If history has taught us anything, there is little reason to be optimistic that this will end successfully.
AD Search
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
I trust that the decision comes from our 3 person leadership team: President Fr. Shanley, CEO Coach Pitino and CFO Repole. I trust all 3 to make the best decision. They are all visionaries. The company involved will do the all important vetting.
Mullins Revenge
Well-known member
Shanley and Pitino has been around college hoops long enough to be able to put together a list of who the best AD candidates are. Silly that they went a hired a search firm to do this.
So they're experts and silly at the same time?
They still need a company to handle the vetting. No issues, no scandals no controversies. Then the Trinity selects.
It’s likely the Search Firm does a lot of grunt work in terms of finding Candidates , gauging interest , offering Compensation, Benefits , Contract term , etc
It also clears the way for Fr Shanley and Pitino to do their everyday jobs . Running the School and Coaching BB .
Redzone
Active member
I admittedly have no knowledge on potential AD's. However. If indeed RP's hire is a step toward long-term relevance. As I believe it is. An AD with a proven and stable history for overall sports growth and fiscal awareness is a must. This search should not be about only basketball or a candidates potential or StJ connections. He needs to be relentless about the programs success just as RP is about the MBB program.
I'm not so sure. I'm OK with Pitino giving the thumbs up or thumbs down, but Pitino's interest is myopic - what his program needs. This is why Shanley was convinced to build a basketball only facility and not address our overall worst in class facilities for our remaining 350 athletes. Pitino also was adamant about playing all conference games away from CA. It made no sense to put poor draws in MSG so UBS was the remaining option. When that proved to be a pretty bad arena for basketball and fan engagement, he asked to pull remaining games back to CA for a lively crowd and homecourt advantage. He had to be told these are contractual commitments that couldn't just be backed out of.
What we need and how that would work out are at present incongruent. A strong AD may likely want to dash the basketball only facility and retreat to the initial broad based plan.
For an AD to build successful teams you need a strong foundation. You need facilities to attract athletes that are comparable to other schools. You need a budget to pay for talented coaches. A friend of mine had a relationship with a top coach for a vacancy here. The coach had interest but was not worth pursuing because of salary requirements.
The likelihood is they will hire someone who is exactly what Cragg wasn't - someone who will follow administration's lead and focus primarily on basketball, while maintaining status quo on facilities and other sports. That person will work with development but raising funds will be outside the purview of the AD.
As I said, what we need and what we will probably (and should hire) is someone who does what he is told.
I may be naive, but I do think a strong basketball program will raise all other programs. So I support getting an AD who's singularly focused on the basketball program. That's the central thing that will get donors interested in athletics as a whole, which will then fund new programs/facilities/NIL/etc. We haven't had a consistently strong one in over 20 years, so its not a surprise the downstream effects.
MarkRedman
Well-known member
If Joe Oliva has a strong voice in this decision, history tells me that we're screwed once again
Pitino has been quoted time and again concerning SJUs great tradition and recent failures in men’s basketball. While Joe Oliva is not totally responsible for the collapse he certainly hasn’t done anything to inspire confidence. I assume Pitino and Father Shanley will be making all decisions regarding men’s basketball.
+1000 on Pitino’s interest (which I understand and is in his best interest) and why his involvement should be minimal.
When I read Joe Olivia I was like ok here we go again. However we have a father in charge of this and pitino involved. So I'm not concerned but hiring this committee? I guess as some one said they do all the grunt work. Remember father got us Rick Olivia hasn't been relevant to our team in a while . At the end of the day who cares Rick is running our team for the next couple of years father and Rick will decide o a successor so who cares.
Plus Cragg we were all excited a duke guy who was a part of their basketball dynasty. Still can't forgive him for extending Anderson who had years left after that one awesome season cut short
Plus Cragg we were all excited a duke guy who was a part of their basketball dynasty. Still can't forgive him for extending Anderson who had years left after that one awesome season cut short
I cannot tell you with certainty where the idea to extend Anderson from 4 additional years with 2 remaining came from, but I can tell you certainty that no one, not Cragg, not Shanley, not Oliva, nor the chair of the BOT was against that extension. To my knowledge Oliva negotiates and approves all athletic department contracts. As an attorney he should have insisted on a reasonable buyout of remaining years (maybe 1 year severance up to 50% of remaining value) should they wish to terminate Anderson at any point. To me that's not on the AD, but given that Shanley is taking credit for the Pitino hire, he also takes credit for firing Anderson, thus by guaranteeing Pitino 20 million (wanna bet that's all guaranteed) and owing Anderson $11.8 mm, he is risking up to $32 million of university dollars. This is an administration that succeeded Gempeshaw, who guided the school through rocky financial times including a sharp stock market correction and a decline of 500 of the freshman class. Meaning our endowment declined by over $100 million, and revenue for the freshman class declined by about $25 million.
Reasonably we can't call these moves by Shanley , plus a basketball practice facility, till it improves the university bottom line.
