617hoya
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
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Post by 617hoya on Feb 28, 2022 9:33:36 GMT -5
Not defending RT as it’s still anyone’s guess what his exact role is in the basketball program, but the “scandal” of him calling A10 games is a bit overblown. There are other examples of university employees having 2 jobs at once. For instance, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_LunardiSensational, yes. Relevant, who knows? Lunardi clearly puts a ton of effort into his side job. If the employers approve it, fine. The relevant question is what are the duties in the university job and are they being done effectively. The former is entirely speculative to everyone here and the latter is assumed to be no without much evidence. Carry that water. Dan.
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TC
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 9,443
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Post by TC on Feb 28, 2022 9:40:07 GMT -5
How is that carrying water?
I think the complaints about him not being at the Georgetown game are pretty much in bad faith because the same people complaining that he's not at Capital One want him nowhere near the Georgetown program.
Ronny not being present isn't the real issue - it's his nebulous and secret role leading to dysfunction.
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hoyas212
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
Posts: 324
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Post by hoyas212 on Feb 28, 2022 9:52:51 GMT -5
Ronny missing home Georgetown games to broadcast A10 games epitomizes the arrogance, entitlement, and incompetence of this program. There is no acceptable explanation for him being a full time employee focused on basketball, and miss home basketball games for other professional endeavors. This is at least the 3rd time this has happened this season. But Ewing Jr. says it's the fans who need to improve? It's great that this article confirmed what was suspected, and even better that it clearly ruffled some feathers.
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DanMcQ
Moderator
Posts: 30,518
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Post by DanMcQ on Feb 28, 2022 9:53:20 GMT -5
Not defending RT as it’s still anyone’s guess what his exact role is in the basketball program, but the “scandal” of him calling A10 games is a bit overblown. There are other examples of university employees having 2 jobs at once. For instance, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_LunardiSensational, yes. Relevant, who knows? Lunardi clearly puts a ton of effort into his side job. If the employers approve it, fine. The relevant question is what are the duties in the university job and are they being done effectively. The former is entirely speculative to everyone here and the latter is assumed to be no without much evidence. Dan, the Ronny stuff makes my blood boil. Appearances matter. If his job description involves the team, then at a bare minimum he needs to be taking in every aspect of the team during games to figure out what can be done better and more efficiently. If he has nothing to do with the roster & in-game stuff, what about alumni relations? Maybe fan experience? Maybe making recruits feel special to be part of this Thompson legacy environment we have cultivated intentionally or otherwise. If we were running a successful program and he had a side gig, that is one thing. But we are not. If he is a media liaison (reasonable to assume with his side gig), why don' you cultivate those channels to get us more coverage that isn't just about the downfall of the program and the firing of our coach. If his job is anything more then booking hotels for travel, he needs to be a presence and he is not. That is the issue. He needs to go. Hell, he could have just been part of the 25+ former hoyas who were on the court at half time, he opted out of that too. I don’t disagree with you at all. Just pointing a couple things out.
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DanMcQ
Moderator
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Post by DanMcQ on Feb 28, 2022 9:54:03 GMT -5
Not defending RT as it’s still anyone’s guess what his exact role is in the basketball program, but the “scandal” of him calling A10 games is a bit overblown. There are other examples of university employees having 2 jobs at once. For instance, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_LunardiSensational, yes. Relevant, who knows? Lunardi clearly puts a ton of effort into his side job. If the employers approve it, fine. The relevant question is what are the duties in the university job and are they being done effectively. The former is entirely speculative to everyone here and the latter is assumed to be no without much evidence. Carry that water. Dan. Not carrying any water, thank you very much. I’m not going to reply in kind, however.
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DanMcQ
Moderator
Posts: 30,518
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Post by DanMcQ on Feb 28, 2022 9:54:34 GMT -5
How is that carrying water? I think the complaints about him not being at the Georgetown game are pretty much in bad faith because the same people complaining that he's not at Capital One want him nowhere near the Georgetown program. Ronny not being present isn't the real issue - it's his nebulous and secret role leading to dysfunction. This.
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RBHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,124
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Post by RBHoya on Feb 28, 2022 10:04:28 GMT -5
There's still a lot of mystery around what Ronny actually does, and as best I can figure there are really 2 scenarios, both of which are bad.
Scenario 1, Ronny's position is largely insignificant. He's doing some administrative stuff but is not deeply involved in the inner workings of the team and his "Chief of Staff" title is misleading and more to make him feel important than anything else. That's why he's able to duck off to call A10 games and it's no big deal. He's a mild nuisance if anything, but doesn't materially impact the program. I'd say this scenario is bad because if he's not adding value why is he even there? We all know the answer to that question--he was installed as a favor to his father. It's a silly patronage situation and we'd be better off devoting those resources to a staff member or consultant that would actually add value to the program. Maybe a young hungry recruiting coordinator, or a consultant that could teach Patrick how to coach some defense.
