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Post by RockawayHoya on Dec 11, 2023 17:40:27 GMT -5
They were not clearly better than us. It was a winnable game lost (and won) by our terrible wide-open 3s and SU shooting 45% from 3 instead of their average 19%. I was planning to write a bigger post about this, but I have not had the time. But, in short, our defense is abysmal, and by multiple analytics sites, at least, worse than last year: Ken Pom: Defense Ranking 2022: 240; Defense Ranking 2023: 311 Bart Torvik: Defense Ranking 2022: 213; Defense Ranking 2023: 273 Haslametrics: Defense Ranking 2022: 243; Defense Ranking 2023: 290 One of the things I expected to improve drastically this year was defense, yet it hasn't happened yet. This is surprising, because while Cooley generally has not had elite-level defense, he's also really never had bad ones, except his first year at Providence (after which it got a lot better), and his first couple of years at Fairfield (after which it got a lot better). So, in that sense this is not precedented--when Cooley took over two other programs, their defense has been pretty bad to start (in the case of Providence, it got worse than it was under Keno Davis in year 1, before getting better) and then improves over time. This is surely a matter of both teaching and personnel. So, I fully expect it to get better. Still, why are we so bad this year? Obviously, the personnel has something to do with it. But, what's interesting is that we are very bad on defense, yet for totally different reasons than last year. Last year, essentially the team had no focus and allowed other teams to take tons of open threes. Our rotations/help defense were abysmal. Under Cooley that's much improved. For example, last year teams shot 38.9% against us from three (really bad), whereas this year our 3 point defense is allowing 29.9%, good for 61st nationally. A huge improvement. In point distribution, opponents are getting only 24.9% of their points from three point range, compared to 37.2 last year. Again, a huge improvement by Cooley and the team. But our two point defense is worse, indicating we are getting killed in the paint (which the eye test also clearly shows). Opponents are shooting 52.3% against us from two, compared to 50.4% last year. That means our interior defense is not cutting it. I do not mean to put this all on Cook's shoulders, but it's largely on him (and of course, Cooley, for not getting more help by recruiting better players; losing Akok hurt on this). Wabab/Akok were better defenders than Cook/Massoud/Fielder. Another reason why I think we are doing worse (but I think it's not the main factor) is switching all, which sometimes creates mismatches. The huge glaring difference though is rebounding, something we have all paid attention to. But, this is the main reason our defense is horrible. We are 272nd in defensive rebounding, compared to 254 last year (despite being ranked worse, in rebound rate, we are actually thus far rebounding better than last year, but it's likely in part because we have played horrible teams mostly). So kind of a wash from last year. We also haven't regressed from last year in getting steals (though we weren't good last year on that either). We are slightly better at forcing turnovers on defense this year than last, but not by much. An area where we aren't as good as last year is FTA/FGA--Ewing teams were surprisingly good at this. But, it's also misleading. While Ewing's teams did not foul much at all, I truly think a large reason for that is that our guys were not in positions to contest a lot of the wide-open shots. Cooley's approach clearly favors a more physical defensive approach, which is likely driving the increased fouling, too. In sum, we have improved substantially from Ewing's defense on three point defense. I think our rotations/help defense are the main reason, and I think it's why we look better even if the stats say we aren't. We don't leave guys wide open nearly as much as last year. But, we aren't doing well on defense really in most other ways. As I said, Cooley's teams--after his first year or so--have always gotten much better on defense. So, I expect that to happen, but having a 311 ranked defense is unacceptable. We need to play better with the current personnel. (For those who might want to blame height for rebounding, we are the 118th tallest team, so it's really not an excuse.) The part that continues to baffle is that we actually continued to do well in getting our own offensive rebounds (14!), yet the level of intensity on the glass noticeably pales by comparison when we are on the defensive end. It's just the eye test so take it for what you will, but it seems like we have a lot of offensive-minded guys who are really interested in crashing the glass when it can lead to a putback, but just don't want to put forth the same energy and commitment when a rebound only leads to a stop on the other end. The first shot defense isn't great, but it's also not what is killing us. Guys have to show a little bit more pride in rebounding their position on the defensive side of the ball and making sure the possession ends. A really long way of saying that I agree that personnel isn't the primary issue, and that coaching needs to get this fixed. This year.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Dec 4, 2023 17:41:41 GMT -5
