Cks

We are so fortunate…

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Calling it here and now folks… National Champs 2019.

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Yes we are. Completely changed the culture. Nobody out-toughs us anymore.

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What were your thoughts of Tom Penders and why he failed?

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I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have here. Wasn’t that long ago that what? 5 guys took a hike when he took the job here? We were a shambles, terrible facility, lousy schedule, apathetic fan base and students. CKS had a plan, worked it and didn’t waver.Just like he has a plan for every move he makes during the course of a game. Rotation, minutes, rules…everything part of the plan.

We won’t win every game, nobody does but I know two things…we won’t get out hustled…and we won’t get out coached.

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I loved the pender’s era. It was my transition from student to grad. It was my first exposure to cougar b-ball. We didn’t have the facilities we have now. I’m no expert but if I remember correctly he build his teams on jucos. Also coach cal was at Memphis. Cusa at best would get another team in the tourney…uab. I wish we had more success with him…

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Penders was a great coach but the facilities were so bad the bigs would not come here.

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The reason Penders failed was lack of facilities, not enough 4yr guys, and when cusa broke apart it became a 1 bid league

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CKS! All Caps! He deserves it!

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Absolutely! my favorite team during his era was the 2005 team with Lanny, Oshow, Dyer, Thorpe, and Lawson. Second best or actually third best team including this years that I’ve seen since following. Cougar basketball.

I would say Sampson is like penders on steroids!

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Don’t insult Kelvin. He’s nothing like Herman

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Oh no I was not at all insulting either! Just comparing the two. Both actually had somewhat similar resumes before coming here and offensively their styles arent that different. Emphasis on Defense and recruiting is what I think seperates.

This. Sampson is also a better coach but it’s hard to compare them. Penders had terrible facilities and no plans to address any of them. Sampson never had to deal with that.

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That’s true. We are in a MUCH better basketball conference now.

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Oh god I hope so, to erase my memory of the NC State loss!!!

I am beginning to believe this is a dark horse final four team.

We will have a better feel for it on February 10th.

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Plain and simple too many JUCOs. You can’t build a culture like CKS has done when you are cycling out players every other year.

The facilities hurt as well. I remember in an interview CKS said he had taken the job without seeing the facilities and was told that our administration knew he wouldn’t have taken the job if he had.

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Wait… Penders failed here? Took an 18 loss team and consistantly won no less than 18 in his time here. Back to back wins agains ranked teams for the first time since 84. Conference championship and the first NCAA bid in almost 2 decades? With the facilities we had… that guy worked miracles.

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Ahh terrible word choice from me…really meant not as succesful as we might have hoped. You are absolutely right! My first year watching cougar basketball was mcallums last year! That basketball was difficult to watch and you knew the team had some talent and potential.

I really like Penders. These days, he’s a HUGE UH supporter. I’m glad there’s no sour grapes…similar to John Jenkins.

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