Where we go from here

monte

monte

Well-known member
2023 $upporter 2022 $upporter
I have preached patience with the staff and with the kids pretty much as much as anyone on this board, however after the last few weeks culminating with today's game, I am really starting to question whether or not Chris is up to the task of turning around our program, and/or whether his heart is really in to it. I am not bailing on him just yet, but my gut is starting to tell me the same things it told me about BM, Norm and SL. And in addition to my gut having gotten much larger over the years, it's also gotten much more accurate. If Chris were to decide to leave after this year I'd be fine with it, just so long as Matt could be retained. We have a foundation of decent talent on the roster, and more coming on board next year. Unlike when Jarvis and Lavin left, a new coach coming in next year would not have to start from scratch, and he'd already have an ace recruiter on the staff. That would have an immense amount of appeal to an up and coming coach(IE Danny Hurley). I'm not labeling the CM experiment a failure just yet, but if that's the direction we are headed, it would be much better to make a change sooner(end of the season) rather than later.
 
Before any judgement can be made about CM, another year after this is essential. I complain about the coaching to date, especially the poor use of time outs, defensive schemes. However, we dont have alegitimate center nor a real power forward. That is still the fault of past coaches.

With what we appear to have in hand for next year, the 2017-18 season will be far more useful a body of work to base a reasonable calculation of the collective coaching staff capabilities.. Unless CM Knows in his heart this isnt for him, in which case he needs to initiate some change.
 
I have preached patience with the staff and with the kids pretty much as much as anyone on this board, however after the last few weeks culminating with today's game, I am really starting to question whether or not Chris is up to the task of turning around our program, and/or whether his heart is really in to it. I am not bailing on him just yet, but my gut is starting to tell me the same things it told me about BM, Norm and SL. And in addition to my gut having gotten much larger over the years, it's also gotten much more accurate. If Chris were to decide to leave after this year I'd be fine with it, just so long as Matt could be retained. We have a foundation of decent talent on the roster, and more coming on board next year. Unlike when Jarvis and Lavin left, a new coach coming in next year would not have to start from scratch, and he'd already have an ace recruiter on the staff. That would have an immense amount of appeal to an up and coming coach(IE Danny Hurley). I'm not labeling the CM experiment a failure just yet, but if that's the direction we are headed, it would be much better to make a change sooner(end of the season) rather than later.
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Short of CM resigning I believe our best asset is that we finally have an AD. No doubt he will look at things at the end of the season and advise CM of the changes he proposes. On paper we have a very poor staff. If we take Matt out of the equation , and his rep is solely that of a recruiter, we have zero coaching experience on our bench. Had things worked out great , but they are not, and it is becoming obvious that other than recruiting NBA level talent as lawmanfan pointed out, far more coaching is required
of this group. Unless the new AD is blind he will be discussing this with CM the day after the BE tournament ends.
Very unfortunate that we owe Slice another $2.4 Million after this season.
 
While I agree there seems to be a need for an assistant with major college experience, no way Mullin should leave yet. Until the roster is filled with Big East quality players, outside of the freshmen, we won't see a lot of wins.
 
One thing that should be constant in a team is hard work and passion. This team shows none of that. Most high school players have to learn to defend once entering Division 1. If they look clueless on defense, then chances are that they haven't been taught very well. Basketball rewards size and strength. While Lovett and Ponds can be great scorers, they are at a disadvantage every night because of lack of size. That applies to every player on the squad except for Ellison and Ahmed. Lovett looked today like he is about Lovett. Looked that way before the injury, too. Ahmed the same. When low majors put a hurt on you 3 times in the first month of the year, there is something fundamentally wrong. Where we go from here? Maybe the coach needs to answer that, and take some responsibility as to why a team that should be hungry seems to look flat and disinterested way too often way too early in the season.
 
Honestly this goes back to me last year with the scorers table sitting and St Jean doing the coaching on the sidelines. I don't think Chris came here to lose. I think he came here knowing he was one of the best basketball players of all time and that would translate to coaching but it doesn't. History told us that it doesn't and the staff needs to be top notch and that was Lavins downfall.

I've seen brilliant people fail as managers in my business

Someone tried telling me Drexler wasn't a good example last year on the board when I brought it up and they said Hoiberg was more accurate. I disagree

I hope it works out with Mullin still and I want 2/3'sof the staff to stay intact but we need someone who is real experienced in college coaching on the bench because we are getting beat by less talented teams

This game was a freaking disgrace and our defense is as bad as any team I can remember from us
 
Can't get rid of Mullin after 2 seasons. Need a Dunlap type BB mind on the staff.Unfortunately like Redmennorth said we owe Slice big money.
 
Interesting that Mullin acknowledges that he needs help by turning the huddle over to St. Jean. But he is not recognizing that St. Jean is as inexperienced as he is.

There is alot of thing going well with the program. Replacing St. Jean or Richmond with an experienced college basketball coach would likely make a significant difference.
 
Interesting that Mullin acknowledges that he needs help by turning the huddle over to St. Jean. But he is not recognizing that St. Jean is as inexperienced as he is.

There is alot of thing going well with the program. Replacing St. Jean or Richmond with an experienced college basketball coach would likely make a significant difference.
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Why did Mullin hire such an inexperienced staff considering his lack of exp.?
 
