JB needs to be

[CapitalO]

Bernie Fine coached with JB from 1976 to 2011. Fine was responsible for coaching Syracuse's forwards and centers, including Rony Seikaly, Etan Thomas and John Wallace. In 2000, Fine was promoted to associate head coach.

Fine only coached the centers my definition of a true big mans coach is a coach who was a former C/ in college and possibly the NBA. who can really develop young college big men into better players.

 

[OrangeAl]

Fine only coached the centers my definition of a true big mans coach is a coach who was a former C/ in college and possibly the NBA. who can really develop young college big men into better players.

So, he would coach everyone except JGIII?

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Yeah that ain't gonna happen cap'n.

There’s only one thing to do...

Give him a ten year extension !!!!

 

[sufandu]

Fine only coached the centers my definition of a true big mans coach is a coach who was a former C/ in college and possibly the NBA. who can really develop young college big men into better players.

You don't have to have played the position to be good at coaching it. Pete Newell proved that. Having said that, I don't think we've had someone develop big men well in a long time.

 

[20plus]

We hired one inexperienced ass't. G-Mac. Or Hop if you want to go way back but I don't think anyone would say that was a bad hire. Both Autry and Griff came from other D-1 schools. Both could have gone to all kinds of good places. The bigger issue is that really, the two best guys we have got in the last 20 years came from the two guys that weren't Syracuse guys. Weaver got us Melo (and Edelin) and Thomas got us Wes Johnson. In his one year, he was the Big East player of the year and we were a #1 seed. We need guys that can get guys like that. Sadly, that ship has sailed. No decent ass't is going to come here to work for a guy JB's age.

Thomas?? Who got Wes here?

 

[20plus]

Who’s Thomas? You mean Rob Murphy?

Man I was reading this and I was thinking the same thing good answer

 

[Sherman20]

Man I was reading this and I was thinking the same thing good answer

I think he means Rob Murphy. I’m pretty sure it was Murph who landed him.

 

[cusefan88]

It won't happen but JB/Cuse announces 21-22 is his last season, he retires with Buddy graduating and they announce Autry to succeed him to make sure recruiting doesn't suffer.

 

[dasher]

Thomas?? Who got Wes here?

Sr moment. I meant Murphy

 

[SaltLakeOrange]

Fine only coached the centers my definition of a true big mans coach is a coach who was a former C/ in college and possibly the NBA. who can really develop young college big men into better players.

Are you sure? I’m pretty sure he also coached forwards.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Bernie Fine coached the Centers and he has somehow reached assistant coach legend territory here. I know the basketball alums love him, but as much as he coached up some talented bigs others didn't improve very much.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Pimping his assistant coaches out for new jobs and bringing in a recruiter/ possible head coach.

Our assistants may be the best assistants ever and we would never know. I heard second hand from a very good source this weekend that one assistant is frustrated with the team overall right now.

 

[sufandu]

Our assistants may be the best assistants ever and we would never know. I heard second hand from a very good source this weekend that one assistant is frustrated with the team overall right now.

Did they say in what way they were frustrated?

 

[Alsacs]

The biggest frustration for me is we don’t correct our flaws and just expect the status quo to improve.

We all know we have needed PG and bigs help for years.
We don’t address then weaknesses in recruiting and when we do they sit on the bench.
Kadary Richmond is our best PG since Ennis. Gbinije wasn’t a PG.
We haven’t addressed bigs instead we ran with Chukwu for 3 years and have done the Sidibe/Dolezaj act for 3 years.

Get an actual big who can play without worrying about health.

JB doesn’t fix the problems and he just says a bunch of crap that is passive aggressive spin to maintain the status quo.

We recruit wings who are solid and always ask SGs to do more than they can handle in the offense..

 

[Grbac]

A guy I really like is Vermont coach John Becker.
He plays a man to man half court help defense that usually ranks tops in the country.
He recruits just like Geno Auriemma, offensive players but teaches them defense.
I think he could really do good here with his system and the types of players he could pull in at Syracuse.

I’m honestly not on board with hiring from within. It would be more of the same. Jimmy’s coaching is mostly all they know. Not a bad thing but we just need to switch it up.

 

[hoopsupstate]

I’ve been watching the Knicks and they rave about former Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne. Former Kentucky players rave about his influence within the program. He might be someone to take a look at.

