Fire Autry

[RF2044]

It may not have been ADJW's "difficult choice" to retire JB. Some think it was KS & the AW angle might have been part of it.

At the time the powers that be might have thought it was prudent to keep JB inside the tent and not go off bad mouthing SU and the program. In hindsight that may not have been the best decision if it resulted in the current situation.

"At the time," JB had already been mouthing off that ENTIRE YEAR, and had garnered a significant amount of coverage from the sports media every time he said something controversial. He was being made fun of the in sports media, seemingly every other press conference.

So if he'd thrown a tantrum at the end, and bad mouthed SU? That would have sucked, it would have garnered some minor coverage with the sports media at large making fun of him some more, and then it would have been over. Band aid ripped off.

I have an alternate theory. JB wanted a job, and he wanted something to do after he stopped coaching. I think he would have been motivated to get that job more than he wanted to scorch the earth. The fear of him scorching the earth is one of the big reasons why the University employed the path of least resistance, but not the only one.

And I think it is overstated, to help rationalize away the strategically indefensible outcome of who we hired as the replacement.

 

[RF2044]

Other than recruiting what was the upside that put him over the top to be hired. I just don’t see it. The feel good story of hiring one of our own isn’t enough to make the hire. Nobody outside the bot cares where the coach came from. Just a lazy hire. Jab was already disgruntled from being fired.

Path of least resistance.

Misguided sentiment to hang onto the past.

Some BoT members overstepping their roles and intervening in the hiring decision, based upon their personal relationships with Boeheim.

Because otherwise, you are right.

 

[Scooch]

When ADJW made the difficult choice to force JB to finally step down, the hard part was in the rear view mirror. Unfortunately, he and certain members of the BoT absolutely BLEW IT by hiring an undequalified candidate in Autry at a time when the program was in a precarious position after a near-decade of decline under Boeheim.

People will say that JW had "no choice," or that Boeheim would have thrown a tantrum if we'd gone outside of the program. I say, so what? He would have had a tantrum, and then it would have been over, they would have given him the same job he has, and the band aid would have been ripped off.

Instead, the program has declined even further, we have the worst coach of any P4 school, and fan apathy is at an all time high. It is an expensive lesson -- the path of least resistance might be "easiest," but when you hire someone unqualified in a performance-driven role, failure is the most likely outcome.

This whole thing was botched from the start. You don't artificially constrain the candidate pool. You don't hire an inexperienced "captain" when the ship is floudering. And you don't install someone with no proven track record, and make a continuity hire, when performance is already poor.

Red is one of our own. He's a very nice guy. He is a very good assistant coach. But hopefully this is an object lesson of what NOT to do when it comes to making hires.

My only quibble is that I firmly believe hiring Autry was a key component in getting JB to "retire". I believe the two things were very much linked, not that JB was forced out and then Red was hired.

If not for coercing JB to step down by hiring one of his guys to follow him, JB would have refused and forced SU to fire him. There wouldn't have been a gracious transfer of power. There would have been a press conference about SU terminating their legendary HC. There would have been endless news cycles of former players trashing the school.

We can debate if that was the right approach, but it seems clear to me that SU did not want that kind of press, so they did what they did.

 

[Blanko97]

He’s not on this list. There will be a lot of competition for Hodgson et al.

That’s because his seat has already burned up

 

[orangepassion]

He’s not on this list. There will be a lot of competition for Hodgson et al.

Autry can’t even make the top 10? That’s the clincher that he needs to be let go.

 

[JarHeadJim]

Carmelo Anthony appears unhappy with state of Syracuse hoops

Syracuse alum Carmelo Anthony does not appear happy with the current state of the program, commenting "SMFH" under a highlight from Monday's loss to UNC.

www.espn.com

 

[Newhouser]

"At the time," JB had already been mouthing off that ENTIRE YEAR, and had garnered a significant amount of coverage from the sports media every time he said something controversial. He was being made fun of the in sports media, seemingly every other press conference.

So if he'd thrown a tantrum at the end, and bad mouthed SU? That would have sucked, it would have garnered some minor coverage with the sports media at large making fun of him some more, and then it would have been over. Band aid ripped off.

I have an alternate theory. JB wanted a job, and he wanted something to do after he stopped coaching. I think he would have been motivated to get that job more than he wanted to scorch the earth. The fear of him scorching the earth is one of the big reasons why the University employed the path of least resistance, but not the only one.

And I think it is overstated, to help rationalize away the strategically indefensible outcome of who we hired as the replacement.

I think your second paragraph is spot on. By the end of his tenure the national media could have cared less about JB or our program. Sort of dismissed as the old man ranting again. It's also why I think the scorched earth scenario is overstated big time.