With the Ken Pom talk on here lately, I thought I'd throw out Georgetown's Torvik page (which I'd argue is a better analytics tool): barttorvik.com/team.php?team=Georgetown&year=2024The offense has been tourney level EXCEPT for turnovers (which is extremely poor). 3 point shooting is elite. And defending the 3 is a big strength. However, the rest of the defensive metrics are a dumpster fire. On an individual player level, Torvik loves Styles. Likes Epps, but he gets hurt by the turnover rate. Predicting an 11-20 season. 5-15 in conference. Has us a slight favorite to beat Cuse. I was going through those this morning as well. A couple very interesting stats: Great at shooting the 3 (27th) and defending the 3 (50th). Definitely considerably better than we have been in past years. The quality of shots and closeouts/rotations/switches/general communication on D have definitely improved. Horrible at committing turnovers (286th) and forcing turnovers (272nd). Operating at a FGA disadvantage nearly every game between this and the rebounding is going to be extremely tough to overcome on a consistent basis. Expecting these to get incrementally better as the season goes once familiarity increases, even against tougher defenses. Great at getting to the FT line (20th), horrible at converting once we get there (255th). A killer here, because we don't take advantage of a lot of free points here. In close games, that will make the difference. We're not going to turn into a bunch of Mark Prices overnight, but expecting coaching to improve this to at least somewhere around average. The biggest WTF stat: great at offensive rebounding (27th), but horrible at defensive rebounding (264th). Might be able to attribute some of this to taking a lot of 3s (56th) and giving up an above average number of 3s (119th), since longer shots usually means longer rebounds. Some of it also may be scheme as well. But the disparity shouldn't be this big. If we can be nearly elite at one end, clearly we should be able to at least hold our own on the glass on the other end.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Dec 4, 2023 13:52:43 GMT -5
Think there's a good chance that yesterday will be looked back on as the day the ACC died. I know they have already been looking to jump ship, but you can bet that every single major FSU booster will be looking to help the school escape for the SEC ASAP after completely getting screwed by the CFP selection committee. And once the FSU domino falls, you can bet everyone else will be looking to avoid becoming Oregon St. / Washington St. in the latest round of musical chairs. I know the criteria for CFP selection and I'm aware of injuries at QB, but to paraphrase Norvell... if we're picking teams based off of perceived competitiveness instead of results on the field, then why are we even playing the games? CFB is just a joke in general and yesterday was just another event that will accelerate the irreparable harm being caused to every other college sport that isn't football. Agree with all of the above, but won’t the expanded playoff somewhat solve a lot of the issues around the FSU snub? And sorry but I love what happened to the ACC. Serves the Big East traitors right that they left to join a conference that has essentially become the MAC. Screw all of them. Maybe? I could certainly see some serious complaining when it gets down to who receives one of the four first round byes. It's not as drastic as making the tournament vs. being left out entirely, but you can certainly envision a scenario in the near future where an undefeated "P4" conference champion gets snubbed for a CFP bye and has to play an extra game. Good chance that the snubbed school will feel that the only way to avoid a repeat of that happening is to switch conferences.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Dec 4, 2023 10:17:01 GMT -5
Think there's a good chance that yesterday will be looked back on as the day the ACC died. I know they have already been looking to jump ship, but you can bet that every single major FSU booster will be looking to help the school escape for the SEC ASAP after completely getting screwed by the CFP selection committee. And once the FSU domino falls, you can bet everyone else will be looking to avoid becoming Oregon St. / Washington St. in the latest round of musical chairs.
I know the criteria for CFP selection and I'm aware of injuries at QB, but to paraphrase Norvell... if we're picking teams based off of perceived competitiveness instead of results on the field, then why are we even playing the games? CFB is just a joke in general and yesterday was just another event that will accelerate the irreparable harm being caused to every other college sport that isn't football.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Dec 4, 2023 10:00:14 GMT -5
Accountability. It's what we demand from our staff and players. It's what the league and sport in general needs to demand from its officials.
I get that the replay rule is horrible and that there's no clear solution. A lot of things are subjective and stopping a game for 5 minutes going freeze frame by freeze frame to evaluate every play is not a path I want to go down. Games are long enough as it is, and we've seen countless times that even after the benefit of a lengthy review, refs will still get the call wrong. So I don't necessarily blame the officials for not using replay to confirm something that was clear as day.
But like many of you have already said, that's a call that the trail official (or literally any of the 3) just simply cannot miss live. We are not splitting hairs by millimeters; the kid's foot was on the line. For those officials to all miss that call live is inexcusable. Have to be paying closer attention than that, especially in a one possession game coming down to the wire.
And then after you miss what is an outcome-impacting call? Nothing. No suspension or even reprimand from the league. I don't even there was a public acknowledgment of the error. Like it or not, we are in a results-based business now. So when these guys in stripes aren't delivering results, they should no longer be part of the business. Not being selected to work postseason tournaments is not enough. Everyone else is being evaluated on their performance; so should the officials. Establish a standard, hold people to it, and if they can't hack it in this league, find someone else who can.
Frustration aside, I'd rather be bitching about a call screwing us out of a game than just complete ineptitude on our part like the last few seasons. Haven't had that opportunity for quite some time now. Means we are getting closer.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Nov 29, 2023 23:30:52 GMT -5
Rough stretch that doesn't bode well for the rest of this season. Needed 4 no-doubt stress-free wins and got 0. Yes, they battled in and survived each one, but these are not teams you want to be struggling with in OOC play.
