Get rid of Lutz, please.

Bobby was not offered the job at UT. Provide some background to your comments that he has had the opportunity to leave for a better job? where? I am not bashing Lutz but I don’t think he has had the opportunities you say.

he needs to quit recruiting JUCOs who play streetball…

My 2 Cents.

If we had a Tom Izzo coaching this team, we’d be nearing 20 wins given our schedule. Coach Lutz is an average basketball coach who has had really good talent. He is a tireless game planner and is always inpeccably prepared. When teams execute based on this knowledge, they have success.

Our team is composed of basketball chowder heads. They are indecisive or make bad decisions with their passes and shots. In the zones they are often clueless and fail to make the proper rotation. They miss simple reads and are painful to watch.

Lutz needs to emphasize basketball fundamentals more. He’s not getting kids like Eddie that are coming from DeMatha with solid skills and kids like Jobey/Diego who are fundamentally solid. He needs to adjust to fit his more athletic yet rawer team.

I’d say that I have to agree with all of that. Lutz is a good coach, but not a great one. He can take a school in a position like Charlotte and win 17-25 games each year. But, as can be seen from Lutz’ career NCAA appearances he is easily outcoached once he reaches the upper echelon of coaching.

When he wins a national championship, I’ll eat my socks. And proudly do just that.

Bobby was not offered the job at UT. Provide some background to your comments that he has had the opportunity to leave for a better job? where? I am not bashing Lutz but I don't think he has had the opportunities you say.

I think the point was that Bobby was in fact on the list of candidates for the UT job and it’s no secret that Bobby expressed interest. It only became a moot point once UT took Bobby’s name off the list still under consideration. Anyone here who thinks that Lutz wouldn’t have taken that job if offered really has their head in the clouds. Whether or not that situation had an impact on our last 7 games of the year is complete speculation. Though it’s hard to not question the conflict of interests considering the timing.

I like Bobbby and think that he is probably the best we can afford right now. Would I be open to change? Absolutely because for me personally, I’m just not in love with his style of play or his NCAA Tournament letdowns. But I feel it’s wishful thinking to assume we could can Bobby right now and bring in a program saviour. We’d likely take several steps back before we took any forward. With that said, just don’t fool yourself into believe Bobby loves Charlotte too much to ever leave for greener pastures. He would have left last year if given the choice and I expect him to depart us the next time the iron is hot. It’s a business decision if he does and I don’t think it reflects on his lack of loyalty to the Niners.

The reality is…making the tournament 5 out of 7 years under Lutz is a major accomplishment. Far less resources, prestige and major challenges in recruiting compared to other regional schools. Clemson who has 100 times the support, resources and prestige hopes they can crack the NIT.

-Losing to teams we should beat on a consistent basis like this year is the major problem here.

-We have to have a complete team 1-5 to make a run in the tournament. We haven’t had all of the pieces.

[QUOTE=49erFan1;151560]My 2 Cents.

If we had a Tom Izzo coaching this team, we’d be nearing 20 wins given our schedule. Coach Lutz is an average basketball coach who has had really good talent. He is a tireless game planner and is always inpeccably prepared. When teams execute based on this knowledge, they have success.

Our team is composed of basketball chowder heads. They are indecisive or make bad decisions with their passes and shots. In the zones they are often clueless and fail to make the proper rotation. They miss simple reads and are painful to watch.

Lutz needs to emphasize basketball fundamentals more. He’s not getting kids like Eddie that are coming from DeMatha with solid skills and kids like Jobey/Diego who are fundamentally solid. He needs to adjust to fit his more athletic yet rawer team.[/QUOTE]

I think this is a brilliant point, we need to fire Lutz and Hire Izzo. Problem solved, let me book my tickets to the final 4 right now. Hell forget Izzo (He had a bad year 2 years ago) lets hire Coach K. I think all we need is an Athletic Director with your keen insight and ability to spot diamond in the rough coaching talent and we will be will on our way to greatness.

Lee Rose? I think he still goes to a lot of games.

Tom Penders once said “If Adolph f’in Hitler could hit the 3, I’d start him”. I imagine Bobby has spoken many similar statements.

[QUOTE=LeftyNiner;151584]The reality is…making the tournament 5 out of 7 years under Lutz is a major accomplishment. Far less resources, prestige and major challenges in recruiting compared to other regional schools. Clemson who has 100 times the support, resources and prestige hopes they can crack the NIT.

