So Wildhack..he has to be fired, right?

[Capt. Tuttle]

Just take care of basketball right now. FB can ride out Dino’s contract.

 

[Lax2020]

Wildhack is going nowhere. He gave up a lucrative career to become SU AD.
He isn’t getting fired.
He just needs become more assertive publicly instead of passive image he has.

Wildhack is JB’s boss if he won’t tell him what he needs to hear then the program is dead anyway. I would assume Wildhack is just being cheap in that he doesn’t want to pay 2 basketball coaches as Coach Boeheim will be paid whatever is left on his contract which is why I would like to know how long Coach Boeheim’s contract has left.

"He gave up a lucrative career to become SU AD." Not true. Significant changes were taking place at ESPN and senior personnel made decisions to leave based on those changes.

 

[Cusefan0307]

If this is the case, and I believe that it is, Wildhack has to know that at some point this mess is going to define his career. He'll be known as the guy who presided over the decline of one of the winningest programs in basketball history and handled the succession of a coaching legend in spectacularly bad fashion. At some point, this mess is going to make him toxic.

If Wildhack has any instinct of preserving his own name and legacy, he should try to force the changes he thinks are necessary, and if he is shot down, he should resign.

Wildhack is 64. This is his last job. He’s one of us(alum and poster). like to see him get the basketball hire right before we run him out of town. I think he’s an impossible situation. If he had the go ahead Dino would have been gone already.

 

[Lax2020]

Maybe the 2 straight losses to Colgate and now Bryant are a fitting end to JB's great career. I think I'd rather see it go down like this than how things went down for Coach K - losing to his arch rival in his final game on the biggest stage of college basketball.

 

[SUMJF]

Wildhack is 64. This is his last job. He’s one of us(alum and poster). like to see him get the basketball hire right before we run him out of town. I think he’s an impossible situation. If he had the go ahead Dino would have been gone already.

How doesn’t he have the go ahead? Syracuse financials can’t be that. People go to games and they must have a lot of sponsors.

It’s more likely the results aren’t bad enough for him to want to make a change is more a loyalty thing than a decision thing.

 

[SUMJF]

"He gave up a lucrative career to become SU AD." Not true. Significant changes were taking place at ESPN and senior personnel made decisions to leave based on those changes.

Wildhack was going to get fired at ESPN?
I didn’t know that. His performance as AD has been poor at best. He fundraises but any AD can hire people to fundraise. JB could retire and be hired by the AD to be a fundraiser and be compensated well for it.

 

[Bayside44]

Those donations...Do you think it is because of JW or could it be that they are in desperation for fear that the SU Athletic legacies are going up in flames ?

JW is raising 150 million dollars and his complete reputation on the line to build the Lally complex to get us in the game with our peers. Good luck with getting any athletic executive will travel type to lay it on the line here. So yeah raising money and knowing who and where the bodies are buried is a complete prerequisite to being successful here.

JB is a university wide decision and Gait is here to recruit elite talent which Desko stopped doing. Nothing more than that.

 

[Cusefan69]

This thread is funny. Anyone who thinks they could handle the unicorn mens hoop matter is laughable. No one including me understands the likely dynamics behind the scenes. While I agree with all of you thinking its past time for JB to retire, it’s not as simple of a matter as you would hope OR it would have already happened. The AD gets a pass on JB. The AD should be judged on who he hires to replace JB.
Agree with Baysides and 007 comments above.

 

[Cusefan0307]

How doesn’t he have the go ahead? Syracuse financials can’t be that. People go to games and they must have a lot of sponsors.

It’s more likely the results aren’t bad enough for him to want to make a change is more a loyalty thing than a decision thing.

If you think we are going to get an AD that is better than JW you are very mistaken. Bayside laid it out all above.

 

[Lax2020]

JW is raising 150 million dollars and his complete reputation on the line to build the Lally complex to get us in the game with our peers. Good luck with getting any athletic executive will travel type to lay it on the line here. So yeah raising money and knowing who and where the bodies are buried is a complete prerequisite to being successful here.

JB is a university wide decision and Gait is here to recruit elite talent which Desko stopped doing. Nothing more than that.

"... Gait is here to recruit elite talent which Desko stopped doing."

Desko was at the helm recruiting Spallina - 2022 #1 Recruit in the nation.

 

[richmondcuse03]

"The key aspect of the AD is raising money" - disagree. "The role of an athletic director is to manage all facets of an athletic program, including scheduling, hiring coaches, promoting programs and events, ordering equipment, constructing budgets, and facilitating operations. Athletic directors also often help fundraise events and supervise sports personnel."

"John has made some good coaching hires too in non revenue sports." Which sports are we talking about ?

"Boeheim was going to be a problem no matter who the AD was." Agree but that's why we needed a strong and well established AD. JW was a TV executive - zero AD experience. It's almost as if whoever made the decision to hire him was in the mindset that the AD job was transforming into a pure marketing role.

"We all wanted Dino extended when he did" Sort of agree but the plunder was how the extension was negotiated - no performance based incentives/penalties.

"I think the transition on lacrosse side was handled pretty well." Disagree. 4-10 1st season including 6 straight losses all with the new HC not taking responsibility for the implosion and actually pushing his players under the bus.

You’re naive if you don’t think fundraising is the most important aspect of the job. He had to actually build a fundraising apparatus. We were decades behind peers. And the entire organization was a mess due to Gross. So in addition to hiring competent people to build out a fundraising department, he’s also had to fix the rest of the mess.

People don’t fully appreciate what a mess our AD office was. And JW came back to help his alma mater. Now you all want to run him off based largely on second guessing decisions. He cares far more about the school than most do. And he wants to win.

