No. You are transposing Bzd for Manning. I was never on the Manning train and did worry that a great 30 day run at Tulsa does not a coach make.
I wasn't negative on him from the get go, but was never positive. His narrative is compelling for a future pro player looking for a college coach, but a great narrative does not a great coach make. There were points where I was hopeful he'd figure it out. I will say, his limitations don't seem to be due to laziness or lack of work ethic.
What I said was you cannot fire a basketball coach after game 2 or game 3 in a season, which was what some people were calling for after our season opening tourney loss to ??? What I said then was that you have to let the narrative of the season play out otherwise you ruin your opportunities for the next hire. You have to fire Manning at a logic point and not a reactionary moment. I feel the narrative of our season became apparent after about game 10 or so - honestly, I cannot remember which loss, but when it happened I said so. Doesn't mean I was correct or that my timing was any better than anybody else's, but it is/was mine. You can do no damage to our next hire by firing Manning today.
Bzd - yes, I was a huge fan of the hire and stuck with him for a number of reasons including his actual coaching ability, which I still believe in. But I was wrong wrong on most counts with him because an Xs and ox coach does not a head coach make. That was my big lesson - at least of college kids.
Buy anyway, please go back and find a post where I was gushing at what an awesome hire and awesome coach Manning is/was going to be. I won't, but I would imagine that I only shilled for his ability to coach big men. I assume he is still a pretty good big man coach, but he's no miracle worker in that regard and the important narrative for me is that EVEN IF HE WERE a great big man coach, he has not parlayed that incoming reputation or his work with Collins or Moore into a big man gem recruit.
I think our post mortem on Manning 5 years from now will be about his inability to motivate and gin up enthusiasm. I have no doubt he and the players work hard, but he has zero ability to turn that into on court intensity in any capacity. Put aside the fact that we run no offense 90% of the time. - we don't make it uncomfortable for our opponent to run their offense. Ever. We don't take anything away. We play bad to solid defense depending on the game or matchup and hope the other guy misses or make mistakes. But all that boils down to on court intensity which is so severely lacking, it just has to be either Manning himself or his inability to recognize and address it. It is almost weird.
