I originally posted this as a comment on the What to do with James Johnson thread but I decided I would rather it get some run as the potential positives for next year with JJ as the head coach.
Win-Loss record aside, late season improvement aside for being a turtle shell:
Salary
We couldn't afford to up the ante to keep an offensive line coach that needed an extra $180K to potentially stay on the football staff. A coach that in one year showed great promise in recruiting and improvement in the performance of his current players.
How do you expect to cover $1mil in ex-coaches salaries, plus at least $3.5 million ($2 million/$1.5 million staff) for a new coach that can compete with Coach K, Williams, Boeheim ....and Dixon? I will give you the first three and that Dixon is working towards that level. How many coaches are there in the country that I would put on the level of those first three? Self at Kansas, Calipari at Kentucky, Pitino at Louisville, Izzo at MSU, Donovan at Florida. Miller at Arizona is working that way along with SDSU's Miller and possibly Marshall from Wichita State. These are the only coaches that really could consistently compete with the three legends listed. Oh wait, you have to add Pitino to the opponent's list for next year.
This argument was then swapped to there are 200 mid-major coaches that would be candidates to replace him. I would argue that the list of viable candidates that could improve our chances of competing at the top of the ACC is significantly shorter than that and of that pool of candidates there is maybe a handful that would want to come into Virginia Tech with how the Greenberg situation was handled, how James Johnson would be handled 2 years into a 5 year contract and what the expectations versus reality is with our fan base. I wrote the column about the candidates before we closed the season relatively competitive based on the roster of the team by then.
Here it is:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2014/january/30/mens-basketball-potent...
Now onto why I think giving JJ next year as his make or break season is reasonable at this point.
Lets look at this season to see why I might expect us to legitimately compete for a winning record and a .500 conference record next season. I wont touch last season because the use of Erick Greene did nothing but hamper this program not that I begrudge him wanting to put on a show to help his draft stock. This season we went a dreadful 9-21, a 9-21 that most of the analysts expected at the beginning of the season, even our own Brian M predicted this kind of record but now is the End of All Ends that we achieved it.
The out of conference slate saw a relatively healthy Virginia Tech team go 7-5. There were two really bad losses to bad teams and two bad losses to very good teams. We lost by 1 point to USC Upstate to start the season. Bad loss, bad team so a 1 basket improvement is needed to change this result. Our next loss came to the then #1 team in the country Michigan State. We were totally outclassed in this game. We followed that with another 1 point loss to Seton Hall who finished with a .500 record and just upset their conference #1 seed, Villanova, in the Big East Conference Tournament. Another game that needed a one basket improvement. The game winning free throw came with four seconds left. Our next loss was against VCU, where we couldn't seem to get out of our own way against the HAVOC defense. Blowout loss to a 24-7 team. Our last out of conference loss came to UNC-Greensboro by 3 points. This loss came down to Devin missing a free throw that would have tied it with less than ten seconds to play and the
subsequent foul led to two free throws. Wood misses a three at the buzzer that would have tied the game. Five losses, two large and three by one possession. So far nothing to cry about. A solid win over WVU after a furious comeback, and then we won the other games we were expected to win, including beating a potentially NIT bound Radford by 25.
The record in the ACC is bad, it would require a seven game improvement in conference to reach .500 so lets focus on this year against the ACC. First Miami game, competitive, win, team health though has just become a major problem.
Injuries/Missed Games
Adam Smith's first game back from his original injury, will play in five total ACC contests before being shut down. He was averaging 11 points per game which wasn't there for most of ACC play.
Barksdale sits out this game as it was the first after his initial injury, misses six more ACC games and plays less than 10 minutes in another four. Despite this, he still averaged 7.6 PPG during ACC play so you were missing that for approximately half of the conference slate.
Raines is solidly in JJ's doghouse and will not play in seven of the eighteen ACC games between discipline and injury. In the eleven games he played, he was in for a grand total of 182 minutes so less than half of each game from a Senior. He contributed 60 points during this stretch, or 5.5 per game.
