Coaching Changes: A Cautionary Tale

[Xudash]

I mostly agree with this post. And AD needs to recognize when a coach isn't fit for a job and be able to pull the plug, but at the same time continuity is incredibly important and getting sucked into the constant 4-year cycle (enough time to get a full roster of "his guys") of coaching changes is a recipe for continued irrelevancy. I agree SJU should have kept Lavin and I further think that Mike Anderson needs a long leash because he's fully capable of getting SJU where they want to be.

You probably don't want to see this counter example (that helps prove your point) but Seton Hall is a good one. 2014-15 was actually Willard's 5th season at the Hall but it was a complete disaster that ended by getting embarrassed by Marquette at MSG and left Willard with nothing but 1 NIT appearance in 5 years, never having even finished .500 in Big East play. There were plenty of calls for his head and apparently the AD strongly considered letting him go but decided to give him 1 more year. The Pirates haven't missed the tournament or finished lower than 3rd in the Big East since.

Patience pays off.

The quick trigger on Mullin was the right call but they need to be patient with Anderson. All a coaching change does is start a new 4-year reset cycle.

Proof of the bolded and underlined: Jay Wright at Nova and Mark Few at Gonzaga. When you pick the right guy, and then the right guy decides that he wants to stay long-term at your school, you have a recipe for sustainable success.

How do you help make that happen? All program strategic elements have to be in place to go along with the strong HC and coaching staff:

1. Admin support, including the ability to provide strong financial support.
2. Facilities.
3. Brand - - fan support, winning, NCAAT success.
4. Conference affiliation.

[Wizard of Westroads]

History is on Anderson's side, he'll at least have StJ in the middle of the pack. Probably would have happened this year if Figueroa hadn't left.

I hope Patrick gets plenty of time at Georgetown. His teams play hard and look well-coached, but the roster has been a disaster so far. They would have been pretty good last year, even with behavior issues/dismissals/transfers, if McClung and Yurt hadn't gotten hurt. You'd think GT wouldn't be trigger happy with a legend.

[Jet915]

History is on Anderson's side, he'll at least have StJ in the middle of the pack. Probably would have happened this year if Figueroa hadn't left.

I hope Patrick gets plenty of time at Georgetown. His teams play hard and look well-coached, but the roster has been a disaster so far. They would have been pretty good last year, even with behavior issues/dismissals/transfers, if McClung and Yurt hadn't gotten hurt. You'd think GT wouldn't be trigger happy with a legend.

Have to believe Ewing has atleast a couple more years. He has a top 10 recruiting class coming in. Now if that class either fails or transfers out, then it might be time to let him go.....

[GoldenWarrior11]

Anderson will be fine at SJ. He has won everywhere he has gone, and has yet to have a losing season in his career (this year might be the first due to the heavy conference-only schedule). From an outsider's view, Mullin wasn't really able to be a successful college head coach; he didn't like to recruit, he didn't really run timeouts and, from accounts, didn't really run practices either. He was a nice figure head as an alum and NBA HOF'er, but coaching college is different. Lavin very much hit a ceiling at SJ too, and he was always interested in returning to broadcasting at some point.

[kayako]

Not to be rude but how was 10th and 11th place finishes right before realignment and one NCAA appearance in 11years right in the thick of things?

Leaving out his cancer season, Lavin's SJU made 2 NIT and 2 NCAAT appearances in 4 seasons. That looks pretty in the thick of things to me. No NCAAT wins, but that's a short sample size.

[Xuperman]

I'm personally ready to move on from Wojo, slight uptick in recruiting, uptick in good PR, major downward trend in anything else related to basketball.

IDK Boxer, slight uptick in recruiting? I would love to hear your opinion on how prevalent this is among your fan base. Unless there s a large contingent of alumni donors calling for a change, firing him seems crazy IMO. The reality is, Wojo landed TWO ELITE freshman who will certainly be ALL BE FRESHMAN and will probably have 2 more arriving in the fall, along with the dynamic DJ.

On top of that, your Coach has engineered TWO TOP 10 WINS ALREADY and your guys play hard for him, with passion and have been absolutely electric to watch....predicting at least 1 win over Nova and pay back for UConn & X.

I'm sure most of us outsiders here see it the same way.

[MUBoxer]

Not to be rude but how was 10th and 11th place finishes right before realignment and one NCAA appearance in 11years right in the thick of things?

