Iām all for maximizing the programās potential.
Based on most of the candidates that are routinely rolled off on this board, Iād would much rather try to retain the current staff and roster for next year. Yes, that means hiring Ron. Thereās a lot of built in advantages there and I think UVA would have a lot of success going that route.
However, thatās not my first choice. The one coach out there that I think is poachable that would enjoy enormous at Virginia is Chris Beard.
I mean, how can you with a straight face lash Byington for that conference record in his first year and then be like āBut Ron is actually doing an amazing job!ā when he has a worse conference record in a immeasurably worse conference also in his first year? And you discount much of what a guy like Byington has done pre-Vandy but then say nothing about Ronās stint at Charlotte.
You are contorting the way you evaluate things every 30 seconds so you can argue Ron is a good pick. You can have that opinion, itās totally fine, but the lack of consistency makes it difficult to discuss.
The only coach you want us to go after is the one that UVA would never approach with a 30 ft pole? Well then I feel youāll be disappointed cause we arenāt hiring Ron unless he like wins the ACC tournament and we arenāt hiring Beard. Gonna have to get comfortable with one of the many other options.
Whoa!!! Common ground. Also my first choice.
With Ron itās pretty simple to me. There isnāt another P5 team in the country interviewing him to be a head coach this offseason. So why are we? Things are stale. Time to move on and try something new. Itās no guarantee for success, but this season has been pretty damn miserable. And one unexpected road win doesnāt change that.
Beard is a great coach. But also, agree with @MaineWahoo that we wouldnāt go after him. I donāt even need to think much whether I agree or not because we would not do it.
It is simply not happening. So folks can like him, but itās moot.
Also think Beard as a coach is solid but a lot of that is he has also been in environments with a lot of money. Its less Beard is some savant, and moreso he is able to use the resources that have been available to him.
Texas Tech/Texas oil money and Ole Miss dropping hella bags for Pedulla and Malik Dia.
Is this even a serious question?
Byingtonās roster is full of upperclassman. Vandyās starting lineup is full of guys that have played a lot of minutes over their careers. Byington is coaching with a long-term contract. Ron took over an inexperienced roster October 18th and had 2 PGs bail. Itās night and day different.
UVAās roster is full of guys that have very little meaningful experience. And some of those guys have raw talent that can be developed, that will be studs in the future.
If you donāt see a marked improvement in Andrew Rhode & Blake Buchanan over the course of the last year, I donāt know what to tell you. If you donāt see a world of potential in guys like Robinson, Cofie, Sharma, etc. I donāt know what youāre looking at.
Ya know, thereās a reason the HOF coach that resigned spent his last few months selling a 2 year plan.
How many kids comeback from 2 ACL tears? I canāt imagine many. How many in the NBA?
Tony always said he wanted guys he could lose with, so you could argue this roster is his Opus.
Alright man. I respect you going down with Ron ship. Iām not onboard, but we all have different opinions. Iām ready for a fresh start.
And with that, I exit the convo. Good luck to you all!
I still like John Wooden as an option and nobody is taking me off that train.
Only two of whom played for him last season. Most mid Major or low end power 5 rejects (outside Hoggard).
Saunders was in a final 4 and sweet 16. McKneely Rohde and Buchanan were starters. And Ron was part of the staff that put this roster together in the spring.
There is nothing pointing towards Ron being a bonafide candidate for our opening other than irrational attachment to the 2014-2019 years. Literally nothing else points to Ron being able to making UVA nationally relevant.
Chris Beardās spent one year at Little Rock and went 30-5. That was sandwiched between 13-18 and 15-17. Dude can flat out coach.
Hell, Beard almost made a respectable player out of Mac McClung.
Byington inherited a dogshit JMU team, transferred up a conference and took them to the round of 32 smacking a Wisconsin team that smacked us with Ron Sanchez on staff while having a 32 win season.
He inherited a Vanderbilt program that was as down as you could be in the hardest most well-funded college sports conference to exist and already has two top 10 wins and an 80-64 win over the Hokies who just beat us at home. And an 85-69 win over Cal who thromped us.
Thereās a reason why Vandy was picked to finish last in the SEC coming into this season. Look at the talent on that roster compared to the rest of the conference, they might not have the best finish to the year but what Byington has done up to this point is pretty fuckin fantastic.
Lowers the possibility of Vanderbilt fighting to overpay him to keep him in place.
Lol. Saunders took the same number of shots on SDSUās Final Four run as I did. Buchanan started 6 games last year.
Talent is already on hand to make UVA relevant & they will be next year. Itās not an irrational attachment to 2014-2019. The staff at UVA has proven they are very good at developing talent. There is as much evidence that Ron can make UVA relevant again as there is Byington. And the biggest difference between Sanchez & Byington is that Sanchez is a realistic hire & the Byington ship has already sailed. Stackhouse made over $4 million at Vandy in 2022. Iām sure he has a hefty buyout.
And so it begins. Time to start second guessing lineup decisions for all 75 potential coaches, none of whom will end up actually being our next coach.
āToo equal opportunityā playing time sounds pretty bad though. I donāt think we should hire a coach that doesnāt have an established track record of not playing guys that were obviously better than the guys that actually played, no matter how good the results. What would Fred post about?
On second thought, no, definitely hire that guy.