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Worst basketball season ever for Sac State?

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Sorry Stung, I disagree with you. His job is to recruit players that will be leaders in society by using a basketball scholarship to graduate from college. Yes he has to win, but here is the problem when you change college basketball coaches. If you hire/fire them after the season ends, you only have a few weeks for the recruitment process as those dates are set by school reps to the various committee's of the NCAA.

You didn't read my earlier post. He had to come in and evaluate the talent that was scheduled to return. When he found out that guys like Alonzo Young, Darnell Ferguson, Wandji Aboubakar were going to flunk out, he needed to replace those guys. Again, at the last possible moment before the deadline to transfer date, McGhee jumped ship. What was he supposed to do in finding a starting point guard?

I understand you are frustrated with the lack of wins this year. So I am. However, your mentality of win now is what is wrong with this country's psyche. It has been building for the last 20 years. Remember patience is a virtue. That is one thing I teach my children...I hope its something you teach yours. Good things come to those who wait.
 
SactoHornetAlum said:
Sorry Stung, I disagree with you. His job is to recruit players that will be leaders in society by using a basketball scholarship to graduate from college. Yes he has to win, but here is the problem when you change college basketball coaches. If you hire/fire them after the season ends, you only have a few weeks for the recruitment process as those dates are set by school reps to the various committee's of the NCAA.

You didn't read my earlier post. He had to come in and evaluate the talent that was scheduled to return. When he found out that guys like Alonzo Young, Darnell Ferguson, Wandji Aboubakar were going to flunk out, he needed to replace those guys. Again, at the last possible moment before the deadline to transfer date, McGhee jumped ship. What was he supposed to do in finding a starting point guard?

I understand you are frustrated with the lack of wins this year. So I am. However, your mentality of win now is what is wrong with this country's psyche. It has been building for the last 20 years. Remember patience is a virtue. That is one thing I teach my children...I hope its something you teach yours. Good things come to those who wait.
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Great way to say it. Our society is so win now and I can't stand it.
 
Cecesdada, first off I would like to say THANK YOU. You are one of the few that has the big picture in mind. While right now, everyone is seeing the short term goals of winning and Katz's production of "magic and miracles." Fact: we are not winning right now, everyone can see that. But, like someone mentioned earlier, good things come to those who wait. This program could not be turned around by ANYONE overnight, much less a volunteer, as some pessimist said. A true hornet fan would see that Katz is a first year D1 coach, who had 3 weeks to recruit, and is attempting to clean up one of the biggest messes in basketball ever made. The big picture right now is to have a team that is a consistent threat to our opposition and thats wins games we're supposed to as well as the games we're not. This takes time, and I think that if everyone got their heads out of the ground, they could see that THAT is the ultimate goal... To have a program that wins and that our community is proud of and respects.

For those of you who had never seen Katz coach at Delta or anywhere else, you would be surprised to find out how positive and supportive of his boys he is being. I have seen many, many, many Delta games in my life, and let me tell you, this is extremely hard on Katz, yet his attitude has been very positive. Delta was, and still is a powerhouse, Katz is used to being in the winning position. With how poorly the games have been going, you rarely see Katz fly off the handle or berate his players. Instead, he calls huddles, tells them the plans and tries his best to sternly re-motivate them. He is the last person that is going to give up on this team and he will never give less than 150%. Who are any of you to doubt him in any way? We should all be loyal to the Hornets as fans of our players and in support of our new coach.
 
I'm not jumping ship, I've put to much time into being a fan to just to up and quit being one after a bad season. Being as how most people on this board dont know one another on a personal level, outside of this site, it's hard to tell who is a true fan. Trust me, I bleed green and gold!

bball06, it is the fans job to question everything, especially when they see something they dont like. And on a site like this, this is where it happens. It's a place for fans to blow off steam and talk about what they think is working or isnt working. I dont think that there is anyone here that doesnt like Katz, I think the problem is that some of us were expecting something that was impossible with a new coach and the time he had to recruit.

Just because someone disagrees with you doesnt mean that they're ill informed, what you posted was nothing that hasnt been discussed on this board or in the media before.

A team cannot be in a rebuilding year for near 13 years, when you say that you're rebuilding every year, you have to ask yourself, when is this going to stop. Maybe Katz will build a great team eventually, I hope he does. :)
 
StungAlum said:
I'm not jumping ship, I've put to much time into being a fan to just to up and quit being one after a bad season. Being as how most people on this board dont know one another on a personal level, outside of this site, it's hard to tell who is a true fan. Trust me, I bleed green and gold!

bball06, it is the fans job to question everything, especially when they see something they dont like. And on a site like this, this is where it happens. It's a place for fans to blow off steam and talk about what they think is working or isnt working. I dont think that there is anyone here that doesnt like Katz, I think the problem is that some of us were expecting something that was impossible with a new coach and the time he had to recruit.

