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Wow@OrientalNC really well written piece on FTRS!
Do you believe m bob or not about our options
- Thread starter bigtechfan67
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I'm not speaking for anyone else, but I'm not saying that CBG has coached well enough to stay here. He clearly hasn't gotten the job done. But, most of the time changing coaches doesn't make you any better off. There are some coaches that are clear difference-makers (Popovich, Budenholzer, Calipari, Pitino), but they're the exception.
Replacing CBG with a coach that brings you up to mediocre isn't worth the change--you're still not where you should be and you're not getting there with 90% of the basketball coaches out there.
And, as we saw with our football team, we needed changes outside the core coaching staff (recruiting staff) to be competitive. Just bringing in a head coach might not be enough.
I think there's <1% chance that MBob's meeting gets CBG to stop sabotaging his own coaching career here. I think it's very hard to be an above-average coach, but very easy for a talented and smart coach to be below average--just have one or more flaws you don't fix. At least one of them for CBG is his teaching of offensive fundamentals (and that's a huge flaw, no doubt). I don't think his recruiting is as bad as his offensive coaching (I think he recruited better at Dayton, in fact). But, if he hasn't addressed his offensive coaching in four years here and all the previous years at Dayton, it's a stretch to think he'll do it next year.
Even if you look at the "wish list" coaches we were talked about on this forum, most of them have flaws we're saying are tolerable. Hewitt couldn't get anyone to dribble or inbound, and people thought that Gregory would at least be an improvement over him. His teams play better defense, worse offense (amazingly), and the recruiting has gone down. So that change was swapping one coaching problem for a different coaching problem. If we swap Gregory for someone who sets up better offense, but the defense drops off, then we'll be as bad off, or worse because we have the wrong recruits for the new system.
For example, if you speculate on why Tommy Amaker wouldn't talk to us but would talk to Miami, you'd have to think it's some gap in the program, and it's not facilities or tutors or recruiting base or even academic difficulty. I suspect it's the same for the other high-quality coaching candidates out there. Aside from getting out from two coaching contracts, which is important, there may be something else to fix before a new coach comes on. And MBob better look at the entire state of the program.
(complete aside: maybe it's hard to pass the hat to get donations to pay off Gregory's contract, but I'm surprised donors won't put money towards getting out from under the Hewitt contract--you'd think that would be more tolerable).
Replacing CBG with a coach that brings you up to mediocre isn't worth the change--you're still not where you should be and you're not getting there with 90% of the basketball coaches out there.
And, as we saw with our football team, we needed changes outside the core coaching staff (recruiting staff) to be competitive. Just bringing in a head coach might not be enough.
I think there's <1% chance that MBob's meeting gets CBG to stop sabotaging his own coaching career here. I think it's very hard to be an above-average coach, but very easy for a talented and smart coach to be below average--just have one or more flaws you don't fix. At least one of them for CBG is his teaching of offensive fundamentals (and that's a huge flaw, no doubt). I don't think his recruiting is as bad as his offensive coaching (I think he recruited better at Dayton, in fact). But, if he hasn't addressed his offensive coaching in four years here and all the previous years at Dayton, it's a stretch to think he'll do it next year.
Even if you look at the "wish list" coaches we were talked about on this forum, most of them have flaws we're saying are tolerable. Hewitt couldn't get anyone to dribble or inbound, and people thought that Gregory would at least be an improvement over him. His teams play better defense, worse offense (amazingly), and the recruiting has gone down. So that change was swapping one coaching problem for a different coaching problem. If we swap Gregory for someone who sets up better offense, but the defense drops off, then we'll be as bad off, or worse because we have the wrong recruits for the new system.
For example, if you speculate on why Tommy Amaker wouldn't talk to us but would talk to Miami, you'd have to think it's some gap in the program, and it's not facilities or tutors or recruiting base or even academic difficulty. I suspect it's the same for the other high-quality coaching candidates out there. Aside from getting out from two coaching contracts, which is important, there may be something else to fix before a new coach comes on. And MBob better look at the entire state of the program.
(complete aside: maybe it's hard to pass the hat to get donations to pay off Gregory's contract, but I'm surprised donors won't put money towards getting out from under the Hewitt contract--you'd think that would be more tolerable).
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I bet the hat is theoretically already full regarding donors kicking in to fire Hewitt. The payment structure is spread out over the time to pay him off.
