Discombobulated, please help me out

[Gary_ISU]

Discombobulated, I have read several of your posts regarding ISU basketball. You seem to be very upset and angry over the hiring of McDermott and everything he has done since taking over at ISU.

Why? I will admit when he was first announced as the new coach my first response was "what the..." After having taken the time to analyze, listen and observe, I could not be more excited about the future of ISU basketball. In fact, I have not been this excited since we were in the Elite 8.

Here are some of my reasons:
* McDermott was a top coaching prospect - KSU offered, possibly others?
* He wanted the ISU job. McDermott contacted Pollard. I love that he wants to be at ISU. I think he could be here 10-15-20 years.
* He is familiar with Iowa State and the positives and negatives of being our coach.
* His players get better i.e. David Gruber, Grant Stout
* He is a great X's and O's coach that stresses defense. Defense wins championships.
* He assembled a quality coach staff very quickly.
* Given the time and circumstances, McDermott did a good job of getting a team put together for next year. He found some good recruits and it sounds like he did everything possible to get the current players to stay.
* His resume, look at what he did at UNI and Wayne State. He took programs that were down and after 2 years turned them into consistent winners.
* He is enjoyable and interesting to listen to.
* CHARACTER - I think this is the biggest plus of Greg McDermott. He has tremendous character. Living in Iowa on IPTV did a segment on him. He came across very humble and down to earth. On Deace's interview yesterday, Deace asked a question about Alex Thompson's maturity. McDermott's answer was basically his job was to develop and prepare young men for the rest of their lives. Basketball is his tool for doing that. From listening to his interview and learning more about him, I am incredibly impressed.

They are many more reasons to be excited about the McDermott era.

Can you please just give a few reasonable issues you have with McDermott? Like I said, I have read your numerous posts but would still like a clear perspective as to your opinion. Maybe I am missing something?

 

[terryk]

Gary i don't think Wayne gets up until mid afternoon these days.

 

[Wesley]

If Wayne was up he might say,

He does not recruit nationally.

He recruits two star players.

He has lost some key games near the end of the season.

He has not been on the national scene for very long.

The x and o staff may not be as good at recruiting.

No track record yet that is at this level.

Too Midwestern oriented.

No swear words allowed on his team - not natural.

Too much passing and not enough shooting.

Recruits 6-8 players instead of 6-10 players.

Did not bank enough schollies for next year.

Took in Alex too readily.

All, did I miss some issues that we have heard about all last month?

 

[bos]

Gary, I just wanted to say that your post is one of the best I have read in a long time. I completely agree with your message. I honestly think that these posts are what belong on here and not alot of arguments back and forth. I believe posts should be insightful and educational in their intent. I can't say that I am not guilty of stupid posts, but I will try to make an effort to do otherwise.

 

[melkor]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>

Here are some of my reasons:
* McDermott was a top coaching prospect - KSU offered, possibly others?
* He wanted the ISU job. McDermott contacted Pollard. I love that he wants to be at ISU. I think he could be here 10-15-20 years.
* He is familiar with Iowa State and the positives and negatives of being our coach.
* His players get better i.e. David Gruber, Grant Stout
* He is a great X's and O's coach that stresses defense. Defense wins championships.
* He assembled a quality coach staff very quickly.
* Given the time and circumstances, McDermott did a good job of getting a team put together for next year. He found some good recruits and it sounds like he did everything possible to get the current players to stay.
* His resume, look at what he did at UNI and Wayne State. He took programs that were down and after 2 years turned them into consistent winners.
* He is enjoyable and interesting to listen to.
* CHARACTER - I think this is the biggest plus of Greg McDermott. He has tremendous character. Living in Iowa on IPTV did a segment on him. He came across very humble and down to earth. On Deace's interview yesterday, Deace asked a question about Alex Thompson's maturity. McDermott's answer was basically his job was to develop and prepare young men for the rest of their lives. Basketball is his tool for doing that. From listening to his interview and learning more about him, I am incredibly impressed.
[/b][/quote]

Hi,

I'm not Discombobulated, but I'd like to address a couple of your points.


