The kind of winning % Jay might have put together for the FB team if he had taken the reins after his long apprenticeship.
Thank god the school cares about football
BTN POST GAME: Sandy Says Pat Will Be Back!
- Thread starter ILLINOISLION
- Start date
Thank god the school cares about football
Texas A&M just fired their basketball coach Billy Kennedy after a 14-18 season. In eight years, A&M was 151-116 under Kennedy and made two NCAA tournament appearances where he reached the Sweet 16.
Guess the bar is a bit higher in College Station verses State College.
Guess the bar is a bit higher in College Station verses State College.
There’s another place in bum**** that almost always has way better b-ball than PSU
Pat is being retained because Sandy doesn't want to convince the board to eat the contract in year 1. There's pretty much no other reason; if this was the 2nd or 3rd year of his contract he would 100 percent have been fired today. He's lucky and he's got one more chance here. To me, the issue is not whether you fire him in year 7, 8, or 9. The issue is whether the school will actually make an investment when they make a change - or if it will just be a transition to more of the same. If it's going to be a lackluster hire, it will be more of the same thing that we've seen for 25 years. In that case I really don't even know what the point of firing and hiring would be. Might as well just go with continuity.
BTW, you mentioned that the TA&M coach went two NCAA tournaments in 8 years. Jerry Dunn did that here, and also reached a Sweet 16. It doesn't mean he was very good (he wasn't). PSU decided to move on and made a change - to Ed DeChellis. LOL
Since it's a foregone conclusion that Chambers is back next year, I hope the team does very well.
Some comfort is watching Cael’s boys annihilate the field. That’s what my eyes will be glued to late in the week
At least we know we’ll be able to sit and enjoy everyone else’s games next year too. No pressure.
Really? Give me a ****ing break? Go hug a tree and let those endorphins kick in nicely......
Chambers is fine, if PSU is unwilling to commit financially to the program. We cannot expect anything more if we're at the bottom of the Big Ten in funding. If the school wants to commit more money, then I'll expect more. For now, being a near .500 team while 13th in spending seems fair enough.
If Lamar stays, next year we make the dance! The recruits that were not there for many of Pat's classes are there now...the guy can coach...just needs a full supporting cast and the Cavalry is coming...
I think the "It's hard to get kids to central PA for Bball" is the biggest and lamest excuse.
Let's play hypothetical.... For fun, let's just say that at the end of the season Coach K claims that he is tired of Duke and the only thing that will interest him is to rebuild a new program.... Coach K picks Penn State and claims that as much as he loves Duke, at this point in his life the challenge he seeks is to build a program at Penn State. Chambers steps aside and allows Coach K to take over the reigns at Penn State.....
OK.... With Coach K as the Head Coach at Penn State... how many kids do you see flocking to central PA for Bball??? With Coach K as the Head Coach I would imagine there would be a steady stream of nationally ranked Top 10 / 5* all americans tripping over themselves to play Bball at Penn State.
Yes. I agree, Central PA is not ideal. But you have to give the kids an incentive.
And one more thing about this "It's hard to get kids to Central PA..." excuse.
One theory I always held is that Penn State needed a long-range plan for Men's BB to target the 2nd-tier cities of PA for talent. Get a marketing campaign, a strategic recruiting plan, a visibility plan ... whatever. But if you took all of PA's 2nd-tier cities: Allentown/Bethlehem, Easton, Scanton W-B, Reading, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Erie..... and you developed a program that became a very desirable destination for kids from those cities, then you'd get decent talent. I always held the belief that if Penn St could get the best talent from those 2nd-tier cities every year, then we would have pretty decent talent on the roster.
I do not know what the answer is. Maybe Chambers needs his own caravan every year to stop in those cities? Maybe Chambers needs to hold camps in those cities? Maybe have "home" games every year in a few of those cities? For example how about pulling 2 games per year away from the BJC and alternating them at the indoor arenas at those 2nd-tier cities? Most of those cities hold PSU branch campuses, how about incorporating their branch campuses into something with the Men's BB team...???
