Ban Bickle!

[SMUer]

I hate to admit it, but I had a bunch of family in town last weekend that mentioned interest in going to the game. I discouraged that because I knew that they would never go to another SMU BBall game. The games are boring and generally spirit-crushing.

I can't really blame you...sometimes you discourage your friends from seeing one of your favorite movies because you know they just aren't going into it with the right context in order to enjoy it. These are the types of stories that Steve Orsini needs to be hearing. It's easy to look at our fan support and say "wow, just really bad fans" but there is a percentage that still love SMU but just don't feel comfortable sharing its athletic product because...well...it just isn't up to snuff compared to other programs in the area. Craft a better experience and maybe you get an extra 500-1000 fans right off the bat.

[Sacco]

Plus, I hesitate to even TALK bball with family/friends because I'm out of excuses for the terrible product on the court. I've had a whole litany of excuses... new coach, new coach again, young players, academic restrictions, new system, young players again, the list goes on and on.

What excuse are the fans supposed to feed potential fans now? We're out of excuses.

[SMUer]

this thread contains the essence of what it is like to be an SMU fan

[CoxBizGrad]

Jones and his staff (and the team of course) turned it around and made it more interesting and fun to attend games. Unfortunately after six years, with the exception of one slightly above mediocre year, Doh hasn't made any progress. After many years of poor performances, my boss would be telling me bub bye for now. Hard to believe Orsini hasn't made a move yet. I guess the basketball program's failure is a direct reflection on him.

[ponyscott]

Jones and his staff (and the team of course) turned it around and made it more interesting and fun to attend games. Unfortunately after six years, with the exception of one slightly above mediocre year, Doh hasn't made any progress. After many years of poor performances, my boss would be telling me bub bye for now. Hard to believe Orsini hasn't made a move yet. I guess the basketball program's failure is a direct reflection on him.

That's not the reason...Orsini has donors that have donated millions to the program and several that that are personal friends with Doh...namely David Miller, and even he is losing or has lost confidence in the product. Just wait unto the season ends to pass judgement on Orsini.

[SMUer]

ominous

[CoxBizGrad]

Orsini has too much pride to let this go on much longer. The buck basically stops with him... not the Circle of Champions. Doh knows how to cater and appeal to the right money guys and has been untouchable for now. Money talks. The donors control the purse strings and indirectly run the asylum. This is why Doh has been able to overstay his welcome. Doh's a smart businessman and front man, which is why he is able to survive this long with such a poor track record.

[LA_Mustang]

As manx has mentioned several times before, the issue is when to get rid of Doherty. No doubt, barring a dramatic run to end this season, it is time to move on. But we have to factor in the current recruiting class. Based on everything I'm told and have read, we have a couple of very nice, Big East quality recruits. I would hate to lose them.

[redpony]

I can't imagine that a top level, high quality coach couldn't keep them. This program can only go up with the right coach. Let's not plan to be totally embarrassed when we go to the BEAST.

GO PONIES!!!

[hoopmanx]

Hoopmanx- I owe you an apology. I used to think you were just a troll for Doh but now some of your posts indicate quite the opposite. I can only hope he is gone at the end of this season if not sooner.

GO PONIES!!!

No apologies necessary, I just have a unique perspective based on being a basketball industry guy. SMU hoops was about as a flawed a program in grassroots as I've ever seen, and the program & more specifically, the head coaching position needed rehab. No matter what the results were, you couldn't fire a guy early again, specifically when he said he needed 5 to correct the wrongs, and we wrote off on it. Beyond that, Doh is no joke in industry terms, and he doesn't take the high road that often. He would have torched the program, despite it still smoldering.

So, you give him his time, and in the best interest of the program, hope he gets its right. Unlike others, I love the princeton, and think slow tempo ball makes a lot of sense for SMU, unless we're radically going to change our entire approach, think 80s. Well, it's midnight and I see a pumpkin. IF we ran the princeton worth a crap and had 4 or 5 less losses, Doh would have deserved to play it out. It didn't go that way, and now we can legitimately fire the guy and people won't hate, they'll applaud the change of direction.

It was never ever about liking Doh, just about getting the position right again. To that end, Doh will leave the program in a far a better spot than he found it, so I appreciate him for that. Enough's enough, though

[hoopmanx]

Orsini has too much pride to let this go on much longer. The buck basically stops with him... not the Circle of Champions. Doh knows how to cater and appeal to the right money guys and has been untouchable for now. Money talks. The donors control the purse strings and indirectly run the asylum. This is why Doh has been able to overstay his welcome. Doh's a smart businessman and front man, which is why he is able to survive this long with such a poor track record.

He hasn't overstayed his welcome at all, and you're lacking a fundamental understanding of how this works. Orsini is about self-preservation, not pride. He's known he made the wrong hire for two years, but instead of showing 'pride' and taking the heat for canning the guy early, he hired a search committee to hire assistants, so the coach he selected could run a system he had no idea how to teach. That's covering your behind, and hoping it works, cause you got torn a new ahole during original contract negotiations. Make no mistake, this is more on Orsini's fault than Doh's.

[hoopmanx]

I can't imagine that a top level, high quality coach couldn't keep them. This program can only go up with the right coach. Let's not plan to be totally embarrassed when we go to the BEAST.

GO PONIES!!!

Unfortunately, that's false. Our top 100 center is tied at the hip w/Doh & Hobbie. Unless we keep Hobbie and move him into the hoops office, no way we keep Blaise. The second we release him, he gets such an elite offer, it'll sink this program to depths you can't imagine. He's the kind of kid that IF he's recruit-able in the Spring, gets a Kentucky style offer.

Bernardi would sit tight for a minute, and I have that on great authority, but IF we hire a coach whose system they don't like, he'll opt out. Uche wanted to go to Colorado anyway, but his parents love Doh, so keeping him is dicey too

[ponyscott]

Hobbie is key to the Eastern recruits...gotta keep him, whatever happens.