Coach Search Options after Autry

[FireballPhil]

Hey, another Iowa poster...that might make 3 of us now!

If any of ya are ever down in the Burlington area look me up.

 

[BigNastyJon]

After the Dan Mullen thread. I said I would never get excited and worked up about someone again until it gets announced. I wasted 5 days being on this forum looking for every detail I could gobble up.

Here I am again on every twist and turn checking this thread at every moment to see updates. I’m still extremely concerned about the timelines of chancellor, AD, Basketball hires. But honestly, nothing I say or do is going to change the outcome. I can only hope and pray SU does the right things.

Great job sneaking in gobble - as I recall that thread really hit the fan over thanksgiving week.

Remember to check the flight trackers, view the thruway cameras (if you can’t be at an exit in person), and always remember to GOBBLE GOBBLE MFers!!!

 

[cliftonparksufan]

i meant the bot athletics committee. that link is for the ad search. you were talking about the coach search.

Here. A lot of the same plus some other very familiar names.

Trustee Committees

List of trustee committee members at Syracuse University.

www.syracuse.edu

 

[cardiac]

No. A applicant has applied for the job. He is making his case. That is all this is. You think they should tell Hop don't bother making your case because Red sucked?

Yes because he made 1 tournament in 7 years

 

[CuseBlood44]

Hopkins should only come back as an Assistant Coach. Would be insanity to hire him as HC.

GM

 

[Orangefan1]

It never hurts to listen.

I love Hopkins for what’s it worth I’d be thrilled if he were our next HC sorry if that makes people mad

 

[rrlbees]

I love Hopkins for what’s it worth I’d be thrilled if he were our next HC sorry if that makes people mad

he's not my first choice but i'm not gonna kick and scream if he does get it and will root like hell for him and su.

 

[OrangeFoo]

he's not my first choice but i'm not gonna kick and scream if he does get it and will root like hell for him and su.

If he can bring in the talent then so be it... but I really hope someone asks him what he will do differently in terms of systems from Washington to make sure the same result doesn't happen at Syracuse. People can and do learn from their mistakes... but a very common interview question is "Give me an example of a time you failed and what you learned from it". Can we please ask it and maybe if he gets hired have him explain it to the fanbase?

My main concern with ADJW making this hire is that he fell for OINF and gave Babers an insane extension, although at the time I guess the entire fanbase demanded that he give it. I also see a lot of marketing gimmick around Mr DART, but I don't see a system that elevates the talent that Fran is bringing in... in fact it has been the opposite as both the offense and defense seem dependent on having elite college talent at key positions to have any chance of success.

ADJW also seems to have fallen for Autry's "orange standard", "level 5" nonsense... I really want to know, was there a real interview process for Autry? Did anyone ask him what his offensive philosophy was or what his defensive strategy was besides play hard and stay in front of your man? Because man, in the first two years there didn't seem to be anything beyond rolling the ball out and playing hard. The defense was a bit better this year, but he lost the team so who knows... but the offensive strategy is about the level of what I rolled out when I coached my daughter's 11 year olds team at the Y. I really really hope that there is an actual tactical interview this time around and it's not just about fund raising.

Where JB excelled is he had a system that you could plug and play different levels of talent into and there was generally very little variance in performance... the floor was relatively high. Now at some point the he needed to evolve his system to the modern game and he gave a half hearted attempt a it but the talent difference between us and our opponents became too large for any system to overcome. And here we are.

 

[Sherman20]

Nothing you said makes Hop a proven loser.
I’m old, dumb, and slow. All the big brains like JW and Lally and others will figure this out. But if Hop is selected, which it sounds like he is a serious candidate based on the financial pipeline he brings, then it won’t be the end of the world. If anything, hiring the young mid major coach with 1 big donor sugar daddy seems like the riskier higher long term and vulnerable to changing winds and attitudes. But what do I know. Like I said, I’m old dumb and slow .

Syracuse hiring Hop would be like Pitt hiring Kevin Stallings. A complete disaster. And Stallings actually had successful seasons at Vandy. Many of the BOT members know Hop extremely well and are comfortable with him. That’s why he’s getting a look. But that is no reason to hire a coach. It’s laughable. Hodgson or Schertz would be able to tap into the same financial pipeline as Hop, btw. But winning is the only thing that will sustain that pipeline, and Hop isn’t going to be able to do that. Even him bringing in offensive and defensive gurus probably wouldn’t help. You have to have experience implementing those systems, and Hop doesn’t have it. His previous systems were losers at UW. He had years to figure things out there, and he failed.

 

[Sherman20]

I love Hopkins for what’s it worth I’d be thrilled if he were our next HC sorry if that makes people mad

he's not my first choice but i'm not gonna kick and scream if he does get it and will root like hell for him and su.

Hop would be a wholly unserious hire. We’d be the laughing stock of the college basketball world if we hired him. The myopia of people even on our BOT is pretty sad.