Scenario 2, Ronny's "Chief of Staff" title is legit and he's quietly the second most important person in the program. He's basically the "AD for men's basketball" since Reed is not heavily involved. He's been influential in keeping the gang together (Patrick's assistants + Howze) for the last several years even as the team has fallen apart and consistently disappointed. If he's not appropriately handled soon he's going to have huge say in who the next coach is, hence the Tommy Amaker buzz. His father made almost every major decision for the program even after he retired, and Ronny has now largely inherited that power. This scenario is obviously more concerning than the previous, and if he really does have this much power, then yes I agree that it's ridiculous that he's calling A10 games. I think it's totally absurd and even embarrassing that he has that much power if he does (and I think that many others know that too, which is why his position has been kept very hush-hush for years), but if you're in a position of that much power, at least be all in. The program should be fighting for its life right now, having a major leader in the program blowing off games to cash a check from NBC sports is ridiculous.
To Dan's point, sure, some people have multiple jobs and if their employers are ok with it, it's alright. But... WHY would we be ok with it? If he matters so little that he doesn't even need to be at our games then why do we even have him on staff? And if his position does matter, why is it so much to ask that he at least attend our games? It's not a good look either way. And I hope it ends soon.
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Post by practice on Feb 28, 2022 10:31:57 GMT -5
Ronny is not listed on either the basketball staff list -- guhoyas.com/sports/mens-basketball/coaches -- not the athletic department website -- guhoyas.com/staff-directory. It's a private university, but it would be helpful if GU didn't have "secret staff." One can only speculate as to Ronny's actual title, job description and salary at Georgetown.
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,269
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Post by SSHoya on Feb 28, 2022 10:35:18 GMT -5
Ronny is not listed on either the basketball staff list -- guhoyas.com/sports/mens-basketball/coaches -- not the athletic department website -- guhoyas.com/staff-directory. It's a private university, but it would be helpful if GU didn't have "secret staff." One can only speculate as to Ronny's actual title, job description and salary at Georgetown. I had posted this previously last December: Also, according to my source (the same source I cited on Ewing's purported contract extension) RT is making ONLY $300,000 per year.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Feb 28, 2022 11:07:34 GMT -5
I have been quiet on HoyaTalk because I haven't yet seen the Connecticut game, and I don't like spoilers, but I figured (accurately) that I could read this thread and avoid them. In any event, I think this whole situation really illustrates why our program is in a bad place. A few points:
1. Ronny Thompson Has No Business Being Involved. If Ronny Thompson's last name was not Thompson, would anybody think he should be involved? It's one thing that John Thompson Jr. meddled in the program during the Esherick/JT3/Ewing eras (arguably, not great either, but at least he built the program from the ground up), but Ronny Thompson? Other than playing for his father as a walk on, what's his qualification? See #2.
2. Ronny Thompson Failed at Ball State. I know Ronny would blame Ball State's administration, etc. but at the same time JT3 was succeeding at Georgetown, Ronny failed. It's alleged he had problems adhering to NCAA rules, breaking rules about monitoring workouts, etc. His experience was being an assistant under Esherick and working for Heath at Arkansas (when he helped to steal a Georgetown recruit). These are not the qualifications of someone who should be playing a major role at Georgetown. Again, if not for his family lineage, there would be no doubt about this.
3. What Is His Role? We still have no idea what Ronny's role even consists of, other than the fact that he fashions himself as a Chief of Staff of sorts and likely makes way more money than he should be making. This is absurd! If Georgetown is going to hire Ronny to be part of the program staff, then why not include him on the website and describe his role? That Georgetown has essentially hid the ball on this demonstrates they know it is embarrassing and they'd rather be circumspect about it than acknowledge his role. So much so that everyone assumed he was a consultant, and not employee, until Georgetown confirmed he was an employee in response to this article.
4. The Problem. This really shows the problem we face, even after the Ewing experiment is complete. No coach will want to come to Georgetown if they are going to be beholden to Ronny Thompson, or frankly, even have to deal with him. I realize Ewing likely feels a debt to John Thompson Jr. (and thus Ronny), but when we have people like Ronny involved, should it be any surprise that the program is not in a good place?
Ewing is still the coach, and he's responsible for his decisions, and that includes permitting and allowing Ronny to continue to hold a role in the program. I realize that we still know very little about what Ronny does, but the fact that he's involved and the university has essentially kept it a secret really tells all we need to know.
