UNCG beating Miami

[Deacsfan27]

Last year's OOC was more difficult. We played Zaga, Richmond, Xavier and VCU which were all tourney teams. Outside of possibly Seton Hall, we haven't played a tourney team this year.

No it wasn't according to KenPom's NC SOS.

 

[RedSoxFaithful]

Last year's OOC was more difficult. We played Zaga, Richmond, Xavier and VCU which were all tourney teams. Outside of possibly Seton Hall, we haven't played a tourney team this year.

You're wrong. Our non-conference SoS last year was 305th in the nation. This year, it's 228th.

edit: df27 beat me to it

 

[Deke 73]

Have you been watching the games? They've played better, at times overperforming. Offensively and defensively. There's been a big improvement. We're 9-5 against a more difficult schedule than we played last year, when we started out 6-8.

I have been to every game, just as I have for the last 41 years. This guy is a terrible fit and claiming big improvement over last year is a joke.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

[Redacted] had literally 1 meaningful recruiting class with Air Force.

He improved Colorado to the extent that they were a 24 win team in a major conference the year after he left, a team made up nearly entirely of his players (about 80% of the minutes last year were returning players). There is no way of knowing how good Colorado would have been long-term had he stayed there. He improved the program considerably, certainly considering they were 7-20 the year before he took over.

Bzz played with someone else's players at Air Force, and his AF recruits sucked, after he left them. Bzz also took over a Colorado program only one year removed from a 20 win season. This isn't football, Bzz doesn't need 5 fucking years to find 5-7 guys capable of playing his system well, and he doesn't deserve praise for leading a program to the NIT. Basically Colorado won 20 games in 05-06 (Before Bzz), they won 24 games in 10-11 (after Bzz) and never actually did shit while he was there.

 

[deacvision7]

I mean, nobody's operating under the assumption that he's a great coach. I don't think anybody's really saying that right now. But you've said it yourself- he knows his X's and O's, and probably basketball in general, really well. He's a great scout of talent (as evidenced by his NBA resume, and by his pretty solid recruiting record). He's done a terrific job in-game, save for the occasional questionable timeout call.

The problems you seem to have with him are... his teams' rebounding numbers, and his ability to motivate players. The former, I can understand completely, and its frustrating. The latter, I just am not sure I agree with.

But here's the thing (and I recognize my base assumptions above are putting some words in your mouth, and I apologize in advance for that): He's never spent more than 3 years at any stop. He's always either been playing with someone else's team, or gotten one season (you could argue he got two seasons at Colorado) with his own players. That's why it's so tough for Bzz-Waiters to make any concrete conclusions on him, one way or another. I do think he's done a decent job developing his talent here, and at Colorado. But I also think he had a generally untalented team there, and I think he has an incredibly untalented team here.

I recognize that his actual track record's bad. I recognize that he was dreadfully underqualified for this job. But now that he's here, and given the vast improvement we've seen just this year from last (with less raw talent, to boot), I'd like to at least see what he can do in terms of building a system. He's always left systems better than he received them. How can we really say that he wouldn't done as well with Colorado as his replacement did there last season?

Cheers for the thoughts and response. Please allow me to respond point by point.

I mean, nobody's operating under the assumption that he's a great coach. I don't think anybody's really saying that right now. But you've said it yourself- he knows his X's and O's, and probably basketball in general, really well. He's a great scout of talent (as evidenced by his NBA resume, and by his pretty solid recruiting record). He's done a terrific job in-game, save for the occasional questionable timeout call.

What solid recruiting record? His three recruits that have played basketball, to date, at Wake Forest are decidedly average at best. As for his 6 man incoming class? Well, I suggest we wait and see how they perform on the college basketball court before judging them.
When we look at what he brought into Colorado we see Alec Burks and a bunch of role players.
When we look at what he brought to Air Force we see a program that imploded.

Solid recruiting record? That's a magnificent stretch, sir.

The problems you seem to have with him are... his teams' rebounding numbers, and his ability to motivate players. The former, I can understand completely, and its frustrating. The latter, I just am not sure I agree with.