Emelogu missed six ACC contests with injuries. That's about 11 points per game sitting on the second row for a third of the conference slate.
Marshall Wood sat out five games of the ACC slate, that's 4 PPG missing almost a third of the conference slate.
There were a few other onesies here and there on the seven other guys on the roster which includes three walk-on athletes in Beyer, Johnston, and Donlon. Those three represented a grand total of about four points per game this year, so you had to rely on four players in Eddie, JVZ, Wilson and Thompson to provide you the majority of your scoring during ACC play. A senior, a sophomore and two freshmen and throw another body on the court.
This is how much of a different team we were OOC versus ACC slate.
ACC Slate
We beat Miami twice. Only wins. Nothing to write home about.
We lost to Syracuse, FSU, BC, MDx2, Duke and UVA by at least 17 points. All very ugly, the four game stretch the most so. It was this same four game stretch though when the majority of the above players were all out at the same time so JJ had four scholarship players to try to play against ACC opponents. One loss to GT by 11 was out last double digit loss. That's eight really bad losses. Pretty tough.
We lost the rest of our ACC slate by three possessions or less, most of these games that went down to the final minutes and free throws. BC by three. One possession. Clemson by 7. Three possessions. Notre Dame by 7. Three possessions. Wake Forest by 6. Two possessions. Pitt in 2OT by five. Two possessions. UVA by four. 2 possessions. NC State by 7. Three possessions. UNC by 4. Two possessions and a really bad charge call.
All through this, especially towards the end, I saw JJ coaching and if anything showing more fire than at any point in the previous two years. Did it end in results that we wanted as fans? No, but were there obvious improvements, especially in the younger players. Yes to everything other than JVZ at the foul line. But JVZ in the paint did improve dramatically. He averaged over 10 points per game the final eight games of the season. He started to show flashes of getting the ball to the hoop. Devin was named to the ACC All Freshmen team. Most of this was because of how well be improved during ACC play.
The last point that seemingly is being argued is why the new players are so important. Well, next year with the exodus of Eddie and Raines, you will have five new players to help fill the gap. Will the three new freshmen necessarily play major roles like the three this year did? I hope not but its possible since they are pure shooters. What they will do is provide guys like Emelogu, Thompson and Wood those ten to twelve minutes a game rest that can mean the difference in three possession games in the final minutes. I don't know what to expect between Wilson and Mueller next year but I cant see Devin averaging 34 minutes a game again either. How will Kirby play into supporting JVZ and Barksdale? I am not sure but it will be nice to have someone backing them up. Do the walk-ons get crazy ovations because they just barely make it into a few games? I hope so. We haven't even discussed the potential for Isiah Ford to impact ACC play because I don't know what they will work out there but the kid did score
59 points in at least one game this year in high school.
Having the legs to play JJ's style of play over the course of an entire season because the team isn't exhausted will be a huge improvement. Will we then get to see JJ's identity? I think we will, especially in the out of conference slate. Do I think that setting the bar for JJ at a .500 record is realistic? Yes, if he cant get us competitive with a full roster finally at his disposal then its time to find the coach that will.
Look at the rest of the ACC and how they finished the season this year to also show why I think we can be middle of the pack next season. The top four teams in the conference finished with 13 conference wins or better (coached by all three legends above and Tony Bennett, who I put up there with Dixon as a working towards status) Dixon brought Pitt in with 11 conference wins. The only other team in conference with a winning record was Clemson at 10-8 behind the play of K.J McDaniels, who I expect to skip his senior season and go pro. They don't have a solid back up behind him in my opinion. I would expect Louisville to finish in this higher group of teams next year.