I'm just saying that if you took Erie, Allentown-Bethlehem, S W-B, Reading, Lancaster, Harrisburg.... and you got the top 1 or 2 kids each & every year from those cities, then you'd eliminate the "kids don't want to go to Central, PA" thing.
And the hills of West Virginia is such an ideal place, yet WVU has done really well over the years in basketball, even without big name coaches. You’re exactly right, the correct guy could get it started.
If Coach K was hired at 1 of our Div3 branch teams, he'd recruit and coach a lineup that would be better than the main squad with Pat in under a year.
How about our football program? Under the theory that "It's hard to get kids to central PA for Bball" .... then why is it easier to get kids to central PA for football?? That would mean that all basketball players are from urban areas such as Philly, and all football players are from suburban or rural areas. I look at the football roster and I see many kids from urban/metro areas. We have a great number of kids on the football roster from the DC area, Philly, NYC.... So those kids who play football but are from urban areas are OK with central PA, but the kids from urban areas who happen to play basketball are not Ok with central PA.
You have to give them an incentive. Rip Engle and then Paterno built a football program that made it worthwhile for ALL kids ... kids from urban or rural areas... to bring their skills to central PA. Bill O'Brien and now James Franklin have continued the incentive. We can go into DC or Brooklyn and have a legit shot at bringing a football player to central PA
The basketball program does not give any kid from anywhere any incentive to go to central PA.
I have not. Are they really good Bball programs? They may have flashes here and again but I wouldn’t mark those down as model programs from a wins perspective (or any other given the SEC’s rep). But, maybe they do have a high winning percentage over the last 15-20 years and they just never hit my radar.
Respectfully, that’s what was said last year too. The consensus of the board then was Chambers needed to get an NCAA bid this year or it was time to go.
One year later, that’s forgotten and we are now back to the old mantra of “next year!”.
At what point is it enough? Sandy says he’s back for year 9. What year is the deadline for an NCAA bid? We are quickly approaching a decade already.
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Good chance we make it next year with everyone back plus the added recruits
At this point it is a financial calculation. Enough is enough when PSU is fine with eating the remainder of the contract and also paying a new coach in the same year. I wish it worked differently but I think that is the reality right now.
But when the contract is in its last year, the whining and gnashing of teeth starts all over again, like last year, that we'll lose all the recruits and even current team that Chambers assembled.
A disgrace
That certainly is a possibility. But I'm looking for something to happen over the next two seasons. The team has a bad season and Pat is gone. Team has two good seasons and Pat is extended. There are variations. If this runs to Pat's last year, then it confirms that Barbour is the incompetent that we only think she is.
It's always an opinion even as evidence accumulates to drive the conclusion to fact.
Intersting comparison on different expectations at 2 non basketball schools-
Chambers just finished his 8th season at 14-18 with an overall record of 127-140 (.474).
The Texas A&M coach just finished his 8th season at 14-18 with an overall record of 151-116 (.565). He also took them to March madness twice (2016, 2018) and made the sweet 16 both times. He was fired Friday.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/26275845/texas-fires-kennedy-14-18-season
Chambers just finished his 8th season at 14-18 with an overall record of 127-140 (.474).
The Texas A&M coach just finished his 8th season at 14-18 with an overall record of 151-116 (.565). He also took them to March madness twice (2016, 2018) and made the sweet 16 both times. He was fired Friday.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/26275845/texas-fires-kennedy-14-18-season
A&M went to the tourney 6 straight years before Kennedy was hired (plus they are playing in a weaker conference than the B1G), and they are paying him 2.5 million/year. Obviously the expectations will be different.
Well, both are traditional ‘non basketball’ schools clearly with different expectations and approaches. PSU seems happy as long as big ten money rolls in. Texas A&M clearly wants more.
Out of curiosity what does Chambers make? (I honestly don’t know- just wondering).
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