Glad we agree on the rebounding numbers, shows to me that you are at least attempting to be reasonable in all of this. In turn, I will attempt to be reasonable with you.
The players under Mr. [Redacted] do not appear to be enthused to play a game night in and night out. This is evidenced by their lack of effort for loose balls, rebounds, and other things of the same ilk.
You can listen to Mr. [Redacted] on the radio talking about the game and lose interest all together in the sport. The man doesn't inspire much, as it witnessed by the laughably low attendance records.
Yes, we suck. We suck bad. But attendance wasn't this low when Skip was our coach and we were struggling to get together a .500 season. Enthusiasm about the future of the program was still around back then. Now? All enthusiasm is gone, and I put a significant amount of blame of that on the head coach. He certainly has done nothing, nor said anything to raise the blood pressure of the program in the near 19 months that he has been here.

But here's the thing (and I recognize my base assumptions above are putting some words in your mouth, and I apologize in advance for that): He's never spent more than 3 years at any stop. He's always either been playing with someone else's team, or gotten one season (you could argue he got two seasons at Colorado) with his own players. That's why it's so tough for Bzz-Waiters to make any concrete conclusions on him, one way or another. I do think he's done a decent job developing his talent here, and at Colorado. But I also think he had a generally untalented team there, and I think he has an incredibly untalented team here.

Why do you think he has never spent more than 3 years at any coaching stop? Is it beyond reason to suggest that he knows he should have gotten out of each situation before he was found out a fraud? Or perhaps, just perhaps, it is because he has little sense of loyalty. Either way, it isn't a pretty picture that he paints for himself.

Don't get me wrong. Nick Saban is a terribly unloyal person, but he can coach. Jeff [Redacted] appears to be a terribly unloyal person that cannot coach. Personally, I don't care for either one.

Why do you think he did a good job of developing talent at Colorado? Last season, which would have been his 4th there, they topped out as an NIT team which had their NCAA bubble burst. They lost their best player, and Mr. [Redacted]'s best recruit in Alec Burks (after his sophomore season, incidentally) and now sit at a rather average 9-4 record with losses to Wichita St., Maryland, Colorado St. and Wyoming.

Colorado two years removed from Mr. [Redacted] being their head coach, is 135th overall in scoring in the nation. What program building do you see here?

I recognize that his actual track record's bad. I recognize that he was dreadfully underqualified for this job. But now that he's here, and given the vast improvement we've seen just this year from last (with less raw talent, to boot), I'd like to at least see what he can do in terms of building a system. He's always left systems better than he received them. How can we really say that he wouldn't done as well with Colorado as his replacement did there last season?

I refuse to look at "improvement" from last year to this year as progress. it is a defeatist attitude. Last year was nothing short of an abortion, so what is the point in using it as a comparison, other than excusing present day under achievement? I honestly can't see any other reason, perhaps you can, and more power to you if that is the case.

You can't use the "raw talent" excuse either when Mr. [Redacted] himself said that the players that were dismissed were the cause of last year's problems. It doesn't add up, it doesn't compute, and quite frankly it is insulting to smart Wake Forest people to try and play both sides of the fence. Either it is a good thing that the "bad apples" (aka good players) are gone, or it isn't. You can't have both.



As for:

He's always left systems better than he received them.

Air Force's records the previous 2 years to Mr. [Redacted] as coach. The two years that Mr. [Redacted] was coach. And the proceeding two years from Mr. [Redacted] being the coach.

2003/04, Pre Mr. [Redacted] -- 22-7, 12-2 in the MWC
2004/05, Pre Mr. [Redacted] -- 18-12, 9-5 in the MWC
2005/06, Mr. [Redacted] in charge -- 24-7, 12-4 in the MWC
2006/07, Mr. [Redacted] in charge -- 26-9, 10-6 in the MWC
2007/08, Post Mr. [Redacted] -- 16-14, 8-8 in the MWC
2008/09 Post Mr. [Redacted] -- 10-21, 0-16 in the MWC

 

[ChrisL68]

[Redacted] had literally 1 meaningful recruiting class with Air Force.

He improved Colorado to the extent that they were a 24 win team in a major conference the year after he left, a team made up nearly entirely of his players (about 80% of the minutes last year were returning players). There is no way of knowing how good Colorado would have been long-term had he stayed there. He improved the program considerably, certainly considering they were 7-20 the year before he took over.

Colorado was due a big dropoff this year with Burks and their other main contributor leaving whether Bzzz was still there or not.

 

[deacvision7]

Yup. It was a trainwreck in every possible way. They played some of the worst basketball I've ever seen. This year, they have less raw talent, and they are worlds better. Is that really still a secret?