The rest of the conference finished at .500 or worse. That's nine out of fifteen teams at an even mark. Eight with the removal of Maryland. Six of those teams finished 6-12 or worse including us. Do I think that with a full roster and already having played over half the conference slate this year to within three possessions that JJ and his staff can get this team to .500? I think they will come daringly close if not do it. Is this optimism? Sure. But its also possible that with a high pressure defense that should create turnovers and lead to more fast paced offensive possessions that this team will run some people out of the gym or at least overcome a three possession difference.
Recruiting
According to 247Sports, JJ has the 55th class in the country with Justin Bibbs now showing as a four star recruit. Is 55th something to toot our horn about? No, its 10th in the ACC. Is that more impressive considering how bad we have been? Absolutely, it shows that he is able to convince players that could have gone to any Division I school on a full ride that Virginia Tech is the place to be. These three aren't home grown fans either. All three are from out of state.
Next year he already had one commitment from an in state three star and is working on two more kids at Oak Hill, perennially one of the top academy's for talent in the country. One of those kids is the little brother of current NBA player Brandon Jennings and is supposed to be a better ball handler than his older brother who is averaging 16.5 points and 8 assists a game for the Pistons. So there are signs of life under all this dramatic negativity. I say give the man a chance to deliver results next year along with a top 30 recruiting class.
Comments
Hey Joe, I think this guy has earned the right to put TKP writer on his resume. Or maybe a free t-shirt...
Thanks
He did a tremendous job of bringing attention to the basketball team on the website. Given how bad they were this season, that's admirable work.
Why not just make him a columnist?
He's already doing the work.
I don't watch basketball at all. But I know enough about the team thanks to ltrepeter's dedication.
Its not a big deal. I will continue to do the work because I enjoy it whether I am "official" or not. I appreciate the support. As I have said before, its easy to talk Hokies with Hokies.
On another thread I said I was not sure about JJ; but was leaning toward giving him another year. After reading this article, I am convinced. The pieces are going to be in place. Let's see what JJ can do with a full deck.
Do you extend JJ if he has around a .500 record next year and doesn't make the post season? Or are we just having this conversation all over again?
You honestly see this team getting 7 more ACC wins than they did this year? And your whole prediction is based on not having a single injury? We expect that to be the case?
Also, are the current assistants working for free?
Just remember fans, no one said "think of all the money were saving!" During any of the double digit losses this year, I imagine that won't keep us warm next winter, either.
First of all, I just want to say that you've raised some really good points throughout this debate.
I think the crux of the debate is this:
No one can made a compelling argument for keeping JJ based solely on the team's on-the-court performance. You see this as cause to believe JJ doesn't have the tools to succeed as a head coach in the ACC. I see it as an unavoidable consequence of having a roster bereft of ACC-caliber talent and depth due to a host of injuries and attrition. To you, this is an excuse for a guy in over his head, and to me, it is an insurmountable barrier to success. I think we just fundamentally disagree there.
And here's a hypothetical question for you: If we hire a new coach and the team is still not competitive in conference play after two years, what do you do? Do you start over again and add a 4th coach to payroll?
Here's the problem: because he has literally no head coaching experience anywhere we have literally no idea if he's capable of competing even with a roster of ACC talent. We have no clue. All we know of him as a head coach at any level is what he's done here, and it isn't pretty. This is why you don't hire guys to their first HC gig ever in the freaking ACC.
To your second question: hypothetical new coach would hypothetically be someone with a proven record of success as an HC, which is more than enough to merit a third year, also I honk both SG and JJs buyouts would be over by then.
My thing with JJ is that we have literally nothing other than "hope" that he can be even a mediocre ACC coach. That's really troubling to me.
To your first point, here's what I've been thinking, legitimate or not:
You're right. He has no head coaching experience. The ACC is not a place too friendly to new head coaches. He's going to grow as a coach, and he's paying his dues as we speak. I say have a little faith in him, give him the chance to grow in the position, and see where it takes us.
