Thamel: It’s GMac

[BEGood]

So I’m dying here but am I right we are looking at 11-13 million?

 

[brandokc]

As Hoops Weiss would say, who can we count on toupee?

 

[TheCusian]

I have misgivings — but I think what impressed my most about Siena vs Duke was their play reminded me of how Gerry played. That would be a massive difference and improvement right from the get go. Red’s teams looked like they weren’t hungry.

If he can recruit, garner and keep NIL high - have them *play like that* while getting better at X’s and O’s, could be good

 

[Sherman20]

I think this will be telling in who comes back. My belief is X and O advantage is crap. Everyone knows the same sets at this level. The separator is talent and effort. Watch the teams playing in the Sweet 16, effort is not an option. In the dozen Siena games I watched this year, there was never lack of effort. Our games lacked consistent effort every game. What player on the current Cuse team will meet that effort.

It’s not about knowing sets. It’s about having a system and a vision and knowing how to teach it and getting your players to buy in. Read about Schertz and Hodgson. We’ve been discussing them for months. I want someone who has proven that as a coach already, and they have both done it. (Also Hodge is a much better proven recruiter than Gmac.). What vision has Gmac shown? Maybe he’ll develop it but all I see and hear is the same tired stuff Red tried to sell. I want to win national titles. You have to have a visionary coach to do that. We had a chance to hire one of them, and instead we went with a family hire.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I have misgivings — but I think what impressed my most about Siena vs Duke was their play reminded me of how Gerry played. That would be a massive difference and improvement right from the get go. Red’s teams looked like they weren’t hungry.

If he can recruit, garner and keep NIL high - have them *play like that* while getting better at X’s and O’s, could be good

 

[Sdot]

I wish it could of been a 3 year deal and we can get out of it at 2 years if it isn’t going good.

 

[tptcuse]

I was not referring to anyone specifically. And I will put myself in the group that has watched very little Siena basketball the last couple of years. I am just trying to understand the reluctance to accept an “in the family” hire when from the small sample size I watched there were very few similarities between the schemes Gerry runs and what I have seen in Manley and the Dome over nearly 50 years.

If the objection is based on a desire for a more experienced coach or one who has succeeded at a higher level I can understand and appreciate that. But to base it simply on where a coach played his college ball I struggle

The perception of some, including myself, is that Gerry wouldn't be given a chance based on your last paragraph if he wasn't "in the family." It is not an anti "in the family" feeling, at least for me.

 

[Scotch]

Of course there were, that’s obvious, but why would any of them bad mouth Gerry and for what purpose? Questionable motives cast doubt on the story.

I wonder if Alex Kline is available

 

[DomeHolmes]

While I initially thought an outsider would be better, I fully support this hire and wish Gerry great success. I do believe with adequate NIL that he will succeed here.

Gotta say though, that a five year deal is a really long time in case it doesnt work out. Would have preferred a three year arrangement.

Go Cuse - Go Gerry !!!!

While this is true, if we hired a 5 million a year coach for three years, it would cost us more than Gerry is costing us for 5.

And in all fairness, there’s no guarantee a $5 million dollar coach or even an $8 million dollar coach would make a difference.

 

[RedtheGOB]

I have misgivings — but I think what impressed my most about Siena vs Duke was their play reminded me of how Gerry played. That would be a massive difference and improvement right from the get go. Red’s teams looked like they weren’t hungry.

If he can recruit, garner and keep NIL high - have them *play like that* while getting better at X’s and O’s, could be good

Yea same and this is from someone on record not wanting the family hire. Every time Duke tried to get going they punched back.

Even at the end they didn’t get boat raced. Doty took a nasty trip and those missed dunks killed them in the 2nd.

Fought to the last second too.

I know it doesn’t matter but it’s the first time ever a 16 seed has went into half with a double digit lead against a 1 seed.

 

[Scotch]

I really don’t like the idea of holding Gerry, or any other assistant, responsible for the decline in recruiting during JB’s final years. Many factors contributed to that decline and I would put the lion’s share of blame on the head coach, not the assistants. Gerry did very well at Siena identifying and recruiting superior talent (for that league). Let’s see what he can do as the head man at SU.

This is fair. The old man was asleep at the switch. That’s not on Gerry.

 

[Scotch]

This is the biggest vibes-based hire in history

 

[RedtheGOB]

This is the biggest vibes-based hire in history

If the money is there then I would say money talks. If the money is just smoke then yea.

