Basketball Expectations

[Cajunsmike]

The Stove injury derailed last season without a doubt. Showed we did not have the depth we thought we did. Mark Adams has proven the difficulty of scheduling for mid majors. Hopefully his input will help as we go on. Despite the questions some have, the AD thinks enough of the direction of the program to grant an extension. That will not change despite all the concerns raised here and I am not saying they are not legitimate. I am saying there are not nearly as many people who have an issue with this as there are those who support the move. That makes his opinion the only one that really counts. Back to original question, what are expectations going forward?

[STPacronym]

Dudes, it's pretty simple. That was Marlin's best team last year and one of the better Cajuns teams. The problem is he has not pulled out a legitimate upset of a "named" team. So, both the casual and common fan look at his teams as good "for this level of play". There is zero glam...nothing to get the fringe fans out to the dome. This is not basketball country.

[Cajunsmike]

Dudes, it's pretty simple. That was Marlin's best team last year and one of the better Cajuns teams. The problem is he has not pulled out a legitimate upset of a "named" team. So, both the casual and common fan look at his teams as good "for this level of play". There is zero glam...nothing to get the fringe fans out to the dome. This is not basketball country.

Agree something more is needed to get fringe fans to Dome. Agree not basketball country as well. However we do better in the area than most. We lead our league by far in support, would be in the top half of CUSA, and get more followers than many in the AAC. Still I recognize to get back to the old days, something more is needed. If not an upset, getting to the NCAA tournament and getting a win for two consecutive years may do the trick. Are those reasonable expectations? I don't have an answer. I know they are worthy goals.

[ULvictory]

Agree something more is needed to get fringe fans to Dome. Agree not basketball country as well. However we do better in the area than most. We lead our league by far in support, would be in the top half of CUSA, and get more followers than many in the AAC. Still I recognize to get back to the old days, something more is needed. If not an upset, getting to the NCAA tournament and getting a win for two consecutive years may do the trick. Are those reasonable expectations? I don't have an answer. I know they are worthy goals.

We are going to have to beat some quality teams along with making a tournament appearance or two to get more fans on board. Like I mentioned earlier, give me a 18-20 win season with a win over a P5 and a tournament appearance; and I will be happy.

[STPacronym]

We are going to have to beat some quality teams along with making a tournament appearance or two to get more fans on board. Like I mentioned earlier, give me a 18-20 win season with a win over a P5 and a tournament appearance; and I will be happy.

We need some quality wins to demontrate that this team/program is for real...a national player. Otherwise, it will be 3-4k in the dome on a good night. That is not a terrible situatuation, but people keep looking back to the days of yore, and that won't come without the above.

[cajun_lannister]

Take it for what its worth Bobby Marlin is the Ricky Bustle of Basketball..Average coach that runs a clean program & graduates players but his teams tend to lack a killer mentality

[CrazyCajun]

I think it is reasonable to win the conference once every three years, get in the NCAA tournament once every three years and win 1-2 NCAA games during an 8 year span. This would place you as a top tier mid-major.

That would make us Georgia State, not top
Tier mid major..but I’d be happy with starting there

[Cajunsmike]

Take it for what its worth Bobby Marlin is the Ricky Bustle of Basketball..Average coach that runs a clean program & graduates players but his teams tend to lack a killer mentality

I can see the comparison to Coach Bustle. However he had one winning season in nine while Basketball has had 5 straight winning years. That is the case even with only D1 games are included. Granted the situation Coach Bustle took over in 2002 was very difficult.

[Hatch]

I would like for every Senior that spent 4 years in the program to have made at least 1 trip to the big dance. Washington and Stove not getting that chance made the way this past season ended pretty hard to swallow, despite how good of a season it was over all. I agree with finishing in the top 4 in conference even in a rebuilding year to show an overall consistency.

[cajun_lannister]

Speaking of expectations former conference member WKU just inked another 5 star player

We've got a new member in the WKU family. Hilltopper Nation, please help us welcome five-star center Charles Bassey, who will reclassify and join the Tops in the 2018 class! #GoTopshttps://t.co/ww90KMHDU9 pic.twitter.com/WgfqWpACEB

— WKU Basketball (@WKUBasketball) June 13, 2018

[ManAboutTown]

We can accomplish all of our goals in the sunbelt.. even 5 star players ...

