Coach Search Options after Autry | Page 190 | Syracusefan.com

Coach Search Options after Autry

70-84 over his last five seasons at UW. They would have canned him earlier, but they wanted to avoid the buyout.
And that's a big thing. It's not like he was given a year or two and let go w/o a fair chance to right himself. He was given a long leash. I hate putting down Hop because he appeared to be an awesome human being when I met him and I get why certain people (Melo etc.) are smitten with him. This just wouldn't make any sense-I don't know what qualifies him for the job other than he's an awesome guy.
 
I'll also add that the fanbase patience / goodwill are at an all-time low.

When Red got hired, even though it wasn't a national search, my read on the fanbase was that there was excitement and a willingness to see what Red can do, after a 2 year hiatus from qualifying for the NCAA.

We are now at a 5 year drought. No matter who's brought in, the tolerance for continued mediocrity will be a lot lower. We've already seen fan disengagement in terms of tickets, revenue, etc.

If Hop -- or Hodgson, or any other coach for that matter -- can't quickly show an improved product on the court, there won't be a multi-year grace period IMO with the fanbase this time around.

And if we again hire "in house" and there isn't immediate improvement, I think the backlash will be swifter / more decisive than with Red.

The University can't afford to screw this up.
It's not even just the fans in Syracuse. I'm not local anymore and have passed the last 5 years of traveling back for a February home game when my full intention was to go to one in November. We just can't put together consistency to really gain trust of the product to invest a weekend to come back. People forget how large the fan base is outside of Syracuse that will jump right back on by filling arenas close to home when Syracuse plays there and to travel back for weekends, staying in the hotels and contributing to the local economy.
 
I'll also add that the fanbase patience / goodwill are at an all-time low.

When Red got hired, even though it wasn't a national search, my read on the fanbase was that there was excitement and a willingness to see what Red can do, after a 2 year hiatus from qualifying for the NCAA.

We are now at a 5 year drought. No matter who's brought in, the tolerance for continued mediocrity will be a lot lower. We've already seen fan disengagement in terms of tickets, revenue, etc.

If Hop -- or Hodgson, or any other coach for that matter -- can't quickly show an improved product on the court, there won't be a multi-year grace period IMO with the fanbase this time around.

And if we again hire "in house" and there isn't immediate improvement, I think the backlash will be swifter / more decisive than with Red.

The University can't afford to screw this up.
This is just me, but I’ll be much more patient with BH than I would MH. Especially if the entire reason we hire MH is because of an initial funding infusion. BH needs to build an infrastructure. In reality that’s what the program needs. What MH brings is temporary and we have a bunch of evidence at our fingertips that show it probably won’t work.
 
Does Hodgson know how to navigate the complexities with the Dome being multi purpose with Football, Lacrosse, and Women's Basketball. Potentially having to wait till gameday to do walkthroughs. Hopkins does. This is another argument in the pro Hopkins camp. Doesn't the away team also deal with this when they come to play us?
lol I’m sure he could figure it out
 
it would be a stretch if the schools behind us were at 100% capacity, which they aren't. so its hard to say if they had bigger arenas they'd average more.

I would put us around 23-24k as expected average when the program is performing as expected. By no means 100 pct but nothing like where we are now. At that level we are still nowhere near 100 pct.
 
Future coaching staff has Eric Devendorf, Brandon Triche, and MCW written all over it. Wouldn't have to leave Onondaga county to interview any of them
Can we please get away with this obsession with an all guard assistant coaching staff?

One thing that GMAC got right at Siena is he has Ryan Blackwell coaching forward and Arinze Onuaku coaching centers. Seems to me a former player who is coaching would do the best coaching his position.

I never understood why JB had GMAC, Red and Allen Griffen as assistants. All freakin guards.
 
lol I’m sure he could figure it out
I know I've said the biggest obstacle for him is to be converting the exclusionary types that won't even give initial acceptance to him because he isn't a former Syracuse player and assistant coach. They are a minority, but also likely more influential when it comes to the power structure than their size, but they donate money. I used to trust it blindly. Not anymore. That social contract is on thin ice with this hire.
 
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The counter argument is that USF isn’t the same level as ACC (obviously) so has Hodgson proven he has won at the highest level? Some say no so you have unproven versus failure. What does everyone prefer ?
Unproven but successful is a no brainer.

If I made a list of unproven but successful coaches that made the leap to P4 jobs and maintained success versus a list of failures who then recovered to achieve success, which list would be a mile longer than the other?

Off the top of my head, just in the past couple of years alone, I can think of Ben McCollum, Pat Kelsey, Dusty May, Ryan Odom for the first list.

Who’s on the other list?
 
You know what will fix that?? More money.
IMG_6480.jpeg
 
I used to follow this writer, Max Vrooman (lol), from the Washington Huskies fan site regularly during Hop’s tenure there. He’s very adept with analytics and data, and he became highly critical of Hop as the years went on. The data is horrendous on Hop as a head coach. Everyone should read these posts, but a few choice quotes:

“My model had the Huskies projected for an adjusted efficiency margin of +16.6 this year which would’ve been the best team of the Mike Hopkins era. That’s because on paper this roster had the most talent of any Hop team, even the one that made the NCAA tournament….Washington would’ve been even higher if not for that pesky little problem of Mike Hopkins being the coach. Hopkins entered the year with the lowest coaching grade in my system of any P6 coach that had more than 2 years experience….That would’ve been good for 57th among P6 schools…Yet as has almost always been the case during the Mike Hopkins era, Washington ended up worse than even the full coaching adjustment would’ve suggested. The Huskies finished with an aEM of +13.0 and ranked 48th among P6 schools (and 60th including mid-majors). That cemented that Hopkins would finish with a negative coaching grade in all 7 of his season with the Huskies.”
Beavis And Butthead Yes GIF by Paramount+
 
So Hops key assistants at UW as of now:

Will Conroy- now an Assistant coach at USC,
Cameron Dollar- not coaching
Wyking Jones- now a Real Estate Agent
Dave Rice- HC at a Community College after a year at Cal Baptist as an assistant.

