Top 10 Least Wanted Coaches in NCAA

[hoyalove4ever]

fso:

It's not a matter of making excuses for anyone; it's a matter of taking a look at the entire picture. I would agree that most coaches get some tough breaks, but I would argue that some of the things that happened during Craig's tenure-- especially those related to a certain assistant coach-- were pretty atypical and very harmful. And how many NCAA teams every year would go down the drain pretty quickly if they had a key starter drop off the team in the middle of the year? I would contend that the answer would be "a lot." The fact that most Hoya fans ignore these and other realities when revisiting Craig's tenure contributes to a biased and inaccurate portrayal of the actual situation.

[guru]

hoyalove4ever:

Your devotion and loyalty to Esherick are admirable, but unfortunately they're also as misguided as the vast majority of his coaching moves were.

Craig Esherick is probably a nice man on a one-on-one basis, but he was an absolutely horrendous coach, far and away one of the worst who has ever been a head coach at a major division one basketball program. He was also embarrassingly inept at dealing with the media, and that proved to be his Achilles Heel. If he had been able to control his absurdly overinflated ego and just shut the hell up, he'd likely still have a job, despite his glaringly obvious inadequacy as a coach. But he had to go and run his yap about his contract extension and - thank goodness for everyone who cares about Georgetown basketball - he got canned for it.

[1227]

That all the horrible things - players transferring, players fighting with one another, players not qualifying, players seemingly not being ready to play in critical game-ending situations, losing games against any team of consequence, not altering end-game strategy even when it became painfully obvious that what he was doing was not working, etc. - happened while he was the coach cannot be seen as a horrible, historic, unlucky coincidence. All these things happened on his watch because he was in charge and therefore responsbile. He was the captain and he created the Perfect Storm by himself. The problem was that he had no ability to right the ship.

Esh was not an innocent bystander in all of this - he was the head coach, and as such much must take the blame. To portray him as an innocent victim of ALL THESE BAD THINGS is crazy. Where's the accountability? How long was this going to be acceptable? For as long as he wanted to be coach?

Rather, I say he was a bystander. Standing idling by as the program crumbled, and not having the guts or backbone to take any of the blame. It seems that Esh's feeling of entitlement made him so content to sit back and NOT TRY ANYTHING NEW to fix anything. And there was plenty that was broken and needed to be fixed. He clearly was not interested in exerting the effort to make things better. He was coasting along and time finally ran out.

[hoyahoyasaxa]

I believe the over/under was 75 posts on this thread, and I picked the over.

[fsohoya]

Good points _way. As has been observed on this board in the past, JT II seemed to lose his enthusiasm for coaching not long aftre he won the NCAA championship. I also think JT II himself, having played center and always having won with dominating centers, never adjusted to the institution of the 3-pt line and the resulting reorientation of college hoops from big men to guards and shooters. Unfortunately, Esh was solely a product of JT II.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately, this mind-numbing, pointless thread is a product of Esherick.

And THAT'S why he's the worst thing to happen to G'Town hoops. He's made us all collectively dumber because of threads like these.

To paraphrase, "I award you all no points, and may god have mercy on your souls."

NOW PLEASE, SOMEONE... ANYONE... LOCK THIS DAMN THING DOWN!!

[kchoya]

hoyalove4ever said:

fso:

I would agree that most coaches get some tough breaks, but I would argue that some of the things that happened during Craig's tenure-- especially those related to a certain assistant coach-- were pretty atypical and very harmful.

What are you talking about with a certain assistant coach. If you're going to throw these things out there but couch them in vague generalities, you either need to explain yourself or not make such statements.

[Deleted]

Can this now get converted into a Ronny Thompson thread?

[HoyaRejuveNation85]

Esh was a good soldier for a long time. I would like to let him go in peace. I don't enjoy seeing anyone rip the guy -- particularly someone outside the Hoya family like the commentator Doyel who lumped him with a bunch of cheaters and crooks. That said, after a vote of confidence, Esh said he'd be there for 30 years, we were "lucky" to have him, etc., incensing mainstream alumni and supporters who had, until then, mostly passively watched a squandering of the Hoya brand. The process had begun under JT2. Ultimately, though, basketball coaches need to win. Esh's record against top 10, top 30 and top 50 teams was atrocious. We became worse defensively and were outrebounded by better teams regularly. Esh's winning percentage was inflated by cupcake OOC opponents. We had other coaching staffs laughing at us -- number of players on court, the UConn game in which we didn't foul, lack of development of players, transfers, and on and on. Let Esh go and this thread die, but don't try to tell us, HoyaLove, that Esh was a good coach. It's insulting.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

Who was the COACH of the team when we went to the Sweet 16 with a 26-9 (?) record, being ranked in the Top 10 at one point?

The Esh era was bad, but it wasn't ALL bad. Some of my best memories are from that season.

[SFHoya99]

johnjacqueslayup said:

Who was the COACH of the team when we went to the Sweet 16 with a 26-9 (?) record, being ranked in the Top 10 at one point?

The Esh era was bad, but it wasn't ALL bad. Some of my best memories are from that season.

I didn't appreciate that team enough --

Ruben, Mike, Lee and Wes down low. Imagine if Courtland hadn't gotten hurt! Or if Vic was already Shomnick!

Braswell, Hunter, Riley, Perry, and Nat. I do wonder about starting Gerald a bit -- he shot about 25% that year, but with two senior wing backups, that was nice, too. Only really missing a backup PG.

[the_way]

I think with better coaching that team does not lose to Maryland in the sweet sixteen and goes to the final four. It was that good and THAT deep.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

We were really deep that year. I was sitting front row for that game in the Sweet 16. Even though we lost, I still got a good look at Kenny Stat and a few of the Cinci cheerleaders during the second game that night. Wasn't a total loss.

[hoyalove4ever]

At the request of many of you I will drop this debate. Please know that my intent was not to incite a flame-war, but to give my opinion on a topic that I feel is very important. If we can debate the meaning and reason for historical events that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago, we can certainly debate the justifications for firing a basketball coach less than two years ago.

I appreciate and respects the opinions of everyone who attempted to make substantive points and make up their arguments with reason and fact. Please feel free to send a personal message if you are inclined to continue this discussion in any way.