What I'm hearing

[cali315phan]

Just about any hire is a bit of a crap shoot….but each hire was universally applauded by fans and basically peers.

I don’t think you can ask an athletic director to do much more than that.

Bingo. Who in the lacrosse world, for example, would call the hiring of Petro and Gait anything less than a hiring grand slam?

 

[Grbac]

Jason Hart our next HC confirmed

 

[dollarbill44]

I honestly don't care who the next coach is as long as he isn't t a degenerate and he wins. I won't pretend to know what makes a coach successful. Certain (very few) coaches are successful everywhere they go while other coaches can be really successful in one place and look clueless at their next stop.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Zero chance.

So if Washington fires him he rather be unemployed?

 

[Tango32]

Our brand as a basketball school is falling and the overall trjectory of the program is / has been headed South so the solution for the next hire and resurrection is to grab a HC whos record is .532 and hasn't seen the tourney in 3 years all while in a lesser conference? Makes no sense, if he wasn't an alumn not only does he not get a call but his name never even makes the message boards. This seems like quite a low bar and settling. Needs to be an emotionless busniness decision and national search.

 

[ForCuseSake]

I'm more concerned about who will replace JB's successor.

A lot of people are whistling Dixie if they think JB's successor has better than a 30% chance of being successful.

I don't care if it's Hop, Red, Pitino, Brad Stevens, Jay Wright...

The odds of this person being anything but mediocre are slim. I'm not a pessimistic person; I just don't see how the truest sports axiom doesn't apply to this situation:

Never be the guy who replaces the legend; be the guy who replaces the guy who replaced the legend.

 

[orangepassion]

I'm more concerned about who will replace JB's successor.

A lot of people are whistling Dixie if they think JB's successor has better than a 30% chance of being successful.

I don't care if it's Hop, Red, Pitino, Brad Stevens, Jay Wright...

The odds of this person being anything but mediocre are slim. I'm not a pessimistic person; I just don't see how the truest sports axiom doesn't apply to this situation:

Never be the guy who replaces the legend; be the guy who replaces the guy who replaced the legend.

Based on our recent struggles, there should be a lot less pressure on the new coach.

 

[FrancoPizza]

You mean the 2 years when he inherited a roster from an established coach who is recognized as a truly great reporter in romar?

I don't have time to respond to this in depth, but I'll point you to a post Jake made earlier. Hop has been a disaster offensively, and his teams have gotten worse defensively after losing that athletic wing to the NBA. He doesn't seem to have any answers, because he's basically a no-trick pony. He just goes with what he knows, which is basically to attempt to run this same systems on both side of the ball that he learned from Boeheim, only he's not nearly as good of a coach.

Fair enough. I'd still want him back as a lead recruiter. Head coaching isn't for everyone.

 

[ForCuseSake]

Based on our recent struggles, there should be a lot less pressure on the new coach.

I disagree. I think the natives will remain restless and are more likely to be less patient.

I don't expect the fanbase to be very accommodating if JB's replacement doesn't hit the ground running with recruits, tourney berths and winning seasons.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Someone looking at SU from the outside looks at Syracuse as nothing more than a middle of the pack ACC program. This is with a Hall of Fame coach. There’s not a lot of pressure. Being average has been ok since moving to the ACC. So many schools in the east have passed us by since leaving the Big East. You can easily say Villanova, Providence, Seton Hall, UCONN, Iona, and even Colgate has moved passed us. That’s not much pressure to uphold.

 

[pearl31]

Iona, and even Colgate has moved passed us

I heard binghamton and lafayette moved passed us too

 

[Alsacs]

Hopkins has some positives and in the end I wouldn’t hate. It’s just like a Peter principle type of hire.

If Hop had more success than okay. It’s just he has been medicore in a medicore conference.

If he gets the job i will understand it.

 

[Alsacs]

Someone looking at SU from the outside looks at Syracuse as nothing more than a middle of the pack ACC program. This is with a Hall of Fame coach. There’s not a lot of pressure. Being average has been ok since moving to the ACC. So many schools in the east have passed us by since leaving the Big East. You can easily say Villanova, Providence, Seton Hall, UCONN, Iona, and even Colgate has moved passed us. That’s not much pressure to uphold.

Dude Seton Hall was won 1 NCAAT game since 2004.
Providence has won 3 in that timeframe.

Villanova has passed us for sure.
The rest haven’t.