Leaving out his cancer season, Lavin's SJU made 2 NIT and 2 NCAAT appearances in 4 seasons. That looks pretty in the thick of things to me. No NCAAT wins, but that's a short sample size.

He said at realignment so you have to throw away his second NCAA appearance and NIT. It's the 12 & 13 seasons that'd be at realignment. 11 they were good, but for a team who's average age was like 30 anyone could've coached them to a tournament birth and they should've been better. 2010 was average at best as well.

IDK Boxer, slight uptick in recruiting? I would love to hear your opinion on how prevalent this is among your fan base. Unless there s a large contingent of alumni donors calling for a change, firing him seems crazy IMO. The reality is, Wojo landed TWO ELITE freshman who will certainly be ALL BE FRESHMAN and will probably have 2 more arriving in the fall, along with the dynamic DJ.

On top of that, your Coach has engineered TWO TOP 10 WINS ALREADY and your guys play hard for him, with passion and have been absolutely electric to watch....predicting at least 1 win over Nova and pay back for UConn & X.

I'm sure most of us outsiders here see it the same way.

Very prevalent. Wojo got us Henry objectively a 5 star, Markus who was a five star before reclassifying, Joey H who was a borderline 5 star before getting injured his Sr year of HS, and Dawson who was a 4/5 star but a McD AA. He's also brought us top 100 recruits: Brendan Bailey, Haanif Cheatham, Symir Torrence, Sam Hauser, Matt Heldt, Justin Lewis, Oso I, and former top 100s DJ Carton and Katin Reinhardt.

Really outside of Henry and Markus there's nobody on that list who were significantly rated higher than your average Tom Crean and Buzz Williams recruit (jucos not withstanding). Williams' best recruits: Jajuan Johnson and Vander Blue were ranked about where Joey H was prior to the injury and Dawson Garcia, and DJ Carton at the low 30s high 20s mark.

Most of the Marquette fandom is getting apathetic or upset. You mention they play hard but they don't play smart, they don't play tough (have you ever seen a 6'11" HS All American PF get blocked so much?), and the results are deeply disappointing to us after 9/11 years of success and even the two we didn't there were due to a knee injury for Deiner.

[Django]

No more mincing words with Marquette.

Wojo should have been gone four years ago.

I have no idea what's going on with your AD or who he or she is but Marquette post Williams has done NOTHING. That asshole Buzzfu@k not only kicked you to the curb but he also disparaged the New Big East, claimed we were doomed, basically spit on us.

When that happens a strong program doesn't hire an unproven assistant coach and let him stay 8 long years doing absolutely nothing of importance. Let me be clear, I went to Creighton Prep where most of my Jebbie teachers were directly from Marquette High, and the same for most of my favorite profs at CU. Creighton fans see Marquette as a longtime rival but also know we are the little brother in the series. We look up to MU for Al Maguire, Tommy Boy, Beer, Philanthropy... we gave you our favorite son Kerry Trotter... you could call us "Marquette West."

That's why it's time for little brother to tell his big brother to wake the F up... that he's an embarrassment. He's turned from someone we looked up to when he was a HS star into a jobless oaf who's still on his parent's couch eating potato chips.

Fire Wojo.

Get back to being Marquette.

And winning National Championships.

And Nova Fans, you should write the same letter to Hoya fans... if there are any left.

[gtmoBlue]

Nice post Django. Let's go Marquette.

THIS is my kinda thread... Ordinarily, I'd go off on my Mac tirade. However, he just was a share of the BEAST, so I'm
reasonably happy (we wouldn't have gone far in the dance without Zeg...realisticly.

However, a repeat BEast championship will be nice and we need at least a SS this year...probably more as this Jays team is quite good.

[Django]

Nice post Django. Let's go Marquette.

THIS is my kinda thread... Ordinarily, I'd go off on my Mac tirade. However, he just was a share of the BEAST, so I'm
reasonably happy (we wouldn't have gone far in the dance without Zeg...realisticly.

However, a repeat BEast championship will be nice and we need at least a SS this year...probably more as this Jays team is quite good.

Right on GTMO, and I'm not saying Creighton has "arrived" or even returned to where we were with Sutton but I also have hope in Mac and what he's been building on the Hilltop.

...and before Novachap gets all defensive, yes, Nova is now the Big Brother in the GT-Nova relationship (although I still like to live in 1985 sometimes too much!).

TBH it bums me out when I see the state of St. John's, GT and DePaul. Such awesome programs once upon a time, a time that gets farther away every year.