VCU's NEW COACH

[SpiderK]

Al at least will mention all schools in the state, talk to their coaches (football & basketball, all divisions) and lets their fans call in. I do wish he was a little more organized and up to date. I would rather hear him than Cowherd. If Burton wants to be the voice of the sheep, that would be fine. Put him on Saturday morning from 1:00am to 4:00am on the NPR station, not on the UR flagship station.

 

[SpiderK]

Al at least will mention all schools in the state, talk to their coaches (football & basketball, all divisions) and lets their fans call in. I do wish he was a little more organized and up to date. I would rather hear him than Cowherd. If Burton wants to be the voice of the sheep, that would be fine. Put him on Saturday morning from 1:00am to 4:00am on the NPR station, not on the UR flagship station.

 

[WebSpinner]

every school and every coach, involved with a search, positions themselves so that only one offer is made and only one accepted. kind of silly, since everyone knows the real deal. kind of like gays who come out when we all knew already or alcoholics who think they are fooling everyone when we all know the truth. too bad that it can't just be the whole truth and nothing but the truth........

 

[Ulla1]

Apparently Will Wade was making $187,000/year at UT-Chattanooga according to the Washington Post this morning. One can see why he was interested in the vcu position after Rhoades turned them down.

 

[WebSpinner]

was around when big al started his show. he loved and respected chuck noe, the long time coach, who had a show on wrva on sunday nights and talked local and state sports way before its time. give al credit, a big sports fan, saw a need and actually went out, sold his own advertising and found a station to put it on, no small feat. he has always known that he is not a professional dj or talking head but he had the initiative to go out and make it happen, what richmond needed at that time. certainly realize that he is not very good but he loves sports, loves local and VA sports and he tries his best. no matter how lacking, much better than listening to some syndicated show with a jerk from la or chicago or ny talking about the knicks or lakers or bulls. you should thank al not crucify him, he does not think of himself as bob costas, he knows what he is and that he is not polished but he provides a good show with good guests and he does it for local sports and state sports and that is great.

 

[SpiderTrap]

Molivia - I think the focus of any coach search depends on the state of your program.

If your looking for a new coach because your old coach could not produce enough wins or NCAA appearances to your liking, then I agree - you look for the best guy for the job long term.

If your looking for a new coach because your program has been very successful and is setup for success in the future (incoming recruits/current roster, etc), but your coach left for bigger and better places (and paychecks) - then I think you focus on someone who can keep the train rolling - which means, keeps the current players and recruits intact and probably runs a similar system.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

Wade has inherited a large group of players who were part of winning the A-10 (and most likely recruits who will stay with their commitment), so do not expect the wheels to fall off next season at VCU.

It would take a concerted effort by a moron

to mess it up bad enough to see an immediate collapse in just 1 season.

 

[R&B fan]

Burton is just over the top on VCU. He has a man crush on Big Hair ED and I am sure he will go crazy for Will on his show this afternoon. He makes no attempt to be in middle of the road with our two local teams.

 

[Octapod]

Calamity is not taken yet. Could Havoc + Chaos = Calamity? Doesn't seem to have the same ring to it.

Burton was indeed hard to listen to yesterday. He was speaking like a VCU employee instead of a local radio host. If the listener had not known better, they would have thought Matt was the radio host and Burton was part of the VCU play by play team.

 

[ur2K]

As bad as yesterday was, today will be even worse as the herald the return of the king (these guys are in full press PR mode right now).

I hope Bob Black or Gill casually remind the owner or program director occasionally that 950 is supposed to be the Flagship station of UR athletics.

 

[SpiderK]

Pretty soon Hardly Working will piss off the Va Tech and UVA fans by blowing those schools off, and then he is really in trouble.

 

[Eight Legger]

Short of Smart leaving for the Bucknell job and VCU hiring Wainwright to replace him, I'd say this hire is about the best outcome we could have hoped for:

• Shaka is gone, and so is the mystique.

