To me, the primary reason for last night's debacle is simple: Stackhouse has failed in recruiting and retention. Hopefully this year's large freshman class will finally be his first successful class, but when you only have 5 returning players heading into your 5th season, that is a problem. When Lawrence and Dort can't play and Lewis has to leave the game, what's left? If Stack had recruited well enough, he wouldn't have felt compelled to push so many players out the door (which still doesn't feel right to me, but we don't know how it all went down). That is all on him.
What we ended up with is Manjon and a bunch of new players, which resulted in no flow or continuity, which is what we are all used to seeing from his teams at the beginning of the season. It was bad luck to have to start the season without Tyrin, Lubin, and Dort, but good programs overcome that with other veteran players stepping up. A few programs who can get the top recruits and transfers can make it work with a lot of roster turnover. Vanderbilt cannot. I really respect Stackhouse as a coach, but we are still paying for his learning curve. He was not prepared for college recruiting and roster construction, and because of that we are still playing catch-up.
What we ended up with is Manjon and a bunch of new players, which resulted in no flow or continuity, which is what we are all used to seeing from his teams at the beginning of the season. It was bad luck to have to start the season without Tyrin, Lubin, and Dort, but good programs overcome that with other veteran players stepping up. A few programs who can get the top recruits and transfers can make it work with a lot of roster turnover. Vanderbilt cannot. I really respect Stackhouse as a coach, but we are still paying for his learning curve. He was not prepared for college recruiting and roster construction, and because of that we are still playing catch-up.