Just because someone disagrees with you doesnt mean that they're ill informed, what you posted was nothing that hasnt been discussed on this board or in the media before.

A team cannot be in a rebuilding year for near 13 years, when you say that you're rebuilding every year, you have to ask yourself, when is this going to stop. Maybe Katz will build a great team eventually, I hope he does. :)
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Of course its a fan's job to question things they do not like, but is it their job to begin doubting someone so early in their career of many firsts? I'm just trying to stand up for the guy, it seems like a lot of unnecessary bashing going on... And just to clarify, I don't think I ever called anyone's comments ill informed. I'm trying to be positive and support Katz, because he is facing an incredible challenge none of us could ever begin to take on. He deserves more credit and support. Also, if anyone read the article that Voisin wrote on Katz, you might notice how un-biased she was. More often than not, she adds her sarcasm and her usual bashing of the subjects of her articles....Even she must have see Katz's straight shooter style and his honesty and thought he must be something different... This is an excerpt from the article:

"When you're 1-14, your jugular is exposed," Katz said the other day, matter-of-factly. "That's the way it is. The coaches before me could all coach. You're naive to think you're going to outcoach everybody. It's about getting players. At the end of my five-year contract, it's going to be real simple. We did well, or we didn't. Nobody cares about excuses or reasons."

Wow. No bells, no whistles, no nonsense. You have to like this guy. He knows what befell Jerome Jenkins and Tom Abatemarco and Don Newman – the men who came before – and still took the job. He knows about the ghastly one-win seasons and the local dump he's trying to turn into a destination gym, and still he believes he can overcome. Most importantly, he still thinks he can recruit."

If Voisin sees something, can't everyone else?
 
I was addressing two posts at once, sorry, the ill informed comment was directed at another poster.

I would love to see Katz succeed, there's no question. But, it's hard to look at a coach in a positive light when they have a record like his team does, whether or not it's his fault.
 
I don't know Katz so I don't have a reason to love him or hate him. Personally, I wasn't expecting a winning season since we've never really had one before. But I wasn't expecting 1 and 15 either. Even so, I can except 1 and 15 if some of the games were competitive. The games are just sickening to watch. Is that a reflection of Katz? It is if he wants to own it. Like I've said before, I hope he's the one. Who wants to wait 5 years to find it was a bad call? I've been a fan for a long time, but I'm a Hornets fan. Not a Katz fan, or a Jenkins fan either for that matter. You think Katz is a Hornet fan? Let him turn this program around and have the Pac-10 make a call. Just because a fan questions doesn't make him/her less a fan. Intelligence questions; skeptism questions. I agree there's no place for cynicism. But I haven't read 1 cynical remark about Katz throughout this whole string. Just questions. I've spoke on both sides of my view on Katz'. He's done a masterful job of keeping the team's spirits up. But I also thought he should have been prepared for GW's pressure. They're an east coast Atlantic 10 team and that's what those teams do. How were we caught off guard? But more to the point, I'd like to know his plan for recruiting, and for building this program. I've only heard he's going to build a realtionship with the local coaches and players. Okay, what else? That's admirable. And it's a start, but I've always said this is not a basketball town. You can do that with football. Not basketball. I want to hear stuff like we need a TV contract or at the very least a Coach Show. Kid's want to be in the media, on TV. Build a YouTube for Hornets Basketball. I want to hear a plan. This stuff we can do without an arena. It's unfair to a true fan to be 1 and 15 and not let us know what the plan is for future success. Another thing, we can forget about a "recruiting class" as we know it. Sac Sate will never (at least no time soon) produce 4 to 5 impact recruits per year. Maybe we can reduce the number of scholarships we have and reinvest that money into the recruiting budget and target 1 to 2 quality players each year. Maybe we'll get a Jason Harris one year; a Vinnie McGhee next year; a DeShaun Freeman the year after and build role players around them. But we have to do something different. What is insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Hey, Coach, just let us know we're not going insane.
 
Willie, great post. I am a Hornets fan and would like to like Katz, but until we get more W's than L's, I am skeptical of anyone as the HC. I think you have every right to take this position. Do you think Kings, Raiders, 49er's fans blindly support their losing coach because they love the city the team plays in, no. They are vocal and want a winning program or change. Being 'pessimistic' after 20 plus years of losing is all we have.