We haven't been real competitive in basketball in a long time, and we aren't much of a basketball school. As much as I want to see us win, we don't lose out on a whole lot by giving JJ time. Now, a five year contract may have been a bit much for my tastes, I think four years would have been plenty to see what he can do, but I'm willing to live with it.
It's just a philosophical difference. You say we've sucked for so long, what's another year of sucking?
I say we've sucked for so long, it's time to put an end to that and say enough a enough.
Yup. Patience. Virtue.
I think its pretty much universally agreed that the way the last coaching change was made was a complete debacle, and yes, in terms of coaching ability, we don't really know what Johnson can do. I just think, all things considered, he should have one more year to show us.
My issue is that I fell he should have shown us more by now. It's been two years and we still know literally nothing about his ability as head coach. To me, that's unacceptable.
Who is VTBB under James Johnson? What's our offensive identity? What's our defensive identity? Can JJ coach in the ACC? Can he coach at all? Can he get this program where we want it to go?
The answer to all of those questions is "I don't know." After two years I feel the answer should be at least a little more definitive than that.
I believe the current coaches account for about $800K, mainly the assistant head coach. So you are looking at an increase of at least that much but probably more.
I would add 1 more year to his contract if he gets us to around .500 next season.
If he doesn't show significant improvement you and I won't be having this conversation. We will be hashing over my list of candidates to see what has changed with it in a year and where we rack and stack them as options for VT.
As a whole I think it is possible that JJ can find six more wins total between OOC and ACC play. It may only be a four or five win improvement in conference or it might be the full seven. So many factors impact it. Schedule, other teams rosters, home vs away, etc. I do however think we will see much more of what JJ wants to run. Injuries aren't something I can predict. Imagine if Logan Thomas missed three quarters of the ACC games this year? What would our record have been like?
For what it's worth, even though we disagree on this, I really like to read all of your posts. They are absurdly well written.
I just want hokie basketball to be even relevant again. My three year old son loves college basketball, and it sucks having to watch a whole lot of...not us. I was firmly in JJs corner through all of last year, I was conducting the excuse train. But this year broke me. They didn't improve at all, and were downright embarrassing through half of conference play. A four game 20 point loss streak in conference? Good god.
I'm just not convinced he's the guy. He's done nothing outside of beating OkSt to show me otherwise. And that was 8 games into his career, it's literally been nothing but downhill from there for two years.
I just can't help but feel that we're delaying the inevitable, and this delaying us ever being even remotely good, by putting this off for another year in the name of "saving money"
College basketball isn't this hard, high major teams can do better than one tournament appearance a decade and it doesn't take a lot to do so. We've spent 20 years "saving money" on basketball and we've gotten EXACTLY what we've paid for. Some could argue we got more than we paid for under SG.
I'm just over this. I'm over us sucking at basketball, I'm ready to turn the page.
We didn't save money on Greenburg and that was part of what lead to our parting ways with him. Greenburg was paid over $1 million a year.
"Over a million a year" is not a lot for a high major coach. He was a bargain basement hire when he came here who no one had ever heard of. He outperformed his initial contract and earned more money.
I'd say this is probably the biggest positive regarding this year's team:
Battered Hokies Still Shine in Class
It's a very refreshing read, especially in light of how the season played out.
Eddie has really turned his life around since he was suspended in the 2010-2011 season. While he has been highly criticized by fans, I have never doubted that he is a great person and great student. Whatever he does after college, I have no doubt that he will be successful.
We need a coach to make us middle if the pack ACC, not Worst Hoops Prifram in Major Conferences. There are tons if coaches who could do that. When JJ is released next week, will any BCS team pick him up as their HC? Of course not.
Comparing the budget limitations with upping Grimes and hiring a competent basketball coach totally lacks context. How much $$ does JJs program destruction cuts us every year? 18 games, 2,000 seats, $45 per seat = $1.5m a year. That's not considering the revenue suck he is on the hokie club. Not having a competitive hoops program is causing significant damage to our athletic program across the board.
