Be sure to read today’s TU letter to the editor

[Clickclack]

On 2/13/2023 at 9:03 PM, bob87 said:

Except it wouldn't be a silver lining.

As far as the topic at hand.

I know a couple of things.

1) The actions were bad enough to warrant a 5 game suspension.

2)The way the suspension was handled was ridiculous. A 5 game suspension announced the off-season would generally mean the first 5 regular season games. Not let's add 2 exhibition games to the schedule instead of the normal closed scrimmages and count those for the suspension and then skip LCC from the suspension just because and end up with regular season games 1,2 and 4. 

Certainly this administration has earned no benefit of the doubt here. We will see how the case proceeds and if anything changes perception.

Gods honest truth...complete mockery! 

[dslyank]

20 hours ago, Eli said:

Heh, fair enough sir! I hope you get many more years of excellent health so you can see UA win 5 more AE titles!

THANKS. But  "don't call me Sir" quote courtesy Peppermint Patty to Marci, Peanuts circa late/mid 20th century. "Sir " makes me feel old; I guess the quote doesn't really help does it 🙄 Could not find a grumpy old man smiley face (I guess that would be an oxymoron.)

Anyhow, much THANKS for the good health wishes and a lot more UA wins!

[Dane Pound]

19 hours ago, UAalum72 said:

For perspective, Will was only 25% his first 2+ years (19-57,) building a new D-I program after the previous coach left in mid-season, and 41.2% his last three seasons. He was 55% in the fourteen seasons in between. The Sports Reference site has his career as 51.6% (315-295) which may include D-III games https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/will-brown-2.html

Brown had a winning record at Albany, went to the NCAA tournament 5 times, had a winning record in 7 of his past 10 years. And the three losing years he had were better than the first two years so far under Coach Killings. <begin sarcasm>There's a recipe for a happy fan base. <end sarcasm>

For short-term comparison, you could probably compare Coach Killings to the other two American East coaches who were hired the same year - Coach Ferry at UMBC and Coach Sanders at Bing.

Conference records:

Ferry - 18-12 in the AE

Sanders - 15-14 in the AE

Killings - 11-19 in the AE

That's just a snapshot and maybe Coach Killings can turn things around in the next three seasons if Neely and Drumgoole return next year. 

The long-term thing I don't like is Brett Nelson.

If you remember, Coach Killings was the Associate Head Coach at Marquette under Steve Wojciechowski. The Associate Head Coach at Marquette under Steve Wojciechowski before Killings was Brett Nelson.

Nelson is in his 4th year as the head coach at Holy Cross and is 27-80 so far. He may be there for another season, I'm not sure but the Holy Cross fans are not happy.

Not saying Nelson and Killings are the same, but it's not a great track record for former Marquette assistants.

[Dane96]

5 hours ago, Dane Pound said:

Brown had a winning record at Albany, went to the NCAA tournament 5 times, had a winning record in 7 of his past 10 years. And the three losing years he had were better than the first two years so far under Coach Killings. <begin sarcasm>There's a recipe for a happy fan base. <end sarcasm>

For short-term comparison, you could probably compare Coach Killings to the other two American East coaches who were hired the same year - Coach Ferry at UMBC and Coach Sanders at Bing.

Conference records:

Ferry - 18-12 in the AE

Sanders - 15-14 in the AE

Killings - 11-19 in the AE

That's just a snapshot and maybe Coach Killings can turn things around in the next three seasons if Neely and Drumgoole return next year. 

The long-term thing I don't like is Brett Nelson.

If you remember, Coach Killings was the Associate Head Coach at Marquette under Steve Wojciechowski. The Associate Head Coach at Marquette under Steve Wojciechowski before Killings was Brett Nelson.

Nelson is in his 4th year as the head coach at Holy Cross and is 27-80 so far. He may be there for another season, I'm not sure but the Holy Cross fans are not happy.

Not saying Nelson and Killings are the same, but it's not a great track record for former Marquette assistants.

I've personally met Brett numerous times.  I'd say he's as equally as outwardly nice as DK projects.  And their game planning is equally bad.  

They are close to being on par. 

[Clickclack]

Vermont goes for title #13 against Bing...UA under the watchful eye of Mark Benson and two coaches who have gone from bad to worse have run this program to an unrecognizable state. We used to compete with them, but we are as far removed from that as we could possibly be. Brown before his firing went 1-9 against them in the last decade...Killing has never beaten them. 