 

[Sherman20]

"Lyke was fired in September 2024. And she left quite the mess behind.
Today, Pitt’s athletic department is in shambles. The football team is losing some of its top players in the transfer portal. The men’s basketball team is unwatchable. The women’s team is equally bad and is allegedly an even a bigger issue off the court. And some non-revenue sports might not be around much longer.

What went wrong​

Lyke had a noted desire for “comprehensive excellence,” treating every Pitt athletic team with equal importance. While in theory this was a fair stance, in reality, that’s simply not how the world of college athletics works.
Two sports matter above all else: football and men’s basketball. If those two programs do well, there is more money for all. Lyke’s inability to appropriately allocate resources toward what actually mattered has brought Pitt to where it is now.
Her most notable misstep was the Victory Heights initiative, an ambitious multi-sport facility that would serve as a replacement to the aging Fitzgerald Field House."

“For far too long, a significant percentage of our student-athletes have been forced to compete in facilities that do not reflect the lofty standards and aspirations of the University of Pittsburgh,” Lyke said in a university issued press release in 2023. “Today’s announcement is the first step in transforming that liability into a game-changing asset in our quest for comprehensive excellence.”
Lyke’s heart was in the right place. She wasn’t wrong to believe Pitt’s current athletic facility for those sports was outdated. But she ignored one key component that makes or breaks every major decision made in today’s world of college athletics: money.
Lyke signed up for a $240 million project with little to no funding secured beforehand. She hoped her big swing would inspire alumni to donate more. It did not. And to make things worse, that facility, whenever it is finished, will add no legitimate revenue moving forward.
Lyke also wasted money on her numerous coaching hires and firings. She gained notoriety in town for canning nine head coaches in her first two years in Oakland. Some coaches were dismissed with remaining years on their contract, meaning Pitt was paying two head-coach salaries for one non-revenue sport — again, meaning that the additional money spent wasn’t ever going to be recuperated.
Her final major sin pertains to NIL, the biggest determining factor of success in today’s college sports. Some athletic directors immediately embraced the concept when it was legalized in 2021. Lyke, instead, pushed back.
When seeking donation money from alumni, the Victory Heights project or other athletic facility upgrades took priority over laying the foundation of a productive and competitive NIL collective. Rather than learning innovative ways for Pitt to compete in the NIL space, Lyke was known to speak against the concept as a whole, at times even encouraging other ACC athletic directors to do the same, per multiple sources.
Even when things seemed great during Lyke’s tenure, time would eventually prove those days to be nothing more than a house of cards. Pitt athletics fell way behind the times under her leadership, and by the time the university acted, it was already too late."

Noah Hiles: This year won't be a fun one for Allen Greene, Pitt athletics

In the summer of 2023, I crafted an extensive profile on then-Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke. At that time, she could do no wrong. The football program...

www.post-gazette.com

We need Chris Carlson to do a hit piece on Lyke, building off of what the post Gazette wrote here. The trustees and AD need to be publicly shamed for even hiring her here in the first place. She cannot be the new AD. And I can’t imagine Hodgson would want to work for her once he finds out what a disastrous job she did at Pitt and her awful reputation.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Coincidentally, I was having this same discussion with my father this past week. How over an extended period of time, we don't seem to have much player development outside of a handful of cases.

Edwards was the recent example that we both came up with. But who before that?

I know I must be missing a few players, but CJ Fair? Gbinije? Those guys were 10+ years ago There have to be some examples in between, but I can't think of any, which is sobering.

And this extends back into the last few years of of Boeheim being at the helm, not just an indictment of Red -- but more of a systemic problem in our program toward the end.

Elijah Hughes, Buddy Boeheim, Cole Swider?

 

[MSOrange]

there's some big names on that committee. lally, ensley, tirico, ballentine, etc. i'm sure they'll be fine without us. besides, and someone can correct me if im wrong, but i think they're more engaged with the financial package and not necessarily the who unless it's a question of morals or something.

If we're talking about approving a coaching hire, that strikes me as naive that there wouldn't be some internal politics in play as far as who, and not just the financial package. Especially since many of those members are major donors and would play an important part in the success of a new coach in this age of NIL (and really even before NIL)

 

[elimunelson]

Hop interviewing at BC. They want him apparently. But he’s making waves for cuse job too. He’s got full court press on

I’ve heard no decision on Earl. If they are chatting w him it’s very background.

 

[elimunelson]

It’s a coach killing job. Hop must be desperate.

Right Gary Williams, tom Davis and Chuck Daly careers ended after bc. Same w Obrien falling upward into Ohio st

Sounds like a good place to move upwards. We have recency bias.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Right Gary Williams, tom Davis and Chuck Daly careers ended after bc. Same w Obrien falling upward into Ohio st

Sounds like a good place to move upwards. We have recency bias.

What decades were that again?

