Lavin Comments
- Thread starter ShuBall
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It's logical based on the performance and the players coming back next year. Great coach, great ambassador for the school and most importantly brought us back from the dead! Go Pirates!
He's done a terrific job this year. It's been a long, tough journey and hoping we can all enjoy this!
He is as guilty as anyone for the previous 5 years but i wonder a lot how different things would be for us and him if Theodore hit that FT vs South Florida. I think that team would have danced and the narrative would have been much different
Agree. How could a fan not like where team is at this point? Peaking at the right time, players are all smiling and having a good time, could be a legit contender next year if everyone comes back. I hope Providence makes the tourney but they're unravelling. There remaining three games are easier, but they are getting into dangerous territory now.
I love the job Willard has done this year - just thought it was interesting to hear a once rival coach go out of his way to make sure Kevin is taken care of. Correct me if I am wrong but when he was at St. John's didn't he use a lot of negativity about the stability of our program in an effort to keep Whitehead from coming here.
Let's be honest, Isaiah whitehead has been the driving force on this team and why we've been able to become a very good team. He'd make any head coach look very good right now. That's not a knock on Willard, but whitehead has been playing as good as anyone in conference and maybe even all of college basketball for that matter.
Look how we are talking about Willard tonight, reflects how far has he come as a Head Coach.
Why would we need to sign him to an extension? Even after this recent string of success, where is he going to go? I'm being serious. Who is going to throw money at him with the nine year resume he has, even with an NCAA bid (hopefully) this year.
I posted some observations of his post game interview with Cohen and Popkin. Coach really has matured a lot this year.
Far be it from me to be topic police, but it seems like tonight we can avoid getting in a lather over extensions.
Will be interesting to see what interest Kevin gets from other programs looking for a head coach. Forget the other 8 years , programs will look at what he did this year with a team made up of mostly freshman and sophomores, only one senior at a program who has been irrelevant for a decade or more and looks , on paper, to be better next year. He'll get looks , don't discount it.
I heard Lavin and just think it was a quick compliment for the coach. And to prospective employers, it doesn't matter what you did six years ago.
Guessing some Willard naysayers are not in a good mood tonight. In fact their silence speaks volumes.
Your making a bet that it would be cheaper to do it now than the end of next season (assuming this team all comes back Willard "hopefully" will have two back to back NCAA's). Realize that's a bold statement but it's less bold/ idiotic than the guys that were posting every other day just two months ago about needing to fire Lyons and Willard.... Really happy to see Willard has finally stuck it to loud minority of people emailing Lyons about wanting him fired. Glad he's proven them wrong and made us relevant again. Great feeling having this team to cheer for and see the seats filled again. Awesome season and hopefully we find a way to play deep in March.
Looked like their were a handful of recruits behind the bench tonight and had a great game to witness. Players were having a blast. A few games ago at G-town, Donny Marshal mentioned how much fun it would have been to play for a coach who let's the kids play and take chances. He said this after he watched Dezi throw an alley oop from half court to Kadeen on a 4 on 1 break. Since it seems like we are heavily involved with a lot of local HS top talent perhaps it's the right time for extension talk to send a strong message.
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Don't agree with extension talk. But other comments right on the money.
He's auditioning to be the patron saint/shill of beleaguered head coaches for once Dickie V retires. They're all great!
This season has been (thus far) beyond a pleasant surprise. But extension? Please...
I have admittedly not been a KW fan, but one great class when hiring an assistant has been the difference. This year has been beyond my expectations and next year if IW doesn't leave could be great... Unless KW can actually follow up with more solid recruits and keep the trajectory, 1-2 plus years doesn't warrant another absurd extension IMO. He still has a lot to prove IMO. Admittedly he seems to have mature some, but it might also be the talent making up for coaching. 1-2 years out of 9-10 as a head coach doesn't make me a blind loyalist...
I have admittedly not been a KW fan, but one great class when hiring an assistant has been the difference. This year has been beyond my expectations and next year if IW doesn't leave could be great... Unless KW can actually follow up with more solid recruits and keep the trajectory, 1-2 plus years doesn't warrant another absurd extension IMO. He still has a lot to prove IMO. Admittedly he seems to have mature some, but it might also be the talent making up for coaching. 1-2 years out of 9-10 as a head coach doesn't make me a blind loyalist...
Someone will, especially if we win a game or two in the NCAA's. That's how this business works. Coaches and teams who get hot in March get rewarded with contracts and high preseason rankings the next year, respectively.