As shown, Grimes could be replaced by a comparable OL coach within the current budget. Seatles won't be costing us any revenue vis a vis Grimes.
Time for a change.
Bringing a coach we can't afford into an undesirable coaching job won't fix anything. I don't see Johnson being fired and even if he is, we won't be getting a coach everyone's excited about to replace him.
I would be really excited with Danny Manning.
You realize that half the reason the job is "undesirable" is because we think we "can't afford" to pay someone more than $600k to coach in the bloody ACC, right?
That's not half the reason. At least not in my mind. The treatment of coaches from an administration standpoint and the condition of Cassell Coliseum make up more than half the issue, at least for any coach I would want coming in here. If they are all about the money, they probably aren't the coach I want anyway although I agree that Whit isn't going to be able to get anyone to take less than $1million to come into the job. To get the kind of coach we want though will take closer to the $2 million and an additional $1.5 for his staff and that's because of what has been done to the program in recent years.
"The Money" is indicative of the schools attitude to the Men's Basketball program. We are percieved as a "football school" that doesn't give coaches the support they need to be successful considering the handful of significant barriers to success we can't change (like physical location). A key part of that lack of support is the *insistence* on running everything on the cheap and treating Men's Basketball like a cost center instead of a revenue generator. One of the biggest factors in that is salaries for coaches and their assistants.
All we're doing is futhering the notion of "Cheapo Virginia Tech. New AD, still doesn't care enough about Basketball to pony up for a coach who can compete in the ACC. Would rather lose on the cheap than spend some money and win."
Where in most of the arguments from those of us that said keep JJ do you see us supporting that? We have said that currently the AD doesn't have those resources. Next year he should if he does like he did at Cincinnati. He raised something like $122 million in donations in the first two years there. If he does even a third of that this coming year, we should have no problem laying out the $3.5 million between coach and staff that will have us competitive in regards to salary. If JJ happens to bring out a winning campaign and a top 40 recruiting class (which with the improvement of Hudson to a four star he is almost at for this season) than all the better. If he doesn't, Whit has a war chest available to compete with any program in the country and we have removed the stigma of blowing out coaches. No one would be able to argue that JJ was given a fair shake after next season, at least not with a lot of logic behind it.
No one here is saying that. That's what people will say about us, or continue to say about us. This is what they are already saying about us. We are doing nothing to change that. Continuing to drive every basketball decision based on running on the cheap. It's fine, it's what everyone's advocating. "Save money." It's great. We're the most fiscally responsible consecutive 9-win team in the conference. And we're getting what we pay for. Hard to think we won't continue to get what we pay for next year, but hopefully all of those dollar signs will keep everyone on here happy during conference play in 2015.
If things go as you propose, and Whit does his thing, then after everyone cries throughout the ACC schedule, everyone will be doing backflips and somersaults as we speculate on who Whit will bring in. It should also remove the stigma at that time that we wont spend money. I just suggest not spending money we don't yet have. Get it in the bank than spend it and spend it BIG if the right guy is available.
I understand what you're saying, I'm just being real here. A major turnaround next year under James Johnson is highly unlikely. It's less than 50% of a chance. I'm just being real clear to all of the "save money" people that this is what we're advocating. This year SUCKED. It sucked hard. Last year SUCKED. Next year is going to SUCK. Then we're going to bring in a new guy and *he's* going to have to bloody rebuild again. So that's probably going to suck for a couple years too.
So, factoring in SG's last year...you're looking at 5 years, half a decade of absolute toilet water for VT MBB. I know we don't have any control over this, I'm just griping. I like college basketball. I want us to have a team worth watching. I like watching Tech teams better than non-tech teams in sports I like. This year was unwatchabe.
