Did any of the three ever play a meaningful minute? I know I'm providing an opening to trash Tony again but all coaches have there fair share of players that never make an impact. How about Thames exiting and Dre' Winston entering for example. Not the best exchange.
Nigel John
- Thread starter etowncoug
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Bones plan for Hawk was to have him put on a bunch of weight an bang in the paint. Kent had him slim down and hit jumpers. He went from being a deep reserve to a double double overnight.
That's humourous to say the least. He was a deep reserve because he had guys in front of him that were better when he was a frosh. After all Ben Johnson was the coach of the bigs.....at that time
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Nope not the best exchange. He mishandled Thames. He should have handed him the ball and possibly he would have not decided he was leaving before the first conference game.
You mean the player everyone thought was a huge mistake in offering? Wasn't there discontent when i believe the kid from Missouri was left without a scholie?
Bone didn't have a plan for Hawk.
But I was referencing Bones decision to end the teams run up the hill because basketball courts don't have hills on them. Tony had the team do it to instill a mindset.
I have heard that story about Bone and Hawk multiple times. I will believe it when someone who heard it directly from a coach tells me. They wanted Hawk badly, but thought he woul need a red shirt, and that someone else would get him and promise playing time as a frosh. Not sure how the d4cision was made to use him in limited minutes.
He practiced in Bones system fir a season and got stronger. Kent didnt turn him in to the player he became as a soph in a month if practice.
He practiced in Bones system fir a season and got stronger. Kent didnt turn him in to the player he became as a soph in a month if practice.
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Seems like his success at PSU and at SPU they had the right mindset to win. If rochestie was on Bones teams they would have won quite a few more games and it wasn't about mind set.
If you can't hit a free throw down the stretch I don't care if you run the stadium 1000 times. Sometimes it comes down to making plays.
Very different situations. Due to the location of each school, Bone could lean heavily on his reputation in the coaching community to get talented locals who weren't quite big time talents to stay home. He wasn't winning with inferior talent.
Bone was never going to get superior talent to come to Pullman. Even our NCAA teams weren't in the top half of the conference in overall talent. We had established a phenomenal work ethic though and it was a mistake to not keep that in focus. History will continue to make Bone look better though. His strength with X's and O's wasn't enough to overcome his lack of personality.
One of their better players transferred from Portland. Bone likely did the same at SPU in terms of picking up leftover talent that was better than most of the competitions base. He needed to adjust what he had previously done through his career.
The thing I never understood is he supposedly had a connection to Marv Harshman. I have to think if he asked Harshman about his time in Pullman the first thing Harshman would have told him was despite for the most part finishing ahead of the UW in conference he never signed a player to WSU that the UW wanted. Those were Harshman's words not mine.
WSU requires a different mindset and Bone's was at least partially flawed from the start. It's hard to survive in Pullman if it takes a couple years to learn. In fact you are pretty much *****d. Sampson barely survived.
Ultimately Moore wasn't the best PG. I felt Thames could be our "Conroy" and Moore our "Nate Robinson". Thames and Moore were also close. Hindsight is always 20/20 but could have turned out different if Bone made Thames the PG and let the chips fall where they may. Moore and Seattle blurred his vision.
Most of those minutes for Thames came off the ball and he was a PG. I always saw Thames as a big loss.
True those were Harshman's words after he was the Coach at UW. Actually Marv rarely recruited anyone it was Jed that saved his bacon.
Josh spent the summer between freshman and sophomore year (Bone to Kent transition) traveling with an FCA traveling team in China where he lit it up vs international players. That coach and experience contributed a lot to his development.
In hindsight Bone did as well. Thames gave it all of 8 non conference games for Bone to figure it out. The issue just wasn’t playing time but was the fact Thames wanted to be the primary ballhandler .
And if things had played out and say Moore didn’t have his problems, they may have been unconventional like the lakers were with Magic and Norm Nixon and moved Moore to the off guard.
But heading into that first season when Bone was assessing his team where was the scoring going to come from?
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