WreckinGT
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I agree with the overall premise of the article. The decision is made. It's time to be fans and support the team. I strongly disagree with some of the points though. For one, I don't see why you would ever give someone credit for almost winning. That kind of mindset will leave you in mediocrity forever. The point of the game is to try and win and I disagree that it could have easily been 22-9. We lost all 11 of our close ACC games for a reason. It wasn't dumb luck. If you want to give him credit for almost beating a good Notre Dame team then he should receive pretty harsh criticism for blowing games against bad VT and BC teams.
Two, I disagree that no one said anything to suggest that Robert Carter left GT because of Gregory. He specifically said that he left because he didn't think he was developing well as a player here. I don't know how you don't attribute some of that to the coach. He was going to be a starter and the best player on an ACC team and he gave it up because he didn't think he was developing well. It was a pretty bad smack in the face to Gregory and GT.
Three, I disagree that he developed Tadric Jackson well. When Tadric was struggling early in the season he mostly put him on the bench and forgot about him. The only reason he got more playing time later is because Bolden got suspended. Tadric was playing awful for a while so you have to question how well he was being coached and it is more than fair to question if throwing him on the bench most of the season was the best approach to help him improve. Hopefully he makes strides next year, but judging by the development of our other players, im not optimistic that it will happen.
All that said, I will still root for the team in every game they play next year, and I agree that continuing to complain about the situation does no good. I'm not going to sugar coat Gregory's performance though. He was awful this year, and not very good before that. Hopefully he finds some way to turn it around. I will gladly get on his side if he improves things to an acceptable level.
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I agree with you that CBG should not be given accolades for almost winning. While I don't think I said the losses were dumb luck, we were in fact a competitive team this year. Clearly not good enough, but there was quite a bit of good stuff happening on the court.
I think Carter wanted to play facing the basket to develop the skills he will need if he's ever going to play in the NBA. He will not be a post player as a pro, and Miller's graduation meant Carter was going to be planted down low this past season. That would have worked great for us, but not for his future NBA chances. That is how I interpret his comments.
You are correct, Tadric spent some time on the bench, but development happens mostly in practice. Neither of us saw any of that. I hold to my position that TJ was a better player at the end of the season and somebody deserves credit for that.
The bottom line: I wanted CBG fired. I had had it with him. I made those points strongly late in the season. But I am done with that until I see the need to start it up again.
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Nicely written article. Thank you.
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I'm in the same camp as @orientalnc at this point.
I'm going to 100% support these players, first & foremost, for busting their tails.
While I think he should have been removed, he hasn't been, so we have to move forward. The same way MBob Brained BG's extension with a reset and given a pretty similar returning roster, I don't care what the schedule looks like, my minimum expectations are reset to the same as this past year to consider BG remaining in place... 18-20 wins & a shot at postseason play.
Finally, while the GTAA & GT Foundation certainly have the resources to handle the buyout, I believe that MBob wordsmithed facts to serve his purpose of copping out. Just because we have the money, doesn't mean he was allowed to use it, a key point he never confirmed or denied, leaving him with plausible deniability. Combine that with his questionable business acumen regarding the buyout and I'm left with a lack of confidence in his abilities as AD. At this point, he's who I've got the biggest problem with. Everyone else is just trying to fulfill their functional responsibilities, while the key decision maker is left looking ineffectual.
With that, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the games this weekend and gets ready to follow how things continue on the recruiting trail this summer.
I'm going to 100% support these players, first & foremost, for busting their tails.
While I think he should have been removed, he hasn't been, so we have to move forward. The same way MBob Brained BG's extension with a reset and given a pretty similar returning roster, I don't care what the schedule looks like, my minimum expectations are reset to the same as this past year to consider BG remaining in place... 18-20 wins & a shot at postseason play.
Finally, while the GTAA & GT Foundation certainly have the resources to handle the buyout, I believe that MBob wordsmithed facts to serve his purpose of copping out. Just because we have the money, doesn't mean he was allowed to use it, a key point he never confirmed or denied, leaving him with plausible deniability. Combine that with his questionable business acumen regarding the buyout and I'm left with a lack of confidence in his abilities as AD. At this point, he's who I've got the biggest problem with. Everyone else is just trying to fulfill their functional responsibilities, while the key decision maker is left looking ineffectual.
With that, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the games this weekend and gets ready to follow how things continue on the recruiting trail this summer.
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Bottom line -
Believe him or not, it is now the past.
What we need to do is -
Support the team next season,
hope for the best in recruiting this year and into the future,
hope that something clicks and we are in the post season next year and in the NCAA's regularly in the future regardless of the coach.
Believe him or not, it is now the past.
What we need to do is -
Support the team next season,
hope for the best in recruiting this year and into the future,
hope that something clicks and we are in the post season next year and in the NCAA's regularly in the future regardless of the coach.