Eddie Jordan
- Thread starter Riderbronc
- Start date
Speaking of Littlepage, this just in...
http://wtop.com/virginia/2017/09/craig-littlepage-retiring-as-virginias-athletic-director/
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Way to cherry pick headlines, without looking at the realities of what really happened.
Hurley was never really interested, despite the headline and article. Sure, he was willing to take the Rutgers job ... MAYBE ... if RU gave him an iron-clad 7-year contract with guaranteed money at $2.2 million per year (which is what he asked for from RU) ... for a coach who had been a head coach for just 3 years: 2 years at Wagner, and 1 year at Rhode Island. And, oh by the way, was as fiery with his players as was Rice. Even now, last season was the 1st season he was able to coach one of his teams to the NCAA (in 7 years as a head coach) and only the 2nd time he has taken a team to the post season.
Hurley might be worth $2 million a year NOW, after 7 years as a head coach, and 1 NCAA appearance.
And who knows whether Howland was really available, or really that interested ... that was more of a rumor than anything, and I do not think he was really available.
Jordan did not accomplish what we wanted - and in fact was destructive to the basketball product on the court. In particular, he did not recruit or motivate the players he did recruit, well enough. Of course, he started with just 4 players, given all the transfers - and in my opinion, the absolutely APPALLING decision by the NCAA to allow RU players to transfer without sitting out a year. I still do not understand how the NCAA justified that - it has NEVER been done like that other than a team going on probation, which did not happen here. On the other hand, Jordan did at least restore some integrity and good will, helping rid RU of the stench of Rice's legacy. Unfortunately, that accomplishment was drowned out by the team's record during his tenure.
Though it took an additional 3 years, I think RU might just have found the right head coach, in Pikiell. Though we still have to see how the next 2-3 years go, I have hopes we may have finally found the right head coach, with the right personality and the right mix of persona;ity, program management, recruiting AND coaching chops (Waters could coach, but could not recruit; Rice could recruit - until he blew up personality wise; Hill could recruit but neither coach nor manage a program).
respect your opinion always. Why APPALLING?
I believe for sure this incident and a school being put on probation for something the player had zero to do should allow a player to transfer without sitting out a year.
Taking it a step further I think players should be able to transfer without sitting our for a coaching change.
Given the situation RU MBB was in, many HC candidates viewed taking the RU HC position as a career killer and the time frame and salary that was being offered, didn't make the pot look sweet.
You had the HC just fired, the AD forced to resign for not firing the HC quick enough and the Rutgers President's commitment to RU Athletics being questioned. That and not knowing who would be the next RU AD and if would share the same vision , made it very hard for any decent RU HC candidate to look at the RU MBB HC position as a great opportunity for them.
The ones the search committee said that.
1M per year in B1G would have gotten most coaches out of P5 to bite
1M per year in B1G would have gotten most coaches out of P5 to bite
Right. Eddie gets a bad rap for his effort. He had a grand total of 4 scholarship players on the roster when he took the job that summer, and it was a minor miracle we even fielded a team that summer, then he successfully recruits those guys. Where would Pike be today without them? Under the circumstances after the Rice debacle we got who we needed at the time.
There have been a number of Rutgers mens basketball coaches that failed in the Big East, AAC and now the B1G.Their failure was partly caused by previous athletic directors who failed to support the program in regard to facilities and coaching salaries.The emphasis was on making football the prime time sport and money generator.
Cherry picked? - you seemed to have entirely overlooked the context of the comment & critiqued it for something that it wasn't
---- it was in response to some previous questions about who was AD that hired Jordan and also to comment that "Tons of reputable (coaches)would have taken the job." - which may or may not have been true - but even if it were true - time was not sufficiently allocated to find out
- my point in laying out the timeline was not an argument for Hurley ( that would be absurd - it became clear that Hurley saw this as being a toxic spot and would only maybe consider if he was offered a solid gold Hazmat suit - and a budget for a first class expert clean-up taskforce of assistants in gold Hazmat suits of their own ) my point was that - everything happened (almost frantically) between April 2nd & April 22
In a hectic 20 days a bunch of stuff happened / was dealt with = Videos exploded in media / Rice fired / media speculating on replacement / Pernetti fired (resigned)/ Kirschner made interim AD / overtures & discussions & time spent with Hurley (where Hurley would or would not have take job is immaterial - he didn't) - and time was consumed getting to that 'no thank you' / Rutgers was anxious to turn the page / Howland? - bottom line water under the bridge- for what ever reason did not seem to get consideration - the discussions heated up with Jordan - flights to & from LA - and boom - new coach.... if some amazing talented & willing college coaches were available - neither the time or bandwidth was allocated to identify them.
As we look back it is probably fair to say that the frenetic pace virtually eliminated any room for exploratory thinking - and it is not irrational to think that once the idea of "the return of Eddie Jordan" got rolling - it became too enticing to turn away - since the imperative of the moment was - end the suspense - get to the next page - name a coach - and in Jordan they saw a bit of 'feel good' - and the hope was that the 'feel good' would wash away some of the sting & stink of Rice - but now in retrospect - it was too fast - especially with everything swirling - and too fast leads to 'sloppy' and 'sloppy' led to the immediate embarrassment of 'No Diploma' - a situation that could have initially been handled far better.
Odd how this frenetic pace / leap to a decision approach is sort of a common thread in both the rapid Flood hiring and the Jordan hiring - and also another common flaw was the quasi-frugality of the choice ... Flood was a choice that represented a cost savings & Jordan - (while getting an individual premium package) did not command an all encompassing comprehensive premium dollar commitment to program rebuilding.
Jordan is not a stupid man - - but he clearly did not have a full appreciation of the magnitude of what would be on his plate - he was a seasoned, respected assistant NBA coach with a modest - at best - bit of NBA head coach experience - that was his realm for what 20 + years? so he came from a place where the head coach was working in collaboration with various other powerful 'program champions' - GM, assistant GM, player personnel people team president etc - and while he might have said that he knew that at Rutgers he had to become the chief program champion and own every facet of the development of the team - it was an entirely different world - and he did not seem to acclimatize in a multitude of ways.
