If i played basketball for UVa now I dont know I would ever leave JPJ actually
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This whole thing is a lose lose for Ron Sanchez. Heâs the fan forum scapegoat if the season goes wrong (which it will) and even if heâs decent fans will want someone better.
Love Tony but he did Ron no favors with this roster. Ron not being a fan of Bliss tells me a lot and wish we could have seen what he could do with better athletes. Tony should have sucked it up, own this roster and team for 1 year. Retire at the end of the season and allow the new coach to bring in his guys.
The way Tony leaving honestly is looking worse and worse. Itâs not like he left the cupboard full like Dean Smith did when he handed the keys to Guthridge.
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I hear you here - and I keep telling myself that - but there is a lack of âwant toâ for lack of a better way to describe it. Something is missing imo
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Did Tony screw Ron or did he mastermind a plan to leave at the exact right time so his guy had a shot at getting the coaching job? Iâve heard people arguing both things. Hard to argue both are true.
He leaves in spring and decent shot Ron gets the nod. Is that fair to the program?
He leaves in fall and Ron gets an audition with a green cast of players, which should have included Warley. Is that fair to Ron?
Look, if youâre a decent coach the team will show improvement over time. Itâs not void of talent. Ronâs getting a shot to demonstrate that.
Iâm inclined to simply believe Tonyâs deeply earnest and heartfelt press conference coupled with the supporting reporting that Tony wanted to take care of his staff first and foremost.
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Iâm inclined to believe that Tony really did wake up at the fucking Tides Inn one morning and realize âCrap I just canât do this.â No intent to manipulate anything, just an epiphany/breakdown.
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I mean, have you ever tried to help someone and instead of helping them, it turns out that you actually hurt them? Despite your good intentions?
Because Iâve done that a lot. And while Iâm more of a dumbass than the average bear, even the lesser dumbasses among us, tend to still be dumbasses. Thatâs the human condition. Which is just fine, and why we should extend grace to each other.
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I think that those of you on the pure âTides Innâ side of the line need to grapple with the fact that both of Tonyâs coaching mentors pulled this same stunt. Tonyâs dad did it twice, kinda. Right?
Except they wouldnât call it a stunt. They would call it the right thing to do. And for them, it kinda sorta worked, at least once. And even when it didnât, classic Soddie is still with us. Like literally still with us.
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Yeah definitely. But the poster was saying Tony should have sucked it up, which suggests he knew he was screwing Ron and went ahead anyway.
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Consider the fact grappled! Iâm still a Tides Inn-er though. 
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How though? Sanchez needed to win and got handed a roster that in ideal, nothing goes wrong scenario would win not now but in two years.
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I have the facts a little wrong:
- Dick basically did the same thing as Tony when at Wisconsin. A few games in, rather than a few before. Soddie as interim
- At Wazzu, Dick left in the spring, so the Tony thing was pre-baked, apparently
- Bo Ryan left in December, so Gard took over (a good team if memory serves), but apparently Gard was named the successor in the summer? I donât know tho⌠feels like there is more to that story, but thatâs what I got from a minute on WikipediaâŚ
My own personal opinion of what happened in Tonyâs brain was this: Tony doesnât like the new rules / new structure (kinda obvious at the moment and more obvious in retrospect). Tony doesnât like that he personally was struggling to be as successful with the new rules. Tonyâs personal solution to problems is to lean into being himself. That kinda backfired, making the frustration worse. Over the same period, he thought itâd be nice to have Ron back. I suspect Tony started to think about legacy the way that other old successful men do. I think all these thoughts kinda blended together in a mildly incoherent and contradictory way, and then Tony discovered the sunset watercolor cruise with all you can eat imitation crab meat at the Tides Inn⌠and here we are.
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Yeah I mean to be clear Iâm not saying he left Ron in a perfect position. Iâm just saying the mix of his own personal fatigue with the role and a desire to get Ron to have a shot make sense. Iâm just saying he didnât screw Ron on purpose.
Plus, if Tony guts out an extra year just to hand Ron a fully cooked roster ⌠is he going to do a good job this year? Iâve tried gutting out jobs and when I do, I usually suck.
Another take on that is that Tony has his fatherâs temperament⌠both tightly wound such that theyâre subject to the potential for a sudden breakdown.
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Considering there are players on the roster that Ron isnât really fully onboard with⌠Bliss for example. Leads to me believe that Rons kind of like, damn. I dont think Tony really masterminded this whole situation. Sure there were convos I imagine and Ron being like⌠Im onboard with whatever you want to do Tony because he doesnât really have a choice.
Giving Ron a shot would have been leaving him in a position to be successful. This doesnt really fall under that IMO.
For a guy who never handled the Machiavellian behind the scenes stuff well on the recruiting trail, Tony sure did figure out how to perfectly mastermind a succession plan.
If you believe the above sentence, Iâve got some lovely ocean facing property in Omaha to sell you.
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Not sure there is a bigger âwhat ifâ season that I can recall:
What if:
Gertrude doesnât get hurt?
Perry Commits?
Bliss doesnât re-injure his foot?
Warley doesnât transfers?
TB doensât walk away 3 weeks before the season?
So many scenarios. Some a result of others. Remarkable and something I remind myself of often as I watch the team.
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Weâd be playing a 4 PG lineup, I guess.
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Iâm not accusing him of Machiavellian
Mastermind shit! Iâm accusing him (maybe) of doing what his dad and Bo Ryan did! Itâs not some big brain masterplan
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He told us what happened: it had been gnawing at him, he pushed it aside, he went to the Tides with Laurel where he realized he wasnât 100% anymore, and then he stepped down.
Iâm saying when a guy handles the public facing aspects of his job in as close to a straight-up, honest way as possible and isnât revealed to be a fraud, I tend to believe him.
Iâll concede that seeing the example of his dad and Bo Ryan presented an off-ramp to him that most wouldnât consider, but I donât think Tony was laying train tracks to set this up.
Weâre mostly in agreement, but Iâm going with the Occamâs Razor solution rather than the vast plot.
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