinion and give Weber a little more credit thanks to this season, but I still don't think he's anywhere near a good offensive coach. He wins grind it out games and if you look at K-State's offensive sets, it isn't very impressive at all. Still, he is clearly a good defensive coach and his guys are playing well.
I hope K State keeps winning, but I must say I still don't think Weber is a great coach.
If only Coach Cal would have had KState’s roster.
It’s funny you make this comment when many others on CF believe in the narrative that he’s not a good recruiter. He’s not winning the popularity contest recruiting battles, but he continually stocks his teams with good P5 players. That’s a good recruiter.He’s also a good game coach.
He’s not the Hall of Famer some here laughably think KSU should have and his OCD weirdness loses him so guys, but he’s a good coach and KSU is lucky to have him. That program has done a lot worse.
Weber has a very solid staff. Chester Frazier played point for him at Illinois and then professionally. Chris Lowery is the defensive mind. And Brad Korn, who played for Weber at SIU, has caught my eye as a lead assistant. Shane Southwell, off the Big12 championship team, is a grad assistant. I believe this group is a real asset and play a large part in their success. Too often we discount or forget about bench dudes carrying the water.
