I'm probably a little late on all this by the time I get to sit down and write, but wanted to give my thoughts 0n a couple of things on the coaching front.
WFAN reported this afternoon that Pecora to Fordham is all but signed.
Now this is just me speculating, but here's what I think happened. Mike Rice either cost himself a job or never wanted the Fordham gig.
Scenario 1, which has been speculated on around the web, is that Rice was set to go to Fordham, then backed out when he thought he could get one of the Big East gigs. Since it sounds like St. John's is going to go with Hewitt and I don't think there's any way Seton Hall hires a fiery guy like Rice after the Bobby G disaster, Rice would be right back at RMU next year.
Here's why you should care: While coaches moving around isn't a new thing, it can't help RMU's recruiting this summer and next to have Rice's name in the mix for every job. If I'm, for example, Howie, I say to a kid "I'm going to be your coach for as long as you're here, he won't be."
Also, if Rice gets, say, the St. John's job, does he take players with him like what happened to my school, Northeastern, a few years back? Or do players just not like the new coach and transfer?
Scenario 2 is that Rice didn't want to go to Fordham, and is perfectly happy staying at RMU until the right gig comes along. Again, purely speculating and guessing, but does he figure he can win a couple of more NEC's with Abraham and eventually end up at Pitt? If he keeps winning, the possibilities are endless.
I still think there's no way he goes to Seton Hall, the timing is awful.
By the way, in our neck of the woods, there's a good piece from the Staten Island Advance on Wagner's search. I think Jim Engles is a nice get for someone. You should check it out. I can't link it here for some reason.
Btw, on the subject, I can't remember if I put this in the paper or on here, so if not I'll mention it, and if I already did, it's old news. One of the things I talked to Howie about was how long he wanted to stay, and he said he was still loving it and he'd stay "until they told him to go."
Don't expect that to come anytime soon, ans the Blue Devils will be one of the favorites to win the NEC next year.
Regarding the Rice situation....Fordham AD has lost his mind...he went from haveing a national search comittee to panicking and accepting Pecora rigt away. The rumored short list was Donahue, Rice, Pecora...Fordham wanted to wait until Cornell lost to interview all three but with Rice rumored in the mix at Seton hall and Pecora name also thrown around for ST.johns (although highely unlikely) they jumped on pecora without interviewing anybody except him. For a team that hasn't had a coach for months and not to give Rice an even courtesy interview to satisfy the alums is a joke. If u go to FordhamFans.com u can read and feel some of the pain that we have gone through under the current AD.
ReplyDeleteMatt: Thanks for the chance to post about CCSU basketball. I agree with your statement from an earlier post that every coach needs to be tough and firm with their players but that’s not what’s going on with Dickenman. I’ve been around basketball for a long time and spend a lot of time with high school, prep school and college players. I don’t know if you get to spend much time with players but it gives an additional perspective on the sport. Several years ago the dynamics of recruiting high school and prep players starting changing dramatically. The big expansion of D1 programs and the internet makes it easy fro coaches to learn about and keep up with players just about everywhere. Sites like Max Prep gives coaches easy access to player’s statistics, videos of games and a ton of other valuable information. On the players side the expansion of AAU and social networking sites like Facebook makes it easy for players to get information from other players. It’s now common for prospects to contact current and past players on a college teams that are recruiting them and learn first hand what the school is like, what the basketball program is like and how the coach treats the players. And Matt don’t think that how a coach treats his/her players isn’t an important consideration. Would you prefer to work for an editor who manages your efforts with a firm respectful style or one who screams at you in the newsroom berating you in front of your peers? It used to be most CT didn’t want to play for Dickenman because of his abusive treatment of players. Now kids everywhere are learning about him and that’s why he struggles to get players. And when he finally gets a player to commit they often decommit. Dickenman may hold the NCAA record for the number of kids who decomitt from a D! program. This is similar to the problems Calhoune is having at UCONN. Compare the quality of players he is getting now from a few years ago when Tom Moore was his recruiter. But he has recognized the problem and is trying to change. I don’t believe Dickenman can change. He’s way too full of himself. He’s like Al Bundy living on past memories instead of dealing with reality. The only players Dickenman has success getting now are players who for the most part have no place else to go. Good players who could have been picked up by a team but for some reason weren’t Matt I encourage you to talk to the players you’ll get an additional perspective and a lot more information on what’s going on. Rather than relying just on what Dickenman wants to feed the media. If you do you will get better information faster. For example did you hear that Dickenman dropped two scholarship players and an assistant coach this week? If the CCSU basketball program is going to be treated like its big time some insightful reporting is warranted. If everything is going to be scripted by the coach like a WWF event it’s time bring the program back to D2 and save the state a lot of money Regarding your comment on CCSU being a favorite to win the NEC next year you must be kidding no one else shares that view. Kenny coming back will be a plus but they have very little talent otherwise and no size. And regarding Howie leaving where would he go? His phone is not ringing with job offers (and that says a lot with so many opening at higher level programs) and he sure can’t match his $236K salary and benefits in the private sector. Sadly I expect the program will continue to decline until the program is turned over to a new coach. Hopefully that will be sooner than later.
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