(07-22-2021 01:12 PM)RamDawg Wrote: (07-20-2021 05:57 PM)Longhorn Wrote: (07-19-2021 05:30 PM)RamDawg Wrote: (07-14-2021 03:56 PM)Longhorn Wrote: (07-14-2021 02:16 PM)RamDawg Wrote: To add a thought: Look at JMU football where the program as a whole is strong. When a coach leaves for bigger and better things, you simply hire a quality staff that is attracted to the job/program and kind of just "reload". In modern times (10 or 15 years) I don't recall JMU being considered a strong basketball program where we can simply reload.
Basketball in CAA and JMU basketball currently isn't a place that attracts quality and/or proven MBB coaches. We are at a place that attracts coaches that are looking to work their way to the big time. We need to gamble a bit. Coaches like Brady (in 8 seasons .547) can find a home but those coaches that are consistently knocking out 20+ wins (.700) are likely to move on fairly quickly.
I loved the gamble JMU took on Coach Rowe, Being easy to look back now: Coach Rowe was pretty much set up for probable failure. Same with Coach B. but he seems to have something that hopefully continues the healing.
Rowe was never the right hire. It was a terrible “gamble” if you want to think of it as a “gamble”…there’s no rear-view, 20-20 “looking back” to revise the majority opinion at the time. LR just wasn’t ready. His hire was a confluence of several missteps. The administration didn’t want to invest the money in a proven HC was principal among them. As a result the search was doomed to failure from the beginning. The administration did the same thing with the Keener hire, and to a lesser degree when they hired Dillard because he was a valued alum of MBB.
The current JMU HC hire was not a “gamble” with comparables to LR, so I don’t get where that thought is coming from. MB was a seasoned HC who had previously worked as an assistant with a number of excellent mentors, both facts and the kind of experience LR lacked. I’ll conclude that your suggestion that the CAA is not a MBB league that attracts quality and/or proven coaches is simply not factual. There have been a number of excellent hires in the league, as well as a number of so-so hires. But CAA MBB has a solid rep, and suffers no more or no less than any other so-called mid-major in attracting and retaining coaching talent.
Well we can agree to disagree, The CAA is a one bid conference and likely will be for quite a while. Chances for post season bonuses, not good. Ease of recruiting true basketball talent, not good. Top HC pay in the CAA, not good. TV deals; not good. My opinion; The CAA is a stepping stone conference for HC's and with the "new" transfer rules, applies to athletes that excel.
Being a one bid mid doesn’t make the CAA a bad MBB conference, it makes it exactly like most every other mid in existence. Judging a conference based on the pay for a HC is an odd perspective, however, as top CAA salaries in the $500k range are again no different than other mids. Your suggestion that the CAA is a “stepping stone” for HCs (which can be true) runs counter to your argument that the league is “not good”…i.e. how does an ambitious and talented HC move up (using the CAA as a “stepping stone”) if the CAA is so bad? As far as the new transfer rule goes only time will tell how it impacts not only the CAA, but all mids, and even some of the P5 teams. It’s a bit too early to use the new transfer rules to argue that alone will negatively impact the CAA.
The only big problem the CAA suffers as a mid is the one Dukester has long identified, and that’s the lack of rivals. When VCU, GMU and ODU left it definitely weakened the CAA, and certainly hurt the interest of JMU fans.
CAA isn't bad basketball. The CAA isn't a place to attract and keep the best coaches. A CAA coach heads to the NCAAT a couple of years and wins a couple of games, he's going to be poached. The top coaches in the A-10, also a mid major are pulling in over $1m. Even Mooney (Ticks) has a base of $750K and not consistently good and has like a 10 year contract. Anthony Grant (Dayton) and Rhoades (VCU) are both pulling in well over $1.5M.
I'm not totally sold on rivalries, they do attract more fans. At some point, I would love to see VCU vs. JMU every year. However I'm more interested in playing quality opponents to boost our chances of playing post season. Post season, playing on TV is how programs grow.
Did I say that the CAA is a mid conference that pays its HC’s the most? No. Did I say the CAA is the best mid? No. Yet at $500k salaries for HCs in the CAA are not exactly chicken feed, and again, using the metric of coaching salaries to determine the quality of a league isn’t a good one.
You did say, however, again, that the CAA doesn’t attract good head coaches, and that’s just factually wrong.
How did Anthony Grant make his way to VCU? Or Shaka Smart? Were they bad coaches that just got lucky? Or did the CAA attract a couple of young, talented coaches on their way up the coaching ladder?
Eventually both Grant and Smart got paid at VCU, but then Grant left for more money at Alabama, only to get canned. Smart left a $1 million contract at VCU for Texas money, and just this off-season left Texas before getting shown the door for less money at Marquette. Both still are making “big bucks” compared to the average working Joe, but does their failure at the level of P5 competition make them bad coaches? Or are they just mediocre coaching talent now that they’ve settled in lower-level conferences? Obviously, reliance on inflated coaching salaries is not a good barometer for gauging coaching talent, or the quality of a league.
VCU, ODU, GMU, UNCW…even JMU, have all had their moments of hiring excellent coaches, and then seeing them move on to higher callings, or in the case of Lefty, not having their contract renewed. That’s life, and to be expected. Somehow you’ve come to a conclusion that CAA basketball is something less than it is, because it’s not what you want it to be.
There are different levels of mids (duh) and the CAA is simply a solid East Coast basketball league that has its pluses and minuses. It’s populated by a range of talent, both in coaching and on its rosters. The CAA isn’t the A10, but not all A10 teams are necessarily hot stuff.
During the CAA’s history it’s had its moments. Those moments have seen programs like VCU elevate their profile and to move on to what VCU considers a better conference. Good for VCU, however, I still miss JMU playing the Rams on a regular basis, and the rivalry between all the VA schools.
The possibility that a current CAA team might replicate VCU and GMU’s NCAAT runs is not beyond consideration, but it’s almost impossible to predict when or where anything that extraordinary might be repeated.
With JMU’s new MBB HC and top line facilities JMU is positioning itself to become more competitive both in recruiting and on the court. Hopefully last year’s success was just a glimpse of what is in store for JMU MBB. If it is, and our current HC does for JMU what Shaka Smart did for VCU I would expect P5s to come calling, and I would be happy for our coach. I would
also expect the success of a revitalized JMU MBB program would attract strong applicants for the coaching vacancy. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?
As for your notion of “not being sold on rivalries” I suppose that would be matter of personal choice, however, the energy present when VCU plays ODU should be all the proof you need to see that rivalries are the essence of college sports. Without them, something fundamental is absent and it diminishes the in-person game experience.