The "less raw talent" excuse runs so fucking thin when we examine that the head coach admits to being relieved that those players are gone.

It's a red herring at this point, so please stop using it as an excuse. Cheers.

 

[RedSoxFaithful]

My turn!

What solid recruiting record? His three recruits that have played basketball, to date, at Wake Forest are decidedly average at best. As for his 6 man incoming class? Well, I suggest we wait and see how they perform on the college basketball court before judging them.
When we look at what he brought into Colorado we see Alec Burks and a bunch of role players.
When we look at what he brought to Air Force we see a program that imploded.

Solid recruiting record? That's a magnificent stretch, sir.

It's probably a stretch, you're right. I'm admittedly putting a lot of weight on his incoming class, but what else is there? He had one real class at Air Force, two at Colorado, and he's had one here. To discount his Colorado classes as "Burks and a bunch of role players" is a bit disingenuous when you consider how good Burks was.

When I talk about his strengths as a recruiter, a huge part of that is his proven ability as a talent scout. Say what you want about the rest of his coaching ability (and we will, in the rest of this post), but he has had a knack for identifying talent early and being proven right. We all know at this point that Burks was an overlooked recruit. I've seen people call him lucky for hitting on Burks. Fine, but is it a coincidence that he was also on CMM before everyone else? Or Thomas? Or Fischer this past offseason? To me, that's a clear cut pattern of him finding undervalued and underrated players, right before they blow up. And in terms of recruiting, that's almost as important as being able to go toe-to-toe with big programs for 4* and 5* guys.

Glad we agree on the rebounding numbers, shows to me that you are at least attempting to be reasonable in all of this.

Heh. It's not an opinion. It's a fact... Bz's teams have sucked at rebounding. I'd love to believe that it's because he doesn't have good rebounders, but until he proves that, there's no reason to. I pray he proves us wrong at some point.

The players under Mr. [Redacted] do not appear to be enthused to play a game night in and night out.

I'd disagree strongly with this. You look at how we came out against Nebraska, Dayton... even the first 12 minutes of the Seton Hall loss. I've seen a really energetic team at the start of games, and an even more energetic team at the start of second halves. I'd love for someone to do a minute by minute study, because I wonder if this is just anecdotal evidence, but it seems like we always hit lulls midway through halves. Again, that's just how it's seemed to me. But from what I've seen this year, we're at our best at the beginning of halves and out of timeouts.

This is evidenced by their lack of effort for loose balls, rebounds, and other things of the same ilk.

Fair enough. We're abysmal at pretty much anything resembling 50/50 situations, you're right. I'd argue that a lot of that has to do with hands, since nobody can seem to properly handle a goddamn loose ball (see? it pisses me off too!), but sure, some of it's probably coaching.

You can listen to Mr. [Redacted] on the radio talking about the game and lose interest all together in the sport. The man doesn't inspire much, as it witnessed by the laughably low attendance records.

I don't think our attendance record has anything to do with Bz's radio interviews. Nor his presence in general. It has to do with the fact that a.) we fucking blow, and b.) we've been playing teams named the Greyhounds and the Runnin' Bulldogs. It's a better schedule than last year, but the teams we've played have the name values of fucking community colleges. The low attendance is mostly because we suck, though.

Yes, we suck. We suck bad.

Oh, you agree! Sweet.

But attendance wasn't this low when Skip was our coach and we were struggling to get together a .500 season. Enthusiasm about the future of the program was still around back then. Now? All enthusiasm is gone, and I put a significant amount of blame of that on the head coach. He certainly has done nothing, nor said anything to raise the blood pressure of the program in the near 19 months that he has been here.

What do you want him to say? This is a mostly serious question. Do you want him to guarantee us winning the ACC? Say that we'll make the NIT? Say that Nikita's actually a Russian superspy? I feel like the Dismemberment Plan here. What do you want him to say?

A coach can only do so much to generate enthusiasm. Let me ask you something. Realistically, the casual fans that would be here if we were an elite program right now... how many of them do you honestly believe even know what [Redacted]'s voice sounds like? I'd guess 50%? Maybe?