 

[Orangefan1]

Syracuse hiring Hop would be like Pitt hiring Kevin Stallings. A complete disaster. And Stallings actually had successful seasons at Vandy. Many of the BOT members know Hop extremely well and are comfortable with him. That’s why he’s getting a look. But that is no reason to hire a coach. It’s laughable. Hodgson or Schertz would be able to tap into the same financial pipeline as Hop, btw. But winning is the only thing that will sustain that pipeline, and Hop isn’t going to be able to do that. Even him bringing in offensive and defensive gurus probably wouldn’t help. You have to have experience implementing those systems, and Hop doesn’t have it. His previous systems were losers at UW. He had years to figure things out there, and he failed.

You don’t know if it would be a disaster or not. You can’t project how situations will turn out with different leadership. And frankly it could also be a disaster if we hire someone else also if it doesn’t work out

 

[RF2044]

You don’t know if it would be a disaster or not. You can’t project how situations will turn out with different leadership. And frankly it could also be a disaster if we hire someone else also if it doesn’t work out

So what?

The best way to avoid a "disaster" is to hire the best candidate that you can, instead of settling for someone based upon non-performance related criteria.

Nothing in life is guaranteed -- but hiring unqualified / under-qualified candidates into important roles is about as sure of a predictor of failure as there is.

 

[Sherman20]

You don’t know if it would be a disaster or not. You can’t project how situations will turn out with different leadership. And frankly it could also be a disaster if we hire someone else also if it doesn’t work out

He made 1 tournament in 7 years at Washington in a mostly bad Pac 12. He ran stagnant awful offenses for years there, the same high ball screen and then resort to iso crap we run here. Little off ball movement or off ball screening. And he played a 2-3 zone defense that got progressively worse over time, just like it did here. He would be Red redux but with a more dynamic personality. Why don’t argue for why we should hire Hop?

 

[Irt4su]

There is a scenario in the future that is possible. If Syracuse doesn’t get it together and is left behind. USF gets elevated and investment flows in for them, but that day is not now lol. They are very well positioned though as a program for the future. Tampa is a great city. I can see the ACC wanting in on that if they lose some members in 2031.

USF is as about close to downtown Tampa as Syracuse is to Turning Stone. My son goes there now (hates it) my daughter went there (loved it). It’s in a crap area and is an extremely boring school with no where to go as a freshman. Getting the football stadium on campus will be nice but fandom has a very long way to go. My son loves college sports and have to remind him his school has home games.

 

[Cusefan0307]

He made 1 tournament in 7 years at Washington in a mostly bad Pac 12. He ran stagnant awful offenses for years there, the same high ball screen and then resort to iso crap we run here. Little off ball movement or off ball screening. And he played a 2-3 zone defense that got progressively worse over time, just like it did here. He would be Red redux but with a more dynamic personality. Why don’t argue for why we should hire Hop?

He would need an offensive coordinator. That’s the only way this is even passable. Makes Reds system look like peak 2010’s Warriors with how bad his offense's were.

 

[Orangefan1]

So what?

The best way to avoid a "disaster" is to hire the best candidate that you can, instead of settling for someone based upon non-performance related criteria.

Nothing in life is guaranteed -- but hiring unqualified / under-qualified candidates into important roles is about as sure of a predictor of failure as there is.

I’m saying three years ago there were many people thinking Autry would do very well here and it hasn’t worked out like we expected it to, other assistants take over programs and some find success and some don’t…clearly it hasn’t worked here but he has had some recruiting success

 

[RF2044]

I’m saying three years ago there were many people thinking Autry would do very well here and it hasn’t worked out like we expected it to, other assistants take over programs and some find success and some don’t…clearly it hasn’t worked here but he has had some recruiting success

Autry was a bad choice, because there were no indications that he was up to the challenge. Zero. Zip. And also because as many feared, he had no command of X's and O's, did not excel at teaching the game, and no discernible systems on either side of the ball. There's a reason he was vague about what he wanted to do when he got hired. And there is a reason why all of these fears ended up predictably manifesting once he got the job.

Hopkins would be a bad choice, because like Red he is a no-trick pony. His lack of systems got exposed at Washington, and we dodged a bullet.

If either of these guys had different last names, or weren't associated with our program, nobody would even consider hiring them to be our head coach.

Throwing shiz against the wall to see what sticks and crossing your fingers and wishing for the best ARE NOT hiring strategies.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Right Gary Williams, tom Davis and Chuck Daly careers ended after bc. Same w Obrien falling upward into Ohio st

Sounds like a good place to move upwards. We have recency bias.

I should have said recently. They actually supported the program back then. They don’t now. BC isn’t even all in on revenue sharing. That’s all you need to know.

 

[oldpinepoint]

I’m saying three years ago there were many people thinking Autry would do very well here and it hasn’t worked out like we expected it to, other assistants take over programs and some find success and some don’t…clearly it hasn’t worked here but he has had some recruiting success

I’m not interested in anyone from the JB coaching tree. I think a fresh start is needed for the program. But if Hop gets the nod I’ll get behind him just like Red.

I think if he gets hired it’s because he is falling into the position and we couldn’t get other top candidates. He hasn’t been in the college game for 2 years during arguably the biggest change in the sport which is concerning to me. It’s very different than when he was canned at Washington.