 

[OrangeCrush22]

Hoping for the best but it’s not exciting. If we were gonna hire him why didn’t we 3 years ago?

 

[OrangeCrush22]

I'm hoping for the best, but this is not a confidence-inspiring hire.

It's time for the big donors to put up or shut up, they pushed for Gerry and now they should support him with significant NIL dollars.

It’s about their access to the program not actually funding it

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Dukes ball boys had more stars coming out of High School than Siena’s team. 4 wins to 23 with the guys he recruited. Made the tourney. He’s not supposed to be in the same universe as Duke but was.

You didn’t answer my question.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Hoping for the best but it’s not exciting. If we were gonna hire him why didn’t we 3 years ago?

Oh boy, you must not be aware.

 

[Cusefan95]

I really don’t like the idea of holding Gerry, or any other assistant, responsible for the decline in recruiting during JB’s final years. Many factors contributed to that decline and I would put the lion’s share of blame on the head coach, not the assistants. Gerry did very well at Siena identifying and recruiting superior talent (for that league). Let’s see what he can do as the head man at SU.

It’s kind of like what came out about Brian Kelly at Notre Dame. Assistants would have a kid interested, they would beg Kelly to call - but he wouldn’t because he thought that the kid should just want to play at Notre Dame. That kid would get calls from head coaches at other schools and go there instead. Then the narrative was the assistants couldn’t close or it was hard to recruit to Notre Dame. I suspect at least some of Gerry’s inability to close on key guys was that JB wasn’t nearly as involved as he was 20 years earlier.

 

[capeorange]

I didn't want anyone from JB's staff when he retired and I was disappointed when Red was hired. After watching a few Siena games, I'm pretty sure we'll be more than happy with GMac, he coaches on a different level than Red and he looks for players that want to work and have a good basketball iq. LFGO!

 

[Cusefan95]

I have misgivings — but I think what impressed my most about Siena vs Duke was their play reminded me of how Gerry played. That would be a massive difference and improvement right from the get go. Red’s teams looked like they weren’t hungry.

If he can recruit, garner and keep NIL high - have them *play like that* while getting better at X’s and O’s, could be good

Syracuse played well against Houston.

I think the “heart and passion” thing is way overblown. There’s some value - but if you can’t motivate a 24-6 team to play hard, that’s an impressive level of incompetence, And if you can motivate a 6-24 team to play hard - you may be the best bad coach ever because that is effectively impossible.

Honestly, I think the fact he kept an objectively mediocre team playing hard last year is more impressive than getting a team to play hard in an NCAA tournament game. If they didn’t play hard, that’s should have disqualified him from consideration.

 

[CooperCuse]

he looks for players that want to work and have a good baseball iq. LFGO!

Well, that's gonna be an issue on the basketball court.

 

[Sherman20]

Hey hey this is far too sensible of a post at this time. Purely insane takes are allowed at this moment

I don’t begrudge anyone some insane takes right now. The university has proved to be a poor steward of the basketball program for almost 10 years now. I don’t trust the powers that be to make good decisions, and I worry they just made another bad one, amid lots and lots of behind the scenes dysfunction from JB, the BOT, donors, etc. Maybe it’ll work out but color me skeptical right now. I fear a lot of mid pack conference finishes and bubble years will be in our future. And also lots of excuses.

 

[capeorange]

Well, that's gonna be an issue on the basketball court.

How? We've had a lot of players that didn't work hard, were soft and had poor baseball IQs thesepastfewyears. What's the issue?

 

[tptcuse]

Hey hey this is far too sensible of a post at this time. Purely insane takes are allowed at this moment

I am legitimately impressed by how well you have taken the last three years, given your relationships with the staff. I don't think we've never met but I truly appreciate your contributions to this board.

 

[Newhouser]

It’s not about knowing sets. It’s about having a system and a vision and knowing how to teach it and getting your players to buy in. Read about Schertz and Hodgson. We’ve been discussing them for months. I want someone who has proven that as a coach already, and They have it. (Also Hodge is a much better proven recruiter than Gmac.). What vision has Gmac shown? Maybe he’ll develop it but all I see and hear is the same tired stuff Red tried to sell. I want to win national titles. You have to have a visionary coach to do that. We had a chance to hire one of them, and instead we went with a family hire.

I have read thanks Dr Naismith. Schertz runs great stuff. Hodgson is fine but not on that level. Not every successful coach is a visionary. That's absurd.