Coaching Changes: A Cautionary Tale

[Cheech]

The Big East soft spot is clearly the coaching. The new League sans Jay Wright has no real National guy that brings attention to the conference. I am impressed with what Willard and McDermott have done and Cooley is great for Providence. The rest are just ok or need to go. The GT/ St John programs are so important to the conference and neither Pat or Anderson are the right match. DePaul is a joke, Archie Miller would be a great coach there .....Butler is just boring and under achieved. I hope the new transfers rule can breathe some life into these programs. But the conference needs a shot in the arm. These mediocre coaches and covid have set the Big East back .

[MullinMayhem]

My goodness...just read through SHU and PC forums recently...PC fans want Cooley fired, well some. And there isn't much push back. Yet on the SJ board, they would be banned lol. Pretty funny seeing the differences in fanbases. SJ board definitely the most strict especially when criticizing any coach regardless of how bad they are. I was calling out coach Anderson early on due to lack of recruiting and awful conference performance. I think if PC fired Cooley, they probably could not do any better as a very small private school. I like PC as a program, but I' just think their ceiling may be making the tourney, 20 wins regularly, etc. I think Ed is a great representative for you guys...there were times under Mullin where I watched Big East Shootaround with Cooley talking to John Fanta and he's so funny and likeable I could easily see how recruits could be sold. He has taken PC from doing nothing just like us most of the old Big East years, to being very much relevant and respected. True, he hasn't done a thing in the tourney and I'd be annoyed too...but he has given you guys way too many wins to give up on him. Next season I'm sure you guys will be much better.

Thank god we have turned things around completely. I think we've seen enough to comfortably say Anderson will be our long term coach. This is the type of turnaround SJ fans prayed for every year of Mullin getting out to awful starts in conf but never happened. I think our players are finally buying in completely and they're all on the same page finally. Players know their roles, we know who the clear starters are, and we are playing with tons of confidence. Now for all I know we lose our next 5, but it just seems like we are finally a program with some swag again. SJ has been getting tons of national press lately. A good SJ is critical to Big East perception nationally. Crazy but fun season so far.

[gtmoBlue]

Thad Matta is available!

[GoldenWarrior11]

The reality is that, in a COVID year, Duke is down. Kentucky is down. UNC is down. Kansas is down. As much as I want my school to consider making a change, the reality is that this year many will be given a pass. We need to be grateful we have college basketball this season and thankful the impact of COVID has not had more severe effects on the ability to play games.

[MullinMayhem]

Totally agree regarding above. This is just a wacky year. You know Duke, UK, Kansas, UNC won't be down next yr and after that...and Marquette & PC will certainly be better than they have been this yr. Wojo I question more than Cooley. Cooley has been at PC 10 yrs this yr, won 20+ games 5/10 of those yrs...and 3 yrs he won 18 or 19 just missing. 18-19 wins means you're a bubble type team usually. So basically, 8/10 yrs he has had PC either right on bubble or in the tourney. Made tourney 5x including a Big East championship and top 25 appearances 2 yrs with a high of 8th in the nation. The guy is right near .600 winning % with PC. Who is coming in that does better?

This is Wojo's 7th yr. Only made tourney 2x. Won 20+ 3x. Had them ranked 2 yrs in a row at one point. So Cooley is the better coach so far, but I think Wojo has gotten more talent. Marquette was also in a much better position than PC going back to the old Big East, so I would expect more than what Wojo has done so far. If Marquette doesn't win 20+ quickly, he could be legitimately on hot seat. They have a pretty talented team this yr and haven't done much with it consistently enough. 2 top 5 wins is awesome, but reminds me of the yr we stunk under Mullin and still beat #4 Duke and #1 Nova. Marquette is not consistent enough. Back when the C7 split happened, we all expected Marquette to be up there with Georgetown in the top 3 of the league most yrs with Nova.

Verdict: I think Marquette fans may have more to gripe about in terms of expectations being met than PC fans.

