It seems most of the hate towards Howland comes from people who don't know what they're talking about. Usually their comments either start or end with "I'm not a basketball fan but...", or "I never played but...", it's ridiculous.

I'm not a sunshine pumper, but I'm seeing something totally different than what you guys are.

I'm sick of hearing you non basketball people talking about what we should and shouldn't do, especially regarding coaching. I've even heard yall talk about rather having an x's and o's coach over a recruiter and then bring up Andy f**king Kennedy. The same AK that just lost to Auburn after being up double digits in the 2nd half. Thank God you guys aren't in charge of making hires. AK hasn't done shit. Stop comparing what we do to what om does. They are mediocre and always will be. We have our sights on something bigger. Sure it's frustrating and taking more time than we'd like, but look at Auburn and what they're doing this year. What has Pearl done there until this year? It takes time!

You guys don't realize what Rick MF Ray did to our program. He killed it. Absolutely destroyed it. Howland had NOTHING to work with his 1st year. NOTHING. He did what he could. He went out and got the highest rated player to ever commit to State. Wasn't his fault Mali turned out the way he did. In fact, most fans were glad he was gone and praised Howland for not putting up with it.

So that left us with Q and Holman last year to lead THE youngest team in the country. There were ups and downs but we relied on freshmen and sophomores with a mediocre at best SR PG. Wasn't a great year but we found a way to get to .500 to finish the season.

Then Kegler decides to leave which hurts depth if anything. Again, not Howland's fault. Herard was highly rated because of his size and potential. But he's a soccer player turned basketball player. Now sure you can question why he wasn't improving, but some kids just don't get it. There are certain skills that can't be taught that he obviously lacked. Him leaving hurts depth but will open up possibilities for other guys.

Lamar Peters has potential to be elite. But it's all on him. Sure coaches can "help", but there's only so much a coach can do when it comes dealing with a player's mental state. A lot of yall talk about missing Stansbury but did yall forget all the drama and bs from a lot of his players? Yall forget all the transfers? Lamar can only help Lamar.

Stapleton and Wright just aren't good. I think Wright should move on and Stapleton is a Rick Ray type of player as far as basketball IQ goes.

Nick is what we need and he will become great once he gets settled into his leadership role. He's the guy we've been missing for years. But he's just a freshman.

Q is a great college player but needs to start shifting his leadership responsibilities to his brother and become a great role player like he naturally is.

Peters has that elite potential as I stated earlier.

Ado will only get better and be a great player for us. Don't forget he's a freshman.

Holman is solid. Can't ask much more from him. He'll improve too.

Carter has good basketball IQ, he just forces things sometimes but I like his style and his potential.

Datcher has improved. But will always be a backup.

Feazell will be good for us one day. He's got talent, but he's a freshman.

I'm sure I'm leaving out someone, but this year just is what it is. Still young and relying on young guys to lead. I for one see a lot of maturation and improvements from this team. Just give them some time.

Basketball relies on good players more so than what some of yall think. There are only so many x's and o's that a coach can draw up. It's not really like football where you have coordinators scheming up plays every single down where a lot falls on what the coach draws up. In basketball your players have to go out there and play the game. It's about feel and chemistry. There's a lot of improv that you don't get in a lot of other sports.

Is Howland perfect? No, but nobody is. I'm proud of the defense we've shown this year and to me that says a lot about the coach. You guys just got to lay off a little bit, bitching isn't helping anybody. Still a lot of games left to be played, let's see what happens and then next year I feel like we WILL have that breakout year as long as we don't lose any of our valuable players. This team needs everyone to rally around them. We've got a good AD that WILL do what it takes when it's time. Some you have nothing to lose by supporting this team. One of the hardest things to do as a coach is to keep a positive attitude within the team after losses start to stack up. If you bash the team, coaches, and don't show up to games when you can, you can't expect things to get better. Like I said, Cohen will do the right thing. Just don't give up on these guys (and coach), not yet.