-Losing to teams we should beat on a consistent basis like this year is the major problem here.

-We have to have a complete team 1-5 to make a run in the tournament. We haven’t had all of the pieces.[/QUOTE]

Good post Lefty, but most people on this board will not accept logic like this.

To remind everyone - “We are what we are”. Yes this year sucks, but sh*t happens.

It’s been asked before, but who are we going to hire to replace Lutz that either matches or exceeds the success he has had here, and for what we currently pay him (which we are stretching to do given our resources)? I don’t want the “what if” nonsense. I just want to know who is out there with PROVEN NCAA success that would be better than Lutz [B][I]and[/I][/B] that we could afford. There might be two, but I can only think of one right now. And no, his name isn’t Bob. He will cost in excess of $1 mill. Simply changing to change isn’t the answer. It just leads to recruiting instability later on. Hopefully in 07-08 we will have the most complete team we have had since 1998 and 2001.

The reality is...making the tournament 5 out of 7 years under Lutz is a major accomplishment.

Agreed. We could certainly be a LOT worse off but with that said, are we to all just be content with getting in and a first weekend flop? Are we supposed to set our goals at simply getting an at-large, regardless of what happens after that? Personally, I expect and desire more. Let’s face it, out of those 5 years, we had to get auto bids and normally sweat out Selection Sunday when we didn’t have the auto. Rarely are we in a position where we know we’re in and obviously, we haven’t gotten past the 2nd round under Bobby.

Again, I’d rather have our history over the last 7 years than the majority of Div. 1 programs. But I feel like we’re just hovering on the same plateau with an occasional descent backwards. I’d like to reach the next level at some point instead of being happy with being slightly above average.

We all have different expectations. I just think some of us have higher ones than others at this point.

seriously comparing Charlotte to Clemson…the A10 to the ACC. What a joke, that’s like who’s hotter Meg Ryan or Jack Nicholson. The ACC is far more elite than our conference, Much tougher teams, schedule, etc. That’s not even a conversation worth having. Bottom line…Forget regular season as far as coaching (not playing, record, etc) WHAT HAS LUTZ DONE??? Nothing!! He has all the talent in the world as far as I’m concerned. I crossed my fingers that Withers wouldn’t leave b/c I thouhgt he and Alexander could dominate together. Which they could if the coaching plan would allow for that. He doesn’t know how to adjust at all. When were down at the half forget it we’ll pull back within 4 or 5 then allow a run to happen and we’re down by 10 or 15 again. When a team doesn’t play well or make it to the NEXT level guess what it’s the coaching!! I know it’s a conversation thats pointless but we won’t make it to another Elite 8/Final 4 until we have a football team. It brings more students, more quality athletes, and puts the school on the map. Moving to the A10 was supposed to address that by putting us in an all basketball conference and a weak one at that to where anything less than 1st in the conference was a LOSS! Well it’s just that a total loss! I’m pretty sure we’re close to matching our all time losses in Halton this year alone to ice the cake.

[QUOTE=Niner03;151606]seriously comparing Charlotte to Clemson…the A10 to the ACC. What a joke, that’s like who’s hotter Meg Ryan or Jack Nicholson. The ACC is far more elite than our conference, Much tougher teams, schedule, etc. That’s not even a conversation worth having.[/QUOTE]

You’re exactly right. There’s no comparison. Charlotte has been significantly better than Clemson the past 10 years. Are you familiar with the RPI??? It provides a point of comparison since everyone can’t playe everyone. This year is a major letdown. I certainly agree with that.

[QUOTE=jcl49er;151601]
We all have different expectations. I just think some of us have higher ones than others at this point.[/QUOTE]

And I think some of us either aren’t aware of the challenges we face or don’t fully understand them. It’s very difficult to break through and be a consistent top 25 team.

Give Lutz the resources and recruiting advantage of the ACC, SEC, or Big East (also the reason why he considered UT) and then we’re on more even playing ground. While you’re at it give us a football team and 100 years of tradition. There’s no excuse for losing to the teams we’ve lost to this year. I’m not disputing that but people are always saying why he can’t he do more. My response is look at what he has done with FAR LESS.

Give Lutz the resources and recruiting advantage of the ACC, SEC, or Big East and then we're on more even playing ground.

I’m so sick of this ridiculous excuse. It’s complete speculation to assume that Bobby would do any better if he were in one of those conferences. By your logic, I can also say that Coach K would do far more with our current team than what Bobby is doing with it.

