Wildhack Needs To...... | Page 4 | Syracusefan.com

Wildhack Needs To......

He absolutely does NOT need to be involved in the search. He had that opportunity for years and was too focused on himself and coaching his boys. The current state of the program is a direct result of his staying too long and clearing out the roster to ensure he coached his boys and they were the focal point for last season.

He got what he wanted - it ended up being a terrible season and left the roster where it is for this season.

He needs to not be involved in any search for his replacement.
Involving a current person in a search for their replacement rarely works. They tend to look for someone who is just like them.
 
Wildhack seriously needs to resign. He has been a failure period. The big 3 suck worse than almost anytime in history, why are the drum beats not for him to go? There has been no improvement in any area except soccer. Start with the AD and go from there, idc about his ESPN history, its done absolutely no good for us.

Apparently he's doing a good job at raising money.
 
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Agree. Senior leadership absent on this team.
Seen no inclination to lead in Jesse this season.
Joe does some clapping, etc -but pretty much no obvious leadership out on the floor.
Leaders on the floor are a huge asset for coaches-
This team needed senior leadership more than most.

There's no toughness on this team. Winning basketball at the top levels requires toughness, and a willingness to stand up to the physicality of the other team.

Judah has a bit, Joe has a bit. Symir is not an important enough player to have much influence, but I like the way he defends.

I like Maliq Brown a lot. He's not a traditional "tough guy PF", but he's sneaky and persistent and pokes at other players. He always has a spot on my team.

The rest can leave. I'm sure some of them are great kids, but all of them can be replaced by equal or better players.
 
I did until last night. I think last nights performance might finally bring JB to realize it’s over. From what I hear, the team is a complete mess. We have a bunch of entitled freshman who a couple feel are better than players who are playing. Constant phone calls from parents telling JB how to do things. JB brought this on himself when he said this was his best freshman class ever. He stoked their egos and now this. Judah is the only real player in this class. I wonder if Wildhack really knows what’s going on in practice? With what happened in the women‘s program, I doubt it. In some ways, our coaching staff doesn’t deserve this, especially what our assistants are having to put up with.
Sounds like the 6 man Fr. Class for a rebuild is backfiring, I sense a disturbance in the force.
season 4 rebels GIF by Star Wars
 
There's no toughness on this team. Winning basketball at the top levels requires toughness, and a willingness to stand up to the physicality of the other team.

Judah has a bit, Joe has a bit. Symir is not an important enough player to have much influence, but I like the way he defends.

I like Maliq Brown a lot. He's not a traditional "tough guy PF", but he's sneaky and persistent and pokes at other players. He always has a spot on my team.

The rest can leave. I'm sure some of them are great kids, but all of them can be replaced by equal or better players.
Feel the exact same way. The program culture lacks toughness.

Steve Infanti was trying to argue, you need to hire within to keep this group together a couple weeks ago, and I'm like outside of Judah, they are JAGs, just another guy. They are not good enough to play a factor in the coach selection.
 
I want to see Jimmy gone as much or more than anybody else here, but to deny him a window of opportunity to resign/retire with respect is just flat out wrong.
The window started five years ago. He has one last chance I guess.
 
Disappointing because the only thing that could keep that class together would be themselves wanting to play with and for each other. Bell, Taylor, Brown and Judah all get good minutes for freshmen. I guess Bell, Taylor and Brown could find something to complain about, but they'd be wrong. Carey redshirted. I guess that leaves Quadir. I think he could be a great player for us, and it would really suck if he's unhappy and intends to transfer. He looks dialed in every game.
I don’t think Copeland is the problem. Who’s not playing?
 
Disappointing because the only thing that could keep that class together would be themselves wanting to play with and for each other. Bell, Taylor, Brown and Judah all get good minutes for freshmen. I guess Bell, Taylor and Brown could find something to complain about, but they'd be wrong. Carey redshirted. I guess that leaves Quadir. I think he could be a great player for us, and it would really suck if he's unhappy and intends to transfer. He looks dialed in every game.

There’s really 3 outlooks for the roster next year, based on the coach

1. External - complete clean slate. Maybe he can talk Judah into staying, but more likely than not. we would load up in the portal (potentially with a few of his old players?). The right hire and portal adds could have us right back to competitive

2. Red - Most likely will get some of the current guys to stay, but will definitely lose a few. We will need to be active in the portal but the question is can Red get big time transfers to come here? If not, next year will be really ugly.