What has happened to this program? And why is Mark Benson still the AD here?

[Clickclack]

On 2/16/2023 at 10:48 AM, Dane Pound said:

Brown had a winning record at Albany, went to the NCAA tournament 5 times, had a winning record in 7 of his past 10 years. And the three losing years he had were better than the first two years so far under Coach Killings. <begin sarcasm>There's a recipe for a happy fan base. <end sarcasm>

For short-term comparison, you could probably compare Coach Killings to the other two American East coaches who were hired the same year - Coach Ferry at UMBC and Coach Sanders at Bing.

Conference records:

Ferry - 18-12 in the AE

Sanders - 15-14 in the AE

Killings - 11-19 in the AE

That's just a snapshot and maybe Coach Killings can turn things around in the next three seasons if Neely and Drumgoole return next year. 

The long-term thing I don't like is Brett Nelson.

If you remember, Coach Killings was the Associate Head Coach at Marquette under Steve Wojciechowski. The Associate Head Coach at Marquette under Steve Wojciechowski before Killings was Brett Nelson.

Nelson is in his 4th year as the head coach at Holy Cross and is 27-80 so far. He may be there for another season, I'm not sure but the Holy Cross fans are not happy.

Not saying Nelson and Killings are the same, but it's not a great track record for former Marquette assistants.

Browns was the right coach at the right time but after 20 years, his career can be better summarized as mediocre with a few significant highs. He was prone to a few strong runs when he hit on a couple of recruits and was a good X and O's coach. 

He hit on Jamar, Levi, Jordan and Wilson...once that group left he proceeded to take a half a decade to find something again and was .500 or worse for 4 straight seasons. He then hit again on Black, Hooley and Rowley and rode that trio to his credit to 3 tourneys. The following year they lost in the first round to Hartford. Will Brown won exactly TWO regular season titles in 20 years. So yeah, IMO his career can be described as two very good runs over a span of 6 or 7 years and then a lot of mediocre basketball, bad recruiting, huge roster turnover. He would routinely load up some of the WEAKEST OOC schedules and then go out and put up a losing record in OOC. When you sat in the stands like I did for many years, the basketball for long stretches was absolutely unwatchable...they would struggle to put up 60 points many many many times. 

Of course, when you juxtapose it over the disaster that DK has been, he looks like John Wooden. Yes, there were great emotions with the first NCAA trip, Hooley shot, 3-peat etc. and he deserves credit for that, but I think that may be clouding the perception of him. Mediocre was about the ceiling for the program under him. Sure, it beats this...but he was no longer able to compete with the top of the AE. His average finish in the AE over the last 10 years (2 contracts) was outside the top 4 but with a strong showing in AE tourney and 3 NCAA trips. He was a good big-game coach and probably why so many feared him in the AE tourney. Hartford blew that out of the water that one year and it felt like he never recovered after that, that auro of tournament invincibility was gone for good. History shows he probably would have at some point found another 2 or 3 kids to ride back to the top or near the top, maybe but in the immediate future there was no prospects for that as the team continued to get worse over the last 3 years and with no star on the horizon or in the program. He absolutely loved &#036;ienaty jucos and turned over half the roster every year which hurt year to year continuity. 

Bensons cardinal sin was handing the program over to a never-been who is learning on the job at a rate of $400k a year while being dragged through the courts and horrible coaching. For that Benson deserves to lose his job, never mind what he's done to the football program with that loser he refuses to fire. 

Edited February 23, 2023 by Clickclack

[dslyank]

38 minutes ago, Clickclack said:

Bensons cardinal sin was handing the program over to a never-been who is learning on the job at a rate of $400k a year while being dragged through the courts and horrible coaching. For that Benson deserves to lose his job, never mind what he's done to the football program with that loser he refuses to fire. 

++

[Dane96]

1 hour ago, Clickclack said:

Browns was the right coach at the right time but after 20 years, his career can be better summarized as mediocre with a few significant highs. He was prone to a few strong runs when he hit on a couple of recruits and was a good X and O's coach. 

He hit on Jamar, Levi, Jordan and Wilson...once that group left he proceeded to take a half a decade to find something again and was .500 or worse for 4 straight seasons. He then hit again on Black, Hooley and Rowley and rode that trio to his credit to 3 tourneys. The following year they lost in the first round to Hartford. Will Brown won exactly TWO regular season titles in 20 years. So yeah, IMO his career can be described as two very good runs over a span of 6 or 7 years and then a lot of mediocre basketball, bad recruiting, huge roster turnover. He would routinely load up some of the WEAKEST OOC schedules and then go out and put up a losing record in OOC. When you sat in the stands like I did for many years, the basketball for long stretches was absolutely unwatchable...they would struggle to put up 60 points many many many times. 

