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I know I have had some spirited discussions with some posters here in recent days over the state of the program, and particularly regarding Geno's coaching. But I think it's time to clarify a couple of things about how I feel about Geno.
First, I have absolutely NO desire to see Geno fired after one year here. There have been many great coaches who have had very rough first years who have gone on to become great coaches with immeasureable success. So the first year rebuilding a program can be an anomaly in many cases.
Those who have read my posts, particularly the ones that agree with me realize it's nothing against Geno personally, nor do we all think we need to make a change this early. Nothing can be further from the truth. And it does have anything to due with being pro or anti Jim Les either, and there are people from both groups who have differing views of Geno's performance within each group as well.
The issue I and many others have with Geno is not the win/loss record (though most agree there should be a few more wins by now). The issue is his inability to adjust to the type of personell he has to work with right now. And believe me, a few more wins would make a HUGE difference in player and fan confidence right now. Even more galling though are these blowout losses by what is essentially the same team we had last year that rarely got blown out even when they had to deal with some heartbreaking losses. Trade AW for TB, and WE for SS and JS, and this is pretty much the same personnel we had last year that lost games by an average of single digits, not 30 points! And that's what is worrisome right now. We are digressing badly, not improving! And not to say that Geno can't recover from this. I still think he is capable. But I think is having trouble dealing with the intensity of the Valley, thinking that he can stick to a system which he feels could work in any conference. Good coaches realize that doesn't always work, and they can adjust on the fly. I feel Geno is a good coach, but he is learning, and hopefully he will do a little soul searching in the offseason to see how he can correct this quickly. If he realizes that adjusting to his personnel will help the program turn around quicker, he can easily salvage thinks quicker than people think.
Let me just finish by saying that even if Geno makes a miraculous turnaround next year and he leads us to the first of ten straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, that doesn't mean I would take back what I said about Geno for his performance this year. Everyone would certainly forget about this season, and we would all laugh about it. But looking back as his entire body of work, he would always have this one bad season that even the most seasoned coaches have every so often. Even Coach K and Tom Izzo have had a few "clunkers" here an there. But it's how he grows from this season that will be important.
Oh, and btw, anyone who thinks we have the worst talent in the league, I can't say I agree with that. Do we have the talent to make a run to the top of the Valley. Of course not. But we have enough talent to at least be competitive enough to win at least the number of games we won last year, and most importantly to be competitive. So again, the overall record is not the most important thing to take from this season. It's how we are improving this year. And so far we are going in reverse, BADLY. The good news is that there is still some time left for this team to make some strides before the end of the year, and hopefully Geno can adjust and lead this team to better times, even this year.
I hope this clarifies things for some people. I AM a Geno backer all the way, and hopefully he knows that most, if not all of us on this board are pulling for him too, even if we disagree with a few things.
First, I have absolutely NO desire to see Geno fired after one year here. There have been many great coaches who have had very rough first years who have gone on to become great coaches with immeasureable success. So the first year rebuilding a program can be an anomaly in many cases.
Those who have read my posts, particularly the ones that agree with me realize it's nothing against Geno personally, nor do we all think we need to make a change this early. Nothing can be further from the truth. And it does have anything to due with being pro or anti Jim Les either, and there are people from both groups who have differing views of Geno's performance within each group as well.
The issue I and many others have with Geno is not the win/loss record (though most agree there should be a few more wins by now). The issue is his inability to adjust to the type of personell he has to work with right now. And believe me, a few more wins would make a HUGE difference in player and fan confidence right now. Even more galling though are these blowout losses by what is essentially the same team we had last year that rarely got blown out even when they had to deal with some heartbreaking losses. Trade AW for TB, and WE for SS and JS, and this is pretty much the same personnel we had last year that lost games by an average of single digits, not 30 points! And that's what is worrisome right now. We are digressing badly, not improving! And not to say that Geno can't recover from this. I still think he is capable. But I think is having trouble dealing with the intensity of the Valley, thinking that he can stick to a system which he feels could work in any conference. Good coaches realize that doesn't always work, and they can adjust on the fly. I feel Geno is a good coach, but he is learning, and hopefully he will do a little soul searching in the offseason to see how he can correct this quickly. If he realizes that adjusting to his personnel will help the program turn around quicker, he can easily salvage thinks quicker than people think.
Let me just finish by saying that even if Geno makes a miraculous turnaround next year and he leads us to the first of ten straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, that doesn't mean I would take back what I said about Geno for his performance this year. Everyone would certainly forget about this season, and we would all laugh about it. But looking back as his entire body of work, he would always have this one bad season that even the most seasoned coaches have every so often. Even Coach K and Tom Izzo have had a few "clunkers" here an there. But it's how he grows from this season that will be important.
Oh, and btw, anyone who thinks we have the worst talent in the league, I can't say I agree with that. Do we have the talent to make a run to the top of the Valley. Of course not. But we have enough talent to at least be competitive enough to win at least the number of games we won last year, and most importantly to be competitive. So again, the overall record is not the most important thing to take from this season. It's how we are improving this year. And so far we are going in reverse, BADLY. The good news is that there is still some time left for this team to make some strides before the end of the year, and hopefully Geno can adjust and lead this team to better times, even this year.
I hope this clarifies things for some people. I AM a Geno backer all the way, and hopefully he knows that most, if not all of us on this board are pulling for him too, even if we disagree with a few things.
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