If he was quoted as saying that by the media I missed it. With 3 winning seasons and 4 post season wins in 3 seasons, I'm still shaking my head as to how WM got canned and replaced by a guy that went on to have no winning seasons and no post season games. And WM had also beat GMac's best 3 UNI teams 2 out of 3. But back to Rashon's point, I certainly don't think WM was the coach Fred is, but his style of play was similar, and Rashon would have been much better off his last two years in that running style with less restriction.
Rashon Clark comments on McDermott (In honor of his Birthday)
- Thread starter ST84LIFE
- Start date
If he was quoted as saying that by the media I missed it. With 3 winning seasons and 4 post season wins in 3 seasons, I'm still shaking my head as to how WM got canned and replaced by a guy that went on to have no winning seasons and no post season games. And WM had also beat GMac's best 3 UNI teams 2 out of 3. But back to Rashon's point, I certainly don't think WM was the coach Fred is, but his style of play was similar, and Rashon would have been much better off his last two years in that running style with less restriction.
Shawn Taggart owns a special place in my memory, as my most favorite humorous highlight. He went up for this huge (and if I remember correctly, somewhat pointless) dunk, and jammed the ball between the basket & the backboard. Oooops...
The wife of one of the assistant coaches told me Taggart was leaving regardless of the firing. She was bitter about the whole situation to say the least.
Rahshon's game was definately better fit for an uptempo offense...but it would've been an absolute trainwreck (worse than it was) if McDermott would've let the teams Rahshon played for his junior and senior seasons get out and run.
Also, hindsight is 20/20. I don't think anyone will argue with you that the McDermott era at Iowa State was a disaster...but there is a reason Morgan was fired. And although we know now that McDermott wasn't the best man for the job, at the time he looked like a good hire. He had just took UNI to their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th NCAA tourney's of all team after building them from the ground, and it looked as though he was going to bring discipline Wayne's teams sorely lacked.
Last edited:
I also heard from one of the assistants that they felt they were under the microscope and they didn't understand why that kind of pressure coming off an NCAA win followed by a loss to eventual NCAA champ North Carolina. The players no doubt felt it too.
If Morgan would have been hired by someone else and been successful, your point might be valid.
I got it, big guy. I was reading the already posted comments when I replied to you saying Creighton was in the MVC and when I replied Janny already did.
Hard to imagine it could have been worse than it was under GMac but anything's possible. We'll just have to disagree about WM's teams being undisciplined. Yes they ran a lot and Stinson/Blaylock/Rashon could put on a show on fast breaks. But they could play some good d too, especially with Homan in the middle. Yes the last team had no inside presence and barely had a winning record, and when that happens run and gun can mean "undisciplined" to some, and Stinson's emotion gets tabbed as out of control. But when you have a good season, run and gun becomes "letting them play" and outbursts from players like Mel and Kane show how "competitive" they are.
That has zero to do with how he did at ISU. The guy wanted to stay in Ames for his family and try private business, which is what he did But he was almost 60 and there could be a dozen reasons he didn't want to go after a head coaching job after he was canned at ISU.
It doesn't get anymore undisciplined than giving up 99 points to a "slow it down, half court offense" and losing by about 30 despite having athletes like Blalock, Stinson, Clark, and Homan...Morgan had talent on his teams and could recruit, but his teams picked and chose when they were going to show up unlike any other era at Iowa State...when they wanted to play, they could be good, but you never knew when that was going to be?
Wayne's NCAA team waited til they were 0-5 in conference before they decided to start playing...his first team was nearly unbeatable at home but had a Johnny Orresque mental block about them when they went on the road and lost all their toughness, and his last team was good enough to beat Iowa and UNI, and give Ohio State all they wanted, but yet lost 72-89 at home to Iona, lost at home to Fresno State, beat Nebraska handily in Lincoln, then turned around a month lately and got beat in Hilton, got blown out by a Baylor team that was HORRENDOUS, etc...not too mention what went on off the court. Ask Eric Heft and Gary Thompson if they thought we were undisciplined under Morgan or just playing "run and gun" ball.
As far as it being hard to imagine it being worse running with Rahshon's teams his junior and senior seasons...we had guys like Corey McIntosh, Brock Jacobson, Bryan Petersen, Sean Haluska, Dodie Dunson, Diante Garrett (as a freshman), and Charles Boozer (as an underclassmen). It would be asinine for any coach to want to lengthen a game against Big 12 thoroughbreds with those guys playing key minutes in your backcourt.
Last edited:
When a lot of players quit, that happens. GMac is a good guy but while he was here we were "Transfer U" because of good players wanting to leave. Now we're ""Transfer U" because of good players wanting to transfer here. And it's easy to pick out "clunker" games in almost any season. I'm not saying WM was a great coach, but he certainly didn't deserve getting canned, and especially the way it was done, and it's no surprise his players didn't like it any better than the coaches did. And you obviously don't think much of his coaching ability, but you're not going to find a lot of 3 year periods in ISU basketball history where we had 3 winning seasons and 4 post season wins. His record speaks for itself.
Nobody is saying the McDermott era wasn't a disaster...but you are right that I did not think much or Wayne's coaching ability, and I definately was not alone in that respect. I think there are a LOT of coaches out there that would've gotten better results than Wayne did with the rosters he had. Agree to disagree though...off to bed for this guy
Last edited:
Why are you whining about this? Had Morgan not gotten canned when he did, Hoiberg probably wouldn't be coaching here. Besides, after having a roster of Blalock, Stinson, Carr, Clark, Taggart, and Hubalek, going 16-14 is an absolute joke. Interesting statistic: ISU's 2005-06 team was the FIRST ever team to be preseason top 25 and not even make it to the NIT. That shows how badly Wayne Morgan underperformed.
I think the biggest downfall was how hard he was on Wes....ultimately making Wes leave. Then, I had heard he was soft on Brackins to keep him around. Other players noticed the differential treatment so there was a lot of turnover.
Taggart wasn't going to make the difference in our front court if Wayne would have still been there the next year. He was a player that was going to always get abused in the Big 12. The guy never impressed me at Memphis either.
I actually don't think he was. He knew exactly what he wanted to do to build the program. But that style just didn't fit in the Big 12 nor fit the players he recruited.
I think McDermott's style could have worked, but the personnel never seem to fit or be talented enough outside of a few starters.
IMO, you are 100% backwards on this. Greg recruited fine and had solid talent in all but his first season. His system and player relations were his problem. Which is funny to think about, because when he was hired the concern was that while he was a great coach, could he recruit?
Actually it seemed like TJ could get them to campus and once they figured out who they were playing for they jumped ship.