* He is familiar with Iowa State and the positives and negatives of being our coach.
<span style="color:red"><span style="font-family:Verdana">I'm not really countering this point, because I guess I don't understand how this makes him better prepared for this job than anyone else.</span></span>
* He is a great X's and O's coach that stresses defense. Defense wins championships.
<span style="color:red"><span style="font-family:Verdana">What championships has it won McDermott? He hasn't won anything. People seem to forget that his team folded last year.</span></span>
* He assembled a quality coach staff very quickly.
<span style="color:red"><span style="font-family:Verdana">How do you know it is a quality coaching staff? They might be, but none of them have a very impressive resume in my opinion.</span></span>
* Given the time and circumstances, McDermott did a good job of getting a team put together for next year. He found some good recruits and it sounds like he did everything possible to get the current players to stay.
<span style="color:red"><span style="font-family:Verdana">Whether or not he did a good job is yet to be decided. He did a good job of giving out scholarship. We can't say he did a good job untill the season is over. I am worried that we are pinning all of our hopes for next year on a bunch of new guys that have never played D-I ball</span></span>
* His resume, look at what he did at UNI and Wayne State. He took programs that were down and after 2 years turned them into consistent winners.
<span style="color:red"><span style="font-family:Verdana">I don't want to sound like a broken record, but he wasn't able to win championships at lower levels, what makes anyone think that he will do it at a higher level. I don't just want to win on a consistent basis (although I do wan't that obviously) I want to contend for and occasionally win conference titles and go beyond the first round of the NCAA tournament. The last two things are things McDermott has not shown to be capable of.</span></span>
* He is enjoyable and interesting to listen to.
<span style="color:red"><span style="font-family:Verdana">You must have heard something I haven't. I haven't heard him speak too many times, but would never have characterized him as enjoyable or interesting to listen to. I'll have to try and catch his speaking live a few more times.</span></span>
* CHARACTER - I think this is the biggest plus of Greg McDermott. He has tremendous character. Living in Iowa on IPTV did a segment on him. He came across very humble and down to earth. On Deace's interview yesterday, Deace asked a question about Alex Thompson's maturity. McDermott's answer was basically his job was to develop and prepare young men for the rest of their lives. Basketball is his tool for doing that. From listening to his interview and learning more about him, I am incredibly impressed.
<span style="color:red"><span style="font-family:Verdana">WM appeared to have tremendous character as well, and I still haven't seen anything to knock his character. There is the DI scheduling thing, but nothing has come from that and WM was very classy in his press conference after being fired. He said all of his players should stay at ISU and had nothing bad to say about the school or the administration that I can remember.</span></span>

Your other points hold some merit, and I hope that you are right and that he will be the best thing since sliced bread, but as much as I hope for that, I just can't get excited about him as the coach of the cyclones. I am less excited about Cyclone basketball now than I have ever been. Even during the road loss streak, larrygate, etc.

To be fair McDermott seems to be going national in his recruiting efforts despite his early comments, and if he starts landing some big-time recruits (locally or nationally), or I see that Ross, Jiri and Jessan have all turned into monsters down low under his tutelage, I will start to be more excited and optomistic, but untill then, McDermott has a lot to prove to me.

 

[melkor]

I wonder if Discombobulated got banned or something, he is no longer listed as a member.

 

[billdo00]

i dont see how people can be so down on mcdermott so far. yes he hasnt won any championships and his coaches and players havent proven themselves yet. no basketball has been played so i would think all we can do is be optimistic. its unfair to hate on the program and players just because they havent been out there yet. i dont know why everyone is so down on the guy. iowa state wasnt exactly the the top spot to be coaching in college basketball again...we had LE a few years ago, wayne got fired after a terrible season, recruiting scandal, and top players on our team possibly leaving for the draft. it seem like all you guys want the next roy williams here just because we had an opening. we didnt exactly have the most exciting situation so i am very excited about mcdermott regardless. i think he is a great coach that can do great things for our program and develope our players and take us to the next level. he just needs to be given a chance on a big stage. so i for one will be backing him no matter what and cant wait to see where he takes this program.

 

[Cloned4Life]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>
If Wayne was up he might say,

He does not recruit nationally.

He recruits two star players.

He has lost some key games near the end of the season.

He has not been on the national scene for very long.

The x and o staff may not be as good at recruiting.

No track record yet that is at this level.

Too Midwestern oriented.

No swear words allowed on his team - not natural.

Too much passing and not enough shooting.

Recruits 6-8 players instead of 6-10 players.

Did not bank enough schollies for next year.

Took in Alex too readily.

All, did I miss some issues that we have heard about all last month?


[/b][/quote]


If Wayne was up he might say,

He does not recruit nationally. - That is worded incorrectly - It should say "He generally hasn't recruited nationally." - First of all, can you recruit nationally at UNI? Second, in his short time here, regardless of the players' midwestern roots, he's been all over the country recruiting.

He recruits two star players. - 2 two stars in his first recruiting class. Wayne had 2 two stars last year.

He has lost some key games near the end of the season. - True.

He has not been on the national scene for very long. - Also True.

The x and o staff may not be as good at recruiting. - Actually coaching (x and o's) does go a long way in recruiting. How long it goes is yet to be determined.

No track record yet that is at this level. - True.

Too Midwestern oriented. - Personally, I wouldn't say he's "too" midwestern oriented, but yes he's definately got the midwestern feel to him, and maybe it's just what we need.

