Ramblin I believe you are the most knowledgeable fan that I know of so do you think if this does stir around for a year or 2 Pastner could still build a very good team?
yes i do. It's hardly a guarantee either way right now. I was the one who wrote emails to the board asking them not to hire Pastner, but i've been pleased for the most part with his plans and execution to this point.
Whether he is successful long term will depend upon his first 4 recruiting classes.
I'm not worried about the fanbase. If you start winning that will take care of itself.
He will have to deal with it on the recruiting trail but unless something credible pops up I suspect he will be able to answer any questions the kids and their parents have and frankly most of them are going to be concerned about 2 things - how much playing time can I get and will you be there.
I like his first class ,especially given how far behind GT started in trying to build it. It has 2 players I fully believe are ACC quality in Jose and Curtis. It has 2 players that i'll judge once they get to their JR yr - which is when they are really expected to start contributing. I will say both look better as FR than AD did.
The 2018 class I like and on paper is probably the best class GT has brought in in 5 yrs. Devoe is a likely starter from day 1. Sjolund is really well liked on the international scene were he has played alot more than AAU ball. His film shows someone who is a strong and confident shooter and one who also goes to the whole aggresively. Likely will need to add weight, but like his long term potential. Moore has looked really good in his more recent film and is a fabulous athlete. Phillips at worst case should be an ACC level contributor (20 mpg), if he has continued to develop while at GT he could be more than that.
2019 is probably a 3 man class and they have had 5 Top 150 kids in the last 2 weekends from that class, so even with losing Labarrie they have been able to re-calibrate and get seriously involved with some very good kids.
Pastner may succeed or fail, it's too early to tell, but I honestly don't think this stuff that is going on right now is going to be the determining factor.
This year has been ridiculous. Fans like to focus on the Josh and Tad suspensions but in a large sense those were almost negligible in the outcome of the season.
Tad missed 3 games. GT went 2-1 in those games, but that would have been the expectation regardless.
Josh missed 9 games, That was 3 more than his suspension due to his injury. Remember his injury occurred in a pre-season exhibition game that GT had to get special permission from the NCAA to stage for Hurricane relief. It wasn't even on the schedule until a couple days before hand. If you don't play that game maybe Josh doesn't get injured and only misses 6 games instead of 9.
Lammers looks like an All American his first 2 games (i thought he might be a 20-12 guy based on them), but gets hurt and is never the same. The ankle injury lingers (he literally doesn't practice for 5 weeks) and now he has a knee issue (which I wonder if it was caused by the ankle and overcompensating).
Haywood is starting, avg over 30 mpg and 10 ppg and shooting 50% from the field and gets hurt. He tries to come back, the leg isn't really ready and they have to shut him down for the year. He was the best shooter and second best ballhandler on the team.
Justin Moore is likely going to transfer after the season and in order to help retain some eligibility for him the staff basically agrees to not play him after Christmas, taking one more option off the table.
Alvarado has a very good year for a FR in the ACC, even better as an ACC PG, but gets hurt.
Ogbonda is praised over the summer for his work and coaches say he had the best summer of any player on the team. He gets hurt in fall practice and has barely played. Reveno was quoted in an article recently about how hard it has been to watch Ogbonda because he is still working really hard, but just hasn't been healthy enough to contribute to the team.
So we are left now with a team with no PG, no shooters, and a big man who is a shell of what he was last year and his backup is hurt. That is going to look ugly and it does.
Only the Tad 3 games missed is directly related to the situation with Bell. Everything else is just things that happened. Some years things go your way and some years they do not and this year they have definitely not.
One last thought on the Bell situation, while Pastner deserves alot of blame there and he has to understand how careful you have to be about who you allow close to the program, Josh and Tad have to take some responsibility for their actions as well. They go through training every year on what is allowed. Bell mentioned in an interview last fall that he tried to get to know the best players on the team. That it isn't hard to figure out who that is. Bell mentioned that Ben wouldn't talk to him at all, wouldn't give him the time of day. josh and Tad could have done the same. They also could have let GT and Pastner know about the trip as soon as they got back. If they had, then GT and Pastner likely tell the NCAA then and they still get suspended, but Bell no longer has any real extortion grounds once he turns on Pastner a few months later.
Most programs have guys that hang around the program - that is not that unusual, but you have to make sure it is guys that will never hurt your program. I also wonder if having coached in Memphis clouded Pastner's judgement. The expectation there is you are going to recruit players from Memphis, and the hanger ons are expected to be allowed in the program and have some say. Cal was able to largely keep that at bay because he won so much. Pastner as a first time coach at 31 was under alot more pressure there to allow these hanger ons and guys who felt they are important to be around the program and the team there. It in no way excludes him from any blame, but unfortunately it maybe is a tough lesson learned.
I think there are 2 outcomes that are most likely from the off court stuff. If the allegations claims are not credible, then Pastner stays, it is an ugly year, but you move on and put it in the past. If the allegations have any credibility he will be fired with cause which will allow GT to go make another hire without money restrictions.
i am also not in any way worried about the NCAA right now. They have already handed down the punishment for the violations for Tad and Josh, nothing else is coming there. The Labarrie thing, who knows, but my guess right now is that with him resigning that is likely all that will happen. I'm not expecting GT to take any restrictions out of it. GT is planning on hiring another asst after the season is concluded.
