Joshua Christopher says that Joshua Christopher didn’t opt out
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I don’t think Hurley is an awful coach. Arizona St isn’t an easy place to win at, just look at their basketball history. One of the best coaches in Michigan basketball history couldn’t even have a lot of long term success at ASU. He had a very highly touted recruiting class and didn’t get it done. If he switches it up and they improve that shows he’s not an awful coach. Maybe Christopher was too much to handle for Hurley and there will be better days???
Chris Beard has to be one of the worst late game coaches in America. They choke away more games than any program I’ve ever seen.
Texas will be an interesting team to watch. Shaka put out his 3 bigs in a lineup Brown-Jones-Sims and caused TT some problems. All 3 are athletic, can switch everything and you won’t get much down low. They have a couple guys that can shoot it in Coleman and Ramey as well, you can throw Febres in the mix as well since he has returned from injury.
Does anyone other than Jon Rothstein think Bobby Hurley is that good of a coach? Wouldn’t one need to win a tournament game before earning that distinction?
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Rothstein loves every coach but like I said earlier ASU doesn’t exactly have a great basketball tradition. Hurley took over for Herb Sendek who actually did pretty well prior at NC State. Sendek in his 9 years at Arizona St won 1 NCAA Tournament game. If Sendek/Frieder etc… have problems at ASU I guess you can point and laugh at Hurley but it doesn’t seem like an easy gig.
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Alright fair enough 
Juwan still has never coached in a tournament for obvious reasons though… Bob has been coached 8 seasons and been there 3 times and nothing?
Also, that’s a pretty cool pic
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That’s a fact, Jon does love every coach. I’ll still never get over the whole story about him spam-texting coaches before every game.
And yeah I totally agree with you about ASU, not an easy gig. I guess my sentiment stems from the excessive Bobby Hurley love that I heard the last couple years, in particular after he landed Christopher. Seems like the hype with him hasn’t matched reality.
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Also, just to clarify because I haven’t seen mention in this thread…it’s not just JC but also Marcus Bagley, who is also being mocked in the first round, and only played 12 games this year. I’m assuming Hurley’s comments were referencing both of them and not just Josh.
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Is there any other sport where a grown man and coach can publicly bag on a freshman/freshmen for his own lack of season success? Hurley deserves the ridicule he has coming. Between this and Dan Dakich, I see a bunch of grown men of a certain age and generation who have had a certain kind of control over their player’s lives. . . seeing their good thing slip away. Those who adjust and artfully cede more autonomy to these young men while shaping them into real teams are going to prevail. Fewer and fewer of them will look like Bobby Hurley.
Hurley is at a lesser institution like ASU for a reason; he’s abrasive and not super-easy to love. He’ll only get so many chances to harsh on eighteen-year-olds before nobody’s interested at all. Hope he’s enjoying the wide antagonism he’s undoubtedly engendering. Parents do talk among themselves.
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I saw this morning…Michigan State announces basketball team will now be called ‘MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage’. At first I was shocked but college D1 sports are a big business.
What makes it such a tough job? The Pac 12 is as bad as it’s ever been. Pac 12 was a better league during the time of Frieder/Sendek. Arizona and UCLA are not the powers they once were. There are several really bad teams/programs. It shouldn’t be hard to be a contender in the Pac 12, especially if you’re landing talent through recruiting. And certainly shouldn’t be that hard to win enough games to make the tournament at a minimum.
Not saying he has to make ASU a national powerhouse. That’s unreasonable. But it’s not a high bar to set to say they should be a top 5 program in a bad Pac 12 if Hurley is a good coach.
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Also, the population of Arizona is a lot larger now than it was in Frieder’s day so there should be more in-state talent available.
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Karl Malone likes this.
I mean, no one forced him to take the ASU job. Maybe he should’ve stayed at Buffalo another season and waited for something with a little more prestige to open up. On top of that, he doesn’t exactly win people over with his 20-grit sandpaper personality and demonstrative antics on the sideline. A guy like Izzo can do it because he’s won big his entire career. Hurley isn’t on that level.
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Serious question: how safe is UCLA now that they lost their P12 opener to Oregon State? That’s four straight losses to end the season and only five wins against Q1/Q2 opponents (5-8 record). By comparison, half of their 26 games were Q3/Q4 (12-1).
I just don’t buy that Christopher is a bad kid and would have been an issue at a program like um with the culture that exists here. Did see that espn has now moved him into the second round. Choosing the right school absolutely often has impact on draft stock, and Christopher chose the wrong one.
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I will be impressed if the Big Ten can pull this off
Have no idea if Christopher is a bad kid or not, but at 19 it sure is too early to write anyone off as that, and the same goes for Emoni Bates. The 19-year-old version of me probably would have had some trouble staying humble if my dad was on the radio talking about the importance of my own personal brand or if an entire ``school’’ was created just to suit my own personal needs.
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