2025/2026
- Thread starter JLP1
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My intention was to say that the big dollar donors in general need to get pissed off. I’m sure that there are individual donors that can impact decisions
Low volume set shots. The ability to take and hit the three as a pick and pop, off a screen, etc, are nearly non-existent.
I’m one of the first to be hard on Grant when we experience mind-blowing, program-altering failures like we did Friday night. It’s happened time and time again.
However, with the current state of college basketball—between NIL and the looming realignment—consistency and a strong offseason are more important than ever. Bringing in a new coach and starting over, especially when we already have Etang and a starting PG in Mali (though I’d like to see us add another high-level guard this season), would be a mistake.
And who would be the replacement? If it’s someone who’s never been a head coach before, I’ll pass. It would need to be a proven winner with real credibility. But who is that? Are they coming to the A10? Do we really want to end up in the same cycle that VCU and Xavier went through—cycling through coaches who have a brief moment of success? It didn’t work out for Xavier, though VCU has managed it well. Something tells me that approach wouldn’t work for us.
There’s no doubt we’ve underachieved. Last year, we were collapsing and embarrassing ourselves against Nevada before lightning struck. This season, I actually think we overachieved with the roster we had, but we squandered an easy path to an at-large bid after a strong non-conference showing. We fell apart in January and got lucky with a few wins in February (like the technical foul on the Duquesne kid at the end). What the hell happened day to day for us to get worse against lesser competition. Where was the team from Maui? I was in Maui.. that team left us and flashed for a minute against VCU last week.
All that said, This offseason could have a huge impact on our future as a program. The Big East is going to expand, teams will realign, and we need to be ready. Will we make the cut? I think so—but we need high-caliber players either way, to compete and not embarrass ourselves in the big east, And if we don’t, we have to win the A10 and stay relevant, it’s not a 2 bid league, not after what we saw with the committee yesterday.
Look at what’s happening with preseason tournaments—there’s a clear divide between high-level and lower-tier brackets. 2 different tournament in Orlando next year. We are in the higher level bracket for this year.
A full rebuild with an unproven coach or a retread at this moment would be the worst possible timing. AG is a flyer, he’s been through some stuff and also owes us. We have been good to him and patient. The future is on the line. Let’s go with what we know and hope we are closer to the ceiling that we have experienced. Timing is everything.
However, with the current state of college basketball—between NIL and the looming realignment—consistency and a strong offseason are more important than ever. Bringing in a new coach and starting over, especially when we already have Etang and a starting PG in Mali (though I’d like to see us add another high-level guard this season), would be a mistake.
And who would be the replacement? If it’s someone who’s never been a head coach before, I’ll pass. It would need to be a proven winner with real credibility. But who is that? Are they coming to the A10? Do we really want to end up in the same cycle that VCU and Xavier went through—cycling through coaches who have a brief moment of success? It didn’t work out for Xavier, though VCU has managed it well. Something tells me that approach wouldn’t work for us.
There’s no doubt we’ve underachieved. Last year, we were collapsing and embarrassing ourselves against Nevada before lightning struck. This season, I actually think we overachieved with the roster we had, but we squandered an easy path to an at-large bid after a strong non-conference showing. We fell apart in January and got lucky with a few wins in February (like the technical foul on the Duquesne kid at the end). What the hell happened day to day for us to get worse against lesser competition. Where was the team from Maui? I was in Maui.. that team left us and flashed for a minute against VCU last week.
All that said, This offseason could have a huge impact on our future as a program. The Big East is going to expand, teams will realign, and we need to be ready. Will we make the cut? I think so—but we need high-caliber players either way, to compete and not embarrass ourselves in the big east, And if we don’t, we have to win the A10 and stay relevant, it’s not a 2 bid league, not after what we saw with the committee yesterday.
Look at what’s happening with preseason tournaments—there’s a clear divide between high-level and lower-tier brackets. 2 different tournament in Orlando next year. We are in the higher level bracket for this year.
A full rebuild with an unproven coach or a retread at this moment would be the worst possible timing. AG is a flyer, he’s been through some stuff and also owes us. We have been good to him and patient. The future is on the line. Let’s go with what we know and hope we are closer to the ceiling that we have experienced. Timing is everything.
@frankiepacetta This is one of the better post I have read in quite some time. I couldn’t agree with you more. I posted on another thread asking Matt for his opinion. Not that his word is the end all be all (Apologies Matt 😂), but I have been feeling the same way you have and I was curious what Matt had to say because of how dialed in he is.
