Next Coach?
- Thread starter Knight
- Start date
2011 squad was another special group; had great hopes for them until Kennedy went down in the BET.
IMHO bringing Lavin back would be a shortsighted and foolish move. It goes under the heading of those who fail to learn from history and doomed to repeat it. No question the team is playing well right now, though how much of that is attributable to coaching genius is open to debate. OTOH if you look at the body of work and also look at the next year or two it offers a broader perspective.
It's usually not wise to make a long-term decision based on an isolated event.
There is no way the school will change coaches and there is no reason for them to do so despite the nay sayers. Interestingly I was reading the book on Lapchick and there is a portion which relates how many in the school wanted his head but then he went on to win two NIT tourneys at a time when the NIT was bigger than the NCAA.
here would be my question. would you rather make ncaa's and fire lavin and just start completely from scratch in regards to recruiting assuming we lose our top recruit
or
would we be better off making the ncaa's having Lavin hopefully salvage this recruiting class and maybe get some momentum in regards to future classes get reasonable extension with reasonable buyout ( also give nice incentives if we do well ) and hope for the best but lets say in 2 more years if there isnt progress then buyout
not sure if there is a right answer but if we make the ncaa's and salvage the recruiting class then personally I'd lean toward the latter but understand some who want the former
Shocking that you both feel that way, I had no idea. /end sarcasm
I don't really have an opinion on this topic, but it's been fun reading the same people say the same things over and over to the point where you know by a username where someone stands on the Lavin debate.
boo haarvey
Active member
Five years of results, which include this year, that are a heck of a lot better than the recent past.
Who are we going to bring in that's better? Are you ready for another five year rebuild with an unproven commodity or should we stick with a proven recruiter who has put us in position to be in the discussion for the tournament in each of the four years he's been coaching -- I'm giving him a pass for the year he had cancer.
Ricky Smith
Member
Agreed. That about sums it up
Class of 72
Active member
You should have your mod privileges suspended for the above.
As an ambivalent Lavin supporter I have to say we all have to be a little more objective when looking at this team. The wizard is no Wooden but if we knock him for every loss then we need to give credit when there are wins. No one on this site claims Lavs is a coaching genuis but to intimate that these seniors are playing in a coaching vacuum now and are winning all on their little lonesome selves is disingenuous.
These seniors are the same juniors, who, despite winning 20 games last year, failed to show up for an NIT game against a far inferior opponent. Harrison played as if Georgetown was the opponent. The other juniors showed no emotion during that game. They showed immaturity as juniors by disrespecting the NIT invitation and had they gelled better should have won 25 games last year and been in the NCAA.
This year these same players showed similar inconsistencies yet somehow are on the verge of the NCAA tourney. It took a lot of work to get them to this point.
As I have said many times my biggest issue with Lavin has been lazy recruiting and he has listened to his critics and is seemingly scouring the globe to make up for that laziness.
Therefore, I see no isolated event you alluded to since his winning record for the 4 years he was on the bench has been, if not great, very good given the departures and ineligible players. In 3 of those 4 years winning 20+ games was not isolated and everyone can make the argument that we were always one player away from having great teams similar to coach Jarvis' first 3 years.
Of course if he loses tomorrow night he needs to be fired immediately and replaced by Ron Rutledge as an interim for the remainder of the season. :silly:
In my mind this answer is complete tunnel-vision. You can't see the Forest for the trees. Not liking the coach fogs the vision. First coach since Looie to win 20 games 3 times. Out of five years mind you. First win at Cuse in 15 years or more. Highest ranking since Lavin's 2011 team which was a ten year high.at that time. Back to back 20 wins, first time ins fifteen years. Best start to a season since 1985, Non conference winning percentage highest since 1990. You can go in but what's the point , you won't see it.
What coach is going to duplicate that? Extension is earned.
OK, to sum up; everyone who has a different opinion than the Redman.Com MENSA members should stop posting merely because they disagree with the aforementioned group of genuises? The main reason we should keep Lavin, no questions asked, is because he ALMOST has us in the tournament after 4 years of coaching one of the highest ranked groups of recruits in SJU history. But in fairness. he lost two players early to the pros and decided he had no obligation to replace them or just generally upgrade the roster because that left him and his supporters with built-in excuses. Now, Lavin is responsible for the improvement of Phil Greene because he STUCK with him after playing him out of position for 2+ years when the reality is he HAD to play him because didn't recruit anyone to possibly replace him with because he didn't recuit HARD for two years. Further, Lavin is responsible for the improvement of Dom Pointer because he finally figured out where to play him after giving him no defined role for 3 years when the reality is he had NO CHOICE but to play Pointer the entire game because he didn't recruit for those same two cycles. I would contend Pointer has carved out his own role rather than having Lavin defining one. But hey, at the end of the day we keep Lavin no questions asked because we couldn't possibly get anyone better, we couldn't possibly get someone who actually knows how to get to the campus without a GPS! Lavin may be retained and so be it, I will continue to root for SJU (and him) to succeed and be proven wrong. But my opinion is my opinion and as I have said to all you genuises; if you know who dislikes Lavin, IGNORE MY AND THEIR POSTS or was common sense left out of the MENSA instructional handbook?