Long Beach State Athletics!: Re: Coaches - Kudos or not to Kudos? part two

8) example of last night. everybody is singing praises of the Pyramid being 'packed' and great.

OMG, there were 2400 fans, it was half-full, should we let such lower standards guide thinking. They were great fans, but we were averaging 3500 up until SFA came in in 2013 and totally exposed CDM as a coach that year. then drip, drip, drip attendance plummeting. Ok, the bright side, getting some engaged students, that's all great. but to act like now CDM deserves anything more than a polite acknowledgement would be an acknowledgement as well he didn't uphold his end of the bargain for better part of a decade, and worst of all, just SAT there and never made much of an effort to give back to Long Beach.

god I hate this subject, cause A) it detracts from a wonderful core and excellent team and looking forward for a couple of years, and B) it just rationalizes 3 months of success over sustained shortcomings.

let's win the Big West, Go Beach, let's get to the NCAAs, and then hopefully CDM says goodbye at anytime, and Scholl and Co continue some new-found spirit, that's the way I view it. Maybe there is something not solid in that, Scholl's been there during the slide, still I like continuity when things are going well. But god no, CDM doesn't deserve a re-up no matter what.....well, get to the sweet 16, and then...even then I'd question.

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ok, so topic is broached again

1) almost prefer not to evaluate coaching until end of year - but get real

2) yes, the last two years, well Jan-Feb of last year, and then the last 3-4 weeks of this year, have been fun. no question

ok, now the tough part

3) Big Question(s). What changed?, has CDM changed? has anything changed?
answer: I think it's too early to say. Yes, it SEEMS like a change However, and this is long evaluation. Both last year and this year non-conference was typical not meeting expectations of program. Yes, one can point to anything they want if they want to make excuses for CDM.

for me, the main thing last year and this year is CDM really wasn't looking like he was doing anything different, so was he?

injuries happened, so last year, AT got forced to play out of position, we were blessed with two ball-handling scoring guards (3 ball-handlers with Cobb) and maturity combined with some sensation play by AT (we actually outrebounded teams in postitive margin if one can believe it), and we won the Big West. Now, it was the WORST Big West champion rating in forever. So what! we won the conf. & Facts are facts, the team was in the right place at the right time.

This year, another key injury, and once again, the team had to adapt, AT taking a slightly different role, and yes again the team is responding.

My point is should a GOOD coach recognize their talent and adapt the team, and NOT have to wait until something FORCES the coach to have to do something, cause imagine last year without the injuries, we might have got stuck in CDM's

offense, instead of actually spacing better.

Imagine this year, probably with 100% Murray who knows maybe win more non-conf games, maybe we are 10-0 in conference....or maybe we would have just become a bit dysfunctional with trading ball stopping with Murray and Tsahonis instead of what we are doing now. Basically no way to really tell, so I'm enjoying they are playing well but not confident that it's CDM who should have had us playing this way FROM THE GET GO with AT handling more.

shouldn't let that there is some serendepity of two nice runs cloud a DECADE of slippage under CDM.

4) Give CDM Kudos on recruitment, to have Slater/Cobb stand-up guys that stayed and finally got a payoff. To have AT, now LT, Stroud, Jones...on and on. The AT/LT combo is magnificent recruiting however it happened.

5) Give CDM Kudos on motivation. I though Beach teams always played hard before, just we did not come to grips with offense and personnel variation to develop during non-conference, never a strong point, EVEN last year and this year.

6) Caveness - maybe it's part of his new blood, mabye it's CDM seeing the finish line and getting rid of stuff in his teaching to impart better, I dont' know.

7) Two runs over the last year (we'll see how this goes) does in no way ERASE almost a Decade, save 2016 of slow excrutiating lack of INVOLVEMENT with promoting the program, lack of execution, lack of critical wins. It would take 3 years of proof to convince me. Even then, I'm at the point, hopefully we ride this wave, and let the staff that has some excellent recruiting last two years take the reigns of staff in waiting, assuming under Scholl who is a class guy, the assistants are doing a good job in motivation and development (we'll sey how Tone learns).

to be continued.