Its the Next year is going to SUCK that you and I disagree on and I can see it from your side, I just don't happen to be on it. I think that next year will have fun moments to watch. I think we will see the team we saw early on this year that was able to run it, was able to score over 100 against VMI, was able to average 74 points a game over its first 13 games. It was 79 points per game before the injuries set in at about the tenth game. Totally different team from 79 to the 64 that they finished at. I know you cant put apples to apples on it but 79 points would have won us all but two of the games in the ACC slate. We would have lost to Maryland once and Wake Forest if we had continued to put up those kind of points.
I cant give you a better idea of what I think our actual record will be until they release the schedule but once I have that I will probably give it a game by game evaluation and see where I expect us to be. I do think that JJ improving by six wins is doable when he lost 12 games by three possessions or less this year with half a team.
Lets get through the next couple of days though to see what path we are on. I have to expect that JJ and Whit are meeting today and that the latest we will have an announcement is by tomorrow.
Do you think this team is going to average 79 points against the ACC next year? That strikes me as unrealistic.
Averaging 79 points against teams like USC-Upstate, whoops, I mean UMDES is one thing...but you're talking about a 20 point on average turnaround in conference play. Even when you consider injuries (And assuming there will be no injuries next year) and "fresh bodies" (all will be freshman and/or completely unexpeirenced in conference play) a 20+ point turnaround in conference scoring feels....optimistic to me.
You cant compare them apples to apples but I do think that seeing us score 64 on average in ACC play is a legitimate possibility. We only averaged 55.3 ppg in ACC play this year. That's a nine point increase and would be in line with the better defenses of the ACC compared to our OOC when you pick up the tempo and turn your opponent over more. Even 64 this year would have been nine wins this year in the ACC.
**The Eastern Shore game wasn't part of the 79 point average as it came after the slate of injuries.
Sure, but next year we won't be running the "take the air out of the ball" defense, right? More bodies, more tempo, more points, higher scoring games for us and them. You don't get to give us more points and have our opponents points stay the same, I see what you did there ;)
By the way, ESPN just improved Jalen Hudson, one of next years recruits to Four Star status. They still have not ranked TJ Lang, who may eventually be the best player from this class. It moves us to the 43rd best class if I am reading things right.
Scout lists TJ Lang as a 2014 and 2015 commit. Does that mean he doesn't come to play until 2015?
I don't think I even bothered to look at Scout as they are the bottom of my barrel when it comes to Recruiting News. Everything I see on him has 2014 listed. Can you post the link you are looking at?
Here is the link. I thought it was weird that it had him listed in 2014 and 2015, but it may be an error.
http://virginiatech.scout.com/a.z?s=191&p=9&c=8&cfg=bb&yr=2015
Yeah I have to think that its a mistake. Nothing I have seen has him greyshirting.
I haven't read these comments but here are my thoughts:
We were not a very good team this year or last year, that much is obvious. However, in JJ's first season the team got worse as the season went along and that's never a good sign. This year we got noticeably better even though our record didn't show it. The defense improved and even though the offense was still stagnant at times, it was still improved by the end of the season. The sign of when a bad team should fire a coach is when that team starts to quit, this team showed no quit this year. Against UNC we were down 8ish a couple times, most teams that are 2-100 in conference play would roll over and die, this team fought back every time and pushed UNC to the brink. Against Duke we went down 20 in the first half and brought it back to within 7 by just chipping away at it. The players are playing hard for JJ and that to me buys him another year.
Also, bringing in kids like Justin Bibbs and Jalen Hudson should keep him around, I don't want another situation like with Harrell where we fire our coach and all of a sudden one of those guys is playing for a national championship somewhere else. Everyone needs to keep in mind that we were without our 2 best recruits from last year (Dante Clark couldn't qualify and Mueller was ineligible) so it's not like JJ has been a terrible recruiter. He got unlucky in his first run at it, hopefully this time everyone gets here with no problems because these kids we have coming in are gonna be great.