First off, the FS1 broadcast was about as brutal as it gets tonight. Heard they were remote; either Fox needs to send actual people to the game or just do it without two inane idiots just spouting nonsense for 2 hours. It wasn't even clear to me that Bahe and Werne were even paying attention to their monitors. The color guy had the audacity to say "Merrimack has no answer for Supreme Cook down low tonight" while the PBP guy replied with "Cook has 5 points tonight on 2 for 8 shooting" with a straight face (probably). WTF are we even doing here, Fox?
Agree with the folks that sensed a bit of heightened urgency around the 8-9 minute mark and pointed out a few end-of-game coaching situations that would have been complete botch jobs with the previous staff. Liked the inbound to the inbounder play. Like the fouls up 3 to prevent the game tying 3. Liked the offense-for-defense substitutions. But that doesn't give the staff and players a pass on a poor boxout on the final play. Very fortunate to survive multiple point-blank misses at the end there. Probably even luckier that the Merrimack coach got a very BS tech.
Just not a whole lot to be happy about tonight. Especially poor all-around game from Brumbaugh. Cook must have missed about a half dozen layups that really should have put the game at a comfortable margin. The FT shooting (268th in the country coming into tonight and probably worse afterwards) in general continues to be a huge problem for this team and is something that needs to be improved. 18 more turnovers. I admit Epps not being able to return was a significant loss, but we also got 31 minutes out of Ish for this one. There is no justifiable reason to be allowing that opponent to have a shot to win on our home floor in the final possession. None.
Again, I am not expecting a finished product overnight or a team that will compete for a title or postseason berth. But I am expecting to see some incremental improvement game over game during the season. Will be interesting to see how this team handles the next 4 before BE play begins.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Nov 28, 2023 9:53:00 GMT -5
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Post by RockawayHoya on Nov 16, 2023 16:43:43 GMT -5
The team definitely has warts, but we knew that going into the season. Part of why I rarely post during the summer and during Kenner/scrimmages is because people tend to focus on all of the good and none of the bad. In reality, that's not what it ends up being.
There's currently no true facilitator-type PG that you can count on to both get others involved and protect the ball against pressure. That's a limitation, but it also shouldn't be the reason we can't avoid turning the ball over 20+ times a game. Guys need to a bit more poised under pressure and make better decisions. I think that can be improved somewhat over time. In game #3 against a good defense, it's not surprising.
We have a couple decent perimeter shooters (Rowan, Epps, Styles), but they're all much better when someone else has created for them vs. them having to create for themselves. That's the difference between an average player and an above-average player. I think we have a few guys who can eventually become credible dribble-penetration threats to consistently create space for others, but it's not there yet and certainly wasn't last night. That will be a key litmus test for Cooley this season: can this team create enough efficient offense to overcome what is likely to be a deficit on the boards all season? I know it's early here, but hoping that we can see some scheme help out the players here as we progress through the season.
Cook is limited. I appreciate that he's not a physical pushover like some of our recent bigs, although Omuruiyi did discard him once or twice without much trouble last night. He also has a decent motor. But there's just not that much skill/coordination there. The latest in a long line of GU bigs who can't shotfake/dropstep without 1-2 travels per game. An OK stopgap option for Year 1, but better hope Sorber is ready to be a contributor from the get-go if we want to be contenders next season.
Last night would have been a much easier game to stomach had we taken care of business on Saturday. A step up in competition that we weren't ready for, and in a vacuum that would have been fine. But combined with Saturday's result, the season is quickly unraveling if they can't take of the next 4 without much stress. That's my minimum expectation for the rest of the month for this team. Win them and don't let the outcome be in doubt for the final 10 minutes of any game. Anything less than that and I'd be disappointed.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Nov 7, 2023 21:19:57 GMT -5
Taking a game against Le Moyne with a grain of salt of course. That being said, I thought that in general, everything I wanted to see tonight was on display. Sustained effort throughout. Unselfishness (god how refreshing it is to see guys hit the open man instead of the 1 on 5 isos we had gotten used to during the last 2 seasons). Evidence of preparation and plan to execute. Constructive and detailed instruction during timeouts (vs. REBOUND). Guys even closed out on shooters and got on the floor after loose balls. Not saying this team is tourney bound or even competitive yet in the BE, but it at least looks competent and has direction. This was a game where we would allow far lesser teams to linger or even steal at times in recent years. This was a dominant performance from start to finish with no real lulls in between. That's an encouraging first step.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Aug 18, 2023 17:29:23 GMT -5
I would think ESPN's pretty public attempt to kill the Big East 10 years ago probably hasn't been forgotten by Big East leadership when any current discussions for TV contract renewals come up. Relationships matter, and the one between the BE and ESPN was irreversibly damaged a long time ago.