Get out of the fairy tale land of comparing our program to the likes of those in the ACC. Historically, it’s absurd to even mention the two together. The reality is that while at Charlotte, Bobby is NOT going to have the resources and recruiting that those other conferences have. So he has to make the most out of what he has. Has he been successful at that? Yes, if you put the measuring stick at post season appearances. But would you rather have Gonzaga’s success of the last 7 years or ours? They weren’t exactly handpicking McDonald’s AA’s but still managed to surpass our postseason success. Yes, they may be a rarity in college basketball but it can be done. You can sniff the 2nd weekend of the NCAA and be a top 25 team despite not being in an elite conference.

Didn’t Clemson lose to Elon this year??

The ACC is an average conference this year compared to past years. That is the problem with the ACC, everyone is still living in the past. Take away the 900 LB gorilla marketing machine the ACC has and the TV coverage and I think you would look at the ACC a lot different.

[QUOTE]I’m so sick of this ridiculous excuse. It’s complete speculation to assume that Bobby would do any better if he were in one of those conferences. By your logic, I can also say that Coach K would do far more with our current team than what Bobby is doing with it.[[/QUOTE]

He/we would definitely have better talent top to bottom in one of those power conferences. Any guy that we recruited that ended up in the ACC, BE, or SEC would have been more likely to play for him. We’ve missed on some major talent and didn’t even go after bigtime players because it’s a waste of time. WE have to pick our battles. So yes, I think he would have a better team if he coached in one of those conferences. I’m not sure how Coach K coming to Charlotte/A-10 to coach is similar, although I do think his spread, dribble drive would be effective with our current team.

[QUOTE=LeftyNiner;151613]And I think some of us either aren’t aware of the challenges we face or don’t fully understand them. It’s very difficult to break through and be a consistent top 25 team. [/QUOTE]

Q = Are there challenges at Charlotte that inhibit the level of success that we’d all like?
A = I’m sure there are.

Q = Does ANYONE on this board understand them?
A = IMO, I doubt it.

If these “challenges” are such big road blocks, then SOMEONE needs to try SOMETHING different. This BS of Lutz is the “best we can get” or “we do well with the resources we have” is old, tiring or worn out.

If the Athletic Dept. issues are so significant, then there should be:

  1. more information coming from the department on how GREAT the needs really are.

OR (at the other extreme)

  1. an investigative report from the media on how poorly run the department is

[QUOTE=LeftyNiner;151584]-Losing to teams we should beat on a consistent basis like this year is the major problem here.[/QUOTE]

That has been a real problem for us in recent years. Despite having more talent we seem to lose several games every year to really bad teams. That is one thing that has held us back. For whatever reason, Bobby doesn’t seem to be able to get his teams motivated to play teams like this. How many times in the last few years have we talked about how our team comes out of the locker room flat? Yes, we still won a lot of those games but not all of them. And the losses really hurt.

We all know that seeding means everything as far as advancing in the NCAA tournament… and we always have several bad losses on our resume that hold us back. What seed would we have been last year without the losses to Rutgers, ECU, and USF? Losses like that are going to happen occasionally, but they happen too frequenty for us. We need to consistantly beat the teams we should beat and try to win a few we shouldn’t along the way.

Obviously Bobby has a lot of work to do, but I think he has to start with defense. We haven’t had a good defensive team in years despite having one of the best defenders in the conference for the last couple of years. All it takes is ball movement and maybe a couple of screens and even mediocre teams can get wide open shots against us. That has to change if we ever want to be a consistant top 25 team. I really wish Bobby would bring in a new assistant just to coach defense.

I'm not sure how Coach K coming to Charlotte/A-10 to coach is similar

Because it’s based on the same BS logic that you’re using when saying Lutz would do better in the ACC. It’s all speculation and you have no way of knowing what Bobby would do there. He could end up doing worse simply because the level of competition is stiffer (with the exception of this year because the ACC is way down). It’s all a bunch of “what if’s” and there is absolutely ZERO sound evidence support your claim about Bobby or mine about Coach K.

And making excuses for Bobby by saying we’ve missed out on talent is ridiculous as well. You think we’re the only team missing out on talent to the more elite conferences? What team out there other than maybe Duke can’t say “Well, if we had only gotten so and so!!!” Give me a break. You make it seem like Bobby is the only coach in D-1 who’s not able to handpick his players.