How it ends: Going out on a whimper

[alphaorange]

Red's Resume:

In 2006, Autry and his family moved to Northern Virginia. In Northern Virginia, Autry began his coaching career as the associate head coach at Bishop Ireton Catholic High School. In the spring of 2007, Autry became involved in the AAU circuit, by becoming the coach of the 14-Under squad with NOVA United.

During the 2007-2008 school year, Autry was named an assistant coach at Paul VI High School. In 2008, Autry switched AAU teams and became an assistant coach for the 17-Under AAU squad Team Takeover.

In the fall of 2008, Autry was hired by Virginia Tech's Head Men's Basketball coach Seth Greenberg as the Director of Basketball Operations. Autry held that position for two years and was then promoted to assistant basketball coach for the Hokies. In the spring of 2010, Autry was on his way to the University of Dayton to become the associate head coach under Archie Miller. However, he never made it there. A position with his alma mater Syracuse University became available when Rob Murphy was named the head coach at Eastern Michigan University. Autry quickly accepted the position and remains there now. Autry currently coaches and develops the forwards position.

Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2006–2007	Bishop Ireton HS (associate HC)
2007–2008	Paul VI HS (assistant)
2008–2010	Virginia Tech (director of basketball ops.)
2010–2011	Virginia Tech (assistant)
2011–2016	Syracuse (assistant)
2016–present	Syracuse (associate HC)

GMac's resume:

On July 22, 2009, McNamara joined the basketball team's coaching staff as a graduate manager. In November 2011, McNamara was promoted to assistant coach, with a focus on development of the guards.

Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2009–2011	Syracuse (grad mgr.)
2011–present	Syracuse (asst.)

I don't understand why everyone thinks the #2 assistant will get promoted over the more experienced #1 assistant.

I don't know but despite the hierarchy of the staff, perhaps Gerry has developed to the point he is more highly regarded as a coach than Red? It wouldn't be the first time someone has been leap frogged. The days, though, the race will certainly be brought up if that were to happen.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

No, thought of it when you first posted the thread, but all of you anti-Boeheim agenda people were in full flying monkey mode so I thought I shouldn't stir up things even more. Then the thread kept going and I said, what the hell. I get it, we lose to Virginia and it's the end of the season. Virginia happens to be a very tough team who has a lot of talent that is coming together and put together a complete game the other night and ended up winning a tight game that SU would have won had they made a few more freethrow's or 1 more 3.

I’m not anti-Boeheim. I’m just a realist. I don’t put the man over the program.

 

[elimunelson]

You guys are battling for 4th. I can’t believe how your arrogant manager stripped the captaincy of Auba actually worked.
After the first 3 matches of this year I thought arsenal was a bottom 5 team but they are in position to be a 4th place club.

Arsenal has ownership issues.
Syracuse has a coach who doesn’t want to adapt and can’t be find a way to be sympathetic with his arrogance. Syracuse is hurting itself a lot.

I thought the stripping him of the captaincy was actual leadership. Auba is like an NFL WR. He's a diva. At a certain point if performance slips, and it has, the rope shrinks for getting away w diva behavior. Mikel is an earnest man and has been since he was at Everton playing. He may not be a great manager but not arrogant. Are you saying that because he's spaniard?

 

[Alsacs]

No, thought of it when you first posted the thread, but all of you anti-Boeheim agenda people were in full flying monkey mode so I thought I shouldn't stir up things even more. Then the thread kept going and I said, what the hell. I get it, we lose to Virginia and it's the end of the season. Virginia happens to be a very tough team who has a lot of talent that is coming together and put together a complete game the other night and ended up winning a tight game that SU would have won had they made a few more freethrow's or 1 more 3.

 

[kcsu]

I’m gonna trust my intel over your guess. The new head coach isn’t going to be JBs call. He tried that with Gmac and didn’t happen.

I hope you are right. Would love Oats.

 

[OttoMets]

Let’s not say until 2014 and after 2017 to conveniently leave out the final four. What if we evaluated 2016-2022? Are you expecting an upgrade from that? Do we all prefer the Tyler Ennis year in 2014 to the final four year in 2016? I’m just trying to understand. We’d all prefer to be ranked in December than peak in March?

Frustrating as that year was, arguably.

2014 gave the fans three-plus months of enjoyment. Hell, that awful Duke charge game was 40 minutes of basketball played at a higher level (and probably more enjoyable for fans, until the end) than SU played at any point in 2016.

2016 was four months of mediocrity and a cute weekend in Chicago. Awesome for anyone who was there. And maybe that plus a banner is better than what came two years before. But you could make a case that it wasn't.

 

[NKR1978]

Frustrating as that year was, arguably.

