The Swamp

Willard of Seton Hall seems to be emerging as the Terps Coach. Apparently Brey may still be in play but lots of folks thinks he is too old.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:04 pm By the time this tournament is finished, we are all going to be really tired of seeing the face of Charles Barkley.

His act has grown tiresome.

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:32 am Willard of Seton Hall seems to be emerging as the Terps Coach. Apparently Brey may still be in play but lots of folks thinks he is too old.

If that means Holloway back to Seton Hall that could be an improvement or atleast more upside than add’l Willard seasons.

Not enjoying this morning.

Just fucking absurd officiating here.

Leaky Black should have been the 3rd member of Camp Lo.

Shaping up to be quite the long weekend for sex assaulter and enabling institutions.

I clearly have watched zero Big XII because I just learned Kansas has a guy named Rémy Martin.

mister d wrote: ↑Sat Mar 19, 2022 1:38 pm Shaping up to be quite the long weekend for sex assaulter and enabling institutions.

So, all of them?

Tom bests Peyton again.

Bob Huggins is jacking off whenever he talks. Gross.

This Iowa St-Wisconsin game is a crime against basketball.

I'm officially in "my team advanced, I don't want to struggle-watch any more B1G games" mode. I usually try to stay in the fight for conference pride, but I hate these other teams a lot more than usual, so, fuck that. MI St and Izzo... fuck you. Wiskey and Davison and their shitty brand of ball.. fuck off. Obvi, fuck Ohio State.

Fuck 'em .

Purdue seems watchable. Ivey is a player.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 8:44 pm Purdue seems watchable. Ivey is a player.

Dude can ball.

This news might shut the tournament down entirely:

Confirmed that SH's Willard is the new Terps BBall coach.

So St. Peter's is having the run of their lives but now with absolute knowledge their coach is gone. There should probably be a moratorium on coaching changes during the tournament or something.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:53 am Confirmed that SH's Willard is the new Terps BBall coach.

You have to let the bird fly from his cage when he's ready. Now looking at a college about 11 miles to the east.

ETA: And as a total FYI, I shared a suite in my sophomore year with Seton Hall's current AD.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:53 am Confirmed that SH's Willard is the new Terps BBall coach.

Such an odd hire. How can anyone look at his career so far and think he's anything better than "pretty good?" In 12 years at Seton Hall, his highest KenPom finish was 20. Only two others barely in the top 30. And he wasn't spectacular by any means before that at Iona. How is he going to beat out all of those good coaches and programs in the Big Ten?

I like the Todd Golden hire for Florida.

I went down to Portland for the games (UCLA-St Mary's and Gonzaga-Memphis) on Saturday. Pretty fun.

It was interesting...with Gonzaga down 10 at the half, Memphis was out on the floor with about 9 minutes left in halftime, and Gonzaga didn't come out until about 2 minutes left in halftime. Turns out that Timme stopped them in the hallway, called them all 'soft' and said he didn't want to go out playing like that. And then just took over in the 2nd half (Nembhard was key as well). There were lots of times I was thinking 'C'mon Penny...you need a time out to stop this run', but he just never did it.

UCLA is a good team, but if Jacquez is hurt, there's no way they can beat UNC.

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 12:14 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:53 am Confirmed that SH's Willard is the new Terps BBall coach.

Such an odd hire. How can anyone look at his career so far and think he's anything better than "pretty good?" In 12 years at Seton Hall, his highest KenPom finish was 20. Only two others barely in the top 30. And he wasn't spectacular by any means before that at Iona. How is he going to beat out all of those good coaches and programs in the Big Ten?

In theory he should have more resources at Maryland. Average Big Ten school is going to have vastly more resources than average Big East school, even in hoops. But I tend to agree that Maryland didn't exactly swing for the fences here. Seems like a guy who's going to probably just get you to almost good enough. That shouldn't cut it at Maryland -- it wouldn't have when they were in the ACC. I wonder how much of this stuff is predicated on just how much easier the Big Ten money makes it harder for ADs to step outside their comfort zone when making hiring decisions. Having a guy who gets you to the NCAA tournament every other year keeps just enough butts in the seats to save your own job and ticket sales. About the only thing that can get an AD fired is gross incompetence on a level where a program becomes a laughingstock in a major revenue program. If you can avoid that you can basically keep your job forever at a lot of schools.

brian wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:16 pm

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 12:14 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:53 am Confirmed that SH's Willard is the new Terps BBall coach.

Such an odd hire. How can anyone look at his career so far and think he's anything better than "pretty good?" In 12 years at Seton Hall, his highest KenPom finish was 20. Only two others barely in the top 30. And he wasn't spectacular by any means before that at Iona. How is he going to beat out all of those good coaches and programs in the Big Ten?

