So we lost again tonight. To UTA. No posts about the game on the site tonight. I feel we have descended into the zone of indifference and acceptance of our fate.

Bowl games are on.

I listened to it on the radio. Good is a beast, we just don't have a complete team yet and we rely on 3's way too much.

The seven players who played most of the minutes were three freshmen, three sophomores and one freshmen against the Sun Belt favorite. Two leading scorers were freshmen. Played better than Saturday, but played a much better opponent. UTA won the rebounding battle and Tyrell had a bad game with one points and four fouls.

Sun Belt is the best it's been since App joined the league. A lot of games are going to be tough.

CheckYosef94 wrote:I listened to it on the radio. Good is a beast, we just don't have a complete team yet and we rely on 3's way too much.

Good was 7-11 from behind the arc, the rest of the team was 2-20. A team that can't shoot and not play good defense generally is going to lose. If we are going to live by the three, we have to find some folks who can shoot from back there on a consistent basis.

I keep reminding myself, be patient.

wncapp78 wrote:So we lost again tonight. To UTA. No posts about the game on the site tonight. I feel we have descended into the zone of indifference and acceptance of our fate.

Winning cures everything

When do we start to see a difference? IMO while he may be a ok recruiter.. he has yet to show me he can coach a team to play consistently. We are not very good and this is the year where we should have made a definitive step forward ...yet we are just as bad.

mountaineerman wrote:When do we start to see a difference? IMO while he may be a ok recruiter.. he has yet to show me he can coach a team to play consistently. We are not very good and this is the year where we should have made a definitive step forward ...yet we are just as bad.

I say we are worse because we have the talent and apparently no one on the team is interested in stepping up to that leadership role

Wins are going to be few, and a single digit in the win column looks probable. What we need to see is progress toward competitiveness and the development of our young players. Fox is working hard and deserves this year, and another season to turn this thing around. We are just going to have to grin and bear the frustrations (How much worse can it get than to be beaten by a bad Western team?), BUT... by the end of the year it is reasonable to expect a team that has not quit, shows some consistency, and is still hustling and working hard to learn and improve. If we can go into the offseason with that, we may be finally turning it around. Right now, it's hard to watch, but I'm sure our coach and OUR MOUNTAINEERS would love our encouragement and support. I can't make it Saturday, but will be there against SnArk State on Monday.

GO APP!

appaneer1984 wrote:

mountaineerman wrote:When do we start to see a difference? IMO while he may be a ok recruiter.. he has yet to show me he can coach a team to play consistently. We are not very good and this is the year where we should have made a definitive step forward ...yet we are just as bad.

I say we are worse because we have the talent and apparently no one on the team is interested in stepping up to that leadership role

I've mentioned this once, but I'll do it again....anyone who thinks that we haven't improved needs to look at our assist-turnover ratio, rebounding, and balanced scoring. All of those things have improved since last year, but 3 out of our top 4 players right now are freshmen. They are being asked to grow up faster than might have been the case in some other programs due to the available players on our team. I don't really know how anyone can expect Fox to have us at a high winning percentage this year, or maybe even before 2018 based on what he walked into. Our kids play hard, but are very young. Other than Shabazz, most of the "talent" is 18 year old kids. We went from Frank Eaves, and occasionally Shabazz scoring to 8 players averaging at least 7-8 points per game. Although, it would be nice to have 2 or 3 guys averaging in double digits. Good could become one of them, I believe, and Ike Johnson and K. Robinson have that potential...but again, they are true freshmen.

Isn't this Fox's 4th full year? If that is so, how young was the team he inherited that would have us relying on so many freshmen at this point? I was not excited about the hire when it was made, but really hoped Fox would prove me wrong as did Satterfield do to many of his skeptics after his first year as HC of football. I guess we have made progress from the standpoint of team GPA. I just don't see it on the court. Yes some of the stats are better but the primary stat that counts is the Wins/Losses. Hopefully he can turn it around. Since DG didn't hire Fox, I don't know how long he will continue to allow us to remain as the doormat in the Sunbelt in any sport.

Fox was hired on April 8, 2014, meaning he's had two recruiting cycles and two seasons (plus 13 games) to fix the mess he was handed. He quickly remedied our APR issues (no small feat considering the situation we were in). The rest is going to take just a wee bit of patience from some of you.

While I do believe we have seen some minor improvements since Fox took the reins, I wish we could see more. My biggest concern is that we are seeing major turnover at the end of every season. Players aren't wanting to stay at App or play for the university as long anymore. There are so many places one could place the blame for this constant turnover, from lack of home attendance to a team that is poorly supported by the athletic department, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to one thing: winning.

If this team played together and won together, they'd feel good and energized. They'd feel like they matter to the university. Winning will bring the fans in. Winning will get the Athletic Department's attention. Winning will get the High Country's attention. The team needs to take it back to the fundamentals of the game and work its way up. I hope we can see some progress by the end of the year, but if we don't, Fox may be walking on eggshells heading into next season. This team needs to wake up and take a deep breath, as they have the resources to be great. The application of those resources is where they seem to be lacking, though.

mountaineerman wrote:When do we start to see a difference? IMO while he may be a ok recruiter.. he has yet to show me he can coach a team to play consistently. We are not very good and this is the year where we should have made a definitive step forward ...yet we are just as bad.

Fox got a 5 year contract because of how bad the basketball situation was. I don't think this is the year to expect massive improvement, rather, get the current roster plenty of experience with one another. Thus the short bench last night. We haven't changed a starting lineup all season, and I don't believe that will change outside of injury.

I guess many people posting here weren't there a few years ago to watch us throw the ball 3 rows deep in the stands because a player was looking at the dance team.

3rd wrote:I guess many people posting here weren't there a few years ago to watch us throw the ball 3 rows deep in the stands because a player was looking at the dance team.

Can't blame him. That hip hop dance squad had mesmerizing asses when I was in school.

8993 wrote:While I do believe we have seen some minor improvements since Fox took the reins, I wish we could see more. My biggest concern is that we are seeing major turnover at the end of every season. Players aren't wanting to stay at App or play for the university as long anymore. There are so many places one could place the blame for this constant turnover, from lack of home attendance to a team that is poorly supported by the athletic department, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to one thing: winning.

If this team played together and won together, they'd feel good and energized. They'd feel like they matter to the university. Winning will bring the fans in. Winning will get the Athletic Department's attention. Winning will get the High Country's attention. The team needs to take it back to the fundamentals of the game and work its way up. I hope we can see some progress by the end of the year, but if we don't, Fox may be walking on eggshells heading into next season. This team needs to wake up and take a deep breath, as they have the resources to be great. The application of those resources is where they seem to be lacking, though.

the players that left are gone because Fox didn't think they were div 1 players, or they realized it themselves (Gilbert and Kobani going to Lee University, Goesling going to a D2 school in Texas, Milos Kostic to Palm Beach Atlantic)

the only other names I can think of that left the program were all walk-ons. Fox has actually done an admirable job of keeping players in the program. I get the sense that they like playing for him and in his system. Eaves, Burgess, Lawson, Obacha, etc. all stuck around although they were recruited by Capel's staff.

Actually I did notice, as I kept up with the score via the UTA stats site.

Good shot very well, but when the rest of the team is struggling so much to make shots it becomes very difficult to win games. This was a difficult schedule to begin with though...

Well, I do hope he succeeds in turning things around because I do enjoy driving up, especially on Saturdays , to see a game. Hopefully we don't have to play WCU anytime again soon. That was a difficult one to stomach and in my opinion a huge embarrassment to the program.