We continue to not be able to pay coaches market rate because we are paying two - or three - coaches at a time.
That alone is reason for firing Mike. He has been an absolutely AWFUL steward of our studentsā and alumniās money.
We also quite literally just made the argument with Biff that it didnāt matter if someone was on a long contract, they should be fired if they arenāt getting it done. It was a completely boneheaded idea to extend Mike - literally no school above the AAC would even give him an interview, heās been absolutely atrocious in the only sports their alumni care about. Why the hell is this guy even on a contract? There is a literal ZERO percent chance we lose him to someone else.
The Niners have never played Stonehill in menās hoops. In fact, only time weāve ever played them in any athletic competition appears to be menās club lacrosse back in 2022 - a 21-6 Niner win.
I always said it is more about the talent on the floor than the coaching.
Yes, I know the coach has to manage the team and adjust, but is he really
responsible for recruiting now? I think NWA alluded to this, Times have changed.
Our offense works and we get good looks. Our guys just canāt put the ball in the basket.
We are too slow to stop anyone on defense or get to a long rebound.
Coaching cannot fix this.
I am writing this year off and giving Fearne next year to get things going in the right direction before giving up on him.
Fearnes offense is designed to run through the center and feed cutters to the basket for layups. It probably works for 3 layups a game. Most of the time itās pass ithe ball around until there is 5 seconds on the shot clock and then go one on three before throwing up a desperation 3. So many times when we do get the ball in the lane we lose the ball or try to pick up a foul especially Graves and the refs are not giving us that call in league play because itās too obvious. When we do try to screen it typically turn into an illegal screen.
As far as defense when Braswell , Rolf, or Reiber are out their other teams immediately take them inside and score easily.
When it comes to rebounding it helps if we try to make some kind of effort to box out, jump, or dive for loose balls.
This system will not work with the amount of turnover each year. Same thing happening at UVA.
Basketball is not that complicated. We need a major overhaul.
Agree with a lot of your points @Niners.
Especially the (not) blocking out on defensive rebounding.
We do get layups and put-backs - but miss them.
We get wide-open easy looks (Hootie would hit 50% of these) but miss them.
We have a D1 player shooting 3-16 from the free throw line.
Our first guard off the bench shoots 41% from the line and 21% from 3-ptā¦
Defenders do not even guard him on the perimeter.
I could go on but no (system) will fix this.
Need a couple of pure shooters to Open up the Offense. I was hoping Braswell
(in his 7Th year) would be this guy .
Im not convinced heās the solution. I am just not sure he is the problem. If we extended him because we wanted to keep the team together then Mike was an idiot. I would have preferred a search, but was also ok with keeping Aaron. I think its clear the #1 issue this year is talent.
With football yes. At least wills other jobs helps us with the offset and we havent written as dumb a contract as Bobbyās since Bobby.
With basketball we didnāt owe Ron anything - in fact he owed(s) us. We negotiated a significantly lower amount with Major. Fancher we didnāt owe when Mike let him go. We havenāt been paying two basketball coaches in quite awhile.
The good news is since we pay below market when we have fired them its cost us less
We arenāt paying market rate for coaches. Period. And that is an issue just as much as Mikeās track record. We lucked out getting Albin at the price we did.
Correct! I went back read some old posts last season around the time Fearne was hired. The argument to go ahead and promote him during the season was a fear he was going to be hired elsewhere and he would be able to get an early start on next yearās recruiting + keep some pieces together. That did not work out.
Weāve got to do better also regarding coaches salaries.
I donāt know how much that factored into Mike Hillās decision to promote him but it clearly shouldnāt have. I understand fans and alums being caught up in the moment (tons of excitement around winning 11 of 12 games). The athletic director has to look at the big picture when making hiring decisions. I hope Fearne can turn things around next season.
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