If we can sneak into the BIG East, I believe AG is the right guy to lead our program. If we shed the mid-major label, just imagine being a parent to one of these Top recruits…I’d go out on a limb and say each year we would land 3 Top 100 recruits. I’m that confident in his ability
If we can sneak into the BIG East, I believe AG is the right guy to lead our program. If we shed the mid-major label, just imagine being a parent to one of these Top recruits…I’d go out on a limb and say each year we would land 3 Top 100 recruits. I’m that confident in his ability
AG was at Alabama and did the same thing there that he did at VCU and Dayton. Inconsistent with flashes of great.
Why does being in the Big East make him the guy? I’d like to understand your thoughts there.
I think during great transition he could be a steady captain for the ship for now. Not long term if we don’t have more success. If we get left out it doesn’t really matter anyways
I think it is safe to say Xavier has handled the transition of coaches successfully with one misstep which they addressed relatively quickly. VCU has had sustained success in the A 10 with multiple coaches. Thinking of successful rebuilds with new to high profile job coaches we can look to Kelsey at Louisville and the Drake program certainly bears watching.
Grant may be the right guy but fear of making a mistake is no way to grow a program.
The Jim O'Brien mistake was a long, long time ago. We don't live in that world anymore. There are definitely coaches at smaller D1 schools who have elevated their programs who are young, dynamic coaches who could elevate the program. There's never not going to be a risk. We were afraid of other risks and got left behind on the original conference reshuffling a long time ago also. We need to accept there are risks and that the payoff is worth it.
Good assessment of Simon but you missed he is a good rebounder. His rebounding rate is 3rd on the team behind 7'1 L'Etang and 6'11 Jack. Shooting is poor
Im trying to understand what you're trying to protect the program from. Currently we have a coach that hasn't won an A10 regular season or tournament championship since 2020 (half the roster weren't his guys) and has made the tournament once since covid.
At a minimum, with our NIL and budget, I think we'd be able to get talent no matter who the coach is and get the same or comparable results. We don't have a Daron Holmes coming through the door at the moment. Do we really think we could do significantly worse? We currently have zero momentum.
Unless Neil is asleep at the wheel, he has a list of coaching candidates. We can pay HC’s $2.5 to $3 million a year. We’ll be able to compete in the revenue sharing game. We shouldn’t be wringing our hands about a coaching change, especially now when an aggressive coach can bring in a new roster in one off season.
i don’t disagree with this, however, Grant recruited Obi, Crutcher, and Cohill and brought in Ibi, Chatman, and Jordy. Mikesell and Landers were the only holdovers on the 19/20 team
Agreed. Point still stands. Mikesell and Landers were big pieces on that team and our teams over the last 5 seasons would have benefited from having more guys like them on the team.
AG's own standard is to create an 'elite' program. His words, not mine.
Neil's goals are to be in the tournament more often than not.
And both of them have stated many times that the goal is to win championships.
That should mean that we should have been in the tourney 5 times in the last 8 years. (Four times if we're being nice.) We've been twice if you count 2020. Our main competition (VCU) has managed to go four times, in spite of switching coaches twice in AG's tenure.
Not only that, but we've won only 1 regular season championship (2020). And zero tourney championships. In fact, we've only made it to the championship game of the A10 tourney once in seven tries with AG at the helm. That's a 14% rate at getting to the title game. VCU has won two outright titles and two tourney titles in that time frame, with two different coaches.
His record in the A10 tourney is simply abysmal. Particularly when you consider that the vast amount of games we have played in we were the favored team and still lost. When we're the higher seed, he has a .500 record. When we're the lower seed, we've never won.
We have not even been close to truly competing for championships in the regular season or A10 tournament.
I would also argue, this has been happening in an A10 that has gotten weaker, not stronger in AG's time here. And in an era when it's more important than ever for us to succeed on the national stage.
He's lost 15 times to teams with a 200+ rating in 8 years here. Which is several orders of magnitude worse than the the two coaches who preceded him. And his slow, methodical approach to the offense tends to favor the underdog and keeps them in the games. These losses have hamstrung this program and kept us from getting to the dance on multiple times.
It's just insane that we're talking about moving forward with more of this.
Neil's goals are to be in the tournament more often than not.
And both of them have stated many times that the goal is to win championships.
That should mean that we should have been in the tourney 5 times in the last 8 years. (Four times if we're being nice.) We've been twice if you count 2020. Our main competition (VCU) has managed to go four times, in spite of switching coaches twice in AG's tenure.