Given the countless problems they're having over there at the "WWL," I'm not losing sleep if they're not even approached by us with an invitation to make an offer. IMO, Fox still has plenty of bandwidth on their networks to televise our games properly even with the addition of content from other leagues. The bigger problem is every game going over by 20-30 minutes because of all the insane replay reviews, which is not a Fox problem but a CBB one in general.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Aug 8, 2023 8:55:41 GMT -5
Just to pile on to my other “wait and see” posts, and with the caveat that I haven’t really followed college football closely since moving back to New England in 2012 after four years in SEC country . . . As of today, D1 football is basically divided into three tiers. There’s the power-conference FBS schools at the top, then the FBS schools in the also-ran conferences, and then FCS. (Some of the bottom programs in the top leagues are, of course, held up by their league’s reputation rather than their own merit—more on that below.) We’re witnessing a consolidation of those power-conference schools into fewer leagues, with some potentially being relegated to “also-ran FBS” status when they get left out. There’s also talk of more consolidation in the future, likely with the SEC and Big Ten going after the top programs in the ACC, which could lead to the collapse of that league. There’s also the possibility of a national “super league” of sorts coming into existence someday. Under either scenario, it seems likely that in the near- or mid-term, the musical chairs will stop with somewhere between 60-75 FBS teams having a seat at the table (to mix metaphors), with the rest related to also-ran status. My prediction is that if and when that happens, the football programs that are on the outside looking in will inhabit a space that is (in both perceived prestige and recruiting/on-field product) lower than the current FBS have-nots. In other words, they start to look a bit more like today’s FCS than yesteryear’s CUSA. And who’s to say that, upon a breakaway/super league situation, the NCAA itself doesn’t reclassify the subdivisions of D1 to reflect this new reality? What all of this is getting at is that the rump of the ACC might be a good addition to the Big East, re-forming the football version of the league at the whatever-we’re-now-calling-lower-FBS level. UConn is already doomed to land at that level, and it might not be as big a stretch for one or more of the current FCS programs in the league to move up if the other programs are moving down. Add five schools and you’re at 16 for hoops, with at least 6 (and maybe as high as 9?) for football. In this scenario, there’s probably less flight risk than there has been in decades, because the big boys have decided who is in and who is out, once and for all. So who would be that rump ACC? I’d have to think that the top targets for the Big Ten and SEC would be UVA, UNC, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Miami. Maybe NC State and Virginia Tech as part of a package if the state politicians get involved. So that leaves a bunch of our old conference mates, but also potentially Duke and Wake. And finally, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a “super league” that would allow the biggest of the programs to unshackle themselves from traditional conferences and dump the dead weight (from a football perspective). That might mean schools like Vanderbilt and Northwestern shaking loose.Now of course, whatever is left of the ACC might find it more attractive to add a couple of other leftovers rather than dissolving and limping back to the Big East with a mea culpa. But I’d rather wait and find out than add Dayton and SLU just for the sake of adding more teams. The bolded part of your post is actually a great point. It aligns directly with an article I read in the Athletic yesterday about Rutgers and the dire situation they are facing, even having already re-aligned to one of the future "super-conferences." theathletic.com/4748780/2023/08/07/big-ten-realignment-rutgers/It's behind a paywall so I won't C&P the entire article. But some of the most important nuggets are damning and illustrate that some of the "dead weight" as you put it are finding it hard, even potentially unsustainable, to keep up even with the big TV dollars coming in. Rutgers’ time in the Big Ten has been a competitive and financial nightmare, compounded by a few salacious scandals. Entering its 10th season in the conference, the football team has gone 13-66 in league play. Meanwhile, despite astronomical increases in shared Big Ten revenue, the athletic department has racked up more than $250 million in debt, according to financial documents obtained by The Athletic and first reported by NorthJersey.com.Football carries the most prominence, but nearly all of Rutgers’ programs have struggled. Over the last six Directors’ Cup standings, Rutgers has finished last among Big Ten teams four times. A year after posting one of its best showings in decades (48th, 10th among Big Ten schools), Rutgers fell to 130th nationally this past school year, the third time in six years (not including 2019-20, when there were no final standings) that the school finished in the 100s.Of the Big Ten’s 13 public universities, nine athletics departments receive minimal or no funding from the university, state or from student fees. However, over eight years of data, Rutgers has received nearly $240.8 million in direct university or state funding or from student fees. Maryland ($128.3 million), Illinois ($55.9 million) and Minnesota ($20 million) are the other three Big Ten schools receiving funding from those sources over that eight-year period. Minnesota’s athletic department gave back more than $2.3 million, Illinois’ gave more than $1.3 million and Maryland’s gave $620,000 to their respective universities. Rutgers has transferred back zero.
“The Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees know exactly what’s going on,” Killingsworth, the Rutgers professor, says. “The question (for them) is not, ‘Why are we spending so much of this effing money?’ The question is, ‘How can we spend more? What else do you need? We’ll give it to you.’”