2014 gave the fans three-plus months of enjoyment. Hell, that awful Duke charge game was 40 minutes of basketball played at a higher level (and probably more enjoyable for fans, until the end) than SU played at any point in 2016.

2016 was four months of mediocrity and a cute weekend in Chicago. Awesome for anyone who was there. And maybe that plus a banner is better than what came two years before. But you could make a case that it wasn't.

At this point I would rather have the regular seasons where our games are important and I'm excited for them all day at work.

 

[OttoMets]

At this point I would rather have the regular seasons where our games are important and I'm excited for them all day at work.

Bingo. That feeling existed in 2014. It didn't in 2016. That's why the Final Four was just a cute bonus. Hey, look at this crappy overachieving team that will have no chance against UNC on Saturday night. Whoopee.

 

[Newhouser]

Who's the next Bennett? That's who we need to find. That guy is great.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Bingo. That feeling existed in 2014. It didn't in 2016. That's why the Final Four was just a cute bonus. Hey, look at this crappy overachieving team that will have no chance against UNC on Saturday night. Whoopee.

Geez man. What bar are you expecting the next coach to clear if this is your attitude? Step back and realize you have no realistic perspective at all if this is your take. I don’t care who the coach is, a Final Four is not a “cute bonus.”

 

[MSOrange]

Bingo. That feeling existed in 2014. It didn't in 2016. That's why the Final Four was just a cute bonus. Hey, look at this crappy overachieving team that will have no chance against UNC on Saturday night. Whoopee.

I don't want to downplay a Final 4 because it was a fun month and a great accomplishment.

But that was the one year we made the Final 4 where I truly had no expectation that we'd be able to win. Ironically, the other years we've made it, we did it as a much higher seed. Probably just a coincidence.

 

[CousCuse]

Baghdad Bob did a hell of a job.

 

[Cusefan0307]

People were miserable here in 2012-2014 too when we were winning 30 games and 2011 when Scoop got called for backcourt. A lot of posters are ignoring that. We wouldn't be happy with just regular season/conference tournament success. There's meltdowns on this board from that time backing it up.

I read some threads recently after our tourney losses in 2011-2014 and JB was getting crushed for not living up to postseason expectations and fans wanting to move on then because our style couldn't win in the tournament when we were favorites.

Again, not happy where we are now, but a lot of fans are trying to say things weren't said years ago when they were said.

In fact most of the time I would argue the board is miserable about something.

 

[CousCuse]

People were miserable here in 2012-2014 too when we were winning 30 games and 2011 when Scoop got called for backcourt. A lot of posters are ignoring that. We wouldn't be happy with just regular season/conference tournament success. There's meltdowns on this board from that time backing it up.

I read some threads recently after our tourney losses in 2011-2014 and JB was getting crushed for not living up to postseason expectations and fans wanting to move on then because our style couldn't win in the tournament when we were favorites.

Again, not happy where we are now, but a lot of fans are trying to say things weren't said years ago when they were said.

In fact most of the time I would argue the board is miserable about something.

People come here and to other sports boards to vent and blow off steam about things that are affecting them in their everyday life, having nothing to go with sports. They're like people who drink to drink their problems away. Usually they are not very nice when drunk.

 

[OttoMets]

I don't want to downplay a Final 4 because it was a fun month and a great accomplishment.

But that was the one year we made the Final 4 where I truly had no expectation that we'd be able to win. Ironically, the other years we've made it, we did it as a much higher seed. Probably just a coincidence.

This, maybe you put it more politely than I did. It's not an entitled take, I had no emotional investment and don't care one way or the other, but there's a big difference between every other Final Four run and 2016.

 

[OttoMets]

Geez man. What bar are you expecting the next coach to clear if this is your attitude? Step back and realize you have no realistic perspective at all if this is your take. I don’t care who the coach is, a Final Four is not a “cute bonus.”

None. He's going to be much worse than Boeheim and I don't care.

If anything, I think mine is the dispassionate perspective.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

People come here and to other sports boards to vent and blow off steam about things that are affecting them in their everyday life, having nothing to go with sports. Their like people who drink to drink their problems away. Usually they are not very nice when drunk.

They’re

 

[CousCuse]

This, maybe you put it more politely than I did. It's not an entitled take, I had no emotional investment and don't care one way or the other, but there's a big difference between every other Final Four run and 2016.

There's not really a difference. Boeheim's focus during the season is to continually work on the team getting better. His teams are almost always much stronger at the end of the season and that yields tournament success.

 

[OttoMets]

There's not really a difference. Boeheim's focus during the season is to continually work on the team getting better. His teams are almost always much stronger at the end of the season and that yields tournament success.

Boeheim's famous for playing to win the game at hand.

That's what makes a couple of his teams every decade so special: because they do get stronger as the season goes on and enter the tournament with a real chance at success.