The athletics program is THE only reason I come back to Sac State. Without it, or until we have something to be proud of it is just another hobby.
 
I have followed Sac State hoops for almost 20 years also, and yes, all the losing has sucked. I understand all that has been said regarding the inability of the school to improve it's facilities, the inability of the program to attract blue ship recruits, etc. That being said, to sit and judge a coach who essentially had to hit the reset button on a DIVISION 1 basketball program is silly.

I have no problem complaining that team is playing terribly, and some of the responsibility may fall on Katz's shoulders. How about lets give the guy a year of recruiting and see if the team starts to improve before we officially burn him at the stake.
 
So how does one recruit to a team that is 1-whatever. I mean why would any athlete with any potential want to give Sac State a shot? How can this program be turned around when there doesn't seem to be much going for it?
 
There are kids that will come. There are good players that want to go somewhere and PLAY!! This Coach is very classy. I like the way he treated his boys. I only saw the Davis game but I was impressed. As fans, we all just need to get behind the whole basketball program and lift these very hard working kids up. Both boys and girls. They don't have great facilities and they don't have it easy. There has been improvements on both ends. He definitly deserves more time to recruit.
 
I agree with you luv...Katz is very classy, and the Davis game was a good one to see! However, even though we have so many losses, Katz is always classy, which I think is a great quality to have a coach. I think you're right about he players too, they don't have it easy, but hopefully by next year things will pick up and this program can begin to get better and better.
 
SDHornet said:
So how does one recruit to a team that is 1-whatever. I mean why would any athlete with any potential want to give Sac State a shot? How can this program be turned around when there doesn't seem to be much going for it?
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It takes a wonderful sell job by the coach. He will probably try to sell them on coming to be on the ground floor of building the program. He will promise them playing time right away, instead of riding pine at a bigger program. He may even have to gamble on some borderline academic players. My hope is that he will be able to get a good mix of high school and JC players. I agree with the class of this coach. I just hope that it translates to some good recruits.
 
Katz is the HC for the next 5 years, like it or not. He has a contract and the school can't buy him out even if it wanted to.

I think Katz deserves at least three years to gain .500, after that maybe he isn't the one. He is an alum and at least deserves our support.

My local Jnr HS has a better gym, until that changes Katz is selling snow to Eskimos.
 
Recruiting is going to be Katz' biggest obstacle, the facilities and lack of fan support are definitely issues with mens basketball and most other athletics at Sac State. If the recruits dont come, how can he succeed? You cant take pooh and turn it into gold. I guess we'll have to wait and see how well Katz does with regard to recruiting.

I like the fact that he's looking outside of California for recruits, there seems to be this stigma when a good local athlete here's that Sac State's interested, otherwise we'd be getting the best in the area. That doesnt mean that I dont appreciate or like local recruits, I like them very much and think that they are important to building a fan base and community support, but it just seems that it is very hard to get the really good ones.

On a positive note, Leath scored 41 points tonight! That's pretty impressive.
 
Katz will have the Hornets trying on dancing shoes before his contract is up. I guarantee it.

In fact, I STILL have faith that the Hornets will be in the conference tournament THIS year. Katz WILL get this thing turned around.

BTW, Voisin is the best current sportswriter in the country and the second-best in history. (I'm STILL disappointed that the best of all time got burned out on sports and went to writing human interest articles at the Record in Stockton.)
 
SuperHornet, well said. Katz doesn't give up and he'll have those boys jumping through rings of fire and running liners until they throw up. Sac needs a coach like this.
 
Here's the thing and that until the school administration gets serious about this 8,000 seat arena to be built, we will continue to suffer. I wonder if it would be prudent to try and at least spend the money it would take to rent Arco out just using the lower bowl (about 8,000 seats already). Heck, recruits would at least want to come and play here then even if you struggle, you could reasonably still draw about 3-4,000 a game. It would at least raise the profile of the program.
 
nice group of young men playing for us but i was hoping for a closer game today... what confrence game if any are we goinig to win ?
 
Alum – How would playing in Arco draw 3-4,000 people? Why would that many people show up to watch a 1-18 team play? Even if they decided to rent Arco for the next few years there still would not be 3-4,000 people going to the games. If Sac State is going to blow tens of thousands to rent Arco for the sake of the basketball program, why not just put that money towards a new on-campus arena.

Sacattack – The answer is no one. When a team loses to the second worst team in the conference at home by 25 points, it eliminates any hope of another victory this season. At least after this loss there will not be anymore ridiculous claims or guarantees of Katz taking Sac State to the conference tournament.
 
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