OK, 63 had it about right in my opinion--With our bigs next season and playing pretty much the same system we will be just fine--only better. Everyone bought in as 63 says. BUT we must remember one BIG thing, we lost FIVE games in a row without the lynchpin --MILTON DOYLE--He ,even though we played OK without him, is really what made the system go. Without the buy-in by the team AND without Milt, we would have NOT succeeded. It all goes together.
--Next season will be a lulu. I feel. These last two roster spoys will be icing on the cake. (A future Turk/ Earl perhaps and maybe a swift point guard.)

I think a fight for second place finish , with WSU looking over their shoulders is a good wager.

Before we get ahead of ourselves..

James like Kirby went to Coffeyville. James was first team all conference his first year and second team his second year. Kirby did not even get an honorable mention. In Coffeyville's final game they were beaten by 6-6 210 lbs Deshawn Freeman who put up 38 points and 18 rebounds. Hutchinson's dominated the inside which included Kirby.

Kirby will contribute but more than likely will need another year before he becomes a starter. I could be wrong.

Kirby will help against teams with big men and add some shot blocking and rebounding. It appears he will take a little more time.

So you're saying... Kirb your enthusiasm ?

Swellafelon,

I realize that you are not impressed with Kirby’s 7.9 rebounds per game last year, but I would point out that it would have placed him 3rd among the nation’s freshman rebounders this year, behind

9.2 for UCLA’s Kevon Looney &
8.5 for Duke’s Jahlil Okafor

And 2nd in the MVC among all players behind Mockevicius’ 9.9 rpg (note: as a freshman Mockevicius averaged 5.0 rpg).

I did note, among the scouting reports on Kirby, they mentioned that due to his wingspand, he has a longer reach (like a 6-11 or 7-0 player) than other players his height.

If Kirby starts, I would look for James’ (Loyola’s top returning rebounder at 4.3 rpg) rebounds to increase substantially, as I would think opponents will be concentrating on boxing Kirby out.

As far as minutes played, I highly approve of the coach’s giving the players rest this year, as opposed to our players leading the league in minutes played in prior years. We were 8-1 games decided by 2 buckets or less this year, as opposed to prior years when we would run out of gas & lose the close ones.

Fleet writes that he liked PM giving our guys rests this past season--Part of the system that the team bought into--Fleet and the rest of you bring up stats --Good--All I say is the results of this system proves that we had so many guns. We just kept coming at our mostly bigger opponents--We were rested --they were not--TOO MANY GUNS !!! In my opinion, PM sold his system--the team unselfishly bought it--A lot of players on most teams would have whined about minutes--We did not--results TWENTY FOUR WINS-- TWO tourney wins !!

Marvelous !

Another thought on Maurice Kirby. In addition to his solid rebounding, scoring, FG percentage, & playing for a successful solid JC team.

He didn’t foul. He averaged less than 1 foul per game & only 1.1 fouls per 40 minutes played.

By comparison, all 6 big men (6-7 or taller) on Wichita State averaged more than 4 fouls per 40 minutes played (Carter, Morris, Kelly, Glass, Nurger, & Wamukota - Morris was tops, averaging 8.8 fouls per 40 minutes).