Beginning in 2020, Rutgers athletics has reported more than $69.8 million in combined losses to the NCAA, per financial forms obtained by The Athletic via state open-records laws. A NorthJersey.com investigation in 2021 documented $265 million in total debt.
Before it became a fully vested Big Ten member in 2020, Rutgers borrowed $48 million from the league against future earnings. The payback schedule remains undetermined as university brass works with new Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti on a workable solution.
“There was a lot of propaganda about how the Big Ten was going to be our financial salvation that was going to make everything right,” Killingsworth says, “which even at the time, if you had a brain and a pencil and paper, and you could do basic math, the net increase in income, between leaving the Big East and arriving in the Big Ten, would not be enough to make up the deficit. And they just ignored that. They fell for their own propaganda.”Hard to fathom how a school like Rutgers, which is so far in debt, will continue to essentially "pay to play" in the Big Ten. And it's not far-fetched to envision a scenario where a number of schools like the ones you mentioned will come to the same conclusion over the next few years.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Aug 4, 2023 13:06:33 GMT -5
Conference re-alignment will really only end once the B10 and SEC become the two super conferences they've always aspired to be. I think at this point, it's hard to envision a path where this isn't the endgame.
The Pac-12 is basically dead. With Oregon and Washington heading to the B10 later today and Arizona/ASU/Utah B12 bound, that leaves 4 teams left in the current Pac-12: Stanford, Cal, Washington St., and Oregon St. I'm sure they might be able to sell the Mountain West on merging and rebranding as the new Pac-12, but by and large that is no longer what anyone would consider a major conference. Hard to envision some kind of partnership with the ACC considering: a) logistics, and b) the ACC is likely tearing apart at the seams too, so those 4 schools are either looking for a lifeline within the "Big 3" or will go the MWC route.
Don't think this round of re-alignment is going to impact the BE much from a brand standpoint, but the gulf between the have (i.e. major football schools) and have-nots (i.e. everyone else) continues to grow. That shouldn't be surprising to anyone, but whoever is running Georgetown NIL better realize what they are going up against in the long-term and have a plan to keep up. The Big East's best path towards survival remains focusing on the one thing it does better than arguably anyone else: basketball. Because of that, I have a hard time believing we'll expand. No one wants a watered-down product. Keep amassing talent and championships while building on the rivalries that are quickly dying out in CFB, and you'll have a product that will continue to win on and off the court. That's where the hoopers of tomorrow will get excited about and flock to. Hoping the next round of TV negotiations will reflect that. Staying on major networks will be crucial; we just saw the Pac-12 basically die because of an ill-fated deal with Apple TV that was tied to subscription rates, etc. Val and friends need to make sure that it's as easy as possible for as many eyeballs to be on our conference's games.
Will UConn leave? My gut says no, but I wouldn't be surprised to be wrong. If I were them, I wouldn't dare do it. Why go through the trouble of winning this round of musical chairs just to guarantee yourself that you'll be perpetually playing the musical chair game until you're left without a seat? Because with their football pedigree, that's exactly what will happen. It will soon happen to BC. Maybe even Syracuse and Pitt. The Big East did them a tremendous favor taking them back once. It likely will not do it a second time.
In 5-10 years, there's going to be 2 major football conferences that will look a lot like the current NFC/AFC makeup in pro football. Anyone not in that magical group of 64 or so teams better look to focus elsewhere outside of CFB if they want their AD to remain financially viable long-term. A school like Stanford, with all of its money and academic/athletic excellence, is finding out the hard way now. I do think Stanford eventually finds its way somewhere into that group of 64, but this whole episode just goes to show you how meaningless anything that isn't football is to a lot of athletic departments and universities.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 27, 2023 16:11:06 GMT -5
So Henton, Battle, and Blaney are listed in the directory as Assistant Coach-1, and Ivan Thomas is an Assistant Coach-2.
Interesting if Thomas is an Associate HC here or if one of the above 3 is something below a full-fledged assistant. Regardless, only 3 of the 4 can be out on the road for recruiting purposes, correct?
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 22, 2023 13:24:28 GMT -5
Community building. Giving a college kid the scoop instead of the major media outlets so that he can break the story and build credibility. Thawing out the icy relationship between the school newspaper and the program. Building a sense of community amongst all of athletics; basketball is important, but it is one of many sports. The man is practicing what he preached and following through.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 22, 2023 12:29:02 GMT -5
When asked about his staff, Cooley said something to the effect that they would be the hardest working staff, and that if anyone wasn't the hardest worker, they'd no longer be part of the staff.
Assume if he hasn't already been run out of the building, that statement alone would disqualify him from staying. Personally, I'm not worrying about him anymore.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 22, 2023 12:00:31 GMT -5
Damn, that was impressive. Just a complete 180 from what we heard 6 years ago.