The thing that I think is most encouraging about this season is that we're actively trying to play good fundamental basketball. We're not very talented (you said it yourself: we suck), but we're trying to play a fundamentally sound game (at least, it seems as though that's what Bz is emphasizing). The problem with this, and in my opinion this is the one real spot where a coach has control over fan enthusiasm, is that fundamentally sound basketball with an untalented team is just not that much fun to watch. When it works, it's beautiful. But when a team lacks talent and depth as we do, it's just not an exciting brand of basketball... especially for 40 minutes.

Which leads to the following question: Would you rather suck in style, a la a homeless man's Golden State, or would you rather suck but make strides towards being fundamentally sound? For me, it's unquestionably the latter. It'll drive away some fans in the short term, but our players will be better developed and ready to succeed when we get an infusion of talent. This is admittedly mostly guesswork and hunches, since we still haven't seen whether or not guys like TC or Fields or Carson can even develop to a point where they're fundamentally sound players, but it's my personal basketball philosophy.

Why do you think he has never spent more than 3 years at any coaching stop? Is it beyond reason to suggest that he knows he should have gotten out of each situation before he was found out a fraud? Or perhaps, just perhaps, it is because he has little sense of loyalty. Either way, it isn't a pretty picture that he paints for himself.

Don't get me wrong. Nick Saban is a terribly unloyal person, but he can coach. Jeff [Redacted] appears to be a terribly unloyal person that cannot coach. Personally, I don't care for either one.

300% fair. You're right. I don't really know why I left myself open there, since that thought did cross my mind as I was typing my previous post. Changing jobs so often obviously leaves himself open to just as many questions against him as for him. I might argue that it's likely he'll be more loyal to a friend like Wellman than his previous ADs, but who really knows for sure? I do think he's far less likely to walk out on a major program like Wake, because a.) he's not going to get an offer from a better college, and b.) he seems to prefer being a college coach to being an NBA scout, given his recent career choices.

Why do you think he did a good job of developing talent at Colorado? Last season, which would have been his 4th there, they topped out as an NIT team which had their NCAA bubble burst. They lost their best player, and Mr. [Redacted]'s best recruit in Alec Burks (after his sophomore season, incidentally) and now sit at a rather average 9-4 record with losses to Wichita St., Maryland, Colorado St. and Wyoming.

Colorado two years removed from Mr. [Redacted] being their head coach, is 135th overall in scoring in the nation. What program building do you see here?

My point was just that it was [Redacted] who built a team that was 7-20 and ended up 24-12 three years later. It's not a great record, no, and it's an NIT team, yes. But he did rebuild the program. What's happened two years after he left... I don't know how responsible for that he is. I'm not saying that he's not responsible for their inability to sustain the success; I'm saying that I honestly don't know. Colorado brought in a pretty shitty class this year, and next year's class looks better for them. I have literally no idea how much [Redacted]'s former players had to do with either class.

I refuse to look at "improvement" from last year to this year as progress. it is a defeatist attitude. Last year was nothing short of an abortion, so what is the point in using it as a comparison, other than excusing present day under achievement? I honestly can't see any other reason, perhaps you can, and more power to you if that is the case.

I said in the other thread (or maybe it was this thread... the same conversation is being had in like 10 different places right now) that last year was the worst basketball I'd ever seen. So yeah, I suppose anything would be an improvement, you're right.

But individually, I recognize that either Bz developed quite a bit of talent, or his players have taken massive developmental leaps on their own. None of us-- not me, not you, not anyone-- know whether the progression can be attributed to the former or the latter. I choose to believe Bz's teaching had some hand in the individual progression. As bad as TC and Carson have been this year, they were considerably worse last year. And Ty has shown marked improvement this season. It's harder to see specifically with CJ and McKie, because they were already so good last year, but I think they've both improved a bit. (CJ, defensively; McKie, in iso and in drawing fouls)

Lastly, the team is considerably more cohesive this year than last. I'd say that that's spending an entire awful season together, but two of the main ballhandlers last year (JTT and Ari) are gone. So I have to believe that's on Bz. However, this falls back into the trap that you called me out on, of comparing this year's cohesion to the clusterfuck that was 2010-11.

So yeah, while comparing this year generally to last is a fool's errand, I do think some interesting tales can be told by looking at individual development. It's just up to you whether you attribute that to Bz or the players.

