The issues with turnover Marlin had in his first three years were mostly concerning the players brought in by one assistant that is no longer here. Still a coaching problem, but there has been average or lower than average turnover since then. I have criticisms of Marlin, but the way he handles personnel is not one of them. He runs a good ship.
You can't simply throw that out there.
There's a reason Marlin is 11/4 and looking good. Miller,Bartley, Brown, Hardy, Davis all contributing greatly. Four freshman and a junior transfer are a big reason we're winning.
The Cajuns struck gold in Washington and Stove. I'll take two highly successful players for every failure.
If Plaisance was leaving with a bunch of non performing guys Marlin should get bashed, but he's righted the ship. The kid is leaving without all the chaos of previous players.
It's sad... Plaisance unfortunately didn't develop fast enough. He was a stud in h.s. but I knew that the level of play concerned me. He was a tad skinny coming in but I thought he'd become a terror due to his athleticism. To me, he ran the floor well for a big, he had a quick leaping ability, and plays above the rim. He just didn't get over the hump. He will be a really good Southland player. I can see him average a d/d on that level as a senior.... best of luck
I thought it was a solid take. Sorry if you disagree. I seem to remember a chaotic ending to last season with players leaving and fans vowing to give up their tickets. Now 8 months later we are taking another departure in stride. 11-4 will do that. Pretty sure we are in agreement here that the new players Marlin has brought in have been solid.
I remember losing a job once because I didn't develop fast enough. I overcame an almost total lack of training and right after I finally had it figured out they pulled the plug. When a player gives it his all and it doesn't work out I kind of see it as an organizational failure. Perhaps somebody else could have given him what he needed. A lot of time, effort, and dedication was wasted. Nobody wins when this happens.
Marlin has had a "chaotic" fan relationship since he arrived. I think (hope) that his focus on culling out problematic athletes (which Plaisance was not one)... coupled with his very good teaching skills... are starting to pay off. But having been deeply concerned over players quitting and transferring... was not a joke. I know extremely big basketball fans (complete homers for UL everything) that were concerned.
But yes... winning temporarily quiets most critics. And that message is the critic's message to the coaches... and always will be. The critic doesn't care if the lady next to him that gets mad when he yells at the coach... isn't happy about the yelling... any more than he's concerned that when we're winning... she gloats about "being right".
In my opinion it is not so much the record at the time but the situation around the transfer as to wether or not it is a reason for concern. Looking back on the guys that left last year, I really liked Hedgeman but he obviously did something he shouldn't have, got suspended and chose to leave. Register and Wooten saw that if they wanted a chance to really play during what will likely be their last year of playing basketball they needed to step down a level so that is what they did. Basically same thing with Plaisance although he will probably stay D1 and have a year and a half to play. None of that is looked at as concerning to me.
Now when Jerikius Davis announced he was leaving in the spring I thought that was concerning. For the 2nd year in a row (Hasanni Gravett the year before) a guy had given us a redshirt year and seemed to have the potential to play a lot as a redshirt freshman, but instead they thought heading to a juco then transferring somewhere else was a better option than spending 4 more years in this program. Now obviously Marlin and staff corrected whatever the issue was with Davis and it seems to be working out. I guess it is not really knowing what a kid like Davis and Gravett can bring and letting that potential walk out the door is what has gotten to me.
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