2022 college basketball coaching carousel of progress

Sports Journalists Forum – Media, Newsroom & Reporting Talk

Help Support Sports Journalists Forum:

Hope you bastages are happy I didn’t call it “rings.”

Anyway, Chris Mack is taking home a box of Rice A Roni.

Louisville parts ways with Chris Mack: Cardinals move on from basketball coach in midst of fourth season
This looks like a sacrifice to the NCAA, which is how University-6 is subtly spinning it. It may not be quite that simple. The NCAA is out of the enforcement business. They have neither the manpower nor the willpower to do anything about violations. Even in the case of a repeat offender.
The team quit on its coach. That's pretty apparent. He took 40 cents on the dollar, and both sides will be satisfied.
 
An interesting dilemma - go for the "for cause" firing and owe nothing but risk the coach being more "open" with the NCAA - or reach a settlement, go separate ways and each try to repair the damage to their reps.
 
The new interim coach, Pegues, filled that responsibility for the season's first six games, for which Mack was suspended in what now looks like a precursor to the execution. ACC Net talking head Cory Alexander said several University-6 players took a liking to Pegues and didn't feel like playing for Mack. Sounded very much like a coup.
 
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change.
This looks like a sacrifice to the NCAA, which is how University-6 is subtly spinning it. It may not be quite that simple. The NCAA is out of the enforcement business. They have neither the manpower nor the willpower to do anything about violations. Even in the case of a repeat offender.
The team quit on its coach. That's pretty apparent. He took 40 cents on the dollar, and both sides will be satisfied.

Chris Mack can claim wins and losses are why he's out. It's that his team has quit on him, or that he wasn't much more for compliance than Rick Pitino was. Or both.

Like many schools, the athletic department probably had enough on him to fire him with cause. But they're embarrassed that they didn't find anyone who could give the appearance of cleaning up anything after Rick Pitino left a slimy trail behind him out the door. And, these days, settling with the coach is typically both cheaper and cleaner than dragging out in the courts (as the folks in Storrs found out and are on the hook for millions to Kevin Ollie plus who knows how much to attorneys).

What a mess. Louisville has been nothing but an embarrassment since John Swofford panted after them to make sure he could hold an extra football game once a season. Not worth it.
 
Kind of an odd question - but when is the last time the NCAA really "took action" against a program. USC's scholarship limits must have been the last big one. Can't remember the last time a team in contention for a title faced a tourney or bowl ban - or lost TV games. Now it's mostly limits on recruiting. It isn't just that there are so many easy work arounds to cheat now - but the penalties are toothless as well.

I guess I'm surprised we haven't heard or read about college athletics cheating in the "modern era" - jocks on the air always joke about the $25 handshakes twenty years later - but we all know it has gotten a lot more creative and detailed in the last 20 years. Jobs and housing for the folks with an "extra car" for junior to use, etc. I wonder if NIL will serve as an amnesty for past acts as long as they are detailed. Shoot, we have gambling partnering with the NFL - it isn't like college sports has a lot of high moral ground anymore.
 
Better job, Louisville or Maryland?

In a vacuum, I'd probably say Louisville: better facilities, better location (no other pro teams to compete for fan dollars in Louisville), slightly better conference fit, fans who don't completely check out if the team is anything less than stellar. But Louisville's administration is a mess right now, it has both an interim AD and an interim school president, and the NCAA still is investigating (toothless as that may be). Maryland, even with an athletic department that always seems to shoot itself in the foot, might be the better job right now, especially if it can get a practice facility built.
 
Speaking of the DC area, the walls may be closing in on Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, who's done little to reverse the program's irrelevance that began under JTIII. He has one year left on his contract, so the school pretty much has to either extend him or cut him loose, and there's very little reason to do the former apart from not disturbing Big John's ghost (this may actually be a consideration there):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/01/22/georgetown-villanova-big-east-basketball-ewing/

'It's not about the talent': Patrick Ewing and the battle to avoid another lost season at Georgetown
 
Better job, Louisville or Maryland?