Today was the first step in mending the fences in a lot of areas. Relationships with former players. Ensuring that AD (and hopefully university leadership) and staff are in alignment. Valuing and appreciating the students, media, and the overall GU fan base instead of antagonizing them. Before even winning a single game, if we are truly going to instill a sense of community and togetherness, these were all the right things to call out and cite as areas for improvement.
With a coach who pushes for it, an AD who is allowed to enable it, and university leadership who empowers them both, this could finally go the way we want it to go. Fingers crossed that this doesn't just ends up being words that ring hollow. But, hard to ask for a better start.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 20, 2023 13:54:21 GMT -5
Right, so if he knew it was going on... why not just pick up the phone, call Reed and ask? I would find it hard to believe that if Val was aware of it for >1 month and didn't want us to do it, she wouldn't have privately asked us to stop or at the very least, facilitate a conversation between the two schools. By then what did it matter? If Reed calls before any contact has been made at least he'd have the chance to say could you at least hold off until our season is done? I don't want to speak for the guy but it seems to me his gripe is that Gtown/Cooley could have easily waited. It's silly to think that Ackerman was going to say anything, he spoke to her for future reference. I think we agree. If he wanted to salvage the situation, he had advance notice that he had to do something. That he didn't get it done is on him and not because he was caught off guard and didn't have a chance. Given his attitude, I'm not certain he really wanted to either. Just public posturing.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 20, 2023 13:14:32 GMT -5
Got a lot of thoughts to unpack. As far as process goes... It's funny how this time 2 months ago we were all worried that there'd be some outside chance that University leadership had not even begun to think about a post-Ewing transition and that any change may not be coming at all due to loyalty, financial reasons, etc. Yet, clearly this had been in the works for some time and as far as timing goes, it's hard to ask for a quicker resolution. Having a staff ready to hit the ground running in advance of portal season was always going to be critical for next season's success. Our decision to dilly dally and wait until it was too late ended up costing us dearly in the previous hiring cycle. I have been a vocal critic of our university leadership and they are still on my general -list, but I'm also glad they didn't repeat the same mistake this time around. So for those crying about tampering, not waiting until the season was over, etc... this isn't pro sports where it's a written rule and you get dinged draft picks / fines for doing it. You can argue with Cooley's decision to entertain conversations and lose focus on his season at hand, but it's not Georgetown's fault for reaching out before season's end. Takes two to talk. And this happens ALL the time in college athletics. I don't buy for a second that Providence was blindsided by this happening until yesterday morning. The Prov AD literally incriminated himself last night on TV by admitting he had had conversations with Val Ackerman for over a month on the topic. Why talk with Val for that long if you had no idea this was coming? And judging by what I saw last night, I'm not surprised Cooley decided not to work with him anymore. What a clown. For a conference that was originally built on hatred (have we already forgotten "Manley Field House is closed" and the BE coaches' roundtable conference calls?), the days of being best buddies with the Catholic 7 post-realignment are over and they should be over. Rivalries build interest and in order to be in a rivalry, there's got to be a lot of dislike amongst the two teams and each has to at least win some of time. Let's get back to that. Now for the actual basketball stuff... Pitino was far and away my first choice. And I would have been OK with Shrewsberry too as a third option. But there's no way I'm taking other relative unknown quantities from the mid-major level (or worse, that unsightly retread group of Brey/Amaker/Jones) over Cooley. RBHoya hit the nail on the head talking about economics: there's no way some of the marquee names that were being thrown out here were coming here for $5M/year. You either need to have a better basketball situation (ours has always had the potential but has been hamstrung by leadership) or substantial raises (not $1, but multi-millions/year) to entice any of those names to even have a conversation, if not both. Cooley was a good choice as far as realistic options go. There's a number of things I'm pretty confident Cooley will help us improve right off the bat: General level of effort and intensity. Don't let the FS1 C-team broadcast booths fool you... the level of effort under Ewing the last 2 years, especially on the defensive end, was just downright embarrassing and pathetic. I don't think I need to worry about effort being a problem going forward. Scouting and preparation. Virtually non-existent under the previous regime. Cooley's teams usually come in at least prepared and knowledgeable about the opposing team's personnel. Defensive principles. At the very least, I know we are going to employ a system that doesn't ask players to do something they're not capable of doing or shouldn't be doing. T hat's the low bar Ewing created. Cooley has at least shown a few seasons of having a relatively strong 3 point defense. Expecting us to be much better in this department. Some things I'm less sure of: Leveraging the portal. HS recruiting (and being strong in the DMV) means less to me now because there's far less value in HS recruits that can bolt with no penalty vs. experienced/older/accomplished players who will use their one get-out-of-jail-free card on you. Bryce Hopkins was a strong add for them last year, but still unknown