 

[RF2044]

We have a head coach that feels entitled to do things his way including starting Buddy every game and plays 30-40 mins per game. The optics show he thinks he is above the program and can do no wrong and will scoff at anyone who dares to disagree with him. The man is old and set in his ways. I feel like I’m watching a CYO coach with a son on the team who plays him over others. The fan base needs to pressure SU to step in and retake control of the basketball program. It is no longer acceptable to allow the HOF coach to continue to coach because of his previous success several years back.

I think that's really fair. Not to sound ageist, but I think that as many people get older, they get more set in their ways and their dominant personality traits tend to get amplified [not saying that's good or bad -- it just is what it is]. JB's always been stubborn as hell -- it's one of the things that made him so successful. But now he is uber stubborn, even to his detriment.

I'm not going to comment on Buddy -- but that isn't the worst analogy you're making.

 

[kcsu]

Bernie Fine coached the Centers and he has somehow reached assistant coach legend territory here. I know the basketball alums love him, but as much as he coached up some talented bigs, others didn't improve very much.

Bernie and Mrs Fine had some personal issues that had to be addressed.

 

[RF2044]

Bernie Fine coached the Centers and he has somehow reached assistant coach legend territory here. I know the basketball alums love him, but as much as he coached up some talented bigs, others didn't improve very much.

I think there's a good reason for that -- some of the ones that developed had elite athleticism [Seikaly, Etan]. That some less talented guys [and even an uber athletic one like Watkins] didn't optimize their potential speaks volumes, IMO.

From being a regular practice attendee for years back in the day, I've always questioned how much of that had to do with Bernie directly -- I've always questioned the "big man guru" belief that some of our fanbase used to express. I'm not saying he was a "bad" coach -- just kind of average. His biggest thing was that JB was comfortable with him.

 

[721Comstock]

I think there's a good reason for that -- some of the ones that developed had elite athleticism [Seikaly, Etan]. That some less talented guys [and even some uber athletic ones like Watkins] didn't optimize their potential speaks volumes, IMO.

From being a regular practice attendee for years back in the day, I've always questioned how much of that had to do with Bernie directly -- I've always questioned the "big man guru" belief that some of our fanbase used to express. I'm not saying he was a "bad" coach -- just kind of average. His biggest thing was that JB had faith in him.

I agree 144%. Bernie gets WAAAAAY too much credit for Rony, Etan, etc.

They were elite athletes who needed to develop the skills.
And did the work required to do so.

Feel like that woulda happened regardless of who the "big man coach" was for them.

 

[Grbac]

I’ve been watching the Knicks and they rave about former Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne. Former Kentucky players rave about his influence within the program. He might be someone to take a look at.

Wouldn’t be a bad idea. He is the one piece that could have been Kentucky’s downfall this season. They say he was always the voice of reason to the players.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Who’s Thomas? You mean Rob Murphy?

Naw, I'm sure it was Thomas. He even landed Santana to do this song with him...and coupla years later brought Wes to the Cuse. One hell of a recruiter that Thomas guy!

 

[Cuse#1]

We hired one inexperienced ass't. G-Mac. Or Hop if you want to go way back but I don't think anyone would say that was a bad hire. Both Autry and Griff came from other D-1 schools. Both could have gone to all kinds of good places. The bigger issue is that really, the two best guys we have got in the last 20 years came from the two guys that weren't Syracuse guys. Weaver got us Melo (and Edelin) and Murphy got us Wes Johnson. In his one year, he was the Big East player of the year and we were a #1 seed. We need guys that can get guys like that. Sadly, that ship has sailed. No decent ass't is going to come here to work for a guy JB's age.

Well luckily his time is coming to an end. I mean the guy is too old he should be walking in the sunset enjoying his retirement with his wife and kids, I mean Move on. I keep hearing that when his son graduates he is going to retire and it needs to happen at that point because I mean what are you going to be 78 years old.
I am assuming that our AD at that point will do the right thing. I don't know much about Gerry McNamara as a coach but Boeheim is a legend but he just has some personality quirks maybe that have gotten worse in his old age. this seems like there's a trend where schools and NBA are hiring former professional players that have been in the trenches so to speak, time will tell. Also no more zone! Like I said before we don't need a freaking gimmick defense! we have the ability to get plenty of talent and athletic ability in this program, I would take Clemson, Virginia type man2man defense Over any of the greatest zone years we have had which most are in the past at this point

 

[NineOneSeven]

I am assuming that our ED at that point will do the right thing.

Nice

 

[miamicuse]

JB had said there is no plan to retire after buddy graduates. Pretty sure he stated that in an interview somewhere