Let’s certainly hope the assistant lineup is much much better in his quest for the job should he have a real shot over BH.
 
and still top 5 in the country. little old syracuse ny. in reality we were spoiled by the huge numbers we used to get.
You are correct to point out that it is top 5 still, but we were not spoiled by those huge numbers. That is just a sign of the absolute boatload of attendance we have left on the table with this horrible low quality product in recent years. The fans overall have not left because college basketball has changed, or the city has changed. They have left almost entirely because the product has been terrible. If there were external factors outside of the performance on the court that lead to the attendance drop, then maybe being spoiled by the old days would be the way to describe it. But the attendance drop is almost entirely due to the low quality product. We can literally get right back there with a quality coach and a couple higher quality seasons. It is not something that would only be possible in an older era, it is possible right now.
 
Unproven but successful is a no brainer.

If I made a list of unproven but successful coaches that made the leap to P4 jobs and maintained success versus a list of failures who then recovered to achieve success, which list would be a mile longer than the other?

Off the top of my head, just in the past couple of years alone, I can think of Ben McCollum, Pat Kelsey, Dusty May, Ryan Odom for the first list.

Who’s on the other list?
Very much this. There’s a significant trend of guys coming from non P4 conferences that have totally turned things around, almost instantly, at their new job.

I look at Ryan Odom specifically, not sure if people remember, but UVA was TERRIBLE last year. Year 1 of the Odom era, he has them staring at a 3 seed in the NCAAT.

We just need to find the right guy and ace this hire. I would like Schertz or Hodgson. Both guys fit this mold of — great success at non P4, and look like they having the makings of a P4 coach — those 2 should be the top targets.
 
I was just thinking about failed coaches that went on to become big winners. You guys might be too young to remember the NY papers when Joe Torre got hired by the Yankees. Or the reaction in Boston when Terry Franconia was hired by the Red Sox. Throw Bill B in to that as well with the Pats. People can learn and they can get better. That isn't to say I would hire Hop. I wouldn't. But the amount of Nil that we are talking is eye opening. Is it a sugar high? 100% yes. Is it the long term answer, I think not. But I have been wrong before and so has everyone on this board. The good thing is the answer is coming. Sooner rather than later.
 
This is just me, but I’ll be much more patient with BH than I would MH. Especially if the entire reason we hire MH is because of an initial funding infusion. BH needs to build an infrastructure. In reality that’s what the program needs. What MH brings is temporary and we have a bunch of evidence at our fingertips that show it probably won’t work.

And I don’t think we would have to be all that patient. He had his team winning important games with good metrics at USF and giving his old boss a run playing Bama early on.

If he brings 2-3 key players with him he can get things in place quickly and not look like a fish out of water in a much bigger role.
 
guys we are at the Doug Marrone stage of this rebuild and bringing in a trusted alumni like Hop is the move. After a trusted member of Hop’s staff gets a chance, then we can go with the splashy mid major hire for 7 years. Trust the process
Well said. I'm not sure why we even went with Autry when we could've just had Jimmy Boeheim coach after he graduated. Then by the time he retires his kid will be ready to take over the reins and on and on.

After all we should be running the hoops program like it's the Roman Empire 2000 years ago.
 
Well said. I'm not sure why we even went with Autry when we could've just had Jimmy Boeheim coach after he graduated. Then by the time he retires his kid will be ready to take over the reins and on and on.

After all we should be running the hoops program like it's the Roman Empire 2000 years ago.
Someone in this thread finally making sense.
 
So Hops key assistants at UW as of now:

Will Conroy- now an Assistant coach at USC,
Cameron Dollar- not coaching
Wyking Jones- now a Real Estate Agent
Dave Rice- HC at a Community College after a year at Cal Baptist as an assistant.

Let’s certainly hope the assistant lineup is much much better in his quest for the job should he have a real shot over BH.

Asst coaches aren't important when you have the following

-Melo giving tons of money
-Kiyan playing 2 guard
-ISO offense featuring Kiyan
-And if we are lucky back to the 2-3 zone

Asst coaches, failure in last coaching spot with NBA talent, not recruiting for 3+ years, no east coast presence for the last 5+ years, no modern systems; stuff like that isn't important when you have the 4 things above.
 
Asst coaches aren't important when you have the following

-Melo giving tons of money
-Kiyan playing 2 guard
-ISO offense featuring Kiyan
-And if we are lucky back to the 2-3 zone

Asst coaches, failure in last coaching spot with NBA talent, not recruiting for 3+ years, no east coast presence for the last 5+ years, no modern systems; stuff like that isn't important when you have the 4 things above.

Careful - in a thread like this lack of sarcasm font can take us down a 2-3 page rabbit hole ;)
 

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