Just wait till next year

[glm38]

The Shock will rule the Valley next season. The Aces lose 3 valuable seniors and around 80% of their offense. UE has their work cut out for them with only sophomores and freshmen carrying the load.

Will be rough without Colt and the others, but you've got a good coach.

Will more Valley teams try to imitate Marshall's plan of going after transfer/JUCO guys as bridges in the future? Could be a winning formula for the conference. I don't think there is any argument now that it works.

It's been stated that other Valley schools prefer 4-year players as opposed to "dumb" JUCOs.

Regardless of anything said the Bears have a long history of using Juco players pretty successfully.

[valleychamp]

There's no doubting that juco players are giving WSU a consistency we wouldn't have with just four year guys. It's given us constant senior experience and talented guys with limited time to prove themselves. I can understand ignoring it when we were "just" finishing second in conference, but not now. This could be a new conference wide strategy now. Be beat by WSU's combo of four year guys, transfers, and jucos, or join us.

Could very well be a route for us to get the Valley back to 2006 numbers. Oregon with Altman does this well, too, and we saw it works there.

Come on.

Its not like WSU discovered some secret formula. Everyone takes a JUCO or transfer kid here and there.

Other schools are going to continue doing things the way that they have, and WSU is going to continue doing things the way they have. Fact is, at some schools its harder to get JUCOs into to school than others. WSU also has the luxury of being in the state which is often considered the JUCO capital of the US.

[Snaggletooth]

Most WSU fans thought this would be the down year, and next year would be a team with a chance to make an NCAA run.

I disagree with you characterizing it as "Most". There were plenty of us who were expecting this year team to be better than last year team (it was helped by Kennedy saying just as much on the radio at the end of last year). Plenty of us realized that with the returning players, the redshirt talent and transfers there was as much if not more talent than the previous year.

[Snaggletooth]

The Shock will rule the Valley next season. The Aces lose 3 valuable seniors and around 80% of their offense. UE has their work cut out for them with only sophomores and freshmen carrying the load.

Will be rough without Colt and the others, but you've got a good coach.

Will more Valley teams try to imitate Marshall's plan of going after transfer/JUCO guys as bridges in the future? Could be a winning formula for the conference. I don't think there is any argument now that it works.

JUCO are used to fill recruiting misses. So far Marshall Juco hits have been more than misses, but I would rather have 4 year guys in the program than 1 or 2 year guys. Juco are not some magic bullet.

[rlh04d]

The Shock will rule the Valley next season. The Aces lose 3 valuable seniors and around 80% of their offense. UE has their work cut out for them with only sophomores and freshmen carrying the load.

Will be rough without Colt and the others, but you've got a good coach.

Will more Valley teams try to imitate Marshall's plan of going after transfer/JUCO guys as bridges in the future? Could be a winning formula for the conference. I don't think there is any argument now that it works.

JUCO are used to fill recruiting misses. So far Marshall Juco hits have been more than misses, but I would rather have 4 year guys in the program than 1 or 2 year guys. Juco are not some magic bullet.

I'm certainly not saying they are, and I think we're at the point now where we're going to transition more into four-year players.

However, we're starting to get very good four-year players because of the success we've had with Juco guys. Had we not brought in the Juco recruits we have in the last few years, we would not have made it to the Final Four, and would not have made the tournament at all either of the last two years. Given the same level of talent, I would of course take a four-year guy over a Juco guy ... but we've been able to get better Juco players than we had four year players in the past. It's been a fundamental core of our ability to put together a winner consistently without having off-years.

[rlh04d]

There's no doubting that juco players are giving WSU a consistency we wouldn't have with just four year guys. It's given us constant senior experience and talented guys with limited time to prove themselves. I can understand ignoring it when we were "just" finishing second in conference, but not now. This could be a new conference wide strategy now. Be beat by WSU's combo of four year guys, transfers, and jucos, or join us.

Could very well be a route for us to get the Valley back to 2006 numbers. Oregon with Altman does this well, too, and we saw it works there.

Come on.

Its not like WSU discovered some secret formula. Everyone takes a JUCO or transfer kid here and there.

Other schools are going to continue doing things the way that they have, and WSU is going to continue doing things the way they have. Fact is, at some schools its harder to get JUCOs into to school than others. WSU also has the luxury of being in the state which is often considered the JUCO capital of the US.

Would you really describe what Marshall's doing as "taking a Juco or transfer kid here and there" ?

Yes, other schools can continue to do things they way they have. We'll continue making the tournament every year, and other schools can continue making it once every few years when the stars line up and enough upper classmen get on the team. Your point is that teams that aren't being successful doing what they do should just keep doing it regardless, because maybe it'll work eventually. No one should bother at all to look at what a program that is consistently winning is doing and see if they can incorporate that in any way into their own programs. Good point.

I'm not saying the goal should be to fill your roster with Juco players. I am saying that having a dedication to scouting and recruiting Juco players gives you the ability to fill in gaps on a year to year basis to produce a consistent winner, which no program in the Valley other than Creighton and UNI has been able to do in a while, and UNI's missed three tournaments in a row now without anything close to a good resume in those years. Meanwhile WSU has had very credible NCAA resumes for four straight seasons.

[bleach]

What the other Valley schools need to do like WSU is get their players to "pay their own way" for a year when they transfer.

[shoxrox]

What the other Valley schools need to do like WSU is get their players to "pay their own way" for a year when they transfer.

And what does that "mean"?

[rlh04d]

What the other Valley schools need to do like WSU is get their players to "pay their own way" for a year when they transfer.

Yep. And now the jealousy starts.

[bleach]

Everyone elses kids are on ships while sitting out. That gives the Shox quite an advantage.