W&M Fires Tony Shafer after 16 Seasons

[Spider B]

The matchup zone is not the best defense for this team. Grant and Nick don’t have the quickest feet, and the starting guards are undersized. We should try sone traditional zone, with some 1-3-1 while Goose is in. Also press to try and untilize our quickness at guard while also running shot clock so we don’t have to defend as long in the half court. Issue is, CM has not shown to be flexible with his game plan or defense. I don’t trust him to make the necessary adjustments to be better on defense or to play the best defense for this team.

 

[MidloTrader]

We might finally be going away from this preferred defense a little bit.

Every time we thought that this season, that "crap matchup D" would resurface 70% or more of a game, and the rebounding and D would once again look like the last in the nation it is. We'd actually get some stops & rebound when we went 2-3 zone or man-to-man, but never once stuck with it for a whole game. That just shows CM's unwillingness to adjust to what the players could actually play.

 

[spiderman]

I'm not going to go back and watch again, but I don't think we played just matchup in the SLU or UMASS rebounding disasters earlier this month.

 

[nathanw19]

Every time we thought that this season, that "crap matchup D" would resurface 70% or more of a game, and the rebounding and D would once again look like the last in the nation it is. We'd actually get some stops & rebound when we went 2-3 zone or man-to-man, but never once stuck with it for a whole game. That just shows CM's unwillingness to adjust to what the players could actually play.

I’m hoping we throw some full court pressure more often. We should (finally) have a bench. And what better way to force Mooney to rotate than to play pressure defense? Also, having 2 smalll guards is less of an issue when they’re hounding people 60 feet from the basket!

I’m cautiously optimistic for next year. Mooney showed a willingness to play multiple defenses this year, and next year’s squad won’t be a good matchup zone squad either. So let’s see multiple defenses, some pressure, and keep rotating bodies at people!

 

[ur2K]

Bring back the posse

 

[coach fezz]

Bring back the posse

also bring back yelling at players more and no more hold the hand save the job talking. No more videos , tweeters , just get back to work watch the video to see how we are losing last 5 minutes of games and why we play give up defense on dribble drive , i think we dont work hard enough on defense you must dig dig dig dig dig and want want want want . dont give me this softsoftsoftsoftsoft then oh well i try didnt you see coach . if we only to win 12 games at least other team should know we are the fighters . JJ was fighter gonzo was fighter . who is fighters next year. everybody gets 5 minutes on heavy bag. if someone is getting easy lay then somebody should be falling down

 

[MrTbone]

Why is everyone assuming Blake will be a bad defender? Because of his size? Jacob is one of the best defensive players we've ever had here.

I would say this about any player about whom the only discussion has been their offensive skillset.

And I made no assertions his defense is bad, I merely commented that I have questions about this since overall our problems as a team are largely defensive.

No need to get all “defensive”. (See what I did there???)

 

[SpiderK]

I really hope we abandon the “Hope they miss matchup” defense entirely.

 

[VT4700]

I really hope we abandon the “Hope they miss matchup” defense entirely.

Yep. Especially the " hope they miss the layup, dunk, or follow shot".

 

[spider23]

also bring back yelling at players more and no more hold the hand save the job talking. No more videos , tweeters , just get back to work watch the video to see how we are losing last 5 minutes of games and why we play give up defense on dribble drive , i think we dont work hard enough on defense you must dig dig dig dig dig and want want want want . dont give me this softsoftsoftsoftsoft then oh well i try didnt you see coach . if we only to win 12 games at least other team should know we are the fighters . JJ was fighter gonzo was fighter . who is fighters next year. everybody gets 5 minutes on heavy bag. if someone is getting easy lay then somebody should be falling down

Agree Fezz, we need to instill a mindset of competition and defense from day 1, and I see no evidence of that occurring.

Sometimes I feel like Mooney will not recruit a position if he has a decent player already. I am sure it is just his lack of ability, but it just seems like all the positions are set or 4 of them most years. Guys just show up and get there playing time. Watching Wichita State the other night, Marshall is going to yank a guy if he makes a low/no effort play on defense. Mooney may grimace if it is Golden, or Gilly or Sherod - bite his tongue and I guess hope they don't transfer.

Hopefully next season Francis is that "last 5 minutes guy", a la KA or Gonzo. Also think Gilly could step up in that role as a junior.

 

[spiderman]

if W&M makes the tournament next season with Shaver's seniors, I'll argue Shaver could have as well.

if they make the tournament in any of the following 5 seasons, I'll totally agree this was a brilliant move.

if they don't, I'll continue to believe it's an institutional issue.

I haven't seen anyone talking about the new W&M hire. we'll see, but I'm doubting he's an upgrade. Shaver's a good coach.