In theory he should have more resources at Maryland. Average Big Ten school is going to have vastly more resources than average Big East school, even in hoops. But I tend to agree that Maryland didn't exactly swing for the fences here. Seems like a guy who's going to probably just get you to almost good enough. That shouldn't cut it at Maryland -- it wouldn't have when they were in the ACC. I wonder how much of this stuff is predicated on just how much easier the Big Ten money makes it harder for ADs to step outside their comfort zone when making hiring decisions. Having a guy who gets you to the NCAA tournament every other year keeps just enough butts in the seats to save your own job and ticket sales. About the only thing that can get an AD fired is gross incompetence on a level where a program becomes a laughingstock in a major revenue program. If you can avoid that you can basically keep your job forever at a lot of schools.

Terps wanted Pitnio. President of the school was not going to let that happen (President's son plays for DC United and may get a sniff at USMNT B level games). Others were a bit too old (Brey, Coach L at Miami who has DC-ties). So they go with a guy of the Pitnio coaching tree. The real question is who he brings with him to recruit. Turj was not winning the DC area.

We've alluded to it in the past... I was talking to my buddy from across the cul-de-sac, who like a lot of folks in this hood is a Terp alum. There's just no energy in the fan base anymore. Leaving the ACC just seems like it has sapped the life out of the BBall program. I dunno, that's obviously just my opinion, but I was around here not just for the Len Bias era, but the awesome run the team made under Gary Williams. It's hard for folks to remember, but this school was hot shit for a very long time. I went to a lot of games back then, and Cole Field House was a very tough place to play. There's nothing like that atmosphere in their new barn.

And I'm a broken record on this, but MD sits in the middle of one of the hottest beds for basketball (and football) in the country... They need to figure out NIL and get someone that can recruit the fuck out of their backyard in both sports. (Esp in football, where there really is no other true competition in the state... Navy doesn't count /broken record)

I will say this, Terp fans are dying for something to be passionate about. They have a very wealthy alumni base and a shit ton of those alums stay local. When they were good, the fan base was pretty rabid.

They just are beaten down at this point. The football team moving to the B1G has been disastrous, and they always fell back on the Bball team being pretty competitive...

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 4:47 pm There's nothing like that atmosphere in their new barn.

When they were in the building and Gary was putting winning teams the new place worked. That steep student section was a wall of noise and excitement.

I'll be surprised if Willard is noticeably better than Turgeon. There are so many better young coaches they could have gotten. Who has Pitino's coaching tree produced? (off to look)

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:31 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 4:47 pm There's nothing like that atmosphere in their new barn.

When they were in the building and Gary was putting winning teams the new place worked. That steep student section was a wall of noise and excitement.

Totally agree. I just loved CFH. But, yeah, it's not the arena... Those kids would LOVE to have a reason to wild out. Pretty big bummer when lacrosse and soccer are the teams you have to try and find that atmosphere.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:25 pm

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:31 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 4:47 pm There's nothing like that atmosphere in their new barn.

When they were in the building and Gary was putting winning teams the new place worked. That steep student section was a wall of noise and excitement.

Totally agree. I just loved CFH. But, yeah, it's not the arena... Those kids would LOVE to have a reason to wild out. Pretty big bummer when lacrosse and soccer are the teams you have to try and find that atmosphere.

Lacrosse is very good but playing in the football stadium is a terrible atmosphere for all but maybe 1 game a year. But they had a ton of people at Audi on Saturday for the UVA game. Soccer works great in the small stadium they have with the student hanging over the back of the goals.

Wow, or one hour of revenue from that gratuitous toll station at Port Deposit

Rex wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:13 pm

Wow, or one hour of revenue from that gratuitous toll station at Port Deposit

Damn I haven't been north on 95 in a few years (Canton here).

That Port Deposit factoid just smacked me in the face.

Virginia's miserable season ended with a suitably miserable game. They blew a late lead against St. Bonaventure by missing several free throws in the last 30 seconds and giving up a double-clutch 3. As terrible seasons go, it's not that bad, but I'm looking forward to a return to their recent level of play next year.

If it helps you sleep, this Bonaventure team was easily top 68 but just fucked themselves during the regular season.

Bonnies are the only team i follow and out of near-total ignorance I'd like to concur. They probably have the talent to be like a 6-7 seed in the NCAA tournament, had a bad post holiday/covid stretch which doomed them. i feel like if they were in one of the huge conferences they'd still have gotten a bid. still fun as hell to watch.

Yeah, they were pretty good, but Virginia still should have won. It took a pretty crazy sequence of events in the last couple of minutes for the Bonnies to steal it (and UVA is a thoroughly mediocre team this year). First, UVA's most important player fouled out on a very iffy charge call (nicely timed flop). Then, up 3 with 30 seconds, UVA only made 1 of 2 free throws. The Bonnies then hit a deep, double-clutch prayer of a three (looked like Marcus Paige's shot in the championship game a few years ago). UVA followed by missing the front end of a one-and-one. Surprising no one, the Bonnies then drove, got fouled and hit the two free throws for the win.

Wow. I understand why that was called, but, geez louise... Refs need to be better there.

Wait. Was I drunk or did I see a flop called in tournament games last week?

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 1:52 pm Wait. Was I drunk or did I see a flop called in tournament games last week?

Both things can be true!