January 4th, 2008

Seton Hall Loses

Seton Hall lost a game last night to am emerging UConn team that seems to be getting better each game. Now this is not the UConn of old, but still a very good team with many highly rated recruits on the roster. Put this type of talent with good coaching and you win much more than you lose.

Again I looked at the UConn bench and saw Calhoun assisted by George Blaney (sp). Now Blaney has always been a very good coach but only an average recruiter. Put him with a legend and they will compete with anyone x and o wise. Smart move by UConn to hire him years ago. I would also bet he does little recruiting. Just works in the program. He probably does not know the names of the top 20 recruits in America, and he does not need to know. He is there to coach.

This brings up my usual observation about local BE teams. They need stronger staffs. Look at Syracuse, UConn, West Virginia, Louisville, and others. Not looking for folks to lose jobs, just think if an assistant moves on they could be replaced by a more experienced guy who might have been a HC in the past or a career assistant who could assist with all aspects of a program.

Back to SHU. Good to see Mike Davis play well. But even better to see him get good grades. Who Is That Women????? The women I am referring to is the academic advisor at SHU for the basketball program. I think her name is Robin Cunningham. She might just be the most well known academic advisor in America! I have read of her exploits for a few years now. Maybe she should write a "how to" book for folks to read. One thing for certain players attending SHU will have no excuse if they do not graduate. I know this first hand after watching a few female players from NYC who graduated and are doing great jobs as Teachers.

I love reading the RU and SHU message boards. One poster wrote on the SHU board that the Gonzone thing needs to stop. That's so funny the way they describe it. He comes flying out of the locker room shaking hands with energy etc. I will have to watch for that. There was one NCAA team that came out for warm-ups from the top of the arena shaking hands with fans. I guess all of this is done to get fans more involved.

Speaking of fans what happened with the attendance against UConn? 6,000 plus? Against NC State it was around 10,000. Did Brandon Costner have 4,000 friends and family members at the NC State game? How do you sell more tickets for NC State than UConn? And UConn brings fans! Maybe it was the cold weather. But last I looked the game was played indoors. SHU needs to do a better job developing the fan base. Heck go out and give away 2500 tickets with discount coupons for hotdogs and soda's.

I honestly feel SHU will be better in time. I do question teams with good talent and athletic ability not playing better defense. If teams played solid hard D and passed the ball around to open players, they would be in most games. Defense and rebounding are often associated with effort.

I wonder how the bus ride back to SHU was for your team? Hope it was a decent short trip back. Good thing about college basketball is you do not need to wait 7 days to play another game.