It's time to operate this program in a transparent, smart, intelligent manner. John Thompson Jr. was a great man, and he built the program, but that does not give license to his progeny to have a perpetual paycheck and lifetime role from the program. While I think John Thompson Jr. did a disservice to the program in many ways after his retirement (including pushing Ewing for the job), to some extent he deserved and earned that influence. But, one cannot say that of Ronny.
Ironically, I don't think Georgetown would even consider running any other aspect of the university this way. The fact that it has been allowed to persist in the basketball program is really emblematic of why we have failed over these last 5 years, and why we will continue to fail without changes, even if the coach is someone other than Ewing. We need real change in the program, from top to bottom.
For what it's worth this is NOT about eliminating the legacy of John Thompson Jr. As I said, he was a great man, and put the program on the map, but that doesn't mean Ronny should have free license to continue earning checks and influencing the program when he is not qualified to do so (if he was qualified, I might feel differently, but he isn't).
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Post by augustusfinknottle on Feb 28, 2022 11:22:09 GMT -5
Amen. When and if the decision is made to hire a new coach there must be a completely fresh start and outlook. Precisely as you say, no coach worth having will want to or should have to deal with any holdovers in the program. Anything short of a total housecleaning can be expected to result in settling for a lesser candidate (read Amaker, e.g.) and thus overall mediocrity at absolute best.
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Elvado
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 10,480
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Post by Elvado on Feb 28, 2022 13:20:51 GMT -5
Ronny T has the S-A-D-I-M touch and should be shown the door forthwith.
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on Feb 28, 2022 13:29:50 GMT -5
Ronny is not listed on either the basketball staff list -- guhoyas.com/sports/mens-basketball/coaches -- not the athletic department website -- guhoyas.com/staff-directory. It's a private university, but it would be helpful if GU didn't have "secret staff." One can only speculate as to Ronny's actual title, job description and salary at Georgetown. I had posted this previously last December: Also, according to my source (the same source I cited on Ewing's purported contract extension) RT is making ONLY $300,000 per year. If he is making 300K off Gtown, that is a travesty. We could hire two Gtown alums who are connected to local high schools or AAU teams for that and give them artificial titles as well. This has a snowball effect when it comes to relying on Patrick to do too much heavy lifting on stuff he has no background doing. This is straight BS!!!
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SDHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,327
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Post by SDHoya on Mar 1, 2022 15:18:17 GMT -5
The "Ronny" obsession is pretty bizarre to me, bordering on conspiracy theory (not Pizzagate level, but perhaps moon landing). I mean, I get that people are looking to assign blame and symbols of rot, etc. But if the Hoyas were winning, I don't think most fans would care what the arrangement between the university and RT is, or if he was playing on his phone/calling a Mason game/whatever.
I still have yet to see any confirmation that he has any direct role in the program or even significant influence. Nor does anyone know if RT's presence prevents the program from hiring the "young up and coming staffer" that we supposedly should have on the payroll.
A hypothetical--assuming RT is actually on the payroll (which to my knowledge there has been no confirmation of)--what if when JTIII was fired, III negotiated a $3m buyout, of which it was agreed that $500k would be set aside for a RT to be a "consultant" for the program at $100k/yr for 5 years. The consultancy role has no real authority, but RT is to be available to provide his input as requested. Under the agreement, RT is permitted to accept other employment. Let's further say that Ronny is regularly seen walking around the halls of the TAC, but has a minimal role in the program. I understand that some people may see this as corrupt (even though this type of arrangement is not all that uncommon in executive severance packages), but frankly would it the worst thing in the world (or even a factor in the program's decline)?
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alleninxis
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
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Post by alleninxis on Mar 1, 2022 15:24:46 GMT -5
Is him having his own personal office inside the building not enough evidence?
Ron Thompson has never been a part of a successful basketball program in his adult life and was a decade removed from having been involved with one.
He has no business being involved in any capacity other than who his father was.
Have we obsessed over it a bit too much? Probably. But it’s a display of how backwards this program has been operating for years.
