Wow. Just Wow.
I was really on the fence with JJ. I really don't like where the program is at today and I don't feel like we're making much progress. But I can also understand if the new boss man wants to give him one more year.
However, after reading Berman's interview with him in Saturday's Roanoke Times, I think I'm done with him.
This particular quote strikes me as totally classless.
Freshman backup Trevor Thompson is also among the 10 scholarship freshmen, sophomores and juniors on this years roster.
He has two double-doubles already as a freshman and I think [senior reserve Cadarian] Raines maybe has two double-doubles in his whole career, Johnson said.
Why the need to take the shot at Raines? Doesn he feel he still needs to justify sitting Raines down? Is he that insecure? Why not just complement Thompson and leave Raines out of it? I just don't get it.
I am really disappointed.
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/va_tech/article_724f9372-8adc-11e...
Comments
honestly, the recent support of raines is interesting to me. the public digs at him are somewhat unnecessary, but i think JJ sees talent in raines and is frustrated at his constant inconsistency. ive seen games where raines dominated supposedly superior big men, then been completely non-existent the next game. hes a senior on a young team, so i assume he must be showing a lack of leadership behind the scenes. from what ive heard greenberg was a little too buddy buddy with his players, and i think JJ is trying to establish more of a player-coach relationship
JJ is a Division 1 college coach. Throwing a player under the bus with a classless comment like that is simply sad. If he has an issue with Raines, then handle it in private, not in a public newspaper. No player deserves that type of treatment.
I think JJ's demise will be the disgruntled fan base. Yes, wins are critical. Everyone loves a winner. But his poor performance on paper and in the checkbook will be his undoing. I believe Babcock gives him one year, which I think JJ can right the ship. But if tix sales and alumni continue to disconnect, change will happen.
I've seen JJ at a chalk talk (granted it was only one) but he seems like a very nice person. So I'm not gonna trash his character. Plus, as someone who has been a Cadarian fan since he replaced an injured Davila 2 years ago I can say that he hasn't lived up to his potential. This is a kid who has the height, has the strength (he's built like an offensive lineman), and has the footwork to be great. Not just good, but great. And he has managed to add nothing to his offensive game. Me and one of my friends joke during every game that if anyone bites on a pump fake of his they haven't watched any tape of him play. He's just non-stop pump fakes without adding a legitimate left hook to his game that could send him to that next tier of players.
I don't argue with Raines not living up to his potential. And I have spoken to JJ and have found him to be a nice guy.
But the Roanoke Times is not the place to take a cheap shot at one of your players. Any leader, especially a head coach, needs to be better than that.
It was a poor comment but I have said things when under a spotlight that in hindsight were awful so I won't bang on JJ too harshly for a comment where it appears he was trying to sell the direction he thinks the program is headed with young talent like Thompson. I don't necessarily agree with his assesment of the "growth" of several freshmen and his comments about a team that hasn't quit but if I was in his shoes I would probably be selling that publicly the same way....and then going back to my office to draw up an offense for my team to actually run.
It's one thing to sell your vision and to point out the youth and upside of your younger players. I don't blame him one bit. I hope he's 100% correct, but after watching another train wreck today, i don't think so.
But there is ZERO need to even bring up Raines in the interview. I thought it was totally classless at the time and i still do. Not to mention the potential damage to public perception of him as a coach (i.e., do you think we're EVER get another recruit from raines high school or AAU team?)
It wasn't a great quote, but there's also no context. What was the question that prompted that response? JJ doesn't seem like the kind of guy who just randomly says things like that.
I have to think the interviewee put something like this to JJ: "Coach, can you tell me why Thompson has been getting so much more playing time when you have someone like Cadarrian available?"
That was my thought exactly
Best you can tell from the article is that it was a run down of all the younger players on the team, could have just been comparing to an established player for emphasis. If that is the case, awful timing given the fan spotlight that is on the Raines situation right now & overall team success.
It does sound like a rundown of the young players. Smart move on JJ's point - stir up hope for the future.
Where it goes south for me is bringing Raines into the conversation. It serves no purpose than to make JJ look like an a$$. Even if he was baited by the reporter, he has to be smarter than to add fuel to the fire.
I'm chalking it up to inexperience. People can easily be baited by a reporter's question. Someone like Beamer has practiced many years of coachspeak. JJ hasn't. If he had generalized and just said, "I've got a couple of young guys simply out-performing or out-hustling my seniors," we wouldn't be here. Unfortunately, he named some specific guys and shouldn't have. Was it wrong? Yep, sure was. Was it malicious? Only JJ knows. Given that every other story I've heard about him speaks to his good character and care for his players, I'm willing to let this slide and hope that it's a moment where he can learn about how to interact with the media.
good points and yet more reasons that perhaps its not the best idea to ask a first time head coach to run a program in this league.
Being a decent human being takes years? He needs to learn how to interact with the media? How about "treat your people the right way" like any proper leader should know? He gets the HC $$$, so there's [no] training wheels - either do or do not; there is no try.
You beg players to come play for you. And if they're eligible, they can read - do you really think recruits DON'T see quotes like that? If they don't look for them, I guarantee the other coaches recruiting them make sure they get 'em.
This isn't an issue of coachspeak. This is more along the lines of the always-valid "if you can't say anything nice....."
So in that vein - here's what I think of JJ as a coach:
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edited to add word in brackets - kind of makes a difference!
I'm not calling into question whether he's a "decent human being," but maybe some people feel more strongly than I do that this quote, not necessarily in full context, provides some damning evidence that he's not a good guy. My main argument is that I give him some benefit of the doubt. A decent human being can stick his/her foot in his/her mouth at any given time. I consider myself a pretty good guy, but that doesn't mean I haven't had to make my share of retractions and apologies for stupid crap that I've said. There's a reason why public figures tend to have "handlers" and most pro athletes and coaches have PR people approve what they say before they say it. In college, that's not common, and on-the-job experience goes a long way. As BCO says, JJ just may be in over his head at this point and probably should never have been put in this position. Maybe he would have benefitted from more experience being an assistant and learning from a more polished head coach.
I didn't read it as him saying something negative about Raines, I saw it as a comparative statement. It would be like if Coach Beamer/Foster/Gray said that Kendal Fuller had 6 interceptions as a Freshman, while Kyle only had 6 interceptions in his entire career as a Hokie. Its not throwing Kyle under the bus or diminishing the contributions he's made, its just pointing out that Kendal has been able to excel in that particular stat compared to a Senior who has been a fixture on the team.