Is that a pattern I see?

[Pablo]

Again, not exactly correct. You're right about Larranaga's credentials -- he was kind of a WTF? hire -- but TOC didn't pick him. TOC preferred Jim Baron, but was overruled by a university search committee that settled on Larranaga.

Jim,

I'm not sure what you are saying. Are you saying that the university search committee made the decision? Or, are you saying that Merten accepted the university search committee's recommendation over TOC's?

 

[gmujim92]

Jim,

I'm not sure what you are saying. Are you saying that the university search committee made the decision? Or, are you saying that Merten accepted the university search committee's recommendation over TOC's?

All I know is that Larranaga was not TOC's choice. He wanted Baron.

We wound up with Larranaga, so that says to me that whoever officially made the hire decided that they preferred the search committee's pick.

When Larranaga left, TOC handled the search himself and we wound up with Hewitt. The jury is still out on whether it was a good decision, obviously.

 

[gmujim92]

Whether it is 1,3, or 5 years from now when we hire a new Coach, I hope we thoroughly exhaust the program through vcu. At a loss on its name, Villa 5?

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

The program was Villa 7, but it's no longer at vcu.

Mike Ellis, a fomer vcu associate AD, ran Villa 7 through his connections with Nike. But Ellis went to Minnesota with Norwood Teague, and I'm not sure if they're going to keep it alive there or not.

 

[Pablo]

All I know is that Larranaga was not TOC's choice. He wanted Baron.

We wound up with Larranaga, so that says to me that whoever officially made the hire decided that they preferred the search committee's pick.

When Larranaga left, TOC handled the search himself and we wound up with Hewitt. The jury is still out on whether it was a good decision, obviously.

Jim,

Is it possible that Baron was TOC's initial choice because he didn't know Larranaga would become available? Then, once Larranaga decided he was willing to leave Bowling Green after 11 seasons and pursue other coaching opportunities, he became the obvious choice of the search committee and TOC.

 

[gmujim92]

Jim,

Is it possible that Baron was TOC's initial choice because he didn't know Larranaga would become available? Then, once Larranaga decided he was willing to leave Bowling Green after 11 seasons and pursue other coaching opportunities, he became the obvious choice of the search committee and TOC.

Honestly, Pablo, what I know of the situation came to me second-hand, so I'm not pretending I was privy to any of the conversations.

From what I know, TOC identified Baron early on as his guy. I got the impression that Larranaga was essentially hired over his objections, but again, my sources could be totally wrong on that.

 

[Pablo]

Honestly, Pablo, what I know of the situation came to me second-hand, so I'm not pretending I was privy to any of the conversations.

From what I know, TOC identified Baron early on as his guy. I got the impression that Larranaga was essentially hired over his objections, but again, my sources could be totally wrong on that.

Jim,

I'm not suggesting that your sources are totally wrong. But, if I remember correctly, people were very surprised when Larranaga became available in 1997. As you know, he's basically a very loyal guy who doesn't change jobs frequently. But, at some point after 11 seasons at Bowling Green, he decided to pursue other offers. And, when he became available, I'm guessing that he became the obvious choice for the position by both the search committee and TOC.

 

[gmujim92]

Jim,

I'm not suggesting that your sources are totally wrong. But, if I remember correctly, people were very surprised when Larranaga became available in 1997. As you know, he's basically a very loyal guy who doesn't change jobs frequently. But, at some point after 11 seasons at Bowling Green, he decided to pursue other offers. And, when he became available, I'm guessing that he became the obvious choice for the position by both the search committee and TOC.

Could be that's exactly what happened. I'm sure there are other posters who have much more intimate knowledge of the events leading up to L's hiring.

The one thing that's not arguable is that when L left, there was no search committee and we wound up with Hewitt. So if it doesn't work out, TOC is gonna have to eat the shit sandwich for hiring him.

 

[Pablo]

Could be that's exactly what happened. I'm sure there are other posters who have much more intimate knowledge of the events leading up to L's hiring.

The one thing that's not arguable is that when L left, there was no search committee and we wound up with Hewitt. So if it doesn't work out, TOC is gonna have to eat the shit sandwich for hiring him.

Jim,

I agree. I really don't know what the rush was to hire Hewitt.

 

[gmutom]

I think we all agree that the position should have been open to all qualified candidates. I'm not sure what the great revelation is here that assistants can make good head coaches. I specifically asked TOC to his face if he would consider Courtney, and he said he was looking at many options. It wasn't revealed until later that no assistants were really considered. (For the record, I love our former assistants and am glad they got paid what they deserved at Miami, but none of them was ready for the job.)

Like I said in my previous post, I think vcu should be a model for how a legitimate search should be handled. With Merten on his way out the door and Cabrera not in office yet, it was obvious that this was solely TOC's decision and that Hewitt was his guy from the beginning.