No swear words allowed on his team - not natural. - Again, (and no, I'm not in any way stating that GMAC is as good or will be as sucessful as Roy Williams) but Roy Williams along with many other very succesful coaches run practices with a no swearing policy (some have even stated that Larry n Tim had no swearing policies - which I don't necessarily believe because we all heard Larry on the sidelines). It is NOT considered unnatural. Also, none of us know the degree of which GMAC regulates swearing. Maybe only really nasty words are banned, we DON'T KNOW. Maybe Taggart said something just awful and that's why GMAC said "we don't say that here." I'm sure minor swear words are OK, and if it's that big of deal, you worry too much.

Too much passing and not enough shooting. - I always thought UNI teams seemed to be very good shooting teams. And good passing teams. Hopefully he'll get us to do both.

Recruits 6-8 players instead of 6-10 players. - UNI only gets 6-8 guys. 6-10 and 7-0 guys don't normally go to the UNI's of the world. Hopefully GMAC can get the big ones, if not, then that isn't good.

Did not bank enough schollies for next year. - Should be 4 for next year I believe? Sounds good to me.

Took in Alex too readily. - Probably agree here, not real excited about Thompson.

All, did I miss some issues that we have heard about all last month? - I don't know lol. Please don't take this as a direct reply to you, I just thought I'd give my opinions on the issues you meantioned, issues that have certainly been discussed much over the past month or so.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

Your other points hold some merit, and I hope that you are right and that he will be the best thing since sliced bread, but as much as I hope for that, I just can't get excited about him as the coach of the cyclones. I am less excited about Cyclone basketball now than I have ever been. Even during the road loss streak, larrygate, etc.

melkor...........you have some interesting points. The biggest thing on your post that threw me for a loop was your quote about being less excited about Cyclone basketball now than U have ever been.................you are less excited now than the last season we had going 16-14 with all the talent we had, the discipline problems, and most of all, the loss of Hilton Magic? I know that was (and hopefully will always be) my absolute low being a Cyclone BB fan.

 

[melkor]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>
i dont see how people can be so down on mcdermott so far. yes he hasnt won any championships and his coaches and players havent proven themselves yet. no basketball has been played so i would think all we can do is be optimistic. its unfair to hate on the program and players just because they havent been out there yet. i dont know why everyone is so down on the guy. iowa state wasnt exactly the the top spot to be coaching in college basketball again...we had LE a few years ago, wayne got fired after a terrible season, recruiting scandal, and top players on our team possibly leaving for the draft. it seem like all you guys want the next roy williams here just because we had an opening. we didnt exactly have the most exciting situation so i am very excited about mcdermott regardless. i think he is a great coach that can do great things for our program and develope our players and take us to the next level. he just needs to be given a chance on a big stage. so i for one will be backing him no matter what and cant wait to see where he takes this program.
[/b][/quote]

I didn't say I was down on him per se, I am just not as up as everyone else and want to see results before I get super excited. I can, and have, point out exactly why I fee the way I do. If you can't understand the other view point (as you stated), then I don't really value your input either way. I completely understand why people are excited (most of the reasons are stated very nicely in the first post in this thread), I just don't agree. That is all. I for one will not back McDermott "no matter what". I will back the team no matter what, and will support them every time McDermott leads them out onto the floor. Go Cyclones.

 

[melkor]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>
Your other points hold some merit, and I hope that you are right and that he will be the best thing since sliced bread, but as much as I hope for that, I just can't get excited about him as the coach of the cyclones. I am less excited about Cyclone basketball now than I have ever been. Even during the road loss streak, larrygate, etc.

melkor...........you have some interesting points. The biggest thing on your post that threw me for a loop was your quote about being less excited about Cyclone basketball now than U have ever been.................you are less excited now than the last season we had going 16-14 with all the talent we had, the discipline problems, and most of all, the loss of Hilton Magic? I know that was (and hopefully will always be) my absolute low being a Cyclone BB fan.
[/b][/quote]

I believed that the problems we had were correctable. I very well could have been wrong, but we still had a lot of talent and recruiting was looking good. I believed that our bigs with another year of growing and developing were the key to a very good team next year. So right or wrong that was not my absolute low. I just don't think we have the players to compete with much of anybody next year. If McDermott starts bringing in good talent, I will be feeling a lot better. Because even if all of his recruits this year are good, our bigs (and I use that term loosely) have A LOT of developing to do, in order for us to be successfull.

