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Message: [QUOTE="HoustonCuse, post: 2133044, member: 87"] I didn't see the press conference, but I can imagine it was mediocre at best and damaging at worst. JB is horrible at that part of the job. I can accept that if he is great at other parts of the job. He has been great on average at those parts but the last few years have been extremely uneven. I understand people being very nervous. Has his performance as a coach declined? I actually don't think so. I think he has had some roster management difficulties over the past 5 years which have made it very hard to be successful on the court, but he has still achieved significant successes. Our regular season performance in the ACC has been, lets say average, but we do not want to be an average program. Some say we have become Wake Forest or NC State or Georgia Tech. They'll point to some stats. But I don't see those programs winning major preseason tournaments like Maui, going to final fours, etc. There is a mix here. As to the future: is recruiting terrible? I don't think so. I knew last summer that the program was taking a major risk. They recruited all 5 star guys who were a cut above the level of most of our targets over the past 10 years. I knew that we'd likely miss on a lot of those guys - of course we would, the competition is intense for those players. I knew that missing on those guys would cause severe unrest with a lot of our fans. We missed on all of them (so far) and so that unrest has been even more inflamed. Here's why it is so tough: many of the same people who are outraged at the lack of success in landing those players are the same ones previously outraged that we were not going after those type of players. Now you know why we didn't - it is a high risk/high reward strategy and the boss has to be ready to deal with the consequences of those risks even when the fans have no clue of what they were asking for. Still we have landed reasonably well with the 17 guys we have so far and will get a couple others. Are they the guys we wanted? No. But that is what you get when you swing for the fences and miss. It doesn't mean we are doomed or that we will never hit the ball again. Babe Ruth struck out over 1300 times. Should Boeheim still be our coach? I say why not? He's 72. He has shown he can still win at a high level. His NCAA tournament performance is at career peak levels right now. I understand we fell short this year. That can happen to any program. I still look at K and what became of his team. If we had that roster and produced the season Duke got this year, the Dome would have already been burned down by a mob and we'd be in an unbelievable crisis. It happens. This is not women's basketball where only one or two teams actually compete. Believe it or not, there are other people out there trying to win just as much as we are. They do get a say in happens to us, no matter who our coach is. To address our primary issues we need: A good recruiter/assistant coach A better thought out and executed roster management strategy that addresses early attrition JB to get more engaged in the future of the program A couple good gets in 17 and a 1 or 2 studs in 18 I think it is reasonable to expect all of that can happen. Is it a given? Nope. Is it a given that none of it will happen? Nope. [/QUOTE]

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