You can't use the "raw talent" excuse either when Mr. [Redacted] himself said that the players that were dismissed were the cause of last year's problems. It doesn't add up, it doesn't compute, and quite frankly it is insulting to smart Wake Forest people to try and play both sides of the fence. Either it is a good thing that the "bad apples" (aka good players) are gone, or it isn't. You can't have both.

Fair enough. I'd argue that we lost talent but gained that aforementioned cohesion (which would allow us to be more than the sum of our parts). But I can totally see what you mean.

Air Force's records the previous 2 years to Mr. [Redacted] as coach. The two years that Mr. [Redacted] was coach. And the proceeding two years from Mr. [Redacted] being the coach.

2003/04, Pre Mr. [Redacted] -- 22-7, 12-2 in the MWC
2004/05, Pre Mr. [Redacted] -- 18-12, 9-5 in the MWC
2005/06, Mr. [Redacted] in charge -- 24-7, 12-4 in the MWC
2006/07, Mr. [Redacted] in charge -- 26-9, 10-6 in the MWC
2007/08, Post Mr. [Redacted] -- 16-14, 8-8 in the MWC
2008/09 Post Mr. [Redacted] -- 10-21, 0-16 in the MWC

Honestly, I have no idea how to evaluate [Redacted] as Air Force's coach. Like I said before, he had one recruiting class, and was only there for two years. I was probably wrong to overlook that in praising how he's improved players. But it's probably a stupid idea to draw any real conclusions from his time at AF. I just don't even see how you would begin to do it. Getting results with someone else's players for two years, and then leaving... Yeah, I just don't know, and I've never really known how to treat that part of his resume. I tend to look at him as "NBA Scout, NBA Coach, Colorado Coach, Wake Coach".

The bottom line is, if we were looking for a new hire, independent of all results from any option, would we trust a guy with Bz's strengths and weaknesses to salvage our program from here on out? I see a guy who's an elite talent scout, with average recruiting ability (though, in my opinion, the potential to be above average), and with elite in-game knowledge. I also see a guy whose teams tend to have abysmal loose ball numbers, who is mostly uncharismatic, who is perhaps demanding of his players to a fault, and who doesn't stay at programs very long. Honestly, if I had to make a hire, I could live with those qualities in a coach, all things considered. Unfortunately, we also have results to look at, and while Bz's haven't been great, they're also stupidly hard to accurately and totally attribute directly to him.

 

[IrishSlim]

A coach can only do so much to generate enthusiasm.

I feel a Prosser rant coming on, but I'll spare you the long version. Let's just say you're missing out. Win or lose, Prosser knew how to get people to care about the team - especially students. I'm getting misty. (again.) I'm not on-campus, so I could be wrong, but the outside impression is that [Redacted] could care less about that aspect of things. Does that matter, in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, but it's still a damn shame.

 

[RedSoxFaithful]

I feel a Prosser rant coming on, but I'll spare you the long version. Let's just say you're missing out. Win or lose, Prosser knew how to get people to care about the team - especially students. I'm getting misty. (again.) I'm not on-campus, so I could be wrong, but the outside impression is that [Redacted] could care less about that aspect of things. Does that matter, in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, but it's still a damn shame.

I think there's a disconnect there-- I was talking about an increase in general attendance. Students... yeah, they'd come out with more wins, but Bz has indeed done a shit job engaging them. (Though, to be fair, so did Dino.)

 

[IrishSlim]

I think there's a disconnect there-- I was talking about an increase in general attendance. Students... yeah, they'd come out with more wins, but Bz has indeed done a shit job engaging them. (Though, to be fair, so did Dino.)

Ahh, gotcha. Agree that there's a lot more limitations for the coach + general attendance.

 

[deacvision7]

It just befuddles me that a coach of a D1 school wouldn't do all they could to engage the students to his basketball program.

To not even attempt to do so says a lot about the head coach. There are only a few reasons why a man wouldn't want to engage the students...

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

I see a guy who's an elite talent scout (where is the proof, besides Alec Burks?), with average recruiting ability (though, in my opinion, the potential to be above average), and with elite in-game knowledge.(even if this is true, it isn't winning us more games) I also see a guy whose teams tend to have abysmal loose ball numbers, who is mostly uncharismatic, who is perhaps demanding of his players to a fault, and who doesn't stay at programs very long. Honestly, if I had to make a hire, I could live with those qualities in a coach, all things considered (why?). Unfortunately, we also have results to look at, and while Bz's haven't been great (stop equivocating, his record is abysmal), they're also stupidly hard to accurately and totally attribute directly to him.)

