Thursday, March 16, 2017

Indiana is a reminder that many places have high expectatiohs



I have written that Jim Christian is safe for next year. But his safety is still driven by the uncertainty about his superiors, not BC's extending patience to its coach. While there is a sentiment among some BC fans that coaches should be given plenty of time to improve, Indiana just fired Tom Crean. He might have won two Big Ten championships, but Crean is an example that there are high expectations everywhere.

I do think things will improve next year for Jim Christian. His roster will be a bit more experienced and a bit more talented. But we need more than a slight improvement. Why not get above .500. Why not win half our ACC games. The BC Basketball program has plenty of problems, but not enough to say that the team cannot win and compete with the middle of the pack in the ACC.

I am sure Crean wishes things were different now. But none of this is fair, especially to the coaches. Fans always think: "what have you done for me lately?" That is why the coaches get paid big bucks. And that is why the jobs churn so fast. Heck, Crean might benefit from BC's high expectations if Christian is fired next year and we look to hire a name like Crean.

22 comments:

CT said...

Comparing IU's expectations to BC's is like...

Crean made three Sweet 16's in 9 yrs if I'm not mistaken, after inheriting a Sampsonite mess. Hello, BC HoF.

That would be BC's next e-mail campaign. "Donate as little as $10 and Conte's Tom Crean statue could be brought to you by...Mod34b."



eagle1331 said...

BC would further prove its ineptitude and moronic leadership if it does not reach and to Crean and see if there is interest. Christian should be fired regardless, but if Crean is interested now, strike while the iron is hot. Crean received a $4MM payout.. this may make him affordable.

TheFive said...

BC provides no institutional support for its basketball team. Until that changes, firing our head coach is a waste of time that actually makes us worse. We cannot be on a 3-years-and-out or a 4-years-and-out cycle.

We need to spend the money to hire a big time coach with the energy to rebuild what should not be -- but currently is -- one of the worst major conference jobs in the country. If we don't do that, and BC has shown absolutely zero indication it has any interest in making that kind of commitment, we embrace turnover for the sake of turnover and distract from the fact that the problems with BC basketball are 1 million times deeper than our current head coach.

mod34b said...

CT .. it was all going so well for a while...i very much enjoyed not being in your angst factory.... then this.... you comment does not even make sense..... WTF... return to our state of Détente immediately please.

then we have ATL making comments like this "I do think things will improve next year for Jim Christian. "

really? I see no reason to believe JC can get out of the ACC cellar.... his home..

TheFive - what sort of institutional support is missing from BC hoops? (other then spending $4m on a head coach... they did seem to spend some money on assistants.. what else is missing? I am sure there is more .... curious.

canttakeit said...

The school doesn't have the foresight to reach out to Crean. He would have that Jesuit pedigree that would fit into BC's image. There is no upside to Christian it's sad that we're all, at least most of us, just waiting for next year to get through so he can be on his way. We continue to lose ground on the ACC bottom feeders. All this talk about long-term rebuilds this isn't football it takes maximum 2 years to get a team up and competitive no matter how bad they as long as you have a competent coach. They should certainly be able to be coached up to beat Nicholls State and Hartford anyway the opportunity is there but they will not take advantage of it

curranac said...

Indiana in hoops is BC in hockey. There is no comparing their hoops program to ours.

Tom Crean should be hired immediately and given a decade long contract, but that ain't happening and Chip Kelly won't be running our football program in a few years either.

downtown_resident said...

With respect to the safety Christian enjoys due to the "uncertainty about his superiors," I simply cannot understand the lack of urgency the BC administration apparently feels about finding a replacement for Brad Bates.

The need for a new AD is dire and there has been ample time to bring on a new person. Bates's departure was widely rumored since last summer, and it's already nearly been a month since he formally announced he would leave. These searches don't need to take an eternity-- Gene Defillippo declared his intent to retire on August 17, 2012 and Bates was hired October 9. You would think the combined 8-76 conference record of football and men's and women's basketball over the past two seasons might suggest to someone that there's an immediate need for new leadership. And yet, we hear that BC is content to take its time and wait until the summer to get someone new in place.