 

[HawKilla]

I agree with Melkor. g-mac has done well at other schools but I don't see what all the devoted enthusiasm is about. Everyone in this forum seems to excpet 20+ wins and championships begining next season but the reality is that it may be a very long process. Next year especially is looking bleak. I would love to be wrong but I just can't be optomisiic about a thrown together group of unproven newcomers.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>
Your other points hold some merit, and I hope that you are right and that he will be the best thing since sliced bread, but as much as I hope for that, I just can't get excited about him as the coach of the cyclones. I am less excited about Cyclone basketball now than I have ever been. Even during the road loss streak, larrygate, etc.

melkor...........you have some interesting points. The biggest thing on your post that threw me for a loop was your quote about being less excited about Cyclone basketball now than U have ever been.................you are less excited now than the last season we had going 16-14 with all the talent we had, the discipline problems, and most of all, the loss of Hilton Magic? I know that was (and hopefully will always be) my absolute low being a Cyclone BB fan.
[/b][/quote]

I believed that the problems we had were correctable. I very well could have been wrong, but we still had a lot of talent and recruiting was looking good. I believed that our bigs with another year of growing and developing were the key to a very good team next year. So right or wrong that was not my absolute low. I just don't think we have the players to compete with much of anybody next year. If McDermott starts bringing in good talent, I will be feeling a lot better. Because even if all of his recruits this year are good, our bigs (and I use that term loosely) have A LOT of developing to do, in order for us to be successfull.
[/b][/quote]

I definitely agree with you on the concern with the bigs. The play and development of the bigs is probably one of the major factors on how our season goes next year. Very well said. I am surprised that I have not seen Discombobed throw around his negativity today or answer a thread directing a question to him?????

 

[Cydkar]

Everyone in this forum seems to excpet 20+ wins and championships begining next season.....

Really? I haven't seen that.

 

[rbrooks0]

I am tired of posters like Discombobulated and I dont care what connections he has to the team/players. Because the connections he had probably left with him. We all quote on quote have are inside information or what we think is inside information. My response to all negitive posters about the new era in Iowa State Basketball is simple and that is that numbers dont lie.

I dont believe Iowa State Basketball can sink any lower then it did last year.
1st Point=<span style="color:red">6-10</span> in the Big 12 (we can only go up from there, Discombobulated needs to take his blinders off because yes WE WERE 6-10 IN THE BIG 12) Come on not even 500
2nd=<span style="color:red">Didnt </span> have a <span style="color:red">post season </span> birth
3rd=We did all of this while having not one but supposedly <span style="color:red">2 NBA players </span> (wont disagree with them making in the NBA I hope they do for the school and to reconfirm my point) Two NBA players lead to at least a postseason appearance.
4th=Some will say lack of big men last year/My answer straight from Morgan from des moines reg="He's going to be one of the most <span style="color:red">gifted, 6-10 players </span> offensively Iowa State fans have ever seen," Cyclone coach Wayne Morgan said(Taggert).
5th=O yea, I want to remind we were 6-10 in the conference <span style="color:red">couldn't win in Hilton</span>

It can only go up from here!!!!! Go STATE

I will leave you all with a quote i find to be hilarous now
"When I visited Iowa State I met the president, a lot of good people, and fans," he said. "It feels like I'm right at home." Taggert

 

[isufrEEk]

People keep saying the McDermott hasn't won anything. He won the Missouri Valley Tournament in 2004. I know, that sounds like Alford over at Iowa, but I remember a lot of ISU fans being very excited about winning the last Big-8 tournament. He also won the Northern Sun Conference title at Wayne State.

 

[Wesley]

Things just got better today for McD and worst for Will and Curtis: P J Tucker decided to officially hire an agent so he is LONG GONE. He was leading Texas score at 16 a game and 9 rebounds a game (6'-5").

Just wanted to say discombubulatyed makes this a more interesting board, so I hope he wakes up and remains engaged. He does bring a different viewpoint to the dinner table.

 

[melkor]

"1st Point=6-10 in the Big 12 (we can only go up from there, Discombobulated needs to take his blinders off because yes WE WERE 6-10 IN THE BIG 12) Come on not even 500"

Actually, we can actually go down from 6-10.

I'll show you how

5-11
4-12
3-13
2-14
1-15
0-16

I hope we don't run into those scenarios, but I'm afraid we just might.

We did have troubles winning at home last year, but we also won some games on the road which should be harder, so I don't know what to make of either thing.

 

[bluehooper]

We can't go down from receiving no post season invitation. It can't can't get any worse than being blown out by Iona at home and losing to Fresno State at home. McDermott has proven to be a winner everywhere he has been so I don't know why we would doubt his ability to do it at ISU.

 

[melkor]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>
We can't go down from receiving no post season invitation. It can't can't get any worse than being blown out by Iona at home and losing to Fresno State at home. McDermott has proven to be a winner everywhere he has been so I don't know why we would doubt his ability to do it at ISU.
[/b][/quote]

I don't doubt that he could do it. I just don't believe it is a given that he will.