• The new hire is an average white guy named Will who carries less mystique than Mooney.

• Wade runs the same style of play, which we already know how to beat.

• Some of their recruits are likely gone.

• It's possible a current player will transfer.

• In 2 years at UTC, Wade only recruited two players who were key contributors to his team there (and one of them followed him there from VCU); all the other regulars were guys he inherited.

 

[WebSpinner]

does anyone recall what was said when rpi hired smart, i don't but bet along the lines, grant is gone, they will go down hill from here with a too young, inexperienced guy. did not happen so we need to be ready for more of the same with this guy. if it does not happen, great but don't sell him short. just like when rpi came to the A-10 a lot of you were saying they won't do anything playing in a better league, guess what, they have kicked butt. just don't count on anything bad happening there until it does, can wish for it, hope for it but don't assume it.

 

[urmite]

Originally posted by Ulla1:
Apparently Will Wade was making $187,000/year at UT-Chattanooga according to the Washington Post this morning. One can see why he was interested in the vcu position after Rhoades turned them down.

If I had had to guess, I would have said $400,000. And would have expected them to offer double his previous and half of Shaka's previous.

 

[urmite]

Originally posted by Not-A-Homer:
Wade has inherited a large group of players who were part of winning the A-10 (and most likely recruits who will stay with their commitment), so do not expect the wheels to fall off next season at VCU.

It would take a concerted effort by a moron

to mess it up bad enough to see an immediate collapse in just 1 season.

I wouldn't expect a collapse, but I wouldn't assume business as usual until we see their roster in July.

 

[Anachnoid]

Colombo hires Calamity!

 

[spider23]

I guess he stated that Havoc is still VCU, and they are shooting for a national championship, not just a final four. What's our goal, a top 5 finish in the A10?

 

[97spiderfan]

Originally posted by spider23:
I guess he stated that Havoc is still VCU, and they are shooting for a national championship, not just a final four. What's our goal, a top 5 finish in the A10?

I believe it is Top 4 and to be a better team at the end of the year than we are at the beginning of the year.

 

[SpiderK]

351 schools have national championship as their goal. Like Miss America wishing for world peace.

 

[Eight Legger]

One of their goals should be to finish ahead of us in the A-10. Didn't quite happen last year.

 

[SpiderTrap]

Lets just put an end to the VCU argument vs. UR for now.

Yes - last year - we swept them in the regular season and finished ahead of them in the A10.

But at the end of the day - they beat us in the A10 tourney, and they made the NCAA tourney. Not to mention - they won the A10 tournament.

So at the end of the day - at best, last season was a "push" between both of us. We beat them head to head, but on a larger scale - they were the more successful team (NCAA tourney - A10 champs). Not to mention - they have dominated the head to head for the last 10 years or so.

Lets just continue to beat them during the regular season and get back the NCAA's and then we can talk. Until then - like or not, they are still #1 in Richmond, and we are second fiddle.

 

[97spiderfan]

Good write up in the RTD today on VCU's current recruiting class. Tevin Mack sounds like he has one foot out the door. Mom said he has asked for his release from his LOI and it has not been granted yet by VCU. Kenny Williams still seems pretty solid, no comment from the 3rd guy.

Also a discussion on De'monte Buckingham and what he may or may not do. Would have been nice for the RTD to possibly mention UR as his other primary offer he is considering but then I saw Michael Phillips co-wrote the article and understand why weren't included. That guy doesn't know we exist.

Jumping Ship?

 

[spiderman]

I've only read good things about the guy. can't argue with hiring a smart, energetic, relentless guy. but he sounds like a great #2 to me ... not a top guy. there can't be many coaches out there this young that never played college ball, can there? old coaches, I can see that. but at 32, is there a credibility issue? maybe not. I don't know. he's got 2 years of head coaching at a lower level under his belt. seems early for him to take over at a job like VCU, where expectations are now to dance every year.

