"Hard to imagine the Tribe doing much better than Shafer. Really tough admissions standards. He was a great mentor and teacher for the Tribe players over the years."
W&M Fires Tony Shafer after 16 Seasons
- Thread starter MolivaManiac
- Start date
Shaver*
I got too used to writing "shafer" recently.
I got too used to writing "shafer" recently.
File this quote away for our AD
We are forever grateful to Tony for his commitment and service over 16 years to William & Mary," Huge said. "He is a teacher not just a coach and his impact on hundreds of young men will be felt by them for years to come. However, we have high expectations for our men's basketball program, including participating in the NCAA Tournament, and we will not shy away from setting the bar high. Now is the time to begin a new chapter in William & Mary basketball. On behalf of Tribe Athletics, I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Tony and we wish him all the best."
We are forever grateful to Tony for his commitment and service over 16 years to William & Mary," Huge said. "He is a teacher not just a coach and his impact on hundreds of young men will be felt by them for years to come. However, we have high expectations for our men's basketball program, including participating in the NCAA Tournament, and we will not shy away from setting the bar high. Now is the time to begin a new chapter in William & Mary basketball. On behalf of Tribe Athletics, I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Tony and we wish him all the best."
"However, we have high expectations for our men's basketball program, including participating in the NCAA Tournament, and we will not shy away from setting the bar high."
Even though it didn't come from our AD, I'm about to have a wet dream reading this statement.
Even though it didn't come from our AD, I'm about to have a wet dream reading this statement.
You know who would be a good choice for W&M? Patrick Beilein.
Compare that quote at William & Mary to the 11 paragraphs of excuses coming from the Mooney supporters.
When W&M is setting the bar higher than Richmond....well.........
Its a sad day. If they did hire Patrick Beilein they would get to the NCAA's before us.
When I saw this firing, which in my opinion was very shocking - it looks like to me they must know who they want and know they can get them. I don't think you fire Shaver - who has been one of the most successful coaches in the CAA in terms of wins and losses the past few years unless you know who want to replace him and that you are pretty sure you can get him. SO it will be interesting to see who they hire.
Hmmm. Seems like they aren't scared of a little thing called a buyout. First they get Mike London for football (who was pretty much hired prior to Laycock's last game), and now this. Sounds like they have an AD who knows what he wants.
EDIT:. Whoops. It's a she.
https://tribeathletics.com/mobile/staff.aspx?staff=236
Anyone can make a sstatement. A statement means nothing. They probably just got rid of one of the few coaches out there who could win there.
Time will tell, but if the goal is to find a way to get to the dance and this has not happened for 16 years with this coach. Which makes more sense, stay the course or make a calculated change?
That is such a small-minded statement. You don’t think there’s any other coach you can go there and consistently NOT win conference championships during the regular season or postseason? That’s the best they can do?
What exactly did he win there? In the past nine years combined, they are just about exactly .500. William and Mary is not some rinky-dink podunk school. And the fact that they haven’t made it to the NCAA tournament in their history doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t expect to make it to the NCAA tournament. Candidly, Shaver is now part of the problem as to why they’ve never made a tournament. He was there 16 years and couldn’t do it! I give Huge a ridiculous amount of credit for having goals and holding herself and the university to them. Maybe she hires someone who doesn’t get there, but you never know until you try. And obviously they were not going to get there under Shaver.
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I hear you. I think the timing was a little strange though.I am surprised they did not at least wait one more year since they have everyone back and Nathan Knight is a senior next year.
They have been to four conference finals, have had some players there recently who are as good as any they have ever had there, and very well might be preseason favorites to win the league next year. So my thinking is, if you have waited 16 years, why not wait one more and see if Knight and Shaver can get you to the dance together.
Bio says that this is Huge's second year at W & M. By her standards HER NCAA clock has about 3-4 years before SHE and her new coach has to make the tournament at W & M. Good luck!
If the school makes the upgrades and commitment so that their coach has a chance to make the NCAA, then I am 100% behind the philosophy. If the new AD is just "holding the coach accountable" but not holding herself accountable to the same standard it is nothing more than a huge pile of BS.
If the school makes the upgrades and commitment so that their coach has a chance to make the NCAA, then I am 100% behind the philosophy. If the new AD is just "holding the coach accountable" but not holding herself accountable to the same standard it is nothing more than a huge pile of BS.
I don't know that you can say obviously they were not going to get there. They have been to 4 finals, and a few years ago had a six-point lead with a minute left in one of them. They also won a regular season title and made the NIT recently, and I think things were set up next year to finally get them over the hump. Yes, it has been 16 years, but the last half of those were a heck of a lot better than the first half of those, and they seemed to be trending in the right direction. They have had both a winning conference record and finished fourth or better each of the last six years. They have been knocking, and I just think they should have given Shaver and Knight, who is maybe their best player ever, a chance together next year. If they did not make it next year, I would have felt it might have been time to make a change. I am just surprised they did not wait one more year with who they have coming back.
Don't know about you, I had my "wet dreams" while dreaming about the Playboy Centerfolds starting with the January 1968 issue!
Wait one more year for Knight...then wait one more year because Knight gets hurt in November, and it's not fair to judge them without him...then wait one more year because of a good recruiting class..then wait one more year because maybe they're building a new basketball facility.
Sound familiar?
I think Shaver is a pretty good coach but it’s because the AD believes a new coach can get the same but probably better results with a different coach. See Richmond Chuck Boone. Many wanted him to give Dooley 1 more year here. Instead he brings in Beilein and takes same players to NCAA first year.
