2024 NCAA Tourney Talk

WillWeaverRVA said:
Do we have to go through this again?
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Yeah we do.. if some one pulls that up sh-t..you can expect me to counter....book it. So if you don't want me to counter..then put me on ignore..otherwise..I am not doing anything that requires banning..
 
duncanlamb said:
I'm sure Rhoades did exactly that..no cap...people forget Rhoades is a VCU alum(grad degree in sports leadership 2002)...but he had a chance to go to his first home in Western PA...He said he has a chance to spend more time around his mother...Given the fact that his dad died in auto mobile crash in 2008..I don't blame...my mother is 100...I don't get to see often enough...
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I'm pretty sure I recall hearing that he'd moved his mother to the Richmond area while he worked here.
 
SteveMM said:
I'm pretty sure I recall hearing that he'd moved his mother to the Richmond area while he worked here.
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I am pretty sure she was here for at least a period...but 6 years is a long time and we aren't privy to all of his personal details..his mother may jave gone back home..the fact is his family still has a place in Pennsylvania and a place down here....



Porter still goes to school in the RVA.

I don't get the problem people have with him wanting to go back to Pennsylvania....yes..this was his home when he accepted the job...but if you listen to alot of his interviews..he still considers his home Pennsylvania..Penn state might be only place he and his wife would have considered to leave VCU for.

The money is great..yes..but he wasn't going there unless Penn state made written and financial commitment to upgrade the Basketball program...that's why Shrewberry left for Notre Dame and also to go home to Indiana..the point is never only about the money..anyone with family knows it's more than that..so cut the guy some slack..
 
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duncanlamb said:
The money is great..yes..but he wasn't going there unless Penn state made written and financial commitment to upgrade the Basketball program...that's why Shrewberry left for Notre Dame and also to go home to Indiana..the point is never only about the money..anyone with family knows it's more than that..so cut the guy some slack..
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And they don't appear to have actually done that. Penn State wanted Rhoades, Penn State is absolutely not a glamorous basketball job at all (the facilities are extremely lacking compared to football - as previously stated it's similar to Vanderbilt), but they offered him enough that he took it and ran. Penn State is never going to devote significant resources to basketball, especially if it comes at the expense of football.

The issues with Rhoades leaving were that a) he ran with the very first offer he was made since he was here (he was "tied" to P5 jobs earlier on but no one ever offered him one), b) he overwhelmingly used his "family" rhetoric almost every chance he got and got the fans to buy into it, c) he basically told the fans to eff themselves when he left, even though the people who wanted him gone (even in the season where we won the A10 by 3 games and the conference tournament) were a very small - but vocal - minority.

It's issue c that makes me despise him. Over 98% of the fans supported him through thick and thin, including a global pandemic and a social awakening in the wake of the George Floyd protests, and it was easy to do so because of issue b - we were all part of the same "family". Then he abruptly bolted and proceeded to take out his frustrations on the fan base that had blindly supported him for years.

So no, I will not cut him any slack.
 
WillWeaverRVA said:
And they don't appear to have actually done that. Penn State wanted Rhoades, Penn State is absolutely not a glamorous basketball job at all (the facilities are extremely lacking compared to football - as previously stated it's similar to Vanderbilt), but they offered him enough that he took it and ran. Penn State is never going to devote significant resources to basketball, especially if it comes at the expense of football.

The issues with Rhoades leaving were that a) he ran with the very first offer he was made since he was here (he was "tied" to P5 jobs earlier on but no one ever offered him one), b) he overwhelmingly used his "family" rhetoric almost every chance he got and got the fans to buy into it, c) he basically told the fans to eff themselves when he left, even though the people who wanted him gone (even in the season where we won the A10 by 3 games and the conference tournament) were a very small - but vocal - minority.

It's issue c that makes me despise him. Over 98% of the fans supported him through thick and thin, including a global pandemic and a social awakening in the wake of the George Floyd protests, and it was easy to do so because of issue b - we were all part of the same "family". Then he abruptly bolted and proceeded to take out his frustrations on the fan base that had blindly supported him for years.

So no, I will not cut him any slack.
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In addition to all of this, I find the whole "going home to Pennsylvania" thing to be a little overblown. Yes, he's from up there. Yes, he grew up there. Yes, he played basketball on the blacktops up there. But, he'd been in the Richmond area longer than he lived in Pennsylvania. His mother lived here and his younger kids went to school here. This move was about money. I think if he'd been offered the same deal by another non-Pennsylvania school, he would have taken it. There's no way to prove that, of course, but it's what I believe.
 
I was crushed when Capel, Grant and especially Shaka left. Shaka was the last coach that I told myself would ever break my heart again. We all knew WW was fast tracking so no heartbreak there and I just never bought into the whole "we're home now" BS the MR was selling. We will never be a destination job, never, especially if we keep hiring winners. Would you rather have Mooney? Fact, we will continue to churn coaches unless we get one coming down the sliding board, ie... Sonny Smith. There will always be a reason to leave, money and family are just two of them.
 
Thinking about the coaching churn in general, I think the court ruling that help Bam become eligible also gave a coach like Sprinkle the impetus to leave earlier than expected because he could take players with him. There was movement around December.

This seems to be a new normal for any program ready to launch a coach to a high major program. Before the last couple of years, they might feel guilty about abandoning their players - now they'll just take them along to the new landing spot. What a mess.
 
SteveMM said:
In addition to all of this, I find the whole "going home to Pennsylvania" thing to be a little overblown. Yes, he's from up there. Yes, he grew up there. Yes, he played basketball on the blacktops up there. But, he'd been in the Richmond area longer than he lived in Pennsylvania.
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It completely erases the fact that he spent 20 years in Richmond (including 14 at R-MC as an assistant then the head coach).
 
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