Of course, when you juxtapose it over the disaster that DK has been, he looks like John Wooden. Yes, there were great emotions with the first NCAA trip, Hooley shot, 3-peat etc. and he deserves credit for that, but I think that may be clouding the perception of him. Mediocre was about the ceiling for the program under him. Sure, it beats this...but he was no longer able to compete with the top of the AE. His average finish in the AE over the last 10 years (2 contracts) was outside the top 4 but with a strong showing in AE tourney and 3 NCAA trips. He was a good big-game coach and probably why so many feared him in the AE tourney. Hartford blew that out of the water that one year and it felt like he never recovered after that, that auro of tournament invincibility was gone for good. History shows he probably would have at some point found another 2 or 3 kids to ride back to the top or near the top, maybe but in the immediate future there was no prospects for that as the team continued to get worse over the last 3 years and with no star on the horizon or in the program. He absolutely loved &#036;ienaty jucos and turned over half the roster every year which hurt year to year continuity. 

Bensons cardinal sin was handing the program over to a never-been who is learning on the job at a rate of $400k a year while being dragged through the courts and horrible coaching. For that Benson deserves to lose his job, never mind what he's done to the football program with that loser he refuses to fire. 

Click...i am disappointed in you.  You held back....

🤣

 

[Clickclack]

7 minutes ago, Dane96 said:

Click...i am disappointed in you.  You held back....

🤣

 

On Vic? LOL...

[cwdickens]

Brown was the right coach for the time he was with us and as I said before, "Any coach spending 10 or more years in the America East Conference will likely have a similar winning percentage." 

Edited February 23, 2023 by cwdickens
clarify

[Dane Pound]

On 2/23/2023 at 9:36 AM, Clickclack said:

 History shows he probably would have at some point found another 2 or 3 kids to ride back to the top or near the top, maybe but in the immediate future there was no prospects for that as the team continued to get worse over the last 3 years and with no star on the horizon or in the program. 

 

I actually liked the roster of Brown's last season. Had it not been for the coaching change, we could have returned CJ Kelly, Horton, Rizzuto, Healy and Champion in the backcourt the following year. It's one of the reason I was annoyed. I felt like we went through the down cycle (which are inevitable with mid majors) and would have returned a good group.

I agree with D96, this Will Brown rant is milder than most. I'd always assumed you had something saved in a Google doc and then just pasted it whenever Will Brown's name came up but there's some fresh material in here.

 

[Eli]

7 minutes ago, Dane Pound said:

I actually liked the roster of Brown's last season. Had it not been for the coaching change, we could have returned CJ Kelly, Horton, Rizzuto, Healy and Champion in the backcourt the following year. It's one of the reason I was annoyed. I felt like we went through the down cycle (which are inevitable with mid majors) and would have returned a good group.

I agree with D96, this Will Brown rant is milder than most. I'd always assumed you had something saved in a Google doc and then just pasted it whenever Will Brown's name came up but there's some fresh material in here.

 

He's losing a step.

[Clickclack]

3 hours ago, Dane Pound said:

I actually liked the roster of Brown's last season. Had it not been for the coaching change, we could have returned CJ Kelly, Horton, Rizzuto, Healy and Champion in the backcourt the following year. It's one of the reason I was annoyed. I felt like we went through the down cycle (which are inevitable with mid majors) and would have returned a good group.

I agree with D96, this Will Brown rant is milder than most. I'd always assumed you had something saved in a Google doc and then just pasted it whenever Will Brown's name came up but there's some fresh material in here.

 

For the record, I have nothing against Brown other then it was time to mutually part ways. 

[Dane96]

2 minutes ago, Clickclack said:

For the record, I have nothing against Brown other then it was time to mutually part ways. 

No one understood our inside joke.  Folks, my "Click, you disappoint me" wasn't about him ranting on Brown.  It is someone else all together.

[Clickclack]

Just now, Dane96 said:

No one understood our inside joke.  Folks, my "Click, you disappoint me" wasn't about him ranting on Brown.  It is someone else all together.

I got it...lol...MrsGDG got it I think...LMAO!