3. JB - this will be hard to watch. Gotta imagine If he does come back, almost everyone leaves. Maybe he can get Taylor and Brown to stay. No freshmen coming in. Would any top transfer come here? We will most likely have to settle for lower D1 guys who shouldn’t even be in the ACC
 
Feel the exact same way. The program culture lacks toughness.

Steve Infanti was trying to argue, you need to hire within to keep this group together a couple weeks ago, and I'm like outside of Judah, they are JAGs, just another guy. They are not good enough to play a factor in the coach selection.
What I'm about to say isn't so much about Steve's thoughts on what any hypothetical new coach should do with the current personnel, but more about a possible downstream effect of changing coaches, especially if the new hire is from the outside, and that's in the media's approach to talking about the program (and vice versa).

With JB's temperament, Mike and Donna are relegated to softball questions and puff pieces, lest they get chided. It's similar with the radio guys; Some of it is due to JB specifically but I also suspect that some of it may be because the Steves and Paulies of the CNY radio landscape haven't experienced anything else in their professional careers so they simply don't know any different. Up until the last two years, I think there was a lot of blind faith put in Boeheim by media people that I don't think he had earned, though reasonable minds can disagree. The last month or so is the most critical I've EVER heard the radio guys be of Boeheim's leadership, and it hasn't even been that extreme (IMO).

It's far from the most important criteria in picking a new coach, but someone who's less thin-skinned and is willing to let the media in more could lead to a far healthier relationship, which in turn would create a better perception of the program both inside and outside of CNY (and a more informed fanbase).
 
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My predictions, none informed by anything other than observations and gut feelings:

1) Wake Forest is JAB's last game.
Between the buying of the lake house, the last year of Joe and Jesse, Coach K had last season as his swan song, the addition to the ring of honor, the big grand finale of the Wake game for the national championship, the raising of Hak and Gmac's jerseys, etc., no major 2023 recruits, it's just lining up to be the last game.​
I really wish that we were going into this game on a high and he would have 30,000 at the dome. But he repeatedly said he wasn't going to go on a farewell tour and having this be the 20th anniversary of his Natty is the smokescreen. But I fear that there might be less than 15k there, which sucks.​
2) The next head coach search will happen, but it's Red.
Most everything Wildhack has done on the Hill has been to promote from within. From the football staff to other sports. The first choice is to promote from within.​
3) GMac will leave. Griff stays.
I think he takes a HC position somewhere in northeast at a lower D1 school. Some think the Gaels may be looking for a new HC if Rick P runs to Georgetown.​
4) The roster looks vastly different next season.
I think four players transfer/pro and three graduate. There will be lots of playing time. This freshman class was supposed to be JAB's gift to the next HC. He was going to take the lumps with developing a raw young team and hand off an intact roster. But while it was a nice plan, it's not how things work today in college basketball. They weren't going to get those mid-to-late Top 100 kids in 2022 to commit to a program where no one knew if the HC was retiring or not. They got Judah, a probable 1 and done, and a pile of recruits with potential but not much else.​
5) Next season is going to be rough.

Man I think every word of this post is spot on…. All makes so much sense.

Only other possibility, do we give Hop a look?
 
Apparently he's doing a good job at raising money.

And thank god he, and others, are. They’re putting all that money to good use. Great women’s bball coach hire. Great women’s lax coach hire. Great Mens lax coach hire. Long term extension for the soccer coach. Opened the checkbook for great football hires. Numerous sports top 20. The Lally complex is a home run. The Dome now has the wow factor and has more to come. It all starts with money. Thank you John.
 
And thank god he, and others, are. They’re putting all that money to good use. Great women’s bball coach hire. Great women’s lax coach hire. Great Mens lax coach hire. Long term extension for the soccer coach. Opened the checkbook for great football hires. Numerous sports top 20. The Lally complex is a home run. The Dome now has the wow factor and has more to come. It all starts with money. Thank you John.
Absolutely correct...now open the checkbook for a great men's basketball head coach hire!!
 
Involving a current person in a search for their replacement rarely works. They tend to look for someone who is just like them.
What one says and does is often not the same. You certainly listen to his input, however, the Hack makes the final call.
 
There's no toughness on this team. Winning basketball at the top levels requires toughness, and a willingness to stand up to the physicality of the other team.

