Seeing how several of these interim to full time situations have gone over the last 4-5 years, we should have a high bar for Sanchez to keep the job. Top 4 in the ACC, ACCT semifinals appearance, or win a NCAAT game. Falling short of all 3 should guarantee a full search is conducted
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What examples have there been?
There have been good and bad examples of a coachās hand picked successor in recent years. For example, Neptune appears to be an example of one that will likely not work out. Autry aināt blowing the doors off at Syracuse.
Painter was brought in as a coach in waiting for 1 year. Not exactly an āinterimā but basically the same thing after Keady announced his retirement before the season started. Heās obviously been a resounding success at Purdue. It looks like, regrettably, Sheyer will work out at Duke.
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Scheyer has recruited even better than K (although portal recruiting adds a new spin, where Duke hasnāt been great, probably for similar reasons that we havenāt been great ā some academic limitations), but Iām still a little wait and see on how he does leading the team in-season.
Hubert is similar, albeit different paths. His recruiting has been solid, not spectacular. He hasnāt developed guys over the long term (that he recruited). But he has had pretty good on court outcomes, and also one real stinker.
Neptune has obviously struggled, and is likely out this year if they donāt do pretty okay.
Unfortunately, I think Hubert and Scheyer are much different cases than Sanchez, though. Those guys both had power bases independent of the departing HC. They were very successful players at their schools. They were long-time assistants, with long uninterrupted tenures. Conversely, Sanchez is just a Tony Bennett guy. He didnāt play here. Heās only been back in Cville after a 5-year break for about a year. He wasnāt here when we won the natty. Thereās no big UVa fan grassroots support for Ron Sanchez. Thereās no wellspring of good feeling for him. Only Tony has that for Ron. We donāt, or at least I donāt. (and not to Hooz123 this whole deal, but there would be more of a case for J-Willy on those frontsā¦)
If there was some element of Tony trying to do a favor for a bud (and I have no idea if there was), then I donāt know if this is really such a favorā¦
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Scheyer has done the best job of getting rid of players. Thats for sure
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Rodney Terry at Texas and Isaac Brown at Wichita State are the two I can think of right now. Guess the other examples are older than Covid and probably not as relevant to the current landscape. Also will be interesting to see how Ohio State does this year with Diebler.
Either way the concern is the interim does just enough to get a full 4-5 year contract and then that interim season is the best the ever produce because they capitalized on the roster the old guy built
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If memory serves. Terry made an elite 8, Brown did very well in challenging circumstances (and hasnāt since) and Diebler changed the trajectory of the year (got some big wins and made a run at the dance). Those guys either had great outcomes (Terry), outperformed expectations (Brown), or outperfromed the prior coach (Diebler - plus heās a local fave).
We shall see where Ronchez (h/t @dave92 ) falls on that spectrum.
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Iāll take optimism right now in any form it appears, so I appreciate the positive thoughts. But I really donāt agree with them. Well, I agree with CTB setting up Sanchez to get a good shot at the job in the sense that its apparently happened.
But other than guaranteeing the audition, I donāt know that heās helped Sanchez or the program out. Sanchez is now going to have to coach a season with players who, until yesterday, thought they were playing for someone else. Different personalities, potentially different schemes and the whole vibe is going to be different. Maybe theyāll rally around Sanchez, but maybe theyāll be bitter about being bailed on immediately before the season starts (so Sanchez could get the clean shot) and they wonāt.
And no matter how it goes, a bunch of folks will leave after the season. In part because thatās how things go these days and in part because they didnāt get a chance to before the season. So, heās both going to have to navigate this season but heās also going to have to navigate a potential rebuild.
If CTB had retired in April and Sanchez had won the job, yes heād be faced with a potentially even larger rebuild, but expectations would also be vastly lower and heād have the advantage of starting with a clean slate.
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Yeah, thatās basically where I am. If Tony wants to help Ron out, then go to his house and empty his dishwasher or mow his lawn.
If the goal was to help Ron in his career (and Iām not sure it was to be clear), he picked an awkward way to do it.
āLet him stay at charlotte and figure things outā may have been a bigger help.
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Pretty much everybody Iāve heard from since yesterday in a position to have any insight believes setting Sanchez up was really really important to Bennett. Not saying that led to the decision to step down now but yeah it mattered. His loyalty is first and foremost to the coaching staff, then the players as a distant second, and then maybe a little to the school if any is leftover. Just how it is. And thatās pretty normal for a college coach.
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I was slightly more negative than I intended.
The one positive of this, from the standpoint of first-years and transfers, is that if CTB really just decided in the last few months that he was done (basically, after transfer recruiting was done) then going out this way at least leaves them in the hands of someone they know and (hopefully) trust.
If heād left in July, there would have been a search and who knows who theyād have picked as HC? Presumably someone competent, but from a player-standpoint itād be a much bigger change and more jarring. Theyād have had their 30 days to portal still, but teams were largely set at that point so theyād still have been 90% as hosed as they are right now.
Edit - This feels a bit like āLook, the glass is 1/8th full, not 7/8ths emptyā even to me, but I still think its valid.
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I have no problem with that. Thereās no telling what might have happened with Tony in his career if his Dad hadnāt done the same for him at WSU. Iām sure he would have been fine, but Dick set up to succeed from the get go.
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I know that Bennett loved his players, but part of the changing landscape that has robbed CTB of the joy of coaching is that the players or very few at least have loyalty to the coach or program anymore.
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Well know that we know his passion is dentistry was it really necessary to help Jay Willy out by giving him an root canal?
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At least until the DJ equipment gets clawed back through the embezzlement case. In hindsight, cannabis festivals probably arenāt the most high paying DJ gigs.
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I believe in Manchester, they call this the āOle Gunnar Solskjaerā
Great United playerā¦ bad United coach
This was an interesting read. The good and bad of Sanchez, from a Charlotte fanās perspective. H/t Riffs on Twitter
My take:
- the pro case is that he recruited some really good players (portal and HS) but couldnāt keep them for reasons that are not in his hands (NIL and new portal rules).
- The con case is that he struggled in March (
) and fell into similar offensive traps as Tony: foreclosing ORs and FTs as an easy way to get buckets meant that even an offense with a high eFG% was not particularly good
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Thought that was a good read. Liked most of what I saw until the part about 0 wins in his conference tournament over the entire stretch he was there. That is horrendous.
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Iād also add that his last C-USA season was really pretty poor, despite a good top-level NET, KenPom, Torvik #. He went 1-5 against the top 3 teams (FAU, UAB, North Texas) and 1-2 (incl. conference tourney) against the 4th team.
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