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Post by Pantherholic on Feb 6, 2007 20:14:04 GMT -6
Had Pearl never left, this team would be near the top of the Horizon League, if not leading it. There's no reason to think otherwise, absolutely none. We can get there in the next two years with Jeter, no question about it. But would UWM be 8-18 this year under Bruce Pearl? Absolutely not. The man could recruit and coach better than anybody in the Horizon League. Pearl was looking for instant success. he would've been stuck w/ a rebuilding project had he stayed given that he set himself for this although had he made noise in the tourney two consecutive years, there's no way in hell he'd still be here. |
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Post by brewtownbrian on Feb 6, 2007 20:16:22 GMT -6
I thought his situation was similar to Tigert's. Recruited by Bo and stayed at UWM even though Bo left for UW...  He red-shirted during Pearl's 1st season and if you factor in Tigert's missed season b/c of his knee injury, it would make sense that they graduated together. Maybe I'm wrong... |
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Post by Hack on Feb 6, 2007 23:03:02 GMT -6
You also have to factor in the guys we lost when Pearl left for Tennessee:
Childress
Douglas
Waters (well, not sure if he would've played or not ... but Pearl's departure sealed it)
The cupboard wouldn't have been completely bare.
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Kingsbury
Junior
Sadly, no longer in the "Fear 42" Fan Club!!!
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Post by Kingsbury on Feb 7, 2007 8:14:54 GMT -6
McDade is correct, Pancratz was Pearl's first recruit and was not recruited by Bo.
Even if Pearl stayed, Waters was never going to see the floor, his grades were too poor.
Brewtownbrian, Pancratz redshirted his freshman year and Tigert and Hill redshirted their sophomore years.
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Post by reggiewheelerfor3 on Feb 7, 2007 8:42:53 GMT -6
Yeah, Pancratz took the scholarship spot opened up by Clayton Hanson, who had committed to UWM when Bo was here, then left to take a redshirt spot on the UW roster.
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Post by brewtownbrian on Feb 7, 2007 9:04:31 GMT -6
Brewtownbrian, Pancratz redshirted his freshman year and Tigert and Hill redshirted their sophomore years. Oh that's right...Tigert, due to the knee injury suffered in the last conference game of the year at UWGB. And Hill, due to the surplus of guards his sophomore year. |
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Post by pantherpanther on Feb 7, 2007 9:39:45 GMT -6
Pearl was one for quick fixes, so I have no doubt IF he were the coach of UWM this year, this team would be heavily based on JUCO players...Plus, remember, Childress and Passley would almost certainly have been here and would likely have been sophomores with a year under their belts. I'm not criticizing what Jeter is doing, but let's not sell Pearl short with where the team may have been this year -- Almost certainly couldn't have competed with the likes of Butler, but MAY have had an extra conference win or two under their belts at this point. Again, I'm not criticizing what Jeter is doing...yet. He is building from the ground up. Let's just hope his creation turns into a skyscraper rather than a mud hut. Let's not forget that Passley came to school here for two weeks, and then [glow=red,2,300]WENT HOME[/glow] because he was homesick...so there would not have been a Passley on this team. This probably was a good thing, considering he is currently riding the bench down in Tennessee. Childress has been slow to develop as well. I am as big a Bruce Pearl fan as anybody, but to contemplate how this team would have been if Bruce had stayed is ludacris, because Bruce had no intention of staying. He had loaded the team up with potentially great players such as Walt Walters, James Douglas, and the like, to make the "big splash" so that he could get the national attention needed to move on. Lucky for him it came a season early, and he hit it out of town for Tennessee. No harm, no foul, but that is the way it is. When Bruce left, his recruits left too. Add to that the loss of seven seniors, and you have a bare cupboard. If you go back to previous recruiting threads, you will see that Coach Jeter went hard after many recruits, but the dice did not roll in the Program's favor. We are where we are for many reasons, some which I outlined here. Let's just hope that improvement still continues to be shown. The season is not over yet. |
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Post by reggiewheelerfor3 on Feb 7, 2007 10:01:29 GMT -6
Yes, I had forgotten about Passley being homesick and leaving, as someone already pointed out to me.
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Post by panther44 on Feb 7, 2007 10:15:46 GMT -6
I don't quite understand the point of continually looking back and contemplating the "what ifs". BP is gone. Jeter is here. Eventually, at some point BP would have been snatched up by a different program like he was. Whether he left 2 years ago like he did, this year, or next year doesn't matter. At some point ANY coach taking over would need to start rebuilding this team. We need to support the team we have NOW. We need to stop thinking about the team we "might of had" or "could of had"; because in all honesty no one truly knows what those players would have been like in our program. Let's think about the team we DO HAVE. Don't you remember all those years ago when we were horrible playing at the Klotschke with maybe 15 fans showing up? Eventually we became a winning program. WE WILL AGAIN. Our guys need our support more than anything right now. I give it to them unconditionally because I believe in them, the coaches, and the program's future. With the last home game coming up next week, I hope we all can show the team how much support they have from their fans.
Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now. Thanks for letting me vent!
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Post by pantherpanther on Feb 7, 2007 10:35:28 GMT -6
Well said...
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Post by uwmfutbol on Feb 7, 2007 10:49:03 GMT -6
I'm glad Jeter is here. He's the 3rd coach in a row I'd trust to lead this team, and he seems more like a coach than a politician.
Furthermore, UWM's team is not that good this year. That's expected. However, something interesting also happened: the Horizon League just happens to be very tough for UWM. Consider this...
Butler: Unbelievably good this season... no one saw it coming.
WSU: Also VERY good this season... this was a little more predictable.
Loyola: PREDICTED to win conference this season; still a very solid team.
now here's where it gets interesting...
UIC: Let's face it; UIC, like UWM, is struggling this season. Unfortunately, they're heated rivals with UWM, which means anything can happen, no matter how good the teams are.
UWGB: [See UIC]
Detroit: A team that also isn't as good as they should be; Cotton and Bell are dangerous this season.
YSU: No longer the bottom-feeder in the HL; they're respectable this season (even though we should have easily won at home). I'm just saying it's ironic that the year UWM has their worst squad in nearly a decade is the year YSU has a decent squad.
Then there's CSU... who's not really doing much to fuel my argument.
My overall point is that we can argue all we want about how bad this team is this season, but I think UWM picked a great year to be bad. The HL is honestly reminding me of Big Ten football in the sense that all the conference teams are just beating the crap out of each other (with the exception of Butler, of course). I mean just look at the standings.
It'll get better. Give Jeter more time. This team will be VERY different in the next few seasons.
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Post by reggiewheelerfor3 on Feb 7, 2007 10:57:48 GMT -6
Someone brought up the BP issue earlier in this thread. I should've known better than to discuss it on a UWM basketball discussion board. Nobody said we're not supporting the team now. Man, sometimes I think this board is the equivalent of a World War II national advertising campaign.
Alright, I'm somewhat sorry for the sarcasm. I think the team has the support of everyone on this board, maybe with the exception of the Butler, UIC, Wright State, etc. fans who stop by here. This "What If" stuff is fun to talk about...different coaching philosophies, different recruiting plans and so on. At least the board is still hoppin' during a down year. There's only so much we can discuss about this year's team. Feel free to bring up a topic with this year's team that hasn't been beaten into the ground yet and I'll happily join you. I just can't think of any off the top of my head.
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Post by pantherpanther on Feb 7, 2007 11:10:21 GMT -6
Reggie man...don't get me wrong...I miss BP, hell I watched the Tennessee v. LSU game last night and cheered all the way for him. I, just like some others on this board, just don't think it is realistic to say what Bruce would have done, considering what he left us with, and what he was bringing in at the time of departure. Walt would not have seen the floor due to grades (god bless him), and considering James Douglas' current status whose to say he would have stuck it out here anyways.
BP is a great man, and a great coach, but as painful as it may be to accept, he left us in a bad situation player-wise. To have to recruit for so many spots, in such a short period of time, is maddening. Plus like somone mentioned earlier, we have no upperclassmen leadership, which is a big hurt. Growing pains...we will make it through, and boy will it be fun next year to rub it in the faces of those who have crossed us off their list.
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Post by reggiewheelerfor3 on Feb 7, 2007 11:19:59 GMT -6
Point taken. I had said earlier that BP would almost certainly have struggled this year. I was just making an estimated guess that the team likely would have had a more experienced roster overall, probably with more JUCO guys and fewer freshman and maybe one or two of his own returnees. I was just saying that a more experienced roster MAY have been able to win us maybe an extra one or two conference games this year. That's the only point I was making. I also said I like what Jeter is doing. I was just contrasting the approach that most of us think BP would've taken to losing so many seniors to the approach Jeter is taking. I think it's a fair subject to talk about. It always gets turned around as a lack of support for Jeter and this team, which it's not.
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Post by panther44 on Feb 7, 2007 13:14:56 GMT -6
I never stated that you were giving the guys a "lack of support." What I was doing was merely stating my feelings and ideas as you had done. I agree it can be fun to talk about as well, but I think this is yet another topic that has been beaten into the ground.
"I should've known better than to discuss it on a UWM basketball discussion board. Nobody said we're not supporting the team now. Man, sometimes I think this board is the equivalent of a World War II national advertising campaign."
I never said you weren't supporting the team either, if you go back and re read my post.
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