 

[gmujim92]

I'd love to be able to go back in time, become invisible and sneak into TOC's office to get a look at his "short list" of potential HC candidates in case Larranaga left.

If he didn't have such a list prior to 2006, he had to have made one after we went to the FF. L got offers or interest from several different programs, including his alma mater, and TOC wouldn't have been doing his due diligence if he hadn't prepared in advance for L to say farewell.

Not that it makes any difference now, because whoever was on the list obviously ran a distant second to Hewitt, but I think it could be instructive for us to know the type of coaches TOC had in mind.

 

[Walter]

I am guessing the top two before Hewitt became available were Craig Esherick and Matt Doherty

 

[patriot2000]

I have enjoyed talking to TOC the couple of times I've met him and he's well respected in athletic circles, but I found it incredibly frustrating that he proudly averred, repeatedly, that he wanted to hire Hewitt because it would make people say "wow." It was almost an admission, imo, that it was all about himself saving face after letting L go

 

[Quentin Daniels]

I have enjoyed talking to TOC the couple of times I've met him and he's well respected in athletic circles, but I found it incredibly frustrating that he proudly averred, repeatedly, that he wanted to hire Hewitt because it would make people say "wow." It was almost an admission, imo, that it was all about himself saving face after letting L go

Exactly. It seemed more a risk averse "safe pick" then one at continued growth and improvement.

To use an analogy that will go over TomGMU's head like most things, if I bunt on a pitch, I'm a lot less like to strike out. I still might, but the odds are less and. If I swing for the fences, my odds of striking out are significantly higher. With a bunt, I'm not getting past first base and sure as hell not hitting one out of the park.

I want a homerun program and willing to take a chance at striking out to get there. To further torture the analogy, Villa 7 is like swinging for the fences - but doing the film work and statistical analysis on the pitcher first. Still a good chance of striking out, but lowering those odds by as much as possible. Hewitt was a base hit - wanting to not be embarrassed, but doing it at the cost of being unexceptional.

 

[Pablo]

Interestingly, Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, one of Hewitt's most vocal critics, believed that Mason's hiring of Hewitt would be a good move for both parties -see
http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-b...to-george-mason-a-good-move-for-both-parties/.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

I thought this comment in the article was interesting:

He will win next year with the other guys players and slowly drain the life out of their program. GM will fade away and never be heard from again under him.

No motion offense, no time outs left at the end of a tight game, press when you are 15 points down and less then 3 minutes in the game, In bound passes. calling TO 10 seconds before the TV time out. Great memories coach, foul shooting, no game plan, on and on. Don’t freeze your arse off in DC CPH!

 

[gmujim92]

Here are some others, from GT fans responding to Bradley's piece:

Wish him luck. Glad he’s gone.
GM will need luck. Hewitt is not personalble, proved that w/o a really good #2 (and 3,4) he’s not capable of real-time ooaching or good critical thinking with 4 minutes to go, down 3. In that situation, his teams wind up with an ‘L’ and by 12. At least his GT teams the last 3-4 years.
And recruiting? Yes, but they all seem to be so much better in HS. Put great athletes in his ’system’ and they regress. Kinda like UGA football in that respect.
But here’s to the man – he didn’t cash the checks on the way to the golf course.

Paul Hewitt is a “coach of such obvious talent”? I watched his usually talented teams play like they’d never been coached for most of the last 5-6 years. I don’t see how hiring a coach who’s demonstrated he can’t coach is a good move for George Mason or anybody else.

And so begins George Mason’s descent back to irrelevance in college hoops. Couple of years of (non)coaching from ol’ Useless & they’ll be in the middle of their conference pack. Couple more years without correcting their new problem & they’ll be in the bottom of that same conference.

And one that made me laugh:

hewitt gets $7.2 million in cash and immediately signs a new long term deal with george mason for more millions? His agent should be wearing a cape with a big S and not a suit.

 

[Pablo]

It's interesting that Bradley failed to address that Hewitt's top assistants played such an important role in his early success at GT (although a comment to the article correctly pointed this out). Dean Keener left in 2004 to become JMU's head coach, and Cliff Warren left in 2005 to become Jacksonville's head coach. Warren was also Hewitt's assistant at Siena.

IMO, this is the issue that TOC should have had Hewitt address in the job interview (not the difficulty in roster management when you are recruiting one-and-done players).

 

[Walter]

So Dean Keener - one of the worst coaches in JMU's history - is a better coach than Hewitt? Oh crap!

 

[GMUgemini]

Some people are just more suited to being assistants, Walter.

 

[GSII]

The Ga Tech fans are describing our experience with Hewitt to a tee. God help us.