Not only that, but we've won only 1 regular season championship (2020). And zero tourney championships. In fact, we've only made it to the championship game of the A10 tourney once in seven tries with AG at the helm. That's a 14% rate at getting to the title game. VCU has won two outright titles and two tourney titles in that time frame, with two different coaches.
His record in the A10 tourney is simply abysmal. Particularly when you consider that the vast amount of games we have played in we were the favored team and still lost. When we're the higher seed, he has a .500 record. When we're the lower seed, we've never won.
We have not even been close to truly competing for championships in the regular season or A10 tournament.
I would also argue, this has been happening in an A10 that has gotten weaker, not stronger in AG's time here. And in an era when it's more important than ever for us to succeed on the national stage.
He's lost 15 times to teams with a 200+ rating in 8 years here. Which is several orders of magnitude worse than the the two coaches who preceded him. And his slow, methodical approach to the offense tends to favor the underdog and keeps them in the games. These losses have hamstrung this program and kept us from getting to the dance on multiple times.
It's just insane that we're talking about moving forward with more of this.
Pretty good summary, hard to argue Neil/AG’s own stated goal vs. their own performance. It is what it is.
A change may set us back, but continuing with the same and expecting different is what they call definition of insanity?
The HAVOC style of play that launched AG head coaching career at VCU is nowhere near the AG at Dayton. It's almost like AG adopted Donoher style of when he got here.
Interesting if true. Only because again, coaches rarely go into the final season of their contract without an extension. And it makes recruiting extremely difficult, as any other coaches would likely be pointing out that fact to potential recruits.
That’s because Grant didn’t play the Havoc style of play at VCU
He also had Eric Maynor on his teams. Arguably VCU’s best all time player and first round draft pick
I would have moved on last year if it wasn’t for the last few minutes of the Nevada game. I’m the first to be harsh on a coach and we have under achieved over his tenure (excluding 2020).
I think massive change is about to happen and conferences are making decisions as we speak and for the next 6-8 weeks, I think an unproven coach or a coaching search at that time wouldn’t be good. I don’t think now is the time. I typically would be on board, but I think we sit tight this year.
Who knows what grant is thinking anyways, he may make his own decision.
It doesn’t have to be JOB low, but Indiana has been chasing a coach ever since Kelvin Sampson was let go.
Yes, they have. But fear of failure is insufficient reason to not chase success. We watched X surpass us with success and lamented, with a tinge of jealousy, our inability to match. We’re watching the same with VCU. And somehow, we believe that an entry into the BE will solve our problems. An invitation that may or may not be forthcoming at some point. As though entry into the BE will solve what our own coaching staff has been unable to do.
I get that not everyone shares this opinion and that’s fine. I don’t expect anyone to agree in whole or in part. If they do, great. If they don’t also great. I understand there are risks with moving on. There are risks with the status quota as well. Nothing I say will impact the decision that is or isn’t made. But I feel strongly that we missed the boat once and we risk missing it again by not taking action.
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There’s no comparison between the program today and when JOB was hired in 1989. We’re a BiG East program in terms of the way we operate but in terms of actual results we’re a typical A10 program. We need to do better. I’ve heard too many times that were in line for a BE invite and it never happens.
He’s a NY baller and that typically equates to a lot of dribbling and one on one stuff. I don’t want that anywhere NEAR the program.
Not to mention that Javon is a PG and started at PG last year
But what would he do with those top 100 recruits?
In theory, I agree so much with the steady consistent approach. However, there’s never going to be a great time for a rebuild and there will always be a reason not to.
This is all assuming we even get invited to the Big East which is a complete hypothetical right now. Should we really operate under a hypothetical and not do what’s best for the program immediately?
He had better overall recruits at Alabama and didn't do much with them.
And he can't really go left, so teams mostly just force him to the right.
I get what you are trying to say, but if he can't go left, then the other teams would try and force him left instead of right because that is his weaker hand. They wouldn't force him to his strong hand.
Sort of. Net effect is because he almost always goes right, he often can’t get penetration, passes it off, circles around, gets it back and tried agIn. This often led to late shot clock attempts, because he couldn’t get where he was always trying to go.
To be fair to Mali, many of our players would consistently try to go right, not just Smith. Multille times, Santos could have had an edge from the left side but he just wasn’t fast/athletic/physical enough to get around his guy. Bennet often went right towards rhr middlenof the lane. It’s like everyone was Zoolander.
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