Sure, but if we're banking on recruits that aren't even here yet, isn't that just going to lead to the argument to "keep JJ" next year, too? They're not going to make that much of an impact next year, they're freshman and will need to adjust to the game. So then next year it's going to be "well, last year was JJ's best class, he needs to see it through for at least another year."
"Oh, I know it was only 12 wins, but [someone] got injured and we were in it until the end against [three teams]. Two more baskets in each of those games and we're .500. Next year, Wilson will be an upperclassman leading the team at the point, and all of the frosh will have a season of exerpience at the college level under their belts. *That's* when we'll really be able to know how good of a coach JJ is. We just had a couple of bad breaks this year."
I know where this is going, I know how our fans work :)
I'm saying we should give him at least one year where he gets his top recruits. Firing after these two seasons where we had 2 walk-ons playing significant minutes isn't fair. We're going to have 6 new bodies next year, let's see what he does then. I'm not one to hang on after 3 years, but firing him after this year will just set us back 2 years. If we fire him after next year then we'll have a much better chance at keeping guys like Bibbs and Hudson.
He'll do just enough to make a decent percentage of this fan base justify keeping him for another year, just wait. It's going to be like 12-13 wins and that's when the mental exercises start turning "close losses" into wins, because we were "in it." Then there's going to be some other recruit coming in who is of course going to change everything, and we're not going want to lose him. Blah, Blah, Blah...
Trust me, I watched this fan base justify the continued employment of Bryan Stinepsring for a decade using the exact same "logic."
I never justified Stinespring, but there are definitely fans like that. If we don't get at least 17 wins next year then he has to go. If we make the NIT or better then he stays.
i swear these jj threads
Might there be one more football player looking to walk on for some BBall next year: Terrell Edmunds helps his team win the state title by scoring 14 points. The three Edmunds scored 29 all together. All the Edmundes for Basketball.
I will say that JJ came to a gun fight with a dull knife when it came to ACC play. Injuries hurt us badly and we had a lot of youth on the court. Early on, the only guy we could look to for scoring was Eddie. If any of the guys coming in this year are an offensive threat, then we will be much better next year. Watching our games, we had no one really taking the ball towards the rim. We didn't have anyone that could beat their guy 1v1. Maybe they are there but they weren't comfortable doing it? I don't know. Wilson started to show some ability late in the season and looked much better than early on.
Something else I think we have been missing since JT Thompson got hurt is someone with just pure athleticism. We don't have that energy out there. Thompson wasn't a great scorer but that guy out hustled people just on his athletic ability. He could out jump most of the guys out there and was a physical guy. I would like to see someone like that again on the court.
Gone.
I've gotta say, regardless of what you think about him he was a great person and got an unlucky draw. I wish him all the best.
Completely agree. Was not his fault so many players decided to leave the program. It would be a totally different story if they all stayed in Blacksburg with Coach Johnson.
If there was one opinion that was unanimous about him, it was what a great guy he was.
Wow. Best of luck to you JJ.
I was just going to say, it looks like this discussion may be over.
I can't help but feel what UVA accomplished this year may have forced Whit's hand a little.
Wow, is this what it's like to have someone in the athletic department that doesn't take too long to make necessary changes?! I like it!
Good point. I don't agree completely with the firing, but at least Whit didn't pull a Weaver and fire him a month after the season.
Exactly this! I thought by making it through selection Sunday he was safe for a year. Apparently not.
You wrote - "How do you expect to cover $1mil in ex-coaches salaries, plus at least $3.5 million ($2 million/$1.5 million staff) for a new coach..."?
Looks like we're about to find out just how serious Whit is about bringing in top coaching talent on the bball side.
Two choices for Whit at this point in time - bite the financial bullet now, or go through this same process three years down the road.
If he was going to let JJ go now, unless he already has a bargain in mind, I would prefer to see him bite the financial bullet. Get the coach he wants, then figure out what the check has to be to bring that coach here.