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Message: [QUOTE="JeremyCuse, post: 4249566, member: 43"] Gaits hire seems destined to go one of two ways. Either the team is noticeably better next year and makes the tournament or the same issues pop up ie odd personnel decisions, bizarre press conferences, turnovers every other possession, a defense that's lost etc and all hell breaks lose that the hire was a mistake. Personally I am not sure what to make of him so far. SU should have won the UNC and Cornell games and to lose a guy like Hiltz pre-season is devestating. the offense has also shown a pulse for most of the year despite the loss of Hiltz and then missing Quinn for most of the year and Cook again struggling to do much after another monster pre-season is impressive. All that said there are still some major concerns about his decisions to date. The decision to ignore the transfer portal to see what he has is fine in theory but to then schedule like were Maryland made little sense. Now Gait did admit he made a mistake with the scheduling which is good to see him admit to but to make the mistake in the first place when it was quite obvious to most on here is troubling. Gait has some unique personal traits that are simply part of his makeup. Wears a suit, is almost always laid back and likes to delegate to his assistants. All that is fine and it clearly worked for the women's team but I don't know if that's really going to work for the men at least at the top of the D1 level. It's one thing to sort of pass the buck to the roster and injuries in year 1 but those excuses aren't holding up in year 2 I can promise you that. It's also a bit disconcerting to hear him not take any personal responsibility for the teams play, the record etc. That is an enormous red flag and something we saw in the latter part of the Desko era that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Again year 1 you can give a pass but when you read what CuseNhouse posted its hard not to be concerned and wonder if this is a blip or the first signs of trouble. It's also concerning that this staff appears to have double downed on sticking with starters well past the point where its clear we needed to give minutes to other players, ie Cook, Berkman, Murphy etc. Injuries or not, for it to take until UNC for Birtwistle to see extended minutes at attack is malpractice, especially when a idiot like me could see he should be playing. I am very interested to see how this off-season goes and who does or doesn't enter the transfer portal. I am also curious to see how next years schedule takes shape and what this team/staff does via the portal. Not going to go overboard based on year 1 with a team that was missing its best player the entire year and a goalie situation that was the worst in recent memory but I also won't say that I don't have major questions/concerns about the start to the Gait era. [/QUOTE]

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