little picture, big picture stuff.
1. i see a lot of people who are surprised at some of the results this season; people who expected something better. i haven't understood this as we quite literally don't have a 4 on this team. we just don't. we have one center, who doesn't play defense at a p5 level. and some of you are shocked that we lose rebounding battles? why? leading to:
2. the DG brothers are not p5 level. GDG maybe as a backup center...i guess. we expected a jump from year one to year two and did not get it, whatsoever. did some of you expect a jump from year two to three? and please do not tell me that they shoot good 3 pointers - this team doesn't need 7 footers hanging around the perimeter. it's just dumb.
3. so your back court is pretty challenged. we play clemson this week - a team that always has a solid back court. can you guess what is going to happen? i can.
4. i don't know where this team ends up. we seem to be a solid little BB team. the guards are really nice. and that's great. but it's an incomplete team, which, at this point, is what we get with jeff capel. it's been 7 years now. i have a group chat with friends and after 7 years, we still ask, "i don't know what this team is trying to do on offense." that is, outside of having a good 3 point shooter who takes over. otherwise, it's a lot of passing around the perimeter. less so with blake but we still see it now. at least we have a center cam can actually score, though, which is a radical departure from our previous centers.
5. so where does this leave me? if i'm running almost any division one college, i'm probably not making expensive changes right now, barring a kevin stallings type of situation. there are just too many unkowns in the short-term. replacing JC would be expensive, and i have no faith that we could attract a clear upgrade.
part of me thinks we just go cheap with head coaches but tell them they've got $3m in pay to play, plus whatever we can dig up in NIL. instead of paying a coach $5m, we'll pay $2m + $3m for roster costs. and we tell them, if you have success and want to walk, have at it. i know this won't happen but i kind of feel as if the game is about jimmy's and joe's - and pitt can find similar coaches to jeff capel.
but the cost to can capel is still in the 7 figures somewhere. until that's reduced, we aren't garbage enough that paying the exit fee makes sense. if i'm green, i probably tell jeff it's time for new blood on the bench, help him find NIL money the best i can, and cross my fingers. also tell him he's got a real blind spot in evaluating and developing big guys, b/c it's massive. guards? i trust you all day, jeff.
i also would have questions about the guys on the end of the bench: how much are we paying them to have nearly zero contributions? how much is papa getting? can we use that money for an older transfer who can add decent minutes? i don't even remember the name of the dude who redhsirted last year. and the kid who isn't playing from this class. what's the point? you don't have the luxury to develop guys anymore, unless they're super cheap and have a real trajectory. we're doing that with the twins and it's been a waste. kind of a will jeffress situation - but he was before NIL so it was fine to take flyers on young dudes. doesn't seem to make sense anymore.
anyway, a good number of you will shout me down for being negative. but this team just has glaring flaws, which has been a consistent pattern with JC's teams.
1. i see a lot of people who are surprised at some of the results this season; people who expected something better. i haven't understood this as we quite literally don't have a 4 on this team. we just don't. we have one center, who doesn't play defense at a p5 level. and some of you are shocked that we lose rebounding battles? why? leading to:
2. the DG brothers are not p5 level. GDG maybe as a backup center...i guess. we expected a jump from year one to year two and did not get it, whatsoever. did some of you expect a jump from year two to three? and please do not tell me that they shoot good 3 pointers - this team doesn't need 7 footers hanging around the perimeter. it's just dumb.
3. so your back court is pretty challenged. we play clemson this week - a team that always has a solid back court. can you guess what is going to happen? i can.
4. i don't know where this team ends up. we seem to be a solid little BB team. the guards are really nice. and that's great. but it's an incomplete team, which, at this point, is what we get with jeff capel. it's been 7 years now. i have a group chat with friends and after 7 years, we still ask, "i don't know what this team is trying to do on offense." that is, outside of having a good 3 point shooter who takes over. otherwise, it's a lot of passing around the perimeter. less so with blake but we still see it now. at least we have a center cam can actually score, though, which is a radical departure from our previous centers.
5. so where does this leave me? if i'm running almost any division one college, i'm probably not making expensive changes right now, barring a kevin stallings type of situation. there are just too many unkowns in the short-term. replacing JC would be expensive, and i have no faith that we could attract a clear upgrade.
part of me thinks we just go cheap with head coaches but tell them they've got $3m in pay to play, plus whatever we can dig up in NIL. instead of paying a coach $5m, we'll pay $2m + $3m for roster costs. and we tell them, if you have success and want to walk, have at it. i know this won't happen but i kind of feel as if the game is about jimmy's and joe's - and pitt can find similar coaches to jeff capel.
but the cost to can capel is still in the 7 figures somewhere. until that's reduced, we aren't garbage enough that paying the exit fee makes sense. if i'm green, i probably tell jeff it's time for new blood on the bench, help him find NIL money the best i can, and cross my fingers. also tell him he's got a real blind spot in evaluating and developing big guys, b/c it's massive. guards? i trust you all day, jeff.
i also would have questions about the guys on the end of the bench: how much are we paying them to have nearly zero contributions? how much is papa getting? can we use that money for an older transfer who can add decent minutes? i don't even remember the name of the dude who redhsirted last year. and the kid who isn't playing from this class. what's the point? you don't have the luxury to develop guys anymore, unless they're super cheap and have a real trajectory. we're doing that with the twins and it's been a waste. kind of a will jeffress situation - but he was before NIL so it was fine to take flyers on young dudes. doesn't seem to make sense anymore.
anyway, a good number of you will shout me down for being negative. but this team just has glaring flaws, which has been a consistent pattern with JC's teams.