 

[VT4700]

I haven't seen anyone talking about the new W&M hire. we'll see, but I'm doubting he's an upgrade. Shaver's a good coach.

Seems like a pretty impressive hire to me. I think he could do well there. But, time will tell.

 

[GKiller]

I haven't seen anyone talking about the new W&M hire. we'll see, but I'm doubting he's an upgrade. Shaver's a good coach.

Their AD missed out on other candidates. Had to. Now I do credit her for having the spine unlike our AD to get W&M admin onboard. But there's no way she fired a respected Shaver with his team coming back, paid 1.7 mil buyout, and ended up with an asst from a middling A10 team. Now sometimes getting your 3rd or 4th choice works out but there's no way he was at the top.

Fortunately at Richmond we wouldn't be in that situation as there would be much more demand and interest for UR.

 

[Eight Legger]

W&M wants to win, and that's an admirable trait. Huge should have had a better grasp on whether her top one or two candidates were actually going to sign the contract before she fired Shaver, so that's on her. But the bottom line is that they weren't getting over that hurdle with Shaver in place. Time to try something new.

 

[spiderman]

did she even have time to miss out on other candidates? seemed to happen pretty quickly and I don't think many candidates have been hired elsewhere yet.

 

[97spiderfan]

I doubt an assistant coach from George Mason was at the top of their list. But maybe this dude is legit. One thing is for sure they had a 16 year experience with Shaver with no NCAA's, so you knew what he was bringing. That wasn't enough for W&M, nor should it have been.

 

[spiderman]

I doubt an assistant coach from George Mason was at the top of their list. But maybe this dude is legit. One thing is for sure they had a 16 year experience with Shaver with no NCAA's, so you knew what he was bringing. That wasn't enough for W&M, nor should it have been.

he was in the conference championship a few times lately in a one bid league. you can say close isn't good enough, but close is historically as good a year as they've ever had at W&M and might be the best they see. they might be longing for close" soon if this new guy doesn't work out. close gives you a shot.

heck, right now I miss the days when we were close.

 

[WebSpinner]

as others have said on here ad nauseam, play any type of D you want but if you don't finish by rebounding, really does not matter.

 

[GKiller]

did she even have time to miss out on other candidates? seemed to happen pretty quickly and I don't think many candidates have been hired elsewhere yet.

Sure. 3 weeks is an above average length of time for a D1 head men's basketball search. Any AD would have candidates in mind before the official search even began.

 

[spiderman]

https://wydaily.com/local-news/2019...about-how-secretive-the-search-was-conducted/
some details on the process.

 

[WebSpinner]

Eight, the indians have never danced or gone to many post seasons in any tourney so NOW, they want to win? just seems kind of funny for you to say that when it has never happened there, NEVER. just cannot get on board your "they want to win" train because am sure over the past 100 years or so, they have wanted to win.

 

[Eight Legger]

But Spinner, every team had "never" made the NCAAs at some point. And then they did! So I don't subscribe to the notion that you are for all eternity what you have been in the past. If your mom is a line cook and your dad is a garbageman, does that mean you can't become anything more than one of those?

W&M has a new president and a new AD, and they have a different vision for their athletics program than seemingly what was common there before. Maybe they never get any farther than they've already been, or maybe they do. They're going for it, though, and I applaud them for trying.

 

[spiderman]

W&M has a new president and a new AD, and they have a different vision for their athletics program than seemingly what was common there before. Maybe they never get any farther than they've already been, or maybe they do. They're going for it, though, and I applaud them for trying.

Dane Fischer might end up great, but if there was truly a "different vision" from the president and AD at W&M they would have made a bigger splash in a coaching hire than the top GMU assistant. this hire doesn't show any increased level of institutional commitment.

 

[VT4700]

Dane Fischer might end up great, but if there was truly a "different vision" from the president and AD at W&M they would have made a bigger splash in a coaching hire than the top GMU assistant. this hire doesn't show any increased level of institutional commitment.

But, getting the right fit is more important than getting a big splash. I like the hire.

 

[Eight Legger]

Dane Fischer might end up great, but if there was truly a "different vision" from the president and AD at W&M they would have made a bigger splash in a coaching hire than the top GMU assistant. this hire doesn't show any increased level of institutional commitment.

Well, I already said that she failed a bit by not being able to lock down her first or second choice. And that is on her. However, you don't usually get divorced from someone in order to marry another person -- you get divorced because the marriage isn't working. Huge determined that Shaver was not the right person moving forward and now she's found someone else she believed will be a better fit. She might be wrong, she might be right.