[sju88grad]

My goodness...just read through SHU and PC forums recently...PC fans want Cooley fired, well some. And there isn't much push back. Yet on the SJ board, they would be banned lol. Pretty funny seeing the differences in fanbases. SJ board definitely the most strict especially when criticizing any coach regardless of how bad they are. I was calling out coach Anderson early on due to lack of recruiting and awful conference performance. I think if PC fired Cooley, they probably could not do any better as a very small private school. I like PC as a program, but I' just think their ceiling may be making the tourney, 20 wins regularly, etc. I think Ed is a great representative for you guys...there were times under Mullin where I watched Big East Shootaround with Cooley talking to John Fanta and he's so funny and likeable I could easily see how recruits could be sold. He has taken PC from doing nothing just like us most of the old Big East years, to being very much relevant and respected. True, he hasn't done a thing in the tourney and I'd be annoyed too...but he has given you guys way too many wins to give up on him. Next season I'm sure you guys will be much better.

Thank god we have turned things around completely. I think we've seen enough to comfortably say Anderson will be our long term coach. This is the type of turnaround SJ fans prayed for every year of Mullin getting out to awful starts in conf but never happened. I think our players are finally buying in completely and they're all on the same page finally. Players know their roles, we know who the clear starters are, and we are playing with tons of confidence. Now for all I know we lose our next 5, but it just seems like we are finally a program with some swag again. SJ has been getting tons of national press lately. A good SJ is critical to Big East perception nationally. Crazy but fun season so far.

It’s funny how you will defend Cooley so strongly and trashed Anderson so quickly. Your impatience with SJU was comical. Somehow you blamed Anderson for the past 20 years of futility. He’s been at the helm for a season and a half and you expected miracles in year 1. Now, we’re having some success and appear to be headed towards some much-needed stability and Anderson is suddenly our long-term solution.

God help us if we have a three game losing streak.

[MullinMayhem]

My goodness...just read through SHU and PC forums recently...PC fans want Cooley fired, well some. And there isn't much push back. Yet on the SJ board, they would be banned lol. Pretty funny seeing the differences in fanbases. SJ board definitely the most strict especially when criticizing any coach regardless of how bad they are. I was calling out coach Anderson early on due to lack of recruiting and awful conference performance. I think if PC fired Cooley, they probably could not do any better as a very small private school. I like PC as a program, but I' just think their ceiling may be making the tourney, 20 wins regularly, etc. I think Ed is a great representative for you guys...there were times under Mullin where I watched Big East Shootaround with Cooley talking to John Fanta and he's so funny and likeable I could easily see how recruits could be sold. He has taken PC from doing nothing just like us most of the old Big East years, to being very much relevant and respected. True, he hasn't done a thing in the tourney and I'd be annoyed too...but he has given you guys way too many wins to give up on him. Next season I'm sure you guys will be much better.

Thank god we have turned things around completely. I think we've seen enough to comfortably say Anderson will be our long term coach. This is the type of turnaround SJ fans prayed for every year of Mullin getting out to awful starts in conf but never happened. I think our players are finally buying in completely and they're all on the same page finally. Players know their roles, we know who the clear starters are, and we are playing with tons of confidence. Now for all I know we lose our next 5, but it just seems like we are finally a program with some swag again. SJ has been getting tons of national press lately. A good SJ is critical to Big East perception nationally. Crazy but fun season so far.

It’s funny how you will defend Cooley so strongly and trashed Anderson so quickly. Your impatience with SJU was comical. Somehow you blamed Anderson for the past 20 years of futility. He’s been at the helm for a season and a half and you expected miracles in year 1. Now, we’re having some success and appear to be headed towards some much-needed stability and Anderson is suddenly our long-term solution.

God help us if we have a three game losing streak.

I've said all along if Anderson does for us what Cooley has done at PC, he will get a statue. He hasn't even made a tourney yet and Cooley made 5 plus a championship. Relax. I like where we are headed for sure...I do think he's our best long term solution but early on he was not impressive.

[sju88grad]

You do realize that there hasn’t even BEEN a tournament since Mike joined???? SMH.

[MullinMayhem]

Yes obviously not referencing last year postseason. We would've made NIT not NCAA. If Anderson can get us all those appearances plus a BEC, then I'll be a bigger Anderson fan than you lol...I'm confident we can compete in the middle pack with him here for a while. But he's also not coach K obviously. He's what we need to take the next step.

[DudeAnon]

Yes obviously not referencing last year postseason. We would've made NIT not NCAA. If Anderson can get us all those appearances plus a BEC, then I'll be a bigger Anderson fan than you lol...I'm confident we can compete in the middle pack with him here for a while. But he's also not coach K obviously. He's what we need to take the next step.

I hope none of y'all are in management because you can't judge someone before the job is done. The fact is that a new head coach needs at least 4 years before you can make any serious judgement. Anything before that is just impatience.