RJ posting through a crisis worse than Bean Dad
RJ posting through a crisis worse than Bean Dad
Originally Posted by RJKarl
RJ's sources are great at telling us what didn't happen. They share juicy tidbits like the fact that Brad Stevens was not hired as WFU coach in 2010, Shaka Smart was not hired as WFU coach in 2014, and Thad Matta was not hired as WFU coach in 2020. Unfortunately, they haven't shared a whisper about the [name redacted], Manning, or Forbes hires ahead of time. Maybe someday they'll have actual, verifiable information in advance. Or maybe they'll just keep discussing what didn't happen, and that way no one can ever refute them.
Back to the actual topic...what a disaster of a hire for former blue blood IU. A 63 year old with zero college coaching experience and a losing record as an NBA coach. Gotta be hoping he’s Juwan Howard I guess but much more likely to be Sidney Lowe.
I just don't get the Indiana thinking here. Really need BTB to explain this for us.
My guess is they wanted Matta but he wasn’t up to the job physically but they collectively sold themselves on the idea of Matta acting as a GM and running the program with someone else as the day today head coach, likely because they didn’t have any other good options other than taking a shot with another mid major guy.
will be interesting to see how they get along with respect to on the court decisions. do they agree on the offensive philosophy, starting 5, etc? did Woodson run the right out of bounds play at a crucial moment? sure, Woodson has the authority as the actual HC, but he's gotta be looking over his shoulder.
Or that he doesn’t want to coach anymore. Guy seemed pretty content to sit back and take OSU checks and turn down every high profile HC job out there over the last few years that probably would have paid him more. Now he’s scored some sort of BS Associate AD position at IU, when, if he wanted to coach, there were literally dozens of options out there for him to pick and choose from.
Birds are real.
So why even do anything then? He coached at Ohio State for 13 years and received a $9MM buyout less than 4 years ago.
My first reaction was WTF!!!! The goal is to get the best coach and yet IU hired someone who has never coached at this level and hadn't shown interest in doing so at any point.
I am now predictably trying to talk myself into the decision. A few thoughts.
Woodson took a Hawks team from 13 wins to something like 55 wins in his tenure there. He also is the last Knicks coach to win 50 plus games. So it's reasonable to assume he knows how to coach.
The statements yesterday from current and former NBA players who played for him have been extremely impressive in terms of recognizing his basketball acumen and his ability to relate to and hold players accountable. And the list of NBA all stars that played for him is long and impressive and I want to believe that will resonate with recruits.
Finally, I just learned that he's got a long standing relationship with World Wide Wes which I think means something as ridiculous as it is to say that.
Oh god. You’re fucked.
“Jeff [name redacted] is a basketball coach and I think he did a pretty good job” -Carmelo Anthony (paraphrased)
That whole BTB post might as well have been copied verbatim from the wake boards 10 or so years ago when our run of hell started.
I read your post and immediately broke out in hives. Thanks
Health insurance!
Birds are real.
Yeah we’ve absolutely been victimized by this playbook before.
Good point, paying out of pocket has to be expensive especially for a guy with crippling long-term issues that are preventing him from coaching again.
The benefits package is what really killed our bid for Matta last year, not Covid. But, believe it or not, I heard it was the lack of full dental coverage that killed the deal. IU must have better benefits packages for AD staff than first year coaches.
Birds are real.
Tell me about it. I'm self employed in my 50s.
I actually concur with BTB's take and don't think it's an awful hire considering they may have struck out with preferred candidates. Being tight with WWW will not hurt his recruiting. Ask Calipari.
Hopefully you won’t have the confluence of other factors that extended our hell should your experiment fail.
It’s one thing to take a gamble on a coach but then we also had an AD who couldn’t admit a mistake until it was far beyond obvious. Plus many of our big money donors with the cash to reset the situation seemed to be in on the delusion.
Man oh man, I think that even Jeff Bz was a better hire than this considering he had actually coached in college before and been to a NCAA tourney one time. Could this work out- I mean, I guess so, maybe ? And I guess so, maybe is me put the best possible spin on it.
birdman, would it be accurate to say that Hatch FUCKED Matta?
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