[NU Sports] Future of NU basketball

[Herman Wang]

<Read the meaning of your words:  Let's be happy with mediocrity. >

Respectfully, I'm being realistic.  We have a team that's struggled to beat 
crappy opponents, so forgive me if I think having a plus-.500 record and 
making the NIT would be a significant accomplishment for this group.  That's 
not being happy with mediocrity.  That's recognizing that for now, we are 
who we are.

My memory is a bit sketchy, but in 2001-02, we went 7-9 in conference with 
the likes of Tavares Hardy, Winston Blake, Aaron Jennings, Jason Burke and 
Collier Drayton.  In 2003-04, we went 8-8 in conference, with Vedran 
Vukusic, Jitim Young, T.J. Parker, Mohammed Hachad and Davor Duvancic.  
Northwestern never had it so good.  What did those teams have that this team 
doesn't?  Could our current team beat either of those two teams?  The 03-04 
team was probably more athletic than our current squad, but the 01-02 team 
wasn't particularly special.

We can talk about trying to emulate Duke and Stanford all we want, but the 
fact of the matter is that for now, recruiting is an uphill battle for us, 
and Carmody's margin of error is thin.  I don't know if he's the longterm 
answer, but I do know that he's made some progress with the program.  I'm no 
recruiting expert, but it seems to me that looking into Georgetown's program 
could be instructive.  Their academic standards are on par with ours, and 
they play successfully in a major conference.  Who are they getting, and how 
is their system working?  That's what I'd like to know.

Herman


>From: "Dennis W. Brandt" <tbng at comcast.net>
>To: <jeffb at hilgraeve.com>, <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
>Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Future of NU basketball
>Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 12:23:00 -0500
>
>>I had hoped that as he [Carmody] works his summer camps and starts to
>>build a reputation in the community, he would be able to get better kids 
>>who
>>valued education over a shot at the NBA.
>
>Nonsense.  The two goals are not incompatible.  Ask Billy McKinney, Don 
>Adams (you don't need a cone of silence), and Evan Eschmeyer.  If you're 
>good, the NBA will know it even if you play for East Stroudsburg.  Duke and 
>Wake Forest graduate their players and send many to the NBA, too.
><
><I'll concede that NU basketball is pretty poor, but it's not as bad as 
>it's been before.
>
>True.  It's gone from pathetic to somewhat less than mediocre.  We've 
>averaged 14 - 16 under Carmody and only then because we play a largely 
>weak-sister nonconference schedule.  (We lost to Cornell and struggled to 
>beat Loyola College, for cryin' out loud!)  It's long past time to take the 
>next step.  Two quality players would do it.  We don't have one quality 
>player.  We have a few role players and a bunch of guys who should sitting 
>ninth or tenth on the bench.
>
><If we can go at least 5-11 in conference. . . that should be a solid 16-14 
>record, and stealing one game in the conference tourney could be enough to 
>get into the NIT.
>
>If we go 5 - 11 in the conference (doubtful), we don't deserve to be in 
>post-season play.  Read the meaning of your words:  Let's be happy with 
>mediocrity.
>
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