if he can not only consistently land portal talent but also get the newcomers to learn the system and mesh quickly. Having heard from people in the know that "money is not a problem," I don't expect NIL to be a barrier for us. Let's see what Cooley can do with the support he lacked at PC. In-game adjustments. It's very difficult in this day and age to have consistent success in March without being able to play a few different ways and adjust quickly based on matchups, flow of the game, etc. Teams that can't do this fail. Haven't really seen too many instances where Cooley saved his team by going to a Plan B or Plan C mid-game. With some personal evolution and smart staff hires, could he get there? Yes. But I'd need to see more on this front. Fan engagement and building back up the home court advantage. I know, winning solves a lot of this. And I know Cooley will be much more open to interacting with fans than his predecessors. But I am also interested to see how much control McD/university leadership still maintains over the basketball program going forward. If Supreme Leader Degioia decides to continue to go full James Dolan and micro-manage Reed/Cooley, then the next home address Rothstein should leak better be his. All in all, today's a happy day. There are no guarantees and there never are, but at least we've got hope now, which we haven't been able say for quite some time. Looking forward to seeing how the next 4-6 weeks shake out from a roster perspective. In my opinion, it’s a knock against him that he’d do this. I’ve heard enough of his pep talks to know he preaches being in the moment all the time… Also you’re missing the AD’s point, he knew it was going on and wondered why Gtown hadn’t at least let him know they were doing it. That’s what he was speaking with Ackerman about. Right, so if he knew it was going on... why not just pick up the phone, call Reed and ask? I would find it hard to believe that if Val was aware of it for >1 month and didn't want us to do it, she wouldn't have privately asked us to stop or at the very least, facilitate a conversation between the two schools.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 20, 2023 12:54:59 GMT -5
Got a lot of thoughts to unpack. As far as process goes... It's funny how this time 2 months ago we were all worried that there'd be some outside chance that University leadership had not even begun to think about a post-Ewing transition and that any change may not be coming at all due to loyalty, financial reasons, etc. Yet, clearly this had been in the works for some time and as far as timing goes, it's hard to ask for a quicker resolution. Having a staff ready to hit the ground running in advance of portal season was always going to be critical for next season's success. Our decision to dilly dally and wait until it was too late ended up costing us dearly in the previous hiring cycle. I have been a vocal critic of our university leadership and they are still on my general -list, but I'm also glad they didn't repeat the same mistake this time around. So for those crying about tampering, not waiting until the season was over, etc... this isn't pro sports where it's a written rule and you get dinged draft picks / fines for doing it. You can argue with Cooley's decision to entertain conversations and lose focus on his season at hand, but it's not Georgetown's fault for reaching out before season's end. Takes two to talk. And this happens ALL the time in college athletics. I don't buy for a second that Providence was blindsided by this happening until yesterday morning. The Prov AD literally incriminated himself last night on TV by admitting he had had conversations with Val Ackerman for over a month on the topic. Why talk with Val for that long if you had no idea this was coming? And judging by what I saw last night, I'm not surprised Cooley decided not to work with him anymore. What a clown. For a conference that was originally built on hatred (have we already forgotten "Manley Field House is closed" and the BE coaches' roundtable conference calls?), the days of being best buddies with the Catholic 7 post-realignment are over and they should be over. Rivalries build interest and in order to be in a rivalry, there's got to be a lot of dislike amongst the two teams and each has to at least win some of time. Let's get back to that. Now for the actual basketball stuff... Pitino was far and away my first choice. And I would have been OK with Shrewsberry too as a third option. But there's no way I'm taking other relative unknown quantities from the mid-major level (or worse, that unsightly retread group of Brey/Amaker/Jones) over Cooley. RBHoya hit the nail on the head talking about economics: there's no way some of the marquee names that were being thrown out here were coming here for $5M/year. You either need to have a better basketball situation (ours has always had the potential but has been hamstrung by leadership) or substantial raises (not $1, but multi-millions/year) to entice any of those names to even have a conversation, if not both. Cooley was a good choice as far as realistic options go. There's a number of things I'm pretty confident Cooley will help us improve right off the bat: General level of effort and intensity. Don't let the FS1 C-team broadcast booths fool you... the level of effort under Ewing the last 2 years, especially on the defensive end, was just downright embarrassing and pathetic. I don't think I need to worry about effort being a problem going forward. Scouting and preparation. Virtually non-existent under the previous regime. Cooley's teams usually come in at least prepared and knowledgeable about the opposing team's personnel. Defensive principles. At the very least, I know we are going to employ a system that doesn't ask players to do something they're not capable of doing or shouldn't be doing. T hat's the low bar Ewing created. Cooley has at least shown a few seasons of having a relatively strong 3 point defense. Expecting us to be much better in this department. Some things I'm less sure of: Leveraging the portal. HS