 

[orangefog]

Here's a question, what would be better, having a publicly national search and have no interest or sticking with alums and have your first choice accept? I have been solid on wanting JW to open it up and do a national search to find the right coach. But, if we do that and offer a few guys and they turn us down and we end up with an alum anyway...that would be terrible.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Dude Seton Hall was won 1 NCAAT game since 2004.
Providence has won 3 in that timeframe.

Villanova has passed us for sure.
The rest haven’t.

They have all been ranked since we have except Colgate and maybe Iona. I’m not buying that the only definition of success is winning tournament games. If that’s the case you can add St. Peter’s to the list.

 

[007]

Here's a question, what would be better, having a publicly national search and have no interest or sticking with alums and have your first choice accept? I have been solid on wanting JW to open it up and do a national search to find the right coach. But, if we do that and offer a few guys and they turn us down and we end up with an alum anyway...that would be terrible.

Highly unlike, if "we offer a few guys," that JW wouldn't already know the level of interest. This is going to play out behind the scenes.

 

[All4SU]

Strange question, but is Hart a “Syracuse Guy?”

(Perhaps I need to clarify… is he a Syracuse guy in the sense that does he stay connected with the program? I saw the post here that he reached out to Felisha Legette after I posted this… Does he stay in contact with JB? Does he ever show up at SU away games? Obviously Hart had a solid SU career, and a real good NBA career as a journeyman largely by out working everyone else. I know he’s a motivated guy. But does he see himself as an SU guy?)

 

[orangefog]

Highly unlike, if "we offer a few guys," that JW wouldn't already know the level of interest. This is going to play out behind the scenes.

Yeah, but that stuff usually gets out.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Not any different if Hop took the job four years ago. Red and GMAC were both here.

I think it’s very different.
For one thing it’s now 5 years later & the “Hop succession” plan has been long dead. This isn’t Red sticking around & knowing he’ll not be taking over as HC, but rather a prodigal son being asked back to take over a program, that he hasn’t been a part of for 5 full years.
It’d be saying to Red that under no circumstances will you be anything more that an assistant at your alma mater. I just think that sucks.
If Hop applies and gets the offer, that’s one thing. But to reach out to him first, and independent of any search effort, is kinda unfair. JMHO

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Why can't we just hire Nate Oats?

He has another 2 5 stars coming in next year. He'd bring that type of talent to us immediately.

Boeheim doesn't like him which I think is great we really need to make a 180 degree change. Its not like we are going to start wearing green like JB would lead fans to believe if we don't let him pick the next coach.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Someone looking at SU from the outside looks at Syracuse as nothing more than a middle of the pack ACC program. This is with a Hall of Fame coach. There’s not a lot of pressure. Being average has been ok since moving to the ACC. So many schools in the east have passed us by since leaving the Big East. You can easily say Villanova, Providence, Seton Hall, UCONN, Iona, and even Colgate has moved passed us. That’s not much pressure to uphold.

This is mind boggling in its obtuseness. Total hot, steaming garbage. JMHO

 

[IthacaMatt]

If our candidate is Willard or Hopkins sure.

I just think Hopkins resume at Washington doesn’t scream optimism.

His first 2 years were an improvement from 9 wins under Romar to 21 wins first year (Coach of the Year in Pac-12), and then to 27 wins in his second year (Coach of the Year again).

Even this last year, he was 12 games better than their disaster season (year 4), and in his 3rd year, which our Washington friends were unhappy with, was around .500. So, 1 truly terrible year in five. Two times NCAA teams and Coach of the Year. Two times around where we have been these last few years.

Let him get his East Coast relationships going again, and he's probably our best choice for the transition.

 

[IthacaMatt]

This is mind boggling in its obtuseness. Total hot, steaming garbage. JMHO

Probably too young to truly understand our history.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Our brand as a basketball school is falling and the overall trjectory of the program is / has been headed South so the solution for the next hire and resurrection is to grab a HC whos record is .532 and hasn't seen the tourney in 3 years all while in a lesser conference? Makes no sense, if he wasn't an alumn not only does he not get a call but his name never even makes the message boards. This seems like quite a low bar and settling. Needs to be an emotionless busniness decision and national search.

The SU games count too so he is .527 overall. Why would we pass up on a guy who has led his team to an NIT 5 seed and an NCAAT 9 seed? He did win the P12 conference and it shouldn't matter that Zona and UCLA were both down going a combined 17-19 in P12 play that year.

 

[Jake]

Strange question, but is Hart a “Syracuse Guy?”

If he were an assistant under Hop what would your answer be?