I think VCU will eventually let Mack out of his LOI. I'm sure they're just asking him to meet with Wade, listen to him, and give him a chance to sell himself. Mack chose VCU for their style and for Smart. they're keeping the style, but he doesn't know Wade. he had some big offers. question is if any of those spots are still open.

 

[97spiderfan]

I'm sure many a BCS school can find an opening for Top 50 recruit at this late stage

 

[spiderman]

yeah, I was just think about prior offers but you're right. there are a ton of guys announcing. they probably need another round in the draft to accomodate them all. so yeah, there are plenty of openings in some really strong programs. don't know if it's worth the risk to a guy like Mack to trust in Wade. if he was a local kid, maybe. but he's not.

 

[Eight Legger]

Burton sounds like he can barely contain his excitement on air today...

 

[R&B fan]

Burton will be cutting his grass and washing his car during his career at VCU. He was recently seen coming out of a tatoo parlor on broad st with a Ram tat on his upper arm.

 

[97spiderfan]

Not sure why as a sports media guy, he can't tell the difference between being in the media and being a fan. He lost all objectivity a long time ago when it came to VCU. Even if I'm a VCU fan that would rub on me. Yeah, it's nice to have a cheerleader for your program, but you also want your local sports media to be able to report objectively on local sports instead of just being a homer for a program.

 

[MolivaManiac]

Originally posted by 97spiderfan:

Not sure why as a sports media guy, he can't tell the difference between being in the media and being a fan. He lost all objectivity a long time ago when it came to VCU. Even if I'm a VCU fan that would rub on me. Yeah, it's nice to have a cheerleader for your program, but you also want your local sports media to be able to report objectively on local sports instead of just being a homer for a program.

It's because their fanbase is too immature to accept objectivity. They attacked all the other local media guys last week just for mentioning that Texas was considering Shaka. Burton's probably concerned that he'll get fired from his gig down there if he's too objective. At some point, he probably needs to decide if he's a PR person or a Media member. Either are respectable vocations but it's hard being both at once and doing either job well.

 

[SpiderK]

BJ's are flowing at the HTG.

 

[Spider B]

Burton really embarrassed himself the last two days. Really pathetic for a guy that is supposed to objective. The way he was talking RPI
should have fired Smart and hired Wade a few years ago. Unfortunatly, he is the only option for local sports in the afernoon and is nothing more than a RPI hack.

 

[SpiderK]

Spider B, you nailed that on the head. I am sure Mooney dreads calling in every week and talking to him. Like you said though, it is the only game in town, for now.

This post was edited on 4/8 7:39 PM by SpiderK

 

[MolivaManiac]

If they ran out of seating at HTG, Burton would have let Wade sit on his face.

 

[Ulla1]

Mo, that's great. Sometimes the truth is funnier than fiction.

 

[SpiderK]

I thought "No question about that" sounded muffled a few times.

 

[MolivaManiac]

^^"Great stuff".

 

[97spiderfan]

Originally posted by MolivaManiac:
If they ran out of seating at HTG, Burton would have let Wade sit on his face.

This made me laugh out loud and sadly probably not too far from the truth.

 

[wr70beh]

If someone has an Arbitron book please do not say you listened to his show today. I'd work like hell to get him off the air.

 

[ur2K]

Based on what I've learned in the last few days from Wes McElroy and Greg Burton, I have no idea how Shaka Smart was able to brush his teeth and put on matching shoes each day without Will Wade around.

Those 2 guys are such shills for VCU, they are rapidly losing any credibility to anyone in this town outside of RPI fans.

 

[97spiderfan]

Originally posted by ur2K:
Based on what I've learned in the last few days from Wes McElroy and Greg Burton, I have no idea how Shaka Smart was able to brush his teeth and put on matching shoes each day without Will Wade around.



It is amazing of how they have minimized Shaka and almost like they are happy that Shaka left, so they go out and get Wade to take them to the next level.