What is BC waiting for?

Guido said...

In the last 10 years ,we have been to the NCAA's ONE - YES,ONE time. That one appearance was under the leadership of Al Skinner. It sickens me that Boston College accepts this incredible ineptitude !! It would be so GREAT to actually turn on the NCAA's and see the Eagles competing !!!!!!!!!!!!! And without a top recruit big man , it will be more of same next year !!!!

TheFive said...

BC is cheap and Brad Bates is still on contract. They will not pay 2 ADs at the same time, and, accordingly, we have a lame duck AD. Has anyone heard of any other major conference school pulling something like this? I have not. This is not a surprise, as BC is the cheapest, most poorly run major conference athletic department.

As far as what does basketball lack institutionally: meaningful updates to Conte are 15 years overdue; the gym off of Conte would be a bad practice facility for an A10 team, and is so clearly the worst practice facility in the ACC that any comparison is laughable; given BC's track record on nickel and diming everything that is not a horrifically expensive building, I have no doubt that our recruiting budget is miniscule but I do not in fact have proof of that.

Nothing that BC does in athletics is big time. And the gap between what the school is willing to do and what our peers do has grown EXPONENTIALLY over the past 10 years. We keep doing everything the exact same.

knucklehead said...

The Midwest Marquette connection with Leahy makes this an obvious hire.

Don't fuck it up Boston College.

The million dollar buyout means that he is affordable. Think about it. I don't have all day to explain. I have beers to drink.

knucklehead said...

Chip Kelly doesn't make sense for BC football. He "maned the ship" at Oregon after Bellotti took off to avoid the NCAA. He is not going to rebuild BC.

Crean is a perfect fit. Leahy indirect connection and he took over a disaster at Indiana and "ran it clean." That is exactly what we need.

Even Bates(and his Midwest connections)couldn't fuck this up.

1) The ACC should sell itself to Crean
2) There is nowhere to go but up. He turns us into a tournament team in 3-5, leaves for wherever and leaves behind one of his assistants to be our HC.
3)There are not a lot of places for him to go . . . Illinois maybe? Those idiots usually him the no-name who makes a run in the tournament though.

knucklehead said...

him=hire.

knucklehead said...

Conte Forum isn't the problem. The school create an image for itself in basketball. Is it a "white-guy" program with shooters and rebounders who play physical, is it dunking, shot blocking, pressing team? Is it going for elite academic types or what?

If I were the coach I would pretend that I was in the Big East. I would go for physical, city players who want to compete. I don't care if I have to play 5 guards. We need players who want to win. Our players are soft and are not there to win(Bowman aside. The post players are SOFT. To say it nicely for everyone). They are there to play in the ACC but not to win in the ACC.

That is how you differentiate yourself from the rest of the boring ACC.

Geezer eagle said...

Knucklehead, those are some absurd comments. All but one of our starters is black . Plus, St. Mary's is a pretty white boy team and look how well they have done.

knucklehead said...

Re-read. We need to decide who we are in basketball. Need to create an image.

canttakeit said...

its sad watching a well coach team and knowing that Danny Hurley is 80 miles down the road. Even if they end up losing you're watching a team that plays defense and actually has real offensive set

Geezer eagle said...

Image? What image, Louisville type image?

working rich said...

Danny Hurley sounds great

canttakeit said...

One alarming thing as postseason scores come in is that we are a last-place team in the league that doesn't look quite as great as advertised

mod34b said...

True. Miami was horrible. ND was flat both game - lucky once and then lost. And VT was not good.

BC would lose by at least 20 to any NCAA team

mod34b said...

..... and now FSU blown out by 11th seed

John said...

FSU looked like a joke in their first game. They didn't want to be there.

And we lose to all of these bums.

ACC is overrated this year for sure.