Give Gait more than one year. Kayla was a great hire on women’s side. Same with Coach Jack.

Who was going to come in as an established AD when Wildhack did? If we want to second guess - remember how Coyle screwed us right? We were in an awful spot. Coyle was supposed to clean up the mess by Gross. Instead it was made worse.

Gross and Cantor single handedly set us back on both the academic and sports sides of the house.

 

[Lax2020]

This thread is funny. Anyone who thinks they could handle the unicorn mens hoop matter is laughable. No one including me understands the likely dynamics behind the scenes. While I agree with all of you thinking its past time for JB to retire, it’s not as simple of a matter as you would hope OR it would have already happened. The AD gets a pass on JB. The AD should be judged on who he hires to replace JB.
Agree with Baysides and 007 comments above.

"The AD should be judged on who he hires to replace JB. "

And what if the AD does not have the green light to pick the next HC for men's B'Ball ?

 

[Cusefan0307]

"The AD should be judged on who he hires to replace JB. "

And what if the AD does not have the green light to pick the next HC for men's B'Ball ?

He will. It’s probably not going to be someone everyone agrees on though.

 

[Scooch]

To answer the question posed… No. No, you do not.

 

[syrBossHogg]

JW is raising 150 million dollars and his complete reputation on the line to build the Lally complex to get us in the game with our peers. Good luck with getting any athletic executive will travel type to lay it on the line here. So yeah raising money and knowing who and where the bodies are buried is a complete prerequisite to being successful here.

JB is a university wide decision and Gait is here to recruit elite talent which Desko stopped doing. Nothing more than that.

Not to mention the Dome renovation that turned out to be mostly successful.

 

[SUMJF]

If you think we are going to get an AD that is better than JW you are very mistaken. Bayside laid it out all above.

I have no clue if he is good but he isn’t bad. I was more commenting on the statement he would have replaced Dino already if he could.
He is in charge of the athletic department he only answers to the Chancellor. If he didn’t make a move when he would have wanted to then the Chancellor would be interfering in an athletics matter which would be disappointing.
I get we aren’t full of everlasting money but we have the funds to make changes.
I don’t think it matters if the AD is an alum or not either. I want competence over stability.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I have no clue if he is good but he isn’t bad. I was more commenting on the statement he would have replaced Dino already if he could.
He is in charge of the athletic department he only answers to the Chancellor. If he didn’t make a move when he would have wanted to then the Chancellor would be interfering in an athletics matter which would be disappointing.
I get we aren’t full of everlasting money but we have the funds to make changes.
I don’t think it matters if the AD is an alum or not either. I want competence over stability.

Wildhack reports to Syverud on an org chart. He really answers to the people who pull the purse strings(Boosters and BOT’s).

 

[Cuse181]

Those donations...Do you think it is because of JW or could it be that they are in desperation for fear that the SU Athletic legacies are going up in flames ?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter.

Does a match salesman stop selling matches just because arson is up?

 

[Lax2020]

Not to mention the Dome renovation that turned out to be mostly successful.

Dome Renovation = Pete Sala

 

[SUMJF]

Wildhack reports to Syverud on an org chart. He really answers to the people who pull the purse strings(Boosters and BOT’s).

Boosters I get have influence in coaching matters but if the BoT which are supposed to be about academics are interfering then we have MAJOR problems.

The BoT I thought are just there rubber stamp athletic matters at public schools at private schools they should have nothing to do with athletics.

 

[tbonezone]

 

[Consigliere]

At this point the entire athletic department is a shell of its former self. I’m assuming there’s conversations happening at the highest level about Wildhack. Seems like he has to be on the chopping block based on the disastrous state of the core revenue generating athletic programs. It was a flyer to hire him based on his background. I think it was a failed experiment. The teams and buildings may look pretty, but the end result on the field is hot garbage.

A bit of hyperbole, no? Football team just finished a seven win season when the "experts" pegged our over/under wins at 4. Lacrosse welcomes the number one recruiting class in the nation after a perfectly managed transition at the top. Mens basketball is certainly in a difficult situation, but if you recall last spring, after the first losing season in over 50 years and a sit down with the AD, the HoF coach stated "There is an ironclad plan in place" to manage his departure. Fund raising, as much as you want to minimize it, is in the best shape ever. And non-revenue sports, yes, part of the job, have a perpetual national champion contender in womens lax, a mens soccer team playing at home right now for an opportunit to advance to the elite eight and a womens basketball program that survived a historic challenge and is poised to move into prominence under a dynamic coach.

Remember Mike Tirico's comment when asked if he was concerned about his alma mater hiring someone without experience running an athletic department. "Have you seen John Wildhack's rolodex?"

John's biggest weakness is probably his loyalty, but I am willing to live with that.

 

[OrangePA]

At this point the entire athletic department is a shell of its former self. I’m assuming there’s conversations happening at the highest level about Wildhack. Seems like he has to be on the chopping block based on the disastrous state of the core revenue generating athletic programs. It was a flyer to hire him based on his background. I think it was a failed experiment. The teams and buildings may look pretty, but the end result on the field is hot garbage.

Wow.

 

[Consigliere]

Wildhack was going to get fired at ESPN?
I didn’t know that. His performance as AD has been poor at best. He fundraises but any AD can hire people to fundraise. JB could retire and be hired by the AD to be a fundraiser and be compensated well for it.

Because it couldn't be further from the truth. Wildhack had been tabbed to replace John Skipper and would be CEO in Bristol now had he stayed.

 

[jgeorge322]

Lol, Wildhack can’t fire Boeheim.