Post by sader1970 on Dec 30, 2017 10:02:22 GMT -5
We've had the weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth on other threads so I wanted to start another thread not specific to a particular game.
First, I will stipulate some things at the outset. First and foremost, the team's record has been abysmal, not just this year but probably going on for a decade now (excluding Milan's "great" 20-win season - I joke). For those watching, the team has no synergy - the sum is definitely not greater than the parts - and has not had that since Ralph's days as coach. To me, synergy is the difference that a coach makes. That's not on the players, not even the captains. That's on the coaching staff. If a coaching staff cannot make the team better as a whole, you wonder if putting a monkey as coach would produce the same results.
However, all that said, it was pretty universally accepted that Coach Carmody was a great hire, not just a good hire, a great one, that stunned most on Crossports that Holy Cross could land him and was seen as at least on a par as getting Ralph Willard - an experienced and winning coach who had fallen on some hard times (i.e. fired at his last stop). As recently as a couple of weeks ago, '45 and I had a brief chat with George Blaney who gave a 30-45 second analysis of the team but most importantly finished with the statement that Carmody is "a great coach." He didn't say he "was" a great coach, he said he "is." Aside from his bad judgment of helping Calhoun for years, I think Blaney knows who is and is not a great college coach.
Take us all back 6-12 months and knowing we were losing the core of players that won those "5 games in March" and would be replaced by a bunch of then high school players. We all knew it would be tough and virtually no one thought we'd be playing as well this year especially under Carmody's "system" which he insists is "easy" to learn but insiders say is not. I've posted before that from more than one player's parents, the players "respect" Carmody and they understand his frustration with them because while his system is easy in his head, they feel that the principles are easy but the execution is difficult. In any case, we knew we needed to be patient. This being the United States, not China where patience is measured in hundreds of years, we are already impatient with the results. Let's remember, at our level, the program doesn't "re-load," we "re-build."
We've got some very talented players on the team and no doubt the current freshmen, as a group, are the best in years. As freshmen, their performance is highly variable. Will have a great game, followed by a stinker and even within a game will do well and then poorly. They'll improve with time.
Perhaps on a more important note, I noticed CWC's wife, Barabara, who is a fixture at all the home games and many away games, was not at the Hart Center last night. We know the coach missed the prior game because of a "personal family situation" according to the announcers. My hope and prayers are with the family that whatever it is that prevented Coach Carmody from attending the last game and for Barbara to miss last night, that it is not serious and all the Carmody family will be back to normal soon.
First, I will stipulate some things at the outset. First and foremost, the team's record has been abysmal, not just this year but probably going on for a decade now (excluding Milan's "great" 20-win season - I joke). For those watching, the team has no synergy - the sum is definitely not greater than the parts - and has not had that since Ralph's days as coach. To me, synergy is the difference that a coach makes. That's not on the players, not even the captains. That's on the coaching staff. If a coaching staff cannot make the team better as a whole, you wonder if putting a monkey as coach would produce the same results.
However, all that said, it was pretty universally accepted that Coach Carmody was a great hire, not just a good hire, a great one, that stunned most on Crossports that Holy Cross could land him and was seen as at least on a par as getting Ralph Willard - an experienced and winning coach who had fallen on some hard times (i.e. fired at his last stop). As recently as a couple of weeks ago, '45 and I had a brief chat with George Blaney who gave a 30-45 second analysis of the team but most importantly finished with the statement that Carmody is "a great coach." He didn't say he "was" a great coach, he said he "is." Aside from his bad judgment of helping Calhoun for years, I think Blaney knows who is and is not a great college coach.
Take us all back 6-12 months and knowing we were losing the core of players that won those "5 games in March" and would be replaced by a bunch of then high school players. We all knew it would be tough and virtually no one thought we'd be playing as well this year especially under Carmody's "system" which he insists is "easy" to learn but insiders say is not. I've posted before that from more than one player's parents, the players "respect" Carmody and they understand his frustration with them because while his system is easy in his head, they feel that the principles are easy but the execution is difficult. In any case, we knew we needed to be patient. This being the United States, not China where patience is measured in hundreds of years, we are already impatient with the results. Let's remember, at our level, the program doesn't "re-load," we "re-build."
We've got some very talented players on the team and no doubt the current freshmen, as a group, are the best in years. As freshmen, their performance is highly variable. Will have a great game, followed by a stinker and even within a game will do well and then poorly. They'll improve with time.
Perhaps on a more important note, I noticed CWC's wife, Barabara, who is a fixture at all the home games and many away games, was not at the Hart Center last night. We know the coach missed the prior game because of a "personal family situation" according to the announcers. My hope and prayers are with the family that whatever it is that prevented Coach Carmody from attending the last game and for Barbara to miss last night, that it is not serious and all the Carmody family will be back to normal soon.