[zephyr]

What are our expectations as a basketball program? Are we good with 27 wins, a regular season title with no tournament appearance? Or what about winning less during the regular season but winning those key 3 games in March to get us to the tournament? What about going under .500 during the regular season but still somehow winning the Sun Belt tournament and making the dance?

Again, when we were discussing this at length during the season, why does this scenario have to be either/or? Why does it have to be winning regular season with a lot of wins and no NCAA birth or the other way around? I've been vocal about this for some time now. I want to create consistency in our program that will start attracting good young players, particularly from our own state. You build that by winning and you start by winning and dominating your conference.

We had a great year this year. We won a ton of games and ran into some health issues late in the year that helped derail us. We ultimately fell short of our goal but we still automatically qualified for the NIT and put on an exciting game to say the least.

If we go with the model of win a few but somehow qualify for the NCAA, its just going to be a quick shot in the arm but it does nothing to create a winning focus in the program. To me, there is nothing harder in college basketball than winning your conference outright. That is a great accomplishment. Its done over a large sample and you can't hide behind soft schedules or playing tough teams at home. Its home and home and you have to get things done on the road if you want to prove you are a champion.

Build the program by building a winning culture and the tournament appearances will follow but success does not have to be either/or. If you focus on winning conference titles I promise that some NCAA appearances will follow and therefore, better seeds in the tournament when you do get there.

[zephyr]

I can see the comparison to Coach Bustle. However he had one winning season in nine while Basketball has had 5 straight winning years. That is the case even with only D1 games are included. Granted the situation Coach Bustle took over in 2002 was very difficult.

Mike, 12 games with only a handful of home games with a terrible recruiting budget etc. is not the same as playing 30+ games where you should be equally as talented as about 80% or more of the teams you face especially when quite a few of those games each season are against lower tier D-1 teams and D-2 teams. I liken Marlin to Bustle quite a bit. Neither wanted to really be in the public pushing their programs, I don't think either truly liked to get in the recruiting wars, neither has been able to win the "big" game and until this year, neither had one a conference title outright. There are a lot of similarities I believe.

[VObserver]

Again, when we were discussing this at length during the season, why does this scenario have to be either/or? Why does it have to be winning regular season with a lot of wins and no NCAA birth or the other way around? I've been vocal about this for some time now. I want to create consistency in our program that will start attracting good young players, particularly from our own state. You build that by winning and you start by winning and dominating your conference.

We had a great year this year. We won a ton of games and ran into some health issues late in the year that helped derail us. We ultimately fell short of our goal but we still automatically qualified for the NIT and put on an exciting game to say the least.

If we go with the model of win a few but somehow qualify for the NCAA, its just going to be a quick shot in the arm but it does nothing to create a winning focus in the program. To me, there is nothing harder in college basketball than winning your conference outright. That is a great accomplishment. Its done over a large sample and you can't hide behind soft schedules or playing tough teams at home. Its home and home and you have to get things done on the road if you want to prove you are a champion.

Build the program by building a winning culture and the tournament appearances will follow but success does not have to be either/or. If you focus on winning conference titles I promise that some NCAA appearances will follow and therefore, better seeds in the tournament when you do get there.

I agree with this, with the caveat that we still need to play a significantly better OOC schedule, both for RPI purposes and to prepare us for the competition we will face in the NCAA or NIT when we get there.

[zephyr]

“That is due, in part, to finishing toward the top of the league in four of the last five seasons. It is also due, in part, to reaching the conference tournament semifinals in three of the last five years. It is also due, in part, to continued success in the classroom.”

While all that is true, I would say it has even more to do with the FUTURE he has built for this program. This wasn’t a “one and done” season. We have high level recruits and redshirts coming in that will be able to step up and perform at the same high level for the next few years.

Marlin deserves every penny of that new contract.

"High Level Recruits"?? I don't know about that. I guess it depends on your reference point for definition of high level. I think we did OK but we've already lost one of them and our best incoming player is going to be sidelined all year.