I've been critical of Willard since we bottomed out in Year 3. I had significant doubts heading into this year. I am so glad I was wrong, he has been fantastic this season. The past is the past, I and others don't need to dwell on it anymore. He has proven his worth as a coach this season. I don't want to blow this thing up heading into next year. I want Willard to lead a Big East title contending, top 15 national team next season.
well if he got another extension at least there would be a REASON (if me make ncaas).
we are trending up, but getting to the ncaas once is chump change for coaches who get extensions like hes had. i sort of agree that IW is making him look really good recently. he of course gets credit for that move, but wonder what happens when IW is gone. lets see if our success this year pays off in recruits. if it does, maybe we'll see ourselves at the top of the BE standings for a while.
we are trending up, but getting to the ncaas once is chump change for coaches who get extensions like hes had. i sort of agree that IW is making him look really good recently. he of course gets credit for that move, but wonder what happens when IW is gone. lets see if our success this year pays off in recruits. if it does, maybe we'll see ourselves at the top of the BE standings for a while.
Man, you are so right about that game and the missed FT with 2 seconds to go. I thought I was the only person who still remembered that.
Sign Tristan Thompson, and then I'll start to believe that something has changed. Right now, we're all Whitehead, which Willard gets credit for his development, but great players have a way of making coaches look smart. With that said, I do not understand those who clearly love Willard attempting to goad others into posting something against that viewpoint, or is Willard drawing up behind the head passes through 3 defenders?
Parallel situation with Whitehead Sunday. Critical free throws (although Theodore's were a 1-1) down 1 point late in the game.
Jordan missing and that eventually sabotaged the season.
Whitehead doesn't and the Hall gets a critical victory.
Cleveland is probably going to want a first round pick for him, but I'm all for it.
I cannot tell you how happy I am that all the drama is gone from this team. It took a long time to wash the stain away and it is now very pleasant to look forward to our games.
I was as critical of Willard as anyone and I will be the first to admit that he has done a great job this season. This isn't the same team we have seen the past 5 years and Willard must get credit for that. Great job by everyone involved!
Well he got him and that"s what you wanted right? That's what we all wanted. Lack of talent was what everyone was complaining about. Maybe he should have coached Tommy Mayan better and proven his worth? LOL I'm glad he coaches better with better players. Isn't that the idea? Get more IW's, Kevin, please!
See, I come at it from the opposite direction. He was my first choice when I hired him, and I was a staunch defender well into his fifth season, even as the opinion of many posters changed with the breeze. I say you support a guy (or don't) until it's clear that he doesn't merit that support anymore.
Last year, I was finally forced to concede I had been wrong. It was plainly evident that he was not as good of a coach as I had believed, so my belief was that he should've been let go last year. Now, just as I never changed my mind with the direction of the wind in the first five seasons, I'm not easily swayed now. I don't think coaches just learn how to coach all of a sudden. And there are just too many variables to make the record alone a clear indicator of a coach's ability. Is our record terrific this year? Obviously, and the team is very good. I'm on record here as saying we can, with the right matchups and a few breaks, contend for the Elite Eight. But when our record sucked in 2012-13, I also still contended - loudly - that this guy was a good coach, and that the record alone did not prove otherwise to me. Then, as now, there are too many other factors and variables that told me there was more to consider than just the wins and losses. But as seasons stack up, and I have more and more data to inform my opinion, I realized I had been wrong about what he brings as a head coach. And I haven't seen what I need to see to change my mind. Perhaps if he's still here in four years, and these kinds of seasons (or something similar) have been sustained even as players cycle through the program, I'll again admit I had it wrong. But right now, the scales are still tilted pretty heavily to one side.I think we can do better.
Isaiah Whitehead is, right now, playing better than I've ever seen a Seton Hall player play. He's is what we thought he would be, and he is really put the team on his back. Couple that with the sturdy and stabilizing leadership Derrick Gordon brought to the team - I think he literally saved the season after that first Creighton game, when things looked ready to implode again, and there was no Sterling Gibbs to blame. Without his stabilizing presence (to say nothing of the gritty defense tone he set from day one), I'm not sure this team would have been in the position to allow Whitehead to blossom like he has over the past month. Yeah, kids got a year older and all that, but we've seen kids get older for years and never seen a team grow in this same way - even teams led by this head coach. If I was Kevin Willard, I make a spot for Derrick Gordon on the staff next year. He's shown me that much.
So that's where I am with it. I've been careful not to take potshots at the coach this season, even though I do not support him, or piss on threads congratulating him for this or that. He's here for now, and that's that. Wouldn't have been my call, but no one asked me. But there was a post or two last night calling out the silence of the Willard detractors, and I guess I'm identified as one, so here it is for me. This is what I think. It's not really my way to stomp on a win - and of course I want us to win! - so what was I going to say about him last night? I'm also not trying to swim upstream, and there's no point being one of those jerks who can't let it go, and instead makes every post a vehicle for disparaging the coach. But as I said, I'm rooted in my convictions, and I don't change my mind on a coach back and forth over the course of a season, so it would be silly of me to take a posture of reconsideration when I have not changed my mind. We're having a great season, and I'm thrilled. Give the coach a parade? I already spent all my support for him when it wasn't very fashionable, so there just isn't much left. Sorry.
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