recruiting (and being strong in the DMV) means less to me now because there's far less value in HS recruits that can bolt with no penalty vs. experienced/older/accomplished players who will use their one get-out-of-jail-free card on you. Bryce Hopkins was a strong add for them last year, but still unknown if he can not only consistently land portal talent but also get the newcomers to learn the system and mesh quickly. Having heard from people in the know that "money is not a problem," I don't expect NIL to be a barrier for us. Let's see what Cooley can do with the support he lacked at PC. In-game adjustments. It's very difficult in this day and age to have consistent success in March without being able to play a few different ways and adjust quickly based on matchups, flow of the game, etc. Teams that can't do this fail. Haven't really seen too many instances where Cooley saved his team by going to a Plan B or Plan C mid-game. With some personal evolution and smart staff hires, could he get there? Yes. But I'd need to see more on this front. Fan engagement and building back up the home court advantage. I know, winning solves a lot of this. And I know Cooley will be much more open to interacting with fans than his predecessors. But I am also interested to see how much control McD/university leadership still maintains over the basketball program going forward. If Supreme Leader Degioia decides to continue to go full James Dolan and micro-manage Reed/Cooley, then the next home address Rothstein should leak better be his. All in all, today's a happy day. There are no guarantees and there never are, but at least we've got hope now, which we haven't been able say for quite some time. Looking forward to seeing how the next 4-6 weeks shake out from a roster perspective.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 13, 2023 14:05:49 GMT -5
I've tried to stay out of the coaching discussion until now, simply because I don't see a lot of value getting worked up over unsubstantiated rumors and any time anybody with a Twitter fires off an opinion. But I do think a select few scenarios are starting to emerge, and I do think the upcoming March Madness timeline gives you a pretty good indication of when we'll hear something. Game 1: Penn St. v. Texas A&M (Thurs. 9pm) I haven't seen anything that indicates an open dialogue between Shrewsberry and GU to date. But I do think he's a clear #2/#3 choice for our leadership at the moment, as he's the one unique candidate that checks off the boxes of being both a diversity hire and completely disconnected from the Thompson lineage. I can't begin to guess as to whether or not he's got something else (ND? PSU extension?) lined up, but I would suspect you'd hear something from him fairly soon one way or another after PSU is eliminated. So, perhaps as early as late Thurs. night / Fri. morning. Would he wait to see how the dust settles on the Georgetown situation? I'm not sure. Game 2: Iona v. UConn (Fri. 3:30pm) Here's the kicker. Assuming Iona loses this game, I think you will very clearly see whether or not Pitino had any genuine interest in GU. If he signs with SJU minutes after the Iona game ends, then one of two things have definitely occurred. Either his reps were told flat out well in advance, "Georgetown will never hire you, go kick rocks" or Pitino never had any intention of moving once it became apparent he had a feasible situation to return to major conference basketball without leaving NY. HOWEVER, if Pitino waits for Cooley to make a move first before deciding on SJU, I do think there is still a chance to have a conversation with him if Cooley says no. It would mean we haven't closed the door on him and likely just decided not to talk to him until after Cooley made a decision. I'm guessing that GU leadership is being sensitive towards maintaining the optics that they are prioritizing Cooley that they don't even want to appear to be courting other candidates until he's made a decision. Game 3: Providence v. Kentucky (Fri. 6pm) Let's assume that Cooley is the guy Supreme Dictator Degioia and friends have zeroed in on "for weeks." And assume that it's the godfather deal ($5-6M/year, top 3-4 nationally) that would be required to convince Cooley to leave everything he's ever known at Providence and take on a ground zero rebuild. Cooley would have to know that this is the best deal he's ever going to get compensation-wise for the rest of his career and likely his best opportunity at moving up (there won't be any blue bloods ever dialing him up and I don't think he'd do well at a big state school that can just Edited away football money). My guess is that he's had enough time to privately make a decision and provide one to Georgetown pretty quickly after Providence is out of the tournament. So unless they win, that answer likely comes as early as Friday night / Saturday morning. What definitely complicates things is that if any of these 3 teams win their opener, it becomes a question of who will be willing to wait and who won't. I do think a worst case scenario has PSU/Iona losing and Providence winning. If Shrewsberry/Pitino make their decisions early and we still haven't gotten a commitment from Cooley, there is significant risk that we will be left picking from the bottom of the barrel if Cooley has a change of heart. Although I don't agree with it, I at least understand the strategy t GU admin is likely trying to employ. I just hope their supposed high level of confidence is justified, because it's certainly risky for the reasons I mentioned above. If you're a fan of GU, root hard for an early Providence exit so we can get some clarity ASAP. If Penn state wants they can extend him before the games like Missouri did with gates. Probably would be smart Absolutely. It's what I would do if I were PSU. Sure, he's still relatively inexperienced in the head seat at this level, but if I'm investing in an unknown, doing so with a guy that has been schooled by Brad Stevens and Matt Painter does carry at least some weight.
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