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Message: [QUOTE="Brooky03, post: 4582744, member: 8594"] Buckle in. My interest is in the entirety of the Syracuse basketball program. I’m not really sure where to begin with your post. The fact remains that the current day difference is that one cohort wants JB out now and one wants him out in a season. The fact that some have wanted him out years ago doesn’t change that. There are a few factors that I guess put me in the JB fanboy club or whatever you guys want to characterize it as. One, there really never was a compelling reason why Syracuse, NY was good at college basketball. We’re not particularly close to the large east coast cities, we rarely have homegrown talent, Syracuse itself is nothing special (to put it nicely), and before the Carrier Dome there was nothing about the facilities to write home about. We had very erratic success with some of the coaches before JB, but he’s clearly the biggest reason Syracuse basketball ever became what we know Syracuse basketball to be. So, that’s point one. Yeah, I know, I know; you can’t let him hold the program hostage and yada yada. Would we have been as good or better over these almost 50 years with a different coach or coaches? Maybe. Probably not, but maybe. We don’t know that, though. We know this. Point two is that this has not been a 9 season slide. The NCAAT matters. It matters more than the regular season by a decent margin. All factors considered, this has been about a 4 season slide, with a S16 run in there. During JB’s prime, the odd poor season or two would pop up. There was no reason to fire him prior to the 2020 season, imo; at least not for performance. His bad seasons would be followed by good seasons, with no back to back bad seasons. 2020 was a bad season but not reason to fire him on the spot, even considering the seasons prior, imo. 2021 was the S16. Nobody fires a coach coming off a S16 (nobody should, at least). ‘22 was bad and the end of that season marked the point when a forced resignation would have been reasonable. Three: the sanctions messed everything up and the sanctions largely fell on an inept athletic department, not a rogue or cheating or turning a blind eye coach. I know the facts of the case. I know the NCAA’s findings. That wasn’t JB. I don’t care to argue this point. That wasn’t on him and he seemingly made a commitment to try to get the program back from a mini-death penalty. Four: His coaching is still good. His recruiting sucks. The fact that he’d still win if he had the talent advantage is what always gave me hope. I always hoped that the recruits, ranked lower than we’d like, would surprise. They mostly have not. And they tend to leave before any meaningful development could occur. It’s clear that the recruiting isn’t going to pick up and a transfer portal savior ain’t coming. That’s on JB and that’s ultimately why I finally got to the point of being cool with his departure. He hasn’t adjusted to the new recruiting/transfer landscape and his style isn’t conducive to getting a team full of first year guys and incomplete upperclassmen up to speed quick enough. Next season is already lost, so I’m indifferent to that departure being now or then. [/QUOTE]

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