Also on the Virginia Cavaliers FB page
Me on Twitter defending Tonyās legacy from casuals refusing to acknowledge his status as an all-time great:
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He only gets one year and then the admin has to decide when the season is over. They canāt have an interim coach for two years.
He wonāt be able to recruit effectively at all this year during the season given he is just an interim coach. But if the admin doesnāt made any decision about a long term contract after next season, he will be severely hamstrung as to recruiting next year as well both with high schoolers and portal guys with more than one year of eligibility left. And you have to assume we will need portal replacements and the ability to recruit high schoolers in the next two years.
Mallory, for instance, might wait the season out before deciding what to do, but if we are going into next season with a coach on an interim tag for the second straight year, he is going somewhere else.
Obviously if we get a totally new coach who isnāt a TB guy at least 50% of the players and probably way more will leave and we will be starting from scratch in the rubble of the destroyed pillars.
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Iām not getting any work done this morning. Feels like Iām getting ready to go to a funeral.
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Is the presser only being streamed? No TV?
no itās on the uva facebook page
Exactly
Tourist
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Am I the only one totally opposed to Ryan Odomās name being thrown around in these convos?
Do you want to start every single nationally televised game for the rest of our lives with āDo you know the back story behind Coach Odom and UVA? Well, UVA was the first one seed to lose to a sixteen seed! Ever! And Odom was the coach!ā Forever?
Also it just feels like kind of a pathetic move. All time great coach retired and you hire the guy who gave him his most embarrassing career moment? I mean itās poetic in a way, but I donāt need that in my life. And I definitely donāt need being reminded about UMBC every single time thereās a lull in the commentatorās conversation and they need something to talk about.
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So much gnashing of teeth. Tonyās earned our trust and respect. We knew it had to end and probably soon. Surely he thinks this roster will be good and have a reasonable chance to stay together or he would have chosen another route. With or without CTB there will be yearly attrition in this environment.
Might be St Joes needs a coach next year anyway and we loose JWilly. Letās see what Ron can do with this team. Go Hoos!
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Get Griff Aldrich and start bringing Texas oil money to UVA hoops.
If we are a top 15-20 caliber program consistently, sure why not?
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WINA carrying the press conference audio.
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That guy has two NBa guys on his roster (two more than us!). If he doesnāt win, he might find himself on the hot seatā¦
Havenāt really been paying attention recently. Whoāve been good Carla hires?
Desorbo aside, annyone else remotely good/exciting?
Now that Iāve been able to sleep on this news and wrap my head around it, Iām thinking that there is really no āgoodā time for Tony to announce his retirement at his age and record of success. Somebody or something will feel negative effects. Iām reminding myself that this business is dog-eat-dog and a person must be true to his/herself. There was an old saying when I was growing up that the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. Iāve learned that there is at least one more: Change! Best of luck and health to Tony!
Interested in the reasons he let (maybe weāll get some clarity at the presser, but I suspect it will only rule out health reasons at best).
Howeverā¦
It really sucks for the players for the timing of it. But is this weirdly a best-case scenario for the program transition?
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Gives players zero opportunity to transfer out this season so roster wonāt be gutted.
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Gives opportunity for full audition of successor while national search can be conducted in the background (like you think Neptune or Red Autry would have kept their gigs after an audition year?).
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Iām on record that I think this team was maybe destined to be one of his worst years since he started - and debate all you want but the last 5 years have been a downward trend. He leaves before nearing the bottom in my opinion - not going to Boeheim us.
Tony was going to have to leave at some point. The initial optics arenāt great and really a slap to the players, I think long term this isnāt a terrible way out (unless we see players jump ship 20 days before the season which is very unlikely).
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On the one hand, youāre right.
On the other hand, 95% of the time program stability canāt be assured for more than about a year at a time, if that. Teams are up and down as kids leave and coaches have good and bad seasons.
Weāve been extremely lucky to spend 10+ years in that rarified 5%. But thatās now done, and in the rest of the world where we now are, a year of program stability isnāt nothing.
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I love our players and obviously feel for them - but there are worse outcomes than these guys getting a year of good NIL money to play in the ACC for a coach that they do still know and (presumably) like. Heck he recruited a lot of them
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You make great points. Tony was our security blanket. And now itās gone.
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