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iowa80
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,399
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Post by iowa80 on Mar 1, 2022 15:25:36 GMT -5
The "Ronny" obsession is pretty bizarre to me, bordering on conspiracy theory (not Pizzagate level, but perhaps moon landing). I mean, I get that people are looking to assign blame and symbols of rot, etc. But if the Hoyas were winning, I don't think most fans would care what the arrangement between the university and RT is, or if he was playing on his phone/calling a Mason game/whatever. I still have yet to see any confirmation that he has any direct role in the program or even significant influence. Nor does anyone know if RT's presence prevents the program from hiring the "young up and coming staffer" that we supposedly should have on the payroll. A hypothetical--assuming RT is actually on the payroll (which to my knowledge there has been no confirmation of)--what if when JTIII was fired, III negotiated a $3m buyout, of which it was agreed that $500k would be set aside for a RT to be a "consultant" for the program at $100k/yr for 5 years. The consultancy role has no real authority, but RT is to be available to provide his input as requested. Under the agreement, RT is permitted to accept other employment. Let's further say that Ronny is regularly seen walking around the halls of the TAC, but has a minimal role in the program. I understand that some people may see this as corrupt (even though this type of arrangement is not all that uncommon in executive severance packages), but frankly would it the worst thing in the world (or even a factor in the program's decline)? To my knowledge, there has been confirmation that Ronnie is employed by the University. Should we expect that he is not on the payroll? And, if so, should we think that he is being compensated to have no role in the running of the program? Ultimately, I suppose one either believes or does not believe the Hilltop Hoops article in which unnamed sources outlined his influence.
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SDHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,327
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Post by SDHoya on Mar 1, 2022 15:35:27 GMT -5
The "Ronny" obsession is pretty bizarre to me, bordering on conspiracy theory (not Pizzagate level, but perhaps moon landing). I mean, I get that people are looking to assign blame and symbols of rot, etc. But if the Hoyas were winning, I don't think most fans would care what the arrangement between the university and RT is, or if he was playing on his phone/calling a Mason game/whatever. I still have yet to see any confirmation that he has any direct role in the program or even significant influence. Nor does anyone know if RT's presence prevents the program from hiring the "young up and coming staffer" that we supposedly should have on the payroll. A hypothetical--assuming RT is actually on the payroll (which to my knowledge there has been no confirmation of)--what if when JTIII was fired, III negotiated a $3m buyout, of which it was agreed that $500k would be set aside for a RT to be a "consultant" for the program at $100k/yr for 5 years. The consultancy role has no real authority, but RT is to be available to provide his input as requested. Under the agreement, RT is permitted to accept other employment. Let's further say that Ronny is regularly seen walking around the halls of the TAC, but has a minimal role in the program. I understand that some people may see this as corrupt (even though this type of arrangement is not all that uncommon in executive severance packages), but frankly would it the worst thing in the world (or even a factor in the program's decline)? To my knowledge, there has been confirmation that Ronnie is employed by the University. Should we expect that he is not on the payroll? And, if so, should we think that he is being compensated to have no role in the running of the program? Ultimately, I suppose one either believes or does not believe the Hilltop Hoops article in which unnamed sources outlined his influence. As I read the article, the unnamed sources did not have any direct knowledge, they were simply speculating as to what RT's role and/or influence is. From the article: "If you think you don’t have much visibility into what exactly Ronny does as Chief of Staff for the team, you’re not alone. In nearly every interview with current and former members of the program, the consensus reply to the question “What exactly does Ronny do for the program?” was either a shrug or an “I don’t know”."
And forgive me as I likely missed it, but do you have a link to the University confirming that RT is an employee? Did the university say what his title is?
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madgesiq92
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,376
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Post by madgesiq92 on Mar 1, 2022 15:36:35 GMT -5
My understanding is that he is on salary and he makes significantly more than $100K per year.
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alleninxis
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,216
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Post by alleninxis on Mar 1, 2022 15:37:12 GMT -5
There have been multiple people who have asked the University for clarity on his role. They don’t answer.
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madgesiq92
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,376
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Post by madgesiq92 on Mar 1, 2022 15:38:16 GMT -5
To my knowledge, there has been confirmation that Ronnie is employed by the University. Should we expect that he is not on the payroll? And, if so, should we think that he is being compensated to have no role in the running of the program? Ultimately, I suppose one either believes or does not believe the Hilltop Hoops article in which unnamed sources outlined his influence. As I read the article, the unnamed sources did not have any direct knowledge, they were simply speculating as to what RT's role and/or influence is. From the article: "If you think you don’t have much visibility into what exactly Ronny does as Chief of Staff for the team, you’re not alone. In nearly every interview with current and former members of the program, the consensus reply to the question “What exactly does Ronny do for the program?” was either a shrug or an “I don’t know”."
And forgive me as I likely missed it, but do you have a link to the University confirming that RT is an employee? Did the university say what his title is? This is right from the article hilltophoops.substack.com/p/ronny-thompson-georgetown-basketball-influence?s=r"(EDIT: New information received today from a Georgetown University employee with knowledge of Thompson’s employment status revealed that Thompson is listed by the university as a “salaried ongoing (regular) employee”.)"
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