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Mr NIT strikes again - Printable Version

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Mr NIT strikes again - Spiny_Norman - 03-12-2017

I'm sure that you all have been following the fortunes of the Central Florida Golden Knights MBB team. Their 1st year HC Johnny Dawkins has turned the program around and led them to . . . . the NIT.  Hope the Central Florida fans get used to it.

Re: Mr NIT strikes again - CompSci87 - 03-12-2017

To be fair, UCF has rarely been to the Big Dance.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/history/_/team1/5561

Then again, why be fair?

Re: Mr NIT strikes again - 76lsjumb - 03-12-2017

(03-12-2017, 09:03 PM)Spiny_Norman link Wrote:I'm sure that you all have been following the fortunes of the Central Florida Golden Knights MBB team. Their 1st year HC Johnny Dawkins has turned the program around and led them to . . . . the NIT.  Hope the Central Florida fans get used to it.

You're kidding, right?  UCF went 21-11 (11-7) this year after going 13-18 (4-14), 12-18(5-13), and 12-18(6-12) in the prior three years [we did worse than last year].  They beat a top-20 team [we didn't], they beat Memphis twice in a row after losing all but 1 of the previous 21 matches [we lost to Arizona by 39].  they lost to SMU by 11 [we lost by 22].  They led the nation in field goal percentage defense [we...didn't].  They made the semifinals of the AAC tournament for the first time ever.

And, of course, he did all that "without his guys."

As wildly optimistic as everyone here seems to be about the future of our team under our new coach  -- given that we were uniformly WORSE than last year in almost every respect, in stark contrast to the uniformly BETTER results that "Mr. NIT" accomplished -- the UCF fans would seem to have infinitely better justification for feeling optimistic than we do.

Re: Mr NIT strikes again - jacketree - 03-12-2017

This has been a good year for Golden Knight basketball. UCF doesn't exactly have a robust tournament history, since moving up to Division I. This is their second-ever invitation to the NIT; the first was in 2012.  Their glory days were in the late '70s/early '80s when Coach Torchy Clark tore it up in the Sunshine State Conference, advancing to the DII Final Four in 1978.

NCAA History
Lost to UCONN in first round, 2005
Lost to Pitt in first round, 2004
Lost to UMASS in first round, 1996 (Stanford's region that year. Stanford lost to UMASS in the second round.)
Lost to Purdue in first round, 1995



Re: Mr NIT strikes again - winflop - 03-13-2017

I hope Dawkins does well at UCF or wherever else he ends up.  He's a good man who just wasn't a good fit at Stanford.

Re: Mr NIT strikes again - Bruce Wang - 03-13-2017

(03-12-2017, 09:07 PM)CompSci87 link Wrote:To be fair, UCF has rarely been to the Big Dance.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/history/_/team1/5561

Then again, why be fair?

The comparison I'm more upset about is Northwestern, who until this year has never been to the Big Dance.  The only Power 5 confernce school to have never made the tournament.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt that the prospective talent by recruiting prognosticators had ranked any Northwestern class higher than any of ours.

Does anybody know the length of Haase's contract?  I'm OK given him the opportunity to recruit 4 classes before clamoring for his ouster.  We should not, however, wait 8 years.

Re: Mr NIT strikes again - jacketree - 03-13-2017

Someone might know, but quick 'n easy Google doesn't:

"Muir declined to reveal specifics of his search or the terms of Haase’s contract."

Stanford does seem to be on the 8-year plan, although 5 is more common.

[Image: stalinbb.jpg]


“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe we could compete at the highest level and do it quickly,” said Haase, who turns 42 on Friday. Haase inherits a veteran roster projected by some pundits to compete for the Pac-12 title next season."

Some pundits were wrong.

What a contrast with my other alma mater.  Total dumpster fire of a program when they switched coaches, taking Josh Pastner off Memphis' ash heap. One of my friends is a 30-year season ticket holder.  He didn't think they'd win an ACC game.  Or maybe they could beat BC, so one maximum.  They wound up winning 8 conference games, climbing onto the bubble before running out of gas. Beat some top teams like North Carolina, Florida State, Notre Dame and VCU, albeit mostly at home. That's how it starts.  And Reveno managed to turn a lanky 2 ppg mechanical engineering student from Texas into the "Lamminator".

Not seeing much so far from the Haase regime, IMO.

Re: Mr NIT strikes again - SamAtoms1980 - 03-31-2017

Ben Howland took over a UCLA program that had spiraled into the gutter under Lavin.  His first season was a pile of moist crap.  His second season saw his team squeak into the tournament, and the three seasons after that went national title game, Final Four, Final Four.

Andy Enfield was brought into US¢ to revive a program that, at best, had produced brief ephemeral flashes of quality over the preceding 15 seasons.  His first two teams were dwellers of the Pac-12 cellar.  The following season he got into the tourney, and followed that up this year with a first-round win over a rock-solid SMU.

Dana Altman came into Eugene to head an Oregon program that had cratered under the previous regime.  His first season was dismal, featuring a loss to SJSU at home.  In this season, his seventh, he made the tourney for the fifth straight year and has the Ducks in the Final Four.

There will, and should, be a time to evaluate and pass judgment on the Haase era here.  But that time should not arrive at least until the end of year three.

Oh, and our friend Johnny Dawkins saw his NIT record fall to 14-2 after getting squashed by the Horned Frogs of TCU in the semifinals.