In a vacuum, I'd probably say Louisville: better facilities, better location (no other pro teams to compete for fan dollars in Louisville), slightly better conference fit, fans who don't completely check out if the team is anything less than stellar. But Louisville's administration is a mess right now, it has both an interim AD and an interim school president, and the NCAA still is investigating (toothless as that may be). Maryland, even with an athletic department that always seems to shoot itself in the foot, might be the better job right now, especially if it can get a practice facility built.
If you’ve seen what Maryland did to upgrade their football facilities you know they will do the same with bball. When engaged Maryland’s game day fan base is top 10. Given the number of pro and college teams in the area, media focus isn’t as intense. You can actually fly under the radar in Maryland. Without Cheating Jim, Ole Roy and the kindly plantation owner Duke K, the ACC will be too large to have meaningful rivalries anymore without their marquee coaches. Already UNC NC State is not a national rivalry like it was. No one is looking forward to Clemson at Pitt in bball. Ever. Notre Dame adds nothing to the conference basketball. The ACC will become #3 basketball conference. SEC is going to move up 1 and stay behind Big10.
 
Speaking of the DC area, the walls may be closing in on Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, who's done little to reverse the program's irrelevance that began under JTIII. He has one year left on his contract, so the school pretty much has to either extend him or cut him loose, and there's very little reason to do the former apart from not disturbing Big John's ghost (this may actually be a consideration there):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/01/22/georgetown-villanova-big-east-basketball-ewing/

'It's not about the talent': Patrick Ewing and the battle to avoid another lost season at Georgetown

Georgetown -- outside of the 2006-07 Final Four season -- has been completely irrelevant to the national college basketball conversation since Allen Iverson left.
 
Georgetown -- outside of the 2006-07 Final Four season -- has been completely irrelevant to the national college basketball conversation since Allen Iverson left.

Absolutely true, but Georgetown has never been big on self-awareness (there were more than a handful of Hoyas fans who were genuinely flabbergasted that the ACC didn't come calling during the last spasm of conference realignment). Its last national title was 38 years ago and its last Final Four run was 15 years ago, but to hear the program's supporters and school officials tell it, those things happened last week. The truth is that Georgetown is, at best, eighth banana in the *DC* sports-world pecking order (behind WFT, Caps, Wiz, Nats, United, Terps men's hoops, Terps football), and one could argue that it's also behind the Mystics and Maryland women's basketball in terms of interest. It plays in a too-big pro arena that's either empty (when the Hoyas are playing either cupcakes or the Big East's lesser lights) or filled with opposing fans (when the Hoyas are playing Cuse, Villanova, UConn, etc.), and there's really no fixing that problem: McDonough isn't big enough or modern enough, there's no room on campus for a right-size college basketball arena that seats like 8,000 and the school's neighbors would never allow such a stadium to be built, anyway.

Georgetown is basically CCNY right now (minus the game-fixing scandals). Finding a coach who accepts that and can thrive within those parameters will be the key.
 
Absolutely true, but Georgetown has never been big on self-awareness (there were more than a handful of Hoyas fans who were genuinely flabbergasted that the ACC didn't come calling during the last spasm of conference realignment). Its last national title was 38 years ago and its last Final Four run was 15 years ago, but to hear the program's supporters and school officials tell it, those things happened last week. The truth is that Georgetown is, at best, eighth banana in the *DC* sports-world pecking order (behind WFT, Caps, Wiz, Nats, United, Terps men's hoops, Terps football), and one could argue that it's also behind the Mystics and Maryland women's basketball in terms of interest. It plays in a too-big pro arena that's either empty (when the Hoyas are playing either cupcakes or the Big East's lesser lights) or filled with opposing fans (when the Hoyas are playing Cuse, Villanova, UConn, etc.), and there's really no fixing that problem: McDonough isn't big enough or modern enough, there's no room on campus for a right-size college basketball arena that seats like 8,000 and the school's neighbors would never allow such a stadium to be built, anyway.

