Jay Wright, Roy Williams yea, Jamie Dixon nay

[HOFCeluck]

The prevailing Syracusefan.com opinion on Roy is a head-scratcher. Totally undeserved - he's a great guy and a very good coach.

He can be a very good coach and still be overrated. Bad and overrated aren't synonyms.

 

[OttoMets]

He can be a very good coach and still be overrated. Bad and overrated aren't synonyms.

There have been threads on this board that crush him personally and professionally. Way beyond "underrated."

 

[BuffOrange]

I have met and observed several big time coaches and players in my time. Had dinner at the Retreat in Liverpool when Paul Evans was in town for a game. He seemed pretty good with our group but he did have an air of smugness at times just like he appeared to have on TV

Bruce Weber when he was in town for the regionals. Very warm person, talked to me like we had known each other all of our lives.

Gary Williams, rude.

Tubby Smith can't say enough good things about Tubby and how he treated everyone with dignity. Great sense of humor and great with young fans.

Jim Calhoun not fan friendly I did get some OK response that wasn't too bad but he disrespected the kids. Cocky.

Coach K cold and business like.

Coach Cal, the fans in Syracuse heckled him so much he didn't have a chance to show anything.

Players:

Doug Gottlieb got in an argument with some fans who were heckling him at the Dome practice.

Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor (UConn) and Tayshaun Prince (Kentucky) were all class acts with the kids.

At the regional final here the Duke players ignored all the kids with Duke jackets & shirts who sat through three practices to see them. Not even a wave or a smile

Maryland's Lonnie Baxter was about to sign one autograph for a kid and Gary William's grabbed him and pushed him to towards the locker room.

I like reading this stuff because I've never really met anyone..

But isn't it interesting that the guys who come across the worst (Gary, Calhoun, K) are JB's best friends in the game? The only one missing is PJ.

 

[orangenirvana]

But isn't it interesting that the guys who come across the worst (Gary, Calhoun, K) are JB's best friends in the game? The only one missing is PJ.

Calhoun? My take is that Boeheim wouldn't consider Calhoun one of his best friends. More like the guy Boeheim felt sorry for because no one ever talked to him so he threw him a bone once in a while.

 

[BuffOrange]

You might be right.
I heard Mike Waters say on the radio they didn't get along in the early years (which I'd love to know the dirt on 'cause I hadn't heard it before).
I thought they became friends in the later years but maybe it was just a JT Jr. esque truce.

 

[l'orange]

Jay Wright is cool! I've heard, I think through this board, that he let his children wear GMac/SU jersey's at GMac's final homegame and I remember years ago we had a player go down with a minor injury on the court and Jay Wright called timeout rather than have his guys play us 5 on 4 for offense.

 

[kuethstheman]

You might be right.
I heard Mike Waters say on the radio they didn't get along in the early years (which I'd love to know the dirt on 'cause I hadn't heard it before).
I thought they became friends in the later years but maybe it was just a JT Jr. esque truce.

My recollection is that JB called Calhoun a friend on the YES show. Mentioned how surprising that is given that a lot of things are said and done during games.

 

[Todd Gack]

Jay Wright is cool! I've heard, I think through this board, that he let his children wear GMac/SU jersey's at GMac's final homegame and I remember years ago we had a player go down with a minor injury on the court and Jay Wright called timeout rather than have his guys play us 5 on 4 for offense.

Before our most recent game against them, Wright was interviewed on the pre-game radio show and he talked about how great McNamara's last game was (probably mostly because Nova won) -- he mentioned the elementary school kids who sang in particular, and about how he and Gerry talked about it the first time he saw him on the recurring trail.

On his coach's show he has guests, whom he asks questions to -- and a couple years back he had Philadelphia's own Rob Long on to talk about his battle with cancer. Wright closed the segment by telling him he was proud of him.

 

[OrangeSky]

I really like Jay wright...except the days we play Nova.

 

[PoppyHart]

A lot of coaches may rub people the wrong way, but outside of someone like Dave Bliss, it's pretty hard to cast stones.

 

[Ghost]

Yeah, Roy Williams is like Vitale. He gets a lot of heat for the job, but I'm not sure people question whether or not they're high character guys. Only ever heard good things about them when ppl mention crossing paths with them.

Hard to hate on them too much when you know they're good people.

 

[Orangeyes]

Roy sounds like he's in a real bad place right now as is the UNC program
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/07/3600444/jacobs-roy-williams-says-its-been.html

 

[SWC75]

I have met and observed several big time coaches and players in my time. Had dinner at the Retreat in Liverpool when Paul Evans was in town for a game. He seemed pretty good with our group but he did have an air of smugness at times just like he appeared to have on TV

Bruce Weber when he was in town for the regionals. Very warm person, talked to me like we had known each other all of our lives.

Gary Williams, rude.

Tubby Smith can't say enough good things about Tubby and how he treated everyone with dignity. Great sense of humor and great with young fans.

Jim Calhoun not fan friendly I did get some OK response that wasn't too bad but he disrespected the kids. Cocky.

Coach K cold and business like.

Coach Cal, the fans in Syracuse heckled him so much he didn't have a chance to show anything.

Players:

Doug Gottlieb got in an argument with some fans who were heckling him at the Dome practice.

Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor (UConn) and Tayshaun Prince (Kentucky) were all class acts with the kids.

At the regional final here the Duke players ignored all the kids with Duke jackets & shirts who sat through three practices to see them. Not even a wave or a smile

Maryland's Lonnie Baxter was about to sign one autograph for a kid and Gary William's grabbed him and pushed him to towards the locker room.

Bud Poliquin said that while JB can be ly he's always available. Coach K comes off friendly if he's talking to a national reporter like Jay Bilas but otherwise getting to him is like getting an audience with the Pope.

 

[PoppyHart]

Bud Poliquin said that while JB can be ly he's always available. Coach K comes off friendly if he's talking to a national reporter like Jay Bilas but otherwise getting to him is like getting an audience with the Pope.

I'm sure this has nothing to do with perspective.

 

[mike32768]

Dixon is straight out of the pages of DC Comics as one of those industrialist/evil mastermind type Batman villians, plus his teams have played like they are henchmen for years, so that I get.

Best description of Dixon!

 

[itsbotime]

Roy sounds like he's in a real bad place right now as is the UNC program
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/07/3600444/jacobs-roy-williams-says-its-been.html

The program is fine. Roy is upset about the ridiculous criticism the local media has lobbed at the university (the newspaper you linked to is a big part of that), as are most Tar Heel faithful. I'm sure Syracuse can relate...how many people in the local and national media wanted to crucify Syracuse over the Bernie Fine fiasco? Facts be damned.

 

[NYCSUGrad]

I only met coaches in Maui. Scott Drew of Baylor was nice, and appreciated when I told him my friend was a huge Baylor fan. (I refrained from saying she's a huge fan of the women's team. Why be rude?). Mark Few was about 15 feet away and walking in the wrong direction but did give me a hand wave, despite my faux pas of calling him Mr Few. Never did run into Boeheim. He reputedly was very genial to all while there.