Judah has a bit, Joe has a bit. Symir is not an important enough player to have much influence, but I like the way he defends.

I like Maliq Brown a lot. He's not a traditional "tough guy PF", but he's sneaky and persistent and pokes at other players. He always has a spot on my team.

The rest can leave. I'm sure some of them are great kids, but all of them can be replaced by equal or better players.
The toughness/strength issue needs to be addressed. The only guy on the team willing to rebound in traffic is Joe.
 
And thank god he, and others, are. They’re putting all that money to good use. Great women’s bball coach hire. Great women’s lax coach hire. Great Mens lax coach hire. Long term extension for the soccer coach. Opened the checkbook for great football hires. Numerous sports top 20. The Lally complex is a home run. The Dome now has the wow factor and has more to come. It all starts with money. Thank you John.
Too early to tell on the bolded ones. All the rest, I agree with you.

The philanthropic piece of his job is absolutely what he's strong with.
 
There’s really 3 outlooks for the roster next year, based on the coach

1. External - complete clean slate. Maybe he can talk Judah into staying, but more likely than not. we would load up in the portal (potentially with a few of his old players?). The right hire and portal adds could have us right back to competitive

2. Red - Most likely will get some of the current guys to stay, but will definitely lose a few. We will need to be active in the portal but the question is can Red get big time transfers to come here? If not, next year will be really ugly.

3. JB - this will be hard to watch. Gotta imagine If he does come back, almost everyone leaves. Maybe he can get Taylor and Brown to stay. No freshmen coming in. Would any top transfer come here? We will most likely have to settle for lower D1 guys who shouldn’t even be in the ACC
3 seems most likely, unfortunately. With probably the 3 best players leaving, with likely at least a few others (maybe more), no replacements coming in and a coach that uses the portal only if forced to, I'm not sure how we field a team that doesn't lose 20.

2 seems unfair to all involved. After having no announced transition plan, simply handing it over to Red puts him so far behind the 8-ball that it'd be a miracle if he didn't fail. If there had been a plan revealed, allowing him to recruit in the open like that, going after players he wants, there could be a relatively hopeful transition. Instead, he'd be scrambling to keep anybody here and then hope some impactful portal guys could come in, but even that's a poor recipe. Limited in-house talent and nothing coming in makes getting potentially a starting lineup or close to it out of the portal an unreachable fantasy. Not to mention, the fanbase will be far from enthused about this. Then what? Another losing season in year 1 with wavering support?

1 is our best and only real hope for a quick turnaround and potential long-term success.
 
As a current parent to a College Lacrosse player... let me level set for you. Parents are a HORROR show in this era. Helicopter to the max. They have bred, and empowered, entitled spoiled offspring. they push and advocate for them. Most of these kids cant wipe their asses without their parents being involved. Now add a potential payday to this... Its VERY VERY bad
Yep, I can believe that! My wife is a college professor and the entitlement is by far, the thing that she dislikes most about the work she does. It's really the only thing I hear her complain about. The parents can be just awful. There is no surprise that so many kids are the way they are. Every semester she has kids in her classes that have all kinds of different accommodations. They can simply say that they need a mental health day and not come to class. At times she tries to push back but administration is afraid of the parents.
 
Too early to tell on the bolded ones. All the rest, I agree with you.

The philanthropic piece of his job is absolutely what he's strong with.

Probably his wheelhouse, in relation to his experiences, preferences, strengths, etc., and, perhaps most of all, his comfort zone.
 
Too early to tell on the bolded ones. All the rest, I agree with you.

The philanthropic piece of his job is absolutely what he's strong with.

Men’s lax I agree with you. I’m basing it on the 2 great recruiting classes he’s had and the improved play even though they are young. The football hires the last 2 years like White, Anae, Beck and Rocky were all great hires even if 2 have left. Then there’s a few others not mentioned.
 
As a current parent to a College Lacrosse player... let me level set for you. Parents are a HORROR show in this era. Helicopter to the max. They have bred, and empowered, entitled spoiled offspring. they push and advocate for them. Most of these kids cant wipe their asses without their parents being involved. Now add a potential payday to this... Its VERY VERY bad
I coached little league for one year (I don’t have any kids), that was my first and last year, the parents were the worst part of it. I’d love to keep doing it but I can’t deal with the parents.
 

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