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I especially believe our sophomores are the core of our basketball team and they will provide the primary leadership this fall. Has to do with the intuition that their time in HS and AAU gives them a picture of how to lead.

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I think highly of all of our sophomores but I don't think AAU provides much leadership development and is mainly a platform for showcasing individual skills. I think last season and this summer will provide more leadership development for them than all 4 years of high school and AAU combined. I think even the boot camp training last summer was more leadership development than they got from AAU.

I think it largely depends on how they influenced each other including choosing to come to A&M as a group. Know AJ jr and possibly AJ himself were influential, too. Not specifically blaming AAU for causing leadership. Just that they had opportunities to play together and showed chemistry.

quote:

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I think it largely depends on how they influenced each other including choosing to come to A&M as a group. Know AJ jr and possibly AJ himself were influential, too. Not specifically blaming AAU for causing leadership. Just that they had opportunities to play together and showed chemistry.

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Not only that but three of the four soph's lead their teams to state championships in high school and were instrumental pieces to a sweet 16 run as freshmen. They have been through the fire and understand what it takes to win with the game on the line and to compete at a high level.

Congratulations Tavario!! Keep it up!!

https://twitter.com/aggiesbtb/status/748936646519697409/photo/1

So I guess that means Tyler's wrist has improved.

Masochist ^

With all things considered, is Darby the best coach of our basketball staff?

AggieBaller98 said:

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With all things considered, is Darby the best coach of our basketball staff?

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Maybe? I think if they all got canned, Maligi or Chew would be first hired.

I see many "beast of the week" awards in his future.

Steeple said:

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it is simply amazing that in the 6+ years of BK's tenure, that Darby is the only person that he has had on staff who actually played Division 1 basketball.

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Assistant Coach Amir Abdul-Rahim played D1 basketball at southeastern Louisiana from 2001-2004, where he was a three time All-Southland conference selection, coached by Billy Kennedy. After playing for Kennedy, he eventually got an assistant coaching job at Murray State and then was hired by BK to replace John Reese back in 2014. Amir's brother is former NBA All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

Why is there any footage of that walkon there? Can we move past featuring guys that aren't good at D1 basketball?

Correction noted.

The point stands in that BK has had far less D1 basketball experience between himself and his bench coaches than virtually any other top quality D1 program. And that is a structural weakness.

Steeple said:

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Correction noted.

The point stands in that BK has had far less D1 basketball experience between himself and his bench coaches than virtually any other top quality D1 program. And that is a structural weakness.

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Umm...while the point is interesting, I'm sure I subscribe to the notion people selected for tallness and athleticism necessarily are more qualified to coach. I'm generally more enamored with someone that teaches to someone that plays from a coaching perspective.

There certainly is a player respect issue when you have a coach that has "paid his dues", but a good coach might not have played at the college basketball level.

Well, you can be a good coach without playing D1 basketball. Mark Few and Frank Martin are examples. But frankly most top level coaches have D1 playing experience

Coach K Army
Roy Williams Kansas
Calipari UNC Wilmington
Bill Self Ok State
Tom Izzo Northern Michigan
Jim Boeheim Syracuse
Jay Wright Bucknell
Billy Donovan Providence
Rick Pitino UMass
Sean Miller Pitt
Gregg Marshall Randolph-Macon
Steve Alford Indiana
Tony Bennett UW Green Bay
Lon Kruger K State
Bob Huggins West Virginia

In the SEC, only BK, Martin, Pearl and Wade do not have D1 playing experience. Given what we already know about BK, this is not reassuring.

BK could've been Big East MVP and how he coaches is
how he coaches. I agree time on the bench is great. Chris Mullin, Drexler, and many other good college players have been flops as HCs.

Yes. It's pretty good. Hasn't changed a whole bunch for our program but probably for independent development especially the big 3.