 

[spiderman]

However, you don't usually get divorced from someone in order to marry another person -- you get divorced because the marriage isn't working.

yeah, in theory! but in reality usually one of the parties already has a replacement lineup up.

no idea if Dane was her 1st choice or 3rd. like you said, Huge maybe just decided Shafer wasn't the guy. if so, bold move and good for her. but hiring a GMU assistant doesn't smell like W&M has a new vision or a larger commitment to basketball success.

 

[Eight Legger]

Keeping Shaver for Year 17 didn't smell like a larger commitment to basketball success either.

 

[WebSpinner]

just wonder how many times a w&m ad said we are changing our direction, we want to win in basketball, we want to dance? great to dream, talk about it, even make waves showing that they mean business but quite another thing to actually accomplish it over a hundred years. hey, will pull for the indians and have pulled for them when they have made the caa finals a number of times but came up just short. every school wants to dance, even say they want to but out of the 300+ members only 68 make it each year meaning that most don't are left out.

 

[Marley13]

Took Northwestern 78 years but they did it. You never know.

 

[WebSpinner]

guess that Eight thinks making a coaching change means business and just don't see it that way. Eight, both of us are REDSKINS fans and look at the coaching changes we have witnessed since danny took over and he loves the team just like we do but changing coaches can mean chaos as much as it does being committed.

 

[Eight Legger]

Well, do you think the Redskins would be better now if Norv Turner were in his 19th year as head coach?

Of course when you fire coaches and your new ones you might make a bad hire sometimes. It also depends who is doing the hiring. The Redskins are run by a team of fools, so it's no surprise they can't hire well. I'd like to think UR is better than that.

At some point in time -- and I'd say 14 or 16 years is well beyond it -- you know what you have. You're either ok with the status quo at that point or believe you can be better. I fall into the latter classification.

 

[WebSpinner]

don't disagree that sometimes a change is needed but don't agree that just changing coaches is the answer, the end all and that if you don't that you don't care. danny made a good hire once and the guy after one year had the team back and tough but then fired him to hire spurrier, duh. this board is no different than any city in which one might live, a coach has a year or two not up to their standards and they are screaming to the heavens for a change. just saying we live in a culture now where we must have immediate gratification and won't have any patience to give a coach an opportunity to build his program. look at Russ, already have guys wanting him gone when he really has not had time to do his thing. not discussing the CM situation here, am talking about coaches and coaching situations in general.

 

[Eight Legger]

Well that's apples and oranges then. I'm not typically in favor of firing coaches after three or four years. But 14 or 16 years? That's an eternity. Wanting someone gone after that long isn't about instant gratification... At that point it's almost like ancient gratification.

 

[AnnapSpider]

Well that's apples and oranges then. I'm not typically in favor of firing coaches after three or four years. But 14 or 16 years? That's an eternity. Wanting someone gone after that long isn't about instant gratification... At that point it's almost like ancient gratification.

In most cases coaches should be allowed 4-5 years to have their recruits and coaches in place.
Not always. Sometimes it can be obvious from the get go.
In Shafer’s case and in Mooney’s case, they are both way past the evaluation period.

 

[MrTbone]

just saying we live in a culture now where we must have immediate gratification and won't have any patience to give a coach an opportunity to build his program. look at Russ, already have guys wanting him gone when he really has not had time to do his thing. not discussing the CM situation here, am talking about coaches and coaching situations in general.

I realize you stated you aren't talking about CM but it bears noting that the UR fan base has been incredibly patient. I don’t see any parallel to the short attention span culture of today and what has been going on with UR MBB, if anything, it’s been the opposite.

 

[Dr. Spidey]

MVP Dowdy of VCU-Auburn just made the dumbest foul in NCAA history. Thanks #VCUEducation

 

[whampas]

MVP Dowdy of VCU-Auburn just made the dumbest foul in NCAA history. Thanks #VCUEducation

They have a penchant for that in the tournament.

 

[WebSpinner]

think fans can feel and express whatever but don't do the patience thing, this insane attack mode has been going on for quite a while not just this year. my only point is that making a coaching change anywhere is not the bottom line on whether some entity cares about their product, just too many other variables involved for things to be that simple, that black and white.

 

[MrTbone]

I think the vitriol ramped up this year significantly so sure there was negativity before but things moved seismically downward this season. I’d also agree that failure tends not to be binary. All that said, sometimes a leadership change is necessary to reset culture/attitude.

I’m really just ready for something different, I’ve grown tired of feeling like things have to go perfect for us to have a chance at success.

 

[WebSpinner]

being a long time fan, understand all of it but just not easy to go through this and watch this and told my wife recently, glad we are not in Richmond right now.