Our team is better than it was last year, but that's not a significant result. Any number of coaches could have achieved the same, if not more, with possibly less turmoil and personnel turnover. Just because we're stuck with Bzz for 1 or two more years doesn't mean he deserves any more slack.

 

[RedSoxFaithful]

It just befuddles me that a coach of a D1 school wouldn't do all they could to engage the students to his basketball program.

To not even attempt to do so says a lot about the head coach. There are only a few reasons why a man wouldn't want to engage the students...

Well, obviously the reason that you're hinting at is that we suck. If we were more talented, Bz would have more to gain from getting students to the game. That's obvious.

I guess I would say that if you go back on the DS boards in the 09-10 season, you'll find only a small amount of bitching about student attendance. And Dino might've actually somehow been less engaging with students than Bz is now. That doesn't make it okay for Bz to ignore that aspect of the program; it just supports the idea that "that aspect of the program" means nothing to a lot of people when we win. And understandably so.

 

[deacvision7]

Well, obviously the reason that you're hinting at is that we suck. If we were more talented, Bz would have more to gain from getting students to the game. That's obvious.

I guess I would say that if you go back on the DS boards in the 09-10 season, you'll find only a small amount of bitching about student attendance. And Dino might've actually somehow been less engaging with students than Bz is now. That doesn't make it okay for Bz to ignore that aspect of the program; it just supports the idea that "that aspect of the program" means nothing to a lot of people when we win. And understandably so.

Dino was a bad head coach. I have never argued otherwise.


Mr. [Redacted] is worse in every way that I see. I don't like it, but that is the sad and unfortunate truth.


I like you tho, you Boston loving bastard. God bless ya.

 

[RedSoxFaithful]

Our team is better than it was last year, but that's not a significant result. Any number of coaches could have achieved the same, if not more, with possibly less turmoil and personnel turnover. Just because we're stuck with Bzz for 1 or two more years doesn't mean he deserves any more slack.

Where did I say that his guaranteed future employment here guarantees him more slack?

I was looking at different parts of his coaching ability, and I used those evaluations to say that "well, he has x strengths and y weaknesses, but all things considered, I'd give a coach with those strengths and weaknesses a chance if I knew nothing more about him." He's not a perfect coach, nor is he infallible. He's not even a very good coach, in my opinion. But I do believe he has some appealing coaching qualities, and I'm hoping he leverages them in the future to achieve some sort of success with this program. That's all I was saying.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

Well, obviously the reason that you're hinting at is that we suck. If we were more talented, Bz would have more to gain from getting students to the game. That's obvious.

I guess I would say that if you go back on the DS boards in the 09-10 season, you'll find only a small amount of bitching about student attendance. And Dino might've actually somehow been less engaging with students than Bz is now. That doesn't make it okay for Bz to ignore that aspect of the program; it just supports the idea that "that aspect of the program" means nothing to a lot of people when we win. And understandably so.

Dino was more engaging with the students, one in particular, amirite? Seriously though, he was, but the team was a lot better, so it was easier.

 

[RedSoxFaithful]

Dino was a bad head coach. I have never argued otherwise.


Mr. [Redacted] is worse in every way that I see. I don't like it, but that is the sad and unfortunate truth.


I like you tho, you Boston loving bastard. God bless ya.

I really like that you've taken to calling him Mr. [Redacted], by the way. Every time you post that, I read it in the Mr. Smith "MISter Anderson" voice from the Matrix.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

Where did I say that his guaranteed future employment here guarantees him more slack?

I assumed you had a purpose for taking the unpopular stance of defending [Redacted]. I can't think of a single reason or need to defend his coaching from a fans perspective, so I assumed you were doing it for some humanitarian purpose, as if you knew he was reading the boards and you wanted him to know that he had a friend on here.

 

[RedSoxFaithful]

I assumed you had a purpose for taking the unpopular stance of defending [Redacted]. I can't think of a single reason or need to defend his coaching from a fans perspective, so I assumed you were doing it for some humanitarian purpose, as if you knew he was reading the boards and you wanted him to know that he had a friend on here.

MAYBE I'M [Redacted]?

edit: man, I can't even joke about that. I've just gone and made myself sad.