Georgetown is basically CCNY right now (minus the game-fixing scandals). Finding a coach who accepts that and can thrive within those parameters will be the key.

1. good. As a Terp fan during the reign of King John I just have to say Karma’s a *****. Treat the world like **** and eventually with world will **** all over you.

2. what Big East teams from the heyday of the Big East have kept their position atop the basketball world? St Johns is basically in the same position as Georgetown. If you would have said Villanova would remain relevant you’d have been both a soothsayer and unusually observant. Syracuse has remained relevant and successful but it’s also the only school to have to the same head coach and they jumped to the ACC in advance of Boeheim leaving to keep them somewhat relevant. Though it hasn’t helped BC or Pitt.

3. I’m surprised Ewing isn’t more successful. He’s had tons of coaching experience even if it has t been as a head coach. It seems Like he can recruit but absolutely cannot develop players. So many transfer.
 
If you’ve seen what Maryland did to upgrade their football facilities you know they will do the same with bball. When engaged Maryland’s game day fan base is top 10. Given the number of pro and college teams in the area, media focus isn’t as intense. You can actually fly under the radar in Maryland. Without Cheating Jim, Ole Roy and the kindly plantation owner Duke K, the ACC will be too large to have meaningful rivalries anymore without their marquee coaches. Already UNC NC State is not a national rivalry like it was. No one is looking forward to Clemson at Pitt in bball. Ever. Notre Dame adds nothing to the conference basketball. The ACC will become #3 basketball conference. SEC is going to move up 1 and stay behind Big10.

Well it’s been complete ownage by Clemson so why would anyone? Jeff “Recruiting is for Suckers” Capel has beaten Duke more times than dumbass Clemson.
 
Kind of an odd question - but when is the last time the NCAA really "took action" against a program. USC's scholarship limits must have been the last big one. Can't remember the last time a team in contention for a title faced a tourney or bowl ban - or lost TV games. Now it's mostly limits on recruiting. It isn't just that there are so many easy work arounds to cheat now - but the penalties are toothless as well.

I guess I'm surprised we haven't heard or read about college athletics cheating in the "modern era" - jocks on the air always joke about the $25 handshakes twenty years later - but we all know it has gotten a lot more creative and detailed in the last 20 years. Jobs and housing for the folks with an "extra car" for junior to use, etc. I wonder if NIL will serve as an amnesty for past acts as long as they are detailed. Shoot, we have gambling partnering with the NFL - it isn't like college sports has a lot of high moral ground anymore.
Oklahoma State basketball, right now. Miami basketball lost scholarships for several years in the recent past.

But most schools now self impose a bowl or tournament ban to avoid any additional punishment. Ohio State football, for example.

And the NCAA has moved toward suspending coaches vs. hurting players.
 
1. good. As a Terp fan during the reign of King John I just have to say Karma’s a *****. Treat the world like **** and eventually with world will **** all over you.

2. what Big East teams from the heyday of the Big East have kept their position atop the basketball world? St Johns is basically in the same position as Georgetown. If you would have said Villanova would remain relevant you’d have been both a soothsayer and unusually observant. Syracuse has remained relevant and successful but it’s also the only school to have to the same head coach and they jumped to the ACC in advance of Boeheim leaving to keep them somewhat relevant. Though it hasn’t helped BC or Pitt.

3. I’m surprised Ewing isn’t more successful. He’s had tons of coaching experience even if it has t been as a head coach. It seems Like he can recruit but absolutely cannot develop players. So many transfer.

The ESPN story seems to suggest Ewing views recruiting as a tiresome chore -- this seems to be a common thread for NBA guys who try their luck at college coaching -- and that the top recruits he's able to land quickly sour on the Georgetown experience.
 
But most schools now self impose a bowl or tournament ban to avoid any additional punishment. Ohio State football, for example.

Auburn basketball banned itself from the tournament last year, which has so heavily crippled it that it is No. 1 in the nation with a player who should go no worse than third in the lottery if he stays healthy. It simply isn’t a meaningful punishment when it is so easy for a top-tier program to reset.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top