Now it's time to get crazy
by vineyarddawg on Mar 30, 2009 2:21 PM EDT
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PrintWell, now that both coaches who, by most accounts, are at the top of Damon Evans' wishlist have been eliminated from the tournament, it's time to commence the crazy spectacle that is new coach speculation.
One of the more fascinating disturbing fascinating trends I've seen happen recently is how some folks will pore over the publicly available list of arriving and departing flights from the Athens-Ben Epps airport, trying to decipher meaning from the comings and goings of a small-town airfield with no special significance other than the fact that the end of its primary runway is positioned exactly 3 miles away from Sanford Stadium.
So, if we were going to join in that fray, I'd be very curious about the fact that there are a lot of flights leaving today that are going to various places in Michigan. Is Damon et al trying to surreptitiously meet with a coach while in the guise of a Final Four visit?
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Oh and while we're on the subject...
… most folks are probably scratching their heads about why Damon Evans never really seemed that excited about the man who eventually became Alabama’s next basketball coach. I was among that crowd, until I had a radio-talking-head-assisted epiphany this morning.
Anthony Grant was surprisingly quiet until it became apparent Billy Donovan was staying at Florida. Then, within 24 hours, he bolted to Alabama. Do you really think that 2 or 3 years from now when the NBA comes calling again, whenever Donovan decides to move on Anthony Grant wouldn’t leave ‘Bama in a heartbeat to take over the job his former boss and mentor just vacated? And if Grant was the coach at Georgia, and he had great success after a few years and left to take the head coaching position… his dream position… at Florida… do you think there wouldn’t be hell to pay for somebody?
I mean, we can completely understand losing Tubby to Kentucky. Getting mad at Tubby would be like Vandy getting mad at Bobby Johnson if Tennessee wanted to hire him away in football. There’s just a different level in class, tradition, and history that can’t be matched. (Not to mention that Tubby used to coach at Kentucky.) With Florida, though… no Bulldog fan should be able to stomach the fact that a Georgia coach would gladly drop everything at a moments notice and bolt to Florida because they like it better there.
I think Damon saw and realized that, and that’s why he stayed far away from Grant. At least, that’s what I’m giving him credit for. Let’s hope his eventual new hire justifies the faith we’ve all been placing in him.
(For was we know, if the basketball team continues to suck… er, that is… well nobody will care, still. But Evans will be very mad at himself!)
That’s an interesting thought. I would like to agree with it but I’m not completely sure. It seems like a possibility but also kind of like one of those things you think of to try and make an unreasonable decision seem rational.
Yeah, I'm not sure I buy that, either
Some of it seems like ex post facto rationalization—-I don’t know that I’d call Anthony Grant curiously quiet; he was coaching, then he was interviewing, then he was hired—-and the argument for Florida being Coach Grant’s dream job seems virtually identical to the argument for Florida being Bob Stoops’s dream job.
The problem is that replacing your mentor at a place you used to coach, to which you are tied only by the mentor who’s leaving, isn’t as appealing in fact as it is in theory . . . which is why Jimbo Fisher is the coach-in-waiting in Tallahassee right now. The powers that be at F.S.U. know Mark Richt is too entrenched at Georgia.
As much as we in Bulldog Nation would like to see Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer move on, both have turned down supposed “dream jobs” to be in Gainesville. I have no basis for believing either man will ever coach anywhere other than Florida for the rest of his career.
I think we just flat whiffed on Anthony Grant, and it’s starting to look like we’re whiffing on Mike Anderson, too. I hope I’m wrong, but we appear to be on the verge of squandering a golden opportunity, twice.
Go 'Dawgs!
Maybe that's not the case...
… but one thing’s for sure. Damon is using up some of the goodwill and political capital that he’s built over his tenure thus far. His first hire went south, and now he’s shelling out the big bucks and aiming high for the next coach. He says that the basketball program is one of his top priorities now, and his actions seem to confirm that, as well. I think it’s only natural that, as a result, the next 3-5 years of performance on the court will factor strongly into the ultimate verdict on his tenure in Athens.
It’s hard to argue with the success we’ve had in other sports, but by and large, most of those coaches were here before Damon. (Certainly that’s the case with our successful Football, Gymnastics, Baseball, Women’s Basketball, Tennis, and Swimming & Diving teams.) The Men’s B-Ball program is at his feet, both in responsibility and in prestige. How high that prestige level rises will help determine whether Evans gets to keep his corner office for the long term, I think.
That's fair . . .
. . . although I think most of us are willing to cut Evans some slack if he “fails while daring greatly.” This is starting to get embarrassing, but I agree with Paul Westerdawg that he did everything he reasonably could have done to land Mike Anderson, short of ludicrously overpaying. The refusal to accept mediocrity and the willingness to spend large sums of money while insisting upon doing so prudently are good traits in an athletic director, and Damon Evans gets the benefit of the doubt because he’s one of us. At this point, I’ll be O.K. with not landing our Billy Donovan, as long as we land the equivalent of our Lon Kruger, who sets us up to land our Billy Donovan five years down the road. Maybe this job is just that bad at this point, and what we need is someone who can get us to crawl consistently so this job will become attractive to coaches who can teach us how to walk.
Go 'Dawgs!
In all fairness
To your post that “his first hire went south”, Dennis Felton was the final hire of Vince Dooley. But I have to agree with Kyle below and Paul Westerdawg that there’s not much more that Evans could have done about Anderson. We threw $2.1M at him and he probably realized that rebuilding Georgia was a two to three year job at best and decided he had a better chance to make a deep tournament run next year with the team he has assembled in Columbia. Many people were upset with the early whiffs and lengthy time it took to hire Trent Johnson last year at LSU and that turned out well for them this year. I think Damon has built up enough goodwill and political capital that I reserve the right for judgment sometime during next season. As long as I see a team on the court next year that looks well coached, can avoid the 10 minute scoring droughts that seemed to plague every game coached by Felton, and play solid defense, I’ll consider the hire to be a success.
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Good point vineyarddawg....
We’ll be more interested in the B’ball program now, But if he did leave it wouldn’t bother 90% of us, Well it would a little, But not enough to get all excited and pisse* over.
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