Felt isn't THE problem, but I think many here and elsewhere are inclined to feel he is A problem. Save for a few here, I don't think anyone wants to "give up", but you also can't just keep throwing whatever meager money we have up in the air and hope it lands where we want it to. What do I know? Nothing. But what do I think? I think we need to strip down and rebuild this thing, and do it with purpose in our step so its done timely.
Felt is not the answer at AD, I'm sorry. He either has had the reigns for multiple years now and evidently isn't good enough to do the job we need, or he's being hamstrung and he just doesn't have the moxie and creativity to work through it. In either case, this athletic program has been driven into the ground again and we can't settle for this. I'm all for giving people a chance, but if it's become obvious that they can't solve the riddle that is Seton Hall, we have to move on and try someone else. I can guarantee there's a person out there than can solve it, but our search radius needs to extend further than 70 miles and beyond our school's rolodex of usual haunts for personnel to find them.
No clue if McBride is the answer at his position. People are welcome to correct me here, but I feel like he's gone radio silent for the better part of a year now. That also seems to be the MO for our school, so I can't say that's on him personally, but as of now he's the "NIL" guy and we don't seem to read or hear about any significant deals or partnerships for our program or athletes. I'm struggling to find anything new that our guys and girls are involved in. So if he is doing a great job, it sure would be reassuring and invigorating to the fans to be made aware of it. If those things aren't happening, again, there's somebody else out there that can make them happen for us and we need to be looking for them.
Coaching staff needs to evolve. I love Coach Sha. I always have. Tremendous player and equally tremendous basketball IQ. That all buys a lot of loyalty from me. The rest of the coaching staff - I honestly don't know. If they are coaching gurus, they are failing. Our players were bad fundamentally on both sides of the ball from bell to bell this season. I don't know how practices are conducted under Sha, but if they are conducted the same way that Willard and Orr ran them, the on-court performance is as much on them as it is the head coach. I don't care what their stories have been thus far, we brought in former 4 star recruits from legitimate D1 programs - these kids are not void of skill or talent, but for the most part they sure played like it. Again, just my opinion, but I feel like we're being loyal to a MAAC level coaching staff at the expense of being a successful Big East program.
So to circle back to the top - we certainly can't "give up". But unlike the old days, having the wrong people in place has real financial consequences for not only the University, but for the fans too. We're the ones being begged to, sweet talked to, goaded into, and shamed into contributing our money into this. Whether we raise $700k or $7m this year, I have very real concerns that most of the people involved won't use it properly. And once it's used, it's gone. For a program that looks intent on making no changes and planning to just "do a better job this year", they have a LOT riding on their execution this next time around. Losing bets only get funded but for so long.
