Fox left Crean a pretty solid group of:

Claxton
Hammonds
Ogbeide
Jackson
Harris
Crump
Hightower
Wilridge

and he went 2-16!! Ain't nothing wrong with that group whatsoever. It's THIS Coach not THAT Coach that's been just plain awful.

I have to disagree with your assessment of that group. Claxton became good under Crean. Ogbeide was what he was; he rebounded and played tough inside. Hammonds was highly rated and had big scoring games against bad opponents but disappeared in big games. None of the others came close to playing at a high enough level to make us competitive. I don't blame Crean for Fox's bare cupboard. But the we get further from that group, the more it is Crean's responsibility. We need to be better. I don't think anyone would argue the point.

Fair assessment. I can live with this for a year. And you're right about Dollar. Really expected more.

Think we win tomorrow. We're due.

Wait, I thought we played tonight.

Fox's second year players often had breakout soph seasons. I don't believe Crean deserves more credit (less actually) than Jonas, Fox and S&C Coach Hayes in Claxton's development.

I seriously can't come up with a damn thing Crean and Staff have done better than Fox and Staff.

"I seriously can't come up with a damn thing Crean and Staff have done better than Fox and Staff."

Words I never imagined would be spoken.

You make a very good point. Crean has done nothing better and we are much worse on defense.

Wait, wait... maybe inbounds plays
That's something.

I'll say! Current Defensive Efficiency Rankings have us #238, we finished #247 last year. Fox's last season we finished #61.

And it's not a pace of play thing.... Bama is currently #31 in DE per TeamRankings for this year.

Yes, we did!

I don't think anyone says we don't need to improve on defense. We are scoring at a higher clip; that makes up for some of it, but not all by any means. Two of the reasons we struggle on defense is our lack of size inside and our inability to defend on the ball. When a guy guarding the ball gets beaten, others have to leave their men to help. That puts people out of position and leaves open shooters. That is a recipe for giving up points.

To put things in a little perspective I refer anyone interested to an ESPN Classic from 1/7/65. In that a future Hall of Fame and NCAA champion coach in his fourth year was hung in effigy.
I'm not saying CTC is Dean Smith by any means, but the similarity is striking.
For the grammarians, an inanimate object is hung, a person is hanged.

I do think we're playing better. We have shortened our bench. Most of the dead wood is getting practically no PT. We have gotten our TOs down; we're shooting better; we're playing hard and defending better. All a recipe for improvement.

Dollar has me shaking my head. We are not recruiting at near the level we should in state. AU and FSU are killing us.

Are you assuming the grad transfers come back? I don't know whether they will or not. Still, Wheeler, Camara and Fagan are a good nucleus. Etter is serviceable off the bench. McMillan should improve. We need size and shooting. More grad transfers or JUCOs are likely. We aren't done in recruiting. Kier has been a bit disappointing - 1 for 10 shooting doesn't cut it. Garcia plays hard but is undersized. I wouldn't mind him coming back. Horne can shoot a bit inconsistently and is not an inside presence. He did play well against LSU this week.

I assume the grad transfers are out of eligibility?
I agree the returning nucleus is pretty good.
The 4 best players returning are wheeler, camara, fagan and kd. Etter is growing more valuable. They need to find a big defender and we look solid

Everyone gets an additional year of eligibility if they want it. It's unclear at this point who will take advantage of that.

Maybe Gracia will grow 5 inches over the summer?? This team desperately needs size.

That said, I've enjoyed watching the improvement.

This is a completely different team at home, so the USCjr game is must win. The added game against Alabama in Stegeman is a huge opportunity. Win both, stay off the bottom few lines in the SEC Tournament, and try to make some noise...

Lose both, and we're back to gnashing of teeth...

Monk, Are you forgetting, maybe one of the best returning players, when talking about next year's nucleus? What about Johnson?

Ok, that was pathetic. So much for finishing on a high note...

You're right! I did forget to put KD in that list. He would have helped a lot earlier in conference play if he had been eligible. But we do need some size from somewhere. Crean mentioned in a pre-game interview that he would love for all 3 grad transfers to come back next season. The door is open for them to do that. But there has to be some turnover with this roster. The 2 kids signed so far are not, on paper, significant improvements. We lack size and anything approaching consistent shooting.

Martin seems to have our number, having beaten us now 10 straight times, and we haven't looked good in any of them.

i think i mentioned this before.
everyone says we are in dire need of size.
with that in mind our three biggest guys rarely play. (mcmillan,taylor and ned)
they must really underperform in practice?

Ned is a complete waste of a scholarship. He's done nothing all year. Taylor is young and needs strength and experience in the system. He's looked lost in the few times he's played. McMillan has played some, but he just acts like a knucklehead sometimes. Getting in that huddle at USCe was just dumb and didn't endear him to the staff, I'm sure. We do need size, but just being big isn't enough; you have to have some other attributes to be able to contribute. It took Thornton until his redshirt junior year to show what he could do. Nemi had all around skills and became a really good player his last couple of years. Ogbeide was a bull in a china shop when he got to Athens (many would argue he stayed that the whole time), but he was strong and tough and could rebound. We have yet to see what attributes these guys have, if any.