Somebody tell me how many NBA players came from those super-talented under-achieving Morgan teams? In fact Morgan beat top ten Kansas and Texas teams loaded with NBA talent at home and on the road. Now somebody explain to me again how Morgan's teams were so under-achieving? He won a conference title at LBS and the fact is he was a winner that just didn't fit into JP's idea of what we should have for a coach, and we're still paying the price.
Wayne Morgan
- Thread starter Todd Blythe
- Start date
Just find it interesting that on one hand you have excuses but the other you don't...
Thanks for making my point for me, even though your post isn't accurate...teams good enough to win in Lawrence losing at home to Colorado, and giving up 99points to a slow it down half court UNI team...teams good enough to beat Tom Crean and playin in the garden getting 90plus points put on them in back to back 30plus point road losses...a team good enough to go 17-1 at home that can't win more than one or two road games all year...a team with the best backcourt in the conference good enough to stick with Thad Matta and NCAA #2 seed Ohio State, not being able to do any better than 16-14?...when you are good, and you don't accomplish the things you are capable of-it's called underachieving...and watching a 14-16 talent team go 14-16 is less frustrating to me than watching a talented team underachieve...not to mention constantly complaining to the officials, acting like babies, and talking trash while doing it.
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Bottom line is if Wayne Morgan was such a great coach why hasn't he taken another job since he was fired? Obviously some of the opinions here of him are not shared by athletic directors across the country else he wouldn't be doing whatever the heck it is he's doing right now which is not coaching a D1 team.
Blalock and Vroman both saw time in the NBA...and Stinson and Homan got tryouts...and btw, being a good college player doesn't mean you will make it in the NBA...
And for the record, I am in no way ANTI Mac. I may not agree with alot of what's going on, hate to see us lose, and had doubts when he was hired but I still want to see him and the team win. I want it to work out, but will still be as critical as I would if anyone else was coaching here. I just cant stand all the crap about Morgan being a terrible coach when all he did was walk into a far worse situation and keep the ship afloat...
It's amazing to me how some people can pick apart a coach that gave us 3 winning seasons, 4 post season wins, and 4 wins over top ten teams and defend a coach that's given us none of the above. I'm not giving up on GMac, but to try to argue at this point that he is a better coach than Morgan is laughable.
Hiring Morgan bought ISU a year, two at the most...ship was sinking no matter what. Too much stuff that needed to be cleaned up.
Taggart, Carr, Stinson, and Blalock were all out the door when Mac walked in...then Degand left...Mac inherited Jiri (the shooting guard), Marsden, Clark, Cory Johnson, and Jessan Gray...Morgan had pre-existing relationships with the players that allowed him to have far less defections and inherited Blalock, Stinson, Sullivan, Vroman, Homan, and Staple...please explain to me how Morgan walked into a worse situation?...public perception was bad?...so that meant it was tougher to win with Blalock, Stinson, Sullivan, Vroman, and Homan???
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Really? Do you think Morgan could've had the same success at UNI that Mac had?
Here is my thing. Ultimately coaches are judged by wins and losses. That's fine. But there is such a fine line between winning and losing sometimes it becomes tedious. As said before, if Mac would've walked into a situation even semi comparable to what Wayne did (as far as talent on hand) we would of had just as much success.
I don't want to discredit Wayne, because I think he is a standup guy, and took the reigns when no one else would, when the program was in great turmoil. I just don't like the Mac bashing as a coach due to his first 2 years here.
I admire Morgan for taking a job that Bruce VDV told him he was out of the running for then when 4 coaches turned him down came back to Wayne. It was a tough situation. However, as great of a recruiter I thought he was, I did not think that he was a great gameday coach and by the time he was fired I was very frustrated with the play we saw on the floor. We had the talent there to be better than not only our record showed but the kind of play we as fans saw on the court. It was no secret Stinson was Wayne's pet player and that he rarely had the reigns pulled back on him and many a times that exactly style of coaching cost us chances at winning games we had a chance at. The 2-3 zone we ran was a joke, I never saw so many wide open 3 pointers and uncontested layups against a zone. Then when we did go to man to man our guys didn't practice it enough to be effective because we had become so undisciplined running the ineffective zone.
I don't hate Morgan but yes I admittedly was one that was glad the day he was fired because I did not like the direction we were going with him. I'm starting to have my doubts about Mac now as well but I don't want to see us pull the plug on him yet because I'm willing to throw that first year out the door with the roster turnover we had. I think the heat is on to put a winner on the floor next year though.
So are you saying that Morgan got a bad rap???
I can guarantee it wasn't easy keeping those commits and current players. ISU was the laughing stock of the country with the coach plastered all over the place partying with students then controverisially fired. Then there was the joke of a coaching search where every possible candidate shot us down publicly...
I can guarantee you that the main reason Morgan was hired was so we could keep the incoming recruiting class (which we knew was a special one) and prevent player defections...a lot of coaches were shy of taking the ISU job because of how BVDV handled the Larry fiasco, but I assure you-there were other guys that wanted it.
For the upteenth time Morgan recruited Stinson, Blaylock and Staple. All 3 said if he wasn't named the coach they weren't coming to ISU, so don't you think he deserves a little credit for getting them here? I have never criticized GMac other than to say I'm not yet convinced he can get the job done, but I've also always said I still have hope. And somebody didn't think Morgan could have done at UNI what GMac did. All I know is Morgan beat GMac's best 3 UNI teams two out of three times. Enough said.
Stinson, Blalock, and Staple all signed to play for Eustachy...Wayne recruited them to play for Eustachy...their pre-existing relationship with Wayne was what made them stay, and as I just previously said-a part of the reason Wayne was hired...btw, don't even try to compare the talent on Morgan's teams to Mac's teams at UNI...I would hope Wayne could eek out a couple games in Hilton with Blalock, Stinson, and Homan over the likes of McKowen and Co...
I never understand that.... the year we went to the NCAAs we played a smothering, trapping defense with an enforcer in the middle that was very impressive, and we played a fun, exciting style of basketball with Blalock, Stinson, and Clark. It was definitely basketball, great basketball to watch.
I was in school then and had a ton of fun at games, not as much as when we were winning the Big 12 but still a great time, and the fans were really into it. I remember standing in the 2nd row when we beat Texas, Boddicker was shooting free throws and the floor was shaking.
I much preferred watching Morgan's teams to Mcdermotts, mainly because we won more with him.
You mean he beat Mac's best team in Hilton with a team that had the best backcourt in the Big 12, and ended the year 16-14, despite bein good enough to nearly beat NCAA #2 seed Ohio State on a neutral court? Nice to see that Blalock and Stinson could eek out a big W over McKowen and Josten in Hilton.
I'm putting you on hold until tomorrow...don't have time to explain right now...sorry, remind me tomorrow:wink:
