I wonder what the mood of the locker room is right now? 

I bring that up because as I mentioned last week Memphis is going through similar struggles as us (although with much higher expectations coming in) and Penny is basically admitting his locker room is causing his on court issues. I guess if you wanted to be fair, some of this can be blamed on Penny for assembling the pieces of the locker room, in the same way JC decided to bring in all the transfer he did.

I will say we’d never hear JC air things out like this.

​https://theathletic.com/2997670/2021/12/04/penny-hardaway-sounds-off-on-memphis-veterans-weve-got-so-much-negativity-in-our-locker-room/.  

As the once-promising season has quickly spiraled downward, Hardaway has gone from confused to frustrated to downright pissed off. The focus of his ire is not his freshmen but rather the older players who, in Hardaway’s view, have been selfish, unwelcoming and destructive to the bottom line. “We’ve got so much negativity in our locker room with veterans being jealous,” Hardaway told The Athletic during a telephone interview after Saturday’s loss. “Everybody’s trying to get to the NBA off the ranking we had, but nobody is willing to sacrifice minutes, touches, anything. It’s been miserable. You can imagine what a 17-year-old is thinking as he’s trying to figure it out.”

Hardaway declined to name names — “I don’t want to do that. I don’t have time to deal with angry parents,” he said — but the three upperclassmen who had been in the starting lineup with Bates and Duren were 6-5 junior guard Lester Quinones, 6-7 redshirt junior forward Landers Nolley and 6-9 senior forward DeAndre Williams. Quinones and Nolley combined to shoot 1 of 5 with four turnovers Saturday, while Williams had two rebounds in 23 minutes to go along with 13 points. Duren was limited to two points and four rebounds in 21 minutes because of foul trouble.

Hardaway said he intended to shake up the lineup in the days ahead, distributing most of the minutes to the players he believes will play the hardest and put the team first. “I’m going to have to be a complete asshole from this point on and only play the players that care,” he said. “There’s a group of people on this team that if I played them, I really feel in my heart we could be undefeated or only have one loss. The main reason we have these losses is the veterans don’t want to take the young guys under their wings. They want it to be about them. So when adversity hits, they run. I guarantee you we’ll start winning because you’re gonna see guys out there who care and will carry out the game plan. They might make mistakes, but there are not gonna be any character issues.”

Asked if had enough “asshole” in him to switch things up so drastically, Hardaway laughed. “I’ve got a lot of asshole in me. I’m from the ’hood. I’m respectful because my grandmother raised me the right way. But if you’re destroying the team from the inside and not caring, that’ll make me snap.”
...
Hardaway believes that problem results from players trying to beat defenses by themselves. “That’s not how we teach,” he said. “We had it under control (against Georgia), and we only had 11 turnovers. The 20 turnovers (Saturday) came from guys trying to do too much and breaking off the offense. That’s a big part of what’s going on. We’re playing nationally televised games, and they’re trying to be seen.”

Last edited by GW0509 (12/04/2021 9:05 pm)

moneybox wrote:

Quiz question: Which university cares more about its men's basketball program? GW or Maryland? The facts: Maryland fires (mutual agreement baloney) Mark Turgeon 11 games into this season after a 226-116 record, 5 NCAA appearances, and a Sweet Sixteen. GW, on the other hand, quietly sits back and watches its coach compile a 2-8 record this season and a 19-40 record over 2 seasons plus. Maryland has to cough up $5 million to do so while GW is just too poor to follow suit. Admittedly Maryland has a lot more money than GW but a buyout of Christian would be markedly less. Answer to question: Maryland gives a damn about its men's basketball program and GW does not. And all its fans continue to suffer.

I think the case with GW might have been different at other times in the past if the school’s finances were better and there was a President who was in the middle of their tenure.  So we would see a buyout after this year based on JC’s performance.  The other big issue is that GW’s President is in the last month of his job, and a new Interim President will be at GW in January.  I don’t think a buyout is something where an AD could make a call on that.  So if TV feels the need to move on from JC after this season, does she even have the ability to do it?  Or would she need to go to the new Interim President to make that call?  Given the dollars involved that seems likely to be the case.

I just can’t imagine an Interim President in May deciding to work on a buyout and beginning a coaching search.  It will probably not even enter his mind.  I think he would need to get direction from the Board to do something like that.  And is there anyone there who will push for that?  I doubt it.  If JC’s team next season ends up below .500 it’s really hard to see him getting a contract extension.  I just think some of us here are paying closer attention and realize the likelihood of that happening from today’s standpoint.


 

The guy is 19-40. Let me repeat that: The guy is 19-40. Have we no shame!

GWRising (boy are you an optimist!) : I've already paid my dues several times over (donations, tickets, etc.) in my 56 years of following the team. In reality, Jeff Bezos' kind of money couldn't save this program. The school just doesn't give a damn.

I have emailed the AD at length about this mess but, of course, since the school won't entertain a buyout no matter how bad things get, I believe she is powerless to do anything but back the current coach, regardless of what her true feelings are. The school has been here before and undoubtedly will be here again in the future because, as I have said, the thought of paying a proven, successful coach from a quality league has never crossed its mind. Finally, I really had hoped that Coach Christian would succeed because he is such a nice guy and very enthusiastic, but the handwriting seems to be on the wall.

Some stats on Jamison Battle at Minnesota: 17.9 pts, 6.1 rebounds, 47.9 FG pct., team 7-0. I can't imagine why he would have left GW for that. Oh what might have been.