This has definitely bothered me quite a bit.
Jon Sanderson is hailed and praised when things are going well, but when the injuries mounted up and are never cured, where is this guy in all this? What is he doing to prevent this and strengthen the players bodies to avoid these?
Every injury can’t be characterized as a fluke.
Something is likely fundamentally wrong with the way we train.
True. But just look at all the before and afters. No one is going to do anything about it. Doyle gains muscle and looks like he is running in sand all the time. Who cares what you look like if you can’t play.
He has been overrated bc Nik and Caris put in mad work to get better from fresh to Soph year but all of our players have slim builds and there physiques very pedestrian . Mitch hurt his Back working out for him missed a the rest of the year ,Zak has hurt his back Caris has missed 2 consecutive big 10 seasons ,Spike missed the whole year . Our players don’t just get dinged up they miss the rest of the year . Caris went from day to day to out for the year , Walton went from turf toe day to day to our for the year. Something is going on with this program it’s one thing to say we have crappy luck but when it’s the norm something is not right.
Each year it’s the same excuses with defense and softness . It’s time to except we will never be tough or defensive minded.
Yep, that is what I am questioning. It has become the norm to sit out the entire season after an injury.
Certainly there are certain training methods to strengthen areas - injury prevention training type stuff.
I am not convinced this guy knows what he is doing anymore.
this enitre program right now is in a shamble…poor recruiting,injury after injury,and awful play on the court…lets move on to a different coach please…its awful to watch now
I am not qualified to have an opinion about whether he is a good strength coach or not but didn’t Stauskas come back to train with him after he was in the NBA? That seems to suggest at least Stauskas thought he was good after being exposed to NBA strength and conditioning coaches…
The entire program needs to be re-evaluated at the end of the season.
I think he does get a free pass. He has done some really good things for our program.
I know people always look for someone to blame, but I don’t believe Sanderson is the guy.
I don’t think anyone gets a free pass on doing things (or potentially doing things) that could be damaging including Sanderson and JB.
Just b/c Sanderson did some amazing things for the majority of guys, doesn’t mean that as a program we have any clue what we are doing on injury recovery/planning. Maybe everything is a fluke, but Mitch, Caris 1, Derrick, Caris 2, Spike, Zak, etc… It at least needs to be looked at b/c if it were managed better, one would think we would have had less critical games missed rather than this ‘wait and see’ model where someone gets hurt or fatigued in the case of several of the injuries and it doesn’t seem like they have a proactive plan.
I’m glad this thread was started b/c it always seemed too skeptical/negative position to initiate. If I were coming in as AD, all of these things (as @mpbear14 said) should be evaluated and not treated as “free passes”. Give credit where it’s due, but don’t let anyone walk w/o scrutiny on the things that haven’t worked. This offseason, I’d demand a plan from the staff on what has/hasn’t worked, and what they are going to do DIFFERENTLY, give them one year to show its of material impact (at least procedurally if not leading to Ws right away), and make some hard decisions if it isn’t.
I personally think Sanderson got too much praise and now will get the same amount of negative remarks. Both aren’t warranted. Everyone needs something to point to for struggles. Sanderson does the same stuff as everywhere else. Injuries happen. Sometimes there is no reason why.
I just hope they stop posting those pictures with their shirts off. That is creepy and out of control.
Agreed pratt. Unless someone has some insight into what exactly we are doing wrong and why, not sure why we need to crap on Sanderson. Is it something that will be looked at in the offseason? I’m sure. I would think that every aspect of the athletic department gets an eval at the end of every season. We’ve got a new AD and I’m sure he’s going to try to get to know the ins and outs of every program. Sometimes shit just happens with injuries.
Look at Manchester United. They are a world class athletic organization and I’m sure they have some of the best physios around. But they could field an entire starting XI with how many injuries they have currently.
To be fair, Stauskas hasn’t quite made the adjustment to the NBA game and many blame lack of legs/strength/physical toll it takes.
If that happens 3 years in a row to Man U, and injuries that typically take X time to recover take 2X, and some are fatigue/duress related, and generally seem like they don’t have a plan in place, etc…?
Sanderson isn’t accountable to anyone but JB which is fine. JB should be looking at this with a high degree of scrutiny. It is one of the areas that potentially could have had the biggest impact on the last three years of performance.
To just say “things happen” is reasonable when its once or twice. Not when its multiple times over 2-3y. I think its irresponsible not to look at it in depth at this stage, but most of my concern here is with JB and whether he is asking the question, not with Sanderson doing a good or bad job in execution.
I never said don’t look at it in depth. Self reflection, investigation and evaluation is an important aspect of every successful individual and organization. I just said let’s not condemn people until we know they’re at fault.
Fully agreed, and not in the business of condemning anybody at this point, just concerned that no one is doing the due diligence to find the real root causes year-on-year [the only real thing that weakens my support of the current regime].
On Sanderson, definitely not saying there is fire there, just that there is now enough data to say there is smoke.
Please. Spike said his hip problems are genetic. Irvin didn’t train with the team this summer. It is believed that he injured his back while at home in Indiana. Caris very likely has a high ankle sprain (although we might never know, this seems like the most likely diagnosis based on all that we know).
Like Pratt said–Sanderson probably got too much praise when things were going well, and he’s getting too much criticism now.
He definitely isn’t all to blame here, but it does make you wonder. It is undeniable that his training does it improve lateral quickness, I’m not sure anyone on this team is laterally quick besides Walton. MAAR maybe, but it’s definitely not plus quickness.
I mean, I think it has more to do with the caliber of athlete that is being recruited. The best trainer in the world can’t make Duncan Robinson into Michael Jordan.
Michigan fans went through this same praise/blame game with Mike Barwis, and then with Hoke’s S&C guy.
Alum just hit the nail on the head. You want a guy to have great lateral quickness you recruit the kid that has it and then continue to improve it. You want a guy who can elevate on the bounce you recruit the athlete who can do this and you improve on it.