Just no. Hiring someone that flamed out years ago is no way to rebuild a program. Weâve sucked so long that people are idolizing someone who coached poorly his last few seasons. Has our program gone off a cliff since then? Maybe. But Lutz contributed to that.
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Bobby Lutz last won a game as a HC on 2/24/10 when he was still coaching Charlotte and we beat St Joes at home. That was before a three game skid to limp into A10 tourney play and the loss against UMass at home.
Some of you have lost your freaking mind if you think the answer is to hire a coach that has not won a game in 4,352 days, has no experience recruiting in todays environment (where you have to recruit to retain your roster every year), is now in his early 60s and would be an absolute retread of a hire.
How does Mike spin that press conference? âWell guys, we really want to build a culture of winning here and no one else wanted our money except the Bobby who is a just an all around great guy and heck of a coach!â
What a joke that would be and such a let down for the fans when the nostalgia wears off and the frustration grows with his junk defense, ability to run one of only two plays out of a timeout and frequent comments of how the average fan doesnât know how good (insert school) really is after an embarrassing loss.
If Mike Hill hired Bobby for anything other than special advisor or AD role (which I would support) then it is a VERY poor reflection on his ability to source talent and means his connections and brand are not as good as we hoped.
Bring Bobby Back? NO THANK YOU.
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Weâve had 1 season with more wins than Bobbyâs last since he was fired. Yeah its been over 10 years since he has won a game as a head coach but no one weâve hired since has ever won a game as a head coach before coming here. He has been involved as an assistant & other roles so its not like heâs been playing bingo at the retirement community. I really get the feeling that the revisionist history from the against Bobby side is about as far from reality as it is on the pro Bobby side. Are there better options out there. Yes. Are there better options willing to come here for what we can pay to turn around a dumpster fire of a program that hasnât been relevant for 10-15 years. Iâm not sure. Thatâs why Iâm not willing to say he shouldnât be on the list of candidates if heâs even interested.
Bobby left the program In worse shape than he found it when he was fired. Plain and simple.
What makes yâall think he would leave it in better shape this time aroundâŚafter not being the head guy for over 10 years, being in his 60s and the program being dead and rotting in the ground?
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Are we gonna BUILD BACK BOBBY?
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I donât care if you want Lutz back or not, Bobby most certainly left the program in a better shape than when he started.
He had a huge role in the most sustained success our program has ever had. From the time he was hired as an assistant, to the time he was fired, we went to 6 NCAA Tournaments & 3 NITs. Thatâs 9 out of 15 seasons in postseason. 8 out of 12 as a HC. Bobby helped raise the bar for this program. We expected to be dancing every year and for multiple reasons, he wasnât able to meet those expectations when we were kicked out of C-USA 1.0.
Debate all you want about whether or not he is qualified for our job today, but lets not act like he was a sh*tty coach. Even when he was fired, he had just won 19 games. Weâve sniffed that once since heâs been gone. Every crappy season we have now, I gain more respect for Lutz. Look how hard it is to win here. We are paying people double the amount he was making, and having none of the success.
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Itâs hard to win here because weâve made absolutely terrible hires. We hired guys who just werenât cut out to be head coaches in Major and Sanchez, and a guy worth tens of millions already with no fire in Price.
Look down the road at Winthrop. I mean hell, I could pick dozens of examples of less attractive schools with lower salaries and way worse facilities with less resources and no history that have done better than we have. It isnât hard to win here⌠we just continue to shoot ourselves in the foot by making terrible hires.
Get a coach in here that can win for Christâs sake, preferably not someone in their sixties who hasnât been a head coach in over a decade that hasnât won an NCAA game since before our students were born.
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I like Bobby, met him a few times and he was always nice but I want this answer, why has he not had a job that afforded him to be on the sidelines since NC State?
In the years since he left there have been 100âs of opportunities to get jobs as a head coach or assistant but he has not. I know some say he has had opportunities but didnât like them, which is his choice, but that begs to question what is he really looking for in a job?
He wasnât a shitty coach, Iâm not implying that. He did do great things for the program and served his time here well. As the head guy though, he left the program in worse shape than when he came in.
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He took over a program that had made the NCAA tournament 3 times and NIT once in the past five seasons. His last five seasons, he made the NIT twice. Thats worse.