She also believes 16 years is a long time and a program often needs change and was becoming stale. See Richmond Chris Mooney.
I hear you, but I don't think they had very many good players or any hope before Shaver got there. When trying to compare to us, we have had a lot of success in the past, and they have not. Our last two years was probably every year for them before Shaver got there. Most of their fans are not happy with the move. They know that it's no fun to be at the bottom with no hope year after year and might be worried they will be headed there again. Even though they have not gone dancing, I do know a lot of their fans have enjoyed being relevant, going to conference finals, and just feeling like they have talent that gives them a chance. I think most of their fans felt next year was going to be the year. Now they are worried again. I'm sure she has her reasons. Time will tell how it works out.
gosh, tony did not get them to the ncaa tourney in 16 years and the school has aspirations better than that......well, which w&m coaches and how many times have the indians been to the dance in how many years of playing basketball?
And UVA fans were very worried when they hired Tony Bennett as their coach, too. Guess Craig Littlepage should have listened to them back then....
The bottom line is that fans like winning. ADs shouldn't be making decisions based on what the fans think is best for a program – they should make them based on what they themselves believe is best. Huge clearly believes this is best for W&M, and I applaud her for aiming higher and encouraging her fans to aim higher. There's no reason W&M shouldn't be able to win a CAA tournament at some point. It's not like they are in the ACC competing against a bunch of D1 gorillas.
Every team had "never made the tournament before" - until they did one day! Should W&M just be content with never making it? Should they not take any steps to try to make it, simply because they never have before? What a defeatist attitude. It's the same one shared by many of our fans, unfortunately.
The bottom line is that fans like winning. ADs shouldn't be making decisions based on what the fans think is best for a program – they should make them based on what they themselves believe is best. Huge clearly believes this is best for W&M, and I applaud her for aiming higher and encouraging her fans to aim higher. There's no reason W&M shouldn't be able to win a CAA tournament at some point. It's not like they are in the ACC competing against a bunch of D1 gorillas.
Every team had "never made the tournament before" - until they did one day! Should W&M just be content with never making it? Should they not take any steps to try to make it, simply because they never have before? What a defeatist attitude. It's the same one shared by many of our fans, unfortunately.
Lot of defeatist thinking on here. The next guy could always be worse thinking. Yes, this is true, then get a new coach in three years. Hell, VCU has been hitting home runs just about every time. We are worried that W&M and us can't get someone better with a combined 24 year drought.
Is Hardt watching? We need a Hardt Huge summit. Huge Hardt better name on second thought.
This is good for us on many levels, it takes away the bs buyout issue that is sometimes raised here. W&M just bought out Shaver for 1.7 MIL. W&M! Mooney will have an offset too and Moon could at least get an asst gig for 300k.
Btw Cordell is London's agent too. So 1 gets hired 1 gets fired.
The other noticeable thing is former player Dixon comments. Take note. This is how our players and former players will ultimately react too. You can be disappointed but also have the attitude that you look forward as well and will get behind the new coach. What a novel concept yet some here act like this will create some split within the program.
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-spt-tony-shaver-wm-0314-story.html
This is good for us on many levels, it takes away the bs buyout issue that is sometimes raised here. W&M just bought out Shaver for 1.7 MIL. W&M! Mooney will have an offset too and Moon could at least get an asst gig for 300k.
Btw Cordell is London's agent too. So 1 gets hired 1 gets fired.
The other noticeable thing is former player Dixon comments. Take note. This is how our players and former players will ultimately react too. You can be disappointed but also have the attitude that you look forward as well and will get behind the new coach. What a novel concept yet some here act like this will create some split within the program.
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-spt-tony-shaver-wm-0314-story.html
with the solid roster W&M has coming back, it's a fairly attractive job. a coach can come in and possibly win, being the first to ever do it there. instant hero.
Yeah, but look at the two hires previous to that (Gillen and Leitao), and the stale, boring-ass playing style of the Jeff Jones era, and I can't blame the UVA fans for worrying about Bennett. But I will say that Bennett is probably one of the best five college BB coaches in the game right now.
#NoMoreMooneyTruthing
I agree, but after that a tough place to win with the admissions standards. Amazing how this board can take someone's opinion and just go into attack mode. All I said was I would have waited at least one more year. Fine if people disagree, but strange how my opinion means I have this defeatist attitude.
I think the problem is the reasons you gave for 1 more year. You pointed to Knight and the rest of their roster returning. Those are personnel reasons not coaching reasons. A new coach would (assumedly) have those same players.
You didn’t point to reasons that Shaver deserves to be back based on what he does (leadership, X’s and O’s, game management, etc.).
And then obviously, the reasoning you used to keep Shaver is analogous to the reasoning many are using for Mooney (look at the roster returning next year!). Instead, people would rather hear coaching reasons for Mooney’s return.
Obviously it’s a hornets nest around here at the moment, but I’d say your reasoning (which I personally think isn’t a good reason to keep a coach) is the crux of the disagreement.
You literally said they just got rid of "one of the few coaches out there who could win there."
Yes, that is a defeatist attitude. You believe that only a few coaches can win games at W&M. And again, I'm not sure what you even mean by "win." Shaver had a losing record there in 16 years.
If I was fan of that program, I would be insulted by your suggestion.
the last 5 seasons, Shaver had 20, 20, 20, 17 and 19 wins. finished top 4 in the CAA each year. the CAA isn't getting at-large bids so you have to win the tournament. that's a crap shoot. seems to me he's doing a good job though.
if he's fired on this one year, that's shortsighted. could be personality conflict with the AD.
if he's fired on this one year, that's shortsighted. could be personality conflict with the AD.