Interesting that Mullin acknowledges that he needs help by turning the huddle over to St. Jean. But he is not recognizing that St. Jean is as inexperienced as he is.

There is alot of thing going well with the program. Replacing St. Jean or Richmond with an experienced college basketball coach would likely make a significant difference.
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Why did Mullin hire such an inexperienced staff considering his lack of exp.?
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I get the Richmond hire but when your Chris Freaking Mullin basketball court genius you can't tell me the team is in better hands with someone who never coached running things on the court no matter how much potential you think he might have and if you think that person is the person you will delegate to you better have someone with expereicen
 
I am not ready to give up on Mullin and start anew.

Mullin needs a seasoned assistant with college experience (think George Blaney, and Bill Hahn).

I am sure that others can come up with a longer list but among the long list of seemingly unemployed/ underemployed coaches with successful records are (in non particular order):

... Mike Lonergan with college coaching levels of 474–226 (67.7%)

... Mike Rice with college coaching record of 117–82

... Tim Welsh with a college coaching record of 215–148 (59.2)%

... Trent Johnson former head coach at Stanford, LSU, and others with a college coaching record of 276–264 (51.1)

... Donnie Jones former UCF head with a career record of 133–128 (51%)

... Dave Rice with a 5 year head coaching record at UNLV of 98–54 (64.5%)

... Jim Crews, a long time assistant for Bobby Knight who was the head coach at Evansville, Army and most recently as 4 year head at St.Louis who compiled a career record of 431–404 (51.6%)
 
When a team loses like this, the coach takes the blame. Many times, that's misplaced anger, as the real reason is a lack of talent. What I saw today was a lack of effort. Would that happen with a Bobby Knight coached team? When you don't get back on D, when you don't keep your man in front of you, when you don't close out on the shooter time and again, then you have to look at the staff.
 
Interesting that Mullin acknowledges that he needs help by turning the huddle over to St. Jean. But he is not recognizing that St. Jean is as inexperienced as he is.

There is alot of thing going well with the program. Replacing St. Jean or Richmond with an experienced college basketball coach would likely make a significant difference.
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Why did Mullin hire such an inexperienced staff considering his lack of exp.?
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Please see my post a little earlier in this thread about having an athletic director. Had we had an AD when Chris was hired I don't believe he would have allowed him to assemble a staff void of experience.

On another note, many of us myself included, have alluded to the fact that Mike Rice would be a big asset to this staff. My buddy FUN pointed out that he thought we could do better than a psychopath with a poor BE coaching record. He may certainly have a point. But assuming he no longer wips basketballs at players heads in practice and calls them names which are politically incorrect, perhaps his fiery personality is just what this staff needs. Someone to jump up and down and get in players faces following a missed defensive assignment, not boxing out etc.
 
Before any judgement can be made about CM, another year after this is essential. I complain about the coaching to date, especially the poor use of time outs, defensive schemes. However, we dont have alegitimate center nor a real power forward. That is still the fault of past coaches.

With what we appear to have in hand for next year, the 2017-18 season will be far more useful a body of work to base a reasonable calculation of the collective coaching staff capabilities.. Unless CM Knows in his heart this isnt for him, in which case he needs to initiate some change.
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I agree it is too early to bail on CM - especially given that we gave Roberts 6 years. However, lack of a Center/PF is not on the previous staff. The kid Watkins on Penn State is a freshmen and was better than anyone on our front line.
 
Mullin was out watching the Molloy game on Friday night.
You're not doing that if you aren't dedicated to winning. Recruiting is always the first thing to go when coaches get "lazy".

I don't believe that's Mullin. I think he has a deep desire to win here.

But the points Monte makes are accurate.
I just don't think 1) Mullin is giving less than %100, or 2) that having Mike rice or Tom Pecora on the sidelines would win us this game.

On the positive side I thought Owens and Yakwe didn't have their worst games of the season today. They did a few things well.
And Ellison hit his shots. Which shocked the hell out of me.
 
We must stick with CM. Giving up on him would indicate a total capitulation and would send a message that we are dead as a big time program and we will never ever get another big time recruit. We put our money on CM and we must ride him all the way or surrender
And join the the likes of Fordham and Manhattan type of basketball programs.
 
Where do we go from here? Great question and should be a great thread . My take is everyone should bend over and take it at this point :). Mullin is not going anywhere unless he wants to leave. To think of the leash that Norm and Soho SaL got and think that our favorite son will be canned after 2 years is nuts. Does a successful professional figure like our coach have it in him ego wise to let go a current staff member go and bring in someone who actually knows what he is doing? Ok some go to the game and some like me watch on Tv where they mic up the huddles to hear Mullin say things like " we are in it " and " hustle back on defense" makes me think that I also could make 2 million dollars a year coaching. I love this team and love what Chris Mullin represented for this team but for years I have just wanted a guy who can coach and surround that coach with good solid recruiters and basketball minds. Who wouldn't have signed up for Bob mckillop and at the very least watched our team play a solid brand of basketball? Forget the sexy names for coaches. When this thing finally ends just hire a basketball coach for once.
 
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