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The roster management near the end of his tenure was poor. Alan Major didnât walk into a bare team, but it certainly needed to be reloaded/rebuilt. Thats worse than what he took over. This is more of an opinion, so others can comment.
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Fan attendance was averaging 6,184 in his last season. His first season it was 6,676. A slight drop, but even worse looking when you consider the growth of the city/university. Thats worse.
2 of those 3 points are statistical. You can argue them or make excuses but at the end of the day thats the data. If its entirely his fault, or Judys, the move to the A-10, Football so on sure, we can debate that. But as the head guy, the program was in worse shape when he left, when we look at it objectively.
No one has brought any other argument to counter that except that âhe was fieryâ or âwe expected to winâ or whatever feeling he made you feel when he was the coach. Feelings donât win you games or get you dancing though. Its definitely not gonna bring us back to the promise land if we bring him back;
The issue wasnât firing him, that was the right call. The issue is who we hired to replace him. Bringing him back isnât going to fix the original problem that got him fired in the first place.
Speaking of us making shitty hires, how the hell does Will Wade still have a jobâŚ
Sweet 16 and a second round last season? More than weâve done in almost 50 years.
As for potential NCAA violations, itâs all about the $EC baby. Rules donât apply there.
Yeah, I know but the fucker is caught on tape talking about what a great cash offer they made to a recruit. Then again, UNC-Ch skated, not sure why Iâm surprisedâŚ
All you have to do is look at how fast the luster wore off of bringing Cam Newton back, and how fast that went south. And yes, I was on that train. But the difference there was that Cam had fairly recently won games as a starting QB in the NFL, and frankly, I didnât expect much from him. Bobby hasnât been a HC for going on 12 years now, and the member berries are strong that he will walk in with the power of the sun behind him and Camelot will return (yes, a fictional kingdom, not the reality of all the frustrations we had with him as HC of an A10 program).
I hate this thread and I hate saying negative things about Lutz. He produced my favorite run of Niners athletics ever.
But times have changed, and he isnât the answer. I and others have proposed some potentially viable candidates. We really need to move on. These threads are such a sports fan cliche⌠A bunch of people clinging desperately to the past. I wouldnât forget it, but you have to realize it isnât coming back. Not like it was. If we do have success again, it will look different, because things are different now. We need to be thinking about what would work now, not what worked 20 years ago.
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Iâm just ready for us to dump Sanchez and make a hire so this conversation can die.
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This convo will only die when Bobby is hired.
I think it will die when someone is hired who equals or surpasses Bobbyâs success here. Iâm so looking forward to that day.
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Letâs steal Frank Haith from Tulsa. He went to my high school, letâs get him back local
I donât know why yaâll think we canât land a quality coach. We are going to be playing in the best non-P5 conference, paying well (likely goes up going into AAC) and a history (yes older history now) of success. Yes Halton could stand an update but it isnât a dump. You have a great metro area to recruit. A fanbase that is dying (literally we are all getting older) for success. You have an AD that helped Florida win two titles and Ast AD with experience at Syracuse. We also have a history of giving a guy enough time to prove they can win. The only maybe quick firing was Price and that AD is gone. I donât think there is a shortage of coaches that would be interested in coming here.
Oops, wait, wrong oneâŚ
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Address these as it relates to Bobbyâs success.
It was stated that the move to the A10 was going to be a challenge, a significant step down from CUSA. Recruits would be different requiring building a new pipeline. Players wanting to compete in CUSA were not the same as A10. We were seeing a step up in Lutz last year.
Was the few down years all Lutz or is it fair to share with administration decisions?
How about the demand for Lutz to have a different sideline coaching style? Players responded and respected his style. Telling a coach to lose his fire and passion in place of a more conservative style took away a very important tool, assuming the rumor is true. I saw the change first hand.
Lutz last 5 years was not that bad especially looking at his complete body of work. All programs outside of the super elite have down streaks. Many super elites do.
The coach was not the issue. Lutz has only gained valuable experience since he has been gone. He has been coaching college basketball, not fishing, since he departed. Given the chance, he could return our program to relevance quicker than most, if not all.
What is your reason for being here? Most want a place to build their resumes. For Lutz it would be to return home and put an exclamation point on his career. He could also groom his successor. Think about it.