 

[CousCuse]

Boeheim's famous for playing to win the game at hand.

That's what makes a couple of his teams every decade so special: because they do get stronger as the season goes on and enter the tournament with a real chance at success.

This years team isn't that far off from being very good. Just need Benny to get to where he is capable of.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

People were miserable here in 2012-2014 too when we were winning 30 games and 2011 when Scoop got called for backcourt. A lot of posters are ignoring that. We wouldn't be happy with just regular season/conference tournament success. There's meltdowns on this board from that time backing it up.

I read some threads recently after our tourney losses in 2011-2014 and JB was getting crushed for not living up to postseason expectations and fans wanting to move on then because our style couldn't win in the tournament when we were favorites.

Again, not happy where we are now, but a lot of fans are trying to say things weren't said years ago when they were said.

In fact most of the time I would argue the board is miserable about something.

Sounds like you're just waking up to the reality of sports forums.

And "miserable" is just a ridiculous take. Some people really need to learn how to process the difference between some words on a screen versus contextual perspective on that same topic. Someone could have a "meltdown" as you call it in a game thread, but how much does that really affect their lives, relative to other matters of more substance? It's sports. If you're not experiencing highs and lows—from game to game, from half to half, from minute to minute—i'd suggest you're not getting that much out of the experience.

Not sure what you're expecting. If we go 28-2, and we lose those two games in a sucky way, would we not still have reactions to that suck? I have to scratch my head at some people who i think are only pretending to never have a feeling about anything until they can step back in March and assess things in hindsight.

And, frankly, a lot of things that are being said now were being said back in 1985 when i first started discussing them. JB "getting crushed for not living up to postseason expectations" goes way back before 2011.

 

[Cuse12]

This years team isn't that far off from being very good. Just need Benny to get to where he is capable of.

I really hate to be the negative Nancy - but I mean come on…. “Very good”? I just don’t see it at all. Please take time to be a handful of games from ranked teams. I just watched Kentucky play LSU, and good golly Molly Kentucky is on a different universe then us. Athletic as can be up and down the line up, great bench effort, guards who can get their own shot and create for others. Athletes up and down the court for both LSU and UK…. We have some good basketball players here, but we are like a top tier A10 team. We don’t have the athleticism to match the top tier P5 teams.

 

[orangecuse]

Bingo. That feeling existed in 2014. It didn't in 2016. That's why the Final Four was just a cute bonus. Hey, look at this crappy overachieving team that will have no chance against UNC on Saturday night. Whoopee.

Completely agree. Although, I was fortunate to be at both venues in Chitown and Houston.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Sounds like you're just waking up to the reality of sports forums.

And "miserable" is just a ridiculous take. Some people really need to learn how to process the difference between some words on a screen versus contextual perspective on that same topic. Someone could have a "meltdown" as you call it in a game thread, but how much does that really affect their lives, relative to other matters of more substance? It's sports. If you're not experiencing highs and lows—from game to game, from half to half, from minute to minute—i'd suggest you're not getting that much out of the experience.

Not sure what you're expecting. If we go 28-2, and we lose those two games in a sucky way, would we not still have reactions to that suck? I have to scratch my head at some people who i think are only pretending to never have a feeling about anything until they can step back in March and assess things in hindsight.

And, frankly, a lot of things that are being said now were being said back in 1985 when i first started discussing them. JB "getting crushed for not living up to postseason expectations" goes way back before 2011.

I'm not sure why this bothers you. Facts are facts. Miserable people just move the goalposts to be miserable at something else. It happens everywhere in life.

Most of the time the board is miserable in general. I mean there's people complaining about orange colored glasses in 2012 and 2013.

And I was never talking about just game threads.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I'm not sure why this bothers you. Facts are facts. Miserable people just move the goalposts to be miserable at something else. It happens everywhere in life.

Most of the time the board is miserable in general. I mean there's people complaining about orange colored glasses in 2012 and 2013.

And I was never talking about just game threads.

You've got it twisted. You're the one bothered by "miserable people."
You're the one who doesn't understand perspective and context.
You're the one who doesn't recognize that kvetching occurs in every involved sports forum.
You're the one who doesn't understand sociology or psychology.
You're the one who can't deal that everyone doesn't feel or think the same way as you.
And you're the one who doesn't know that the things you say are not "facts." They're 'perspectives.' Subjective. The "fact" that you call it "misery"—i mean, jeezus, that's just, like, your opinion, man. That's not a fact. It's not even true. All i'm seeing is a lot of calm-to-spirited discussion about who we are, who we should/could be, and the future of a program that means a great deal to us. Not sure why you require a dispassionate take on all of that, or how you ignore the ironic conflict of also wanting it to be 'rah-rah,' we're great as-is. But, i'd suggest that perspective isn't at all fact-based.