What a difference a year can make.

[WhoISthis]

TJ was qualified in 2015. Prez and boosters interfered with JP doing his job.

You don' think TJ has improved since then? One would hope that is false, and he is still improving now.

He's improved, and frankly, the program has come down to him. We are now in hysteria over quality play, beating teams we should ALWAYS beat, winning against a bad Memphis team, a depleted Xavier team, and a young/average Creighton team. In 2015 we could not handle mid-game lulls and players not sweating enough.

There are other coaches besides TJ and Steve ******* Prohm, and better would have been interested had JP and Fred not pissed away the opportunity.

 

[MartyFine]

You don' think TJ has improved since then? One would hope that is false, and he is still improving now.

He's improved, and frankly, the program has come down to him. We are now in hysteria over quality play, beating teams we should ALWAYS beat, winning against a bad Memphis team, a depleted Xavier team, and a young/average Creighton team. In 2015 we could not handle mid-game lulls and players not sweating enough.

There are other coaches besides TJ and Steve ******* Prohm, and better would have been interested had JP and Fred not pissed away the opportunity.

Congrats on your first “fire TJ” post.

 

[Cyched]

Yeah I mean the track record of full-on coaching searches has not been great from Pollard with FB and MBB. You're absolutely right and I do think there is certainly a huge place for gut feeling or whatever anyone wants to call it. JP has certainly shown to have some great gut feelings apparently, Hoiberg, CMC, and what we've seen from TJ so far is pretty hard to argue against.

Coaching searches are inherently about as small sample size events as you can find. You'll never be able to know how a different decision would have played out in that situation. Basically my entire line of reasoning is that you only get the one shot to run the "experiment" per se and you want to do everything possible to ensure you aren't missing a great fit by jumping on the first good one you find. TJ is showing himself to be a great fit for sure, though.

It is interesting to look back at the 2015 search.

We have enough hindsight to look back and say “why did Leath/boosters meddle?”

But the reality was at that time JP’s track record on hires was pretty poor. MCDermott and Chizik were busts. Rhoads was flaming out. Jackson was not living up to expectations in wrestling. Fred was a home run, but he also didn’t take much convincing either. So while it didn’t result in a good hire, I can somewhat understand why some influential folks wanted to make sure Jamie did his due diligence.

I do think Jamie has learned from his failed hires on the importance of fit, and you’ve seen that play out with the hires of Campbell, Dresser, and now TJ. All 3 could plausibly (Campbell for sure) join Fred as his best hires.

 

[WhoISthis]

Congrats on your first “fire TJ” post.

LMAO. Not there quite yet. Although he will need to do better than pass on guys in favor of keeping Johnson, Hinson, and Foster. That won't cut it.

 

[I-stateTheTruth]

 

[Cyched]

Congrats on your first “fire TJ” post.

 

[cyclonehomer]

Congrats on your first “fire TJ” post.

hey now, they're just trying to have the oldest post to quote if things ever turn South with TJ. A major lesson about message board posting is apparently being the first to be negative means more "told-ya-so" points later down the line.

It's a long term play baby.

 

[WhoISthis]

hey now, they're just trying to have the oldest post to quote if things ever turn South with TJ. A major lesson about message board posting is apparently being the first to be negative means more "told-ya-so" points later down the line.

It's a long term play baby.

Good lord. Talking about the disaster of the 2015 coaching transition isn't even talking about TJ's current tenure.

No, it is simply not losing one's mind over decent basketball. Prohm broke some of you. TJ and company are doing a good job, but the euphoria is from grading on the Prohm curve. Had Prohm retained three guys with fit issues, only to lose them right before the season, we'd be holding that against him.

 

[cyclonehomer]

Good lord. Talking about the disaster of the 2015 coaching transition isn't even talking about TJ's current tenure.

No, it is simply not losing one's mind over decent basketball. Prohm broke some of you. TJ and company are doing a good job, but the euphoria is from grading on the Prohm curve. Had Prohm retained three guys with fit issues, only to lose them right before the season, we'd be holding that against him.

For the record, I agree. Having a Hawkins or someone with some level of talent filling a couple of those holes would absolutely raise the ceiling on the team.

 

[AuH2O]

I didn’t like the search process because I was hung up on Smith. But TJ was pretty awesome from day 1, whether in the press conference, retaining Hunter and putting together a complimentary TEAM. I sure didn’t think this team was going to be very good, but it was really easy to get on board with TJ.

 

[NorthCyd]

No, and please stop misrepresenting the situational context, unintentionally or not.

I cannot speak for other posters, but I never specifically wrote that either Gates or Smith should have been hired over TJ. I know that nuanced thinking is often frowned upon this board in favor of black or white terms of opinion with absolutely no shades of grey allowed, but there is a difference between having the desire for a real coaching search and specifically stating that you have a favorite over the other candidate(s).

This season has gotten off to a perfect start; much better than I think most of us expected in our wildest dreams. How about we all enjoy it, regardless of how we felt about the search process at the time, without one faction being insufferable about their support from the beginning?

Then how about people just stop dropping in how they don't support how the hire was made but support TJ now? I found the attitude of some fans deplorable when TJ was hired but was ready to put it behind me. But every time someone decides they need to drop in how they still didn't like how JP conducted the search it just pisses me off all over again.

 

[cyclonehomer]

Then how about people just stop dropping in how they don't support how the hire was made but support TJ mow? I found the attitude of some fans deplorable when TJ was hired but was ready to put it behind me. But every time someone decides they need to drop in how they still didn't like how JP conducted the search it just pisses me off all over again.

I'll stop trying to clarify when people stop (I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not say intentionally) misrepresenting what people's problems with how it went down were. How there are apparently so many people who can love Campbell's approach to "trusting the process" have such strictly results-based thinking is beyond me.

 

[NorthCyd]

I'll stop trying to clarify when people stop (I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not say intentionally) misrepresenting what people's problems with how it went down were.

What exactly did I misrepresent?

 

[cyclonehomer]

What exactly did I misrepresent?

I suppose I could have phrased it better, that "you" was meant more as a collective than a specific "you." There are plenty of people who don't believe there were legitimate concerns regarding how quickly JP made his decision and the seeming lack of effort to cast a wide net to find the best option.

I'm very glad it's working out with TJ. Still worried about the process the AD took to make the decision and do believe that while going with your gut about fit is an important part, it shouldn't constitute the entirety or most of the search to fill a major collegiate athletic head coaching opportunity.

 

[NorthCyd]

I suppose I could have phrased it better, that "you" was meant more as a collective than a specific "you." There are plenty of people who don't believe there were legitimate concerns regarding how quickly JP made his decision and the seeming lack of effort to cast a wide net to find the best option.

I'm very glad it's working out with TJ. Still worried about the process the AD took to make the decision and do believe that while going with your gut about fit is an important part, it shouldn't constitute the entirety or most of the search to fill a major collegiate athletic head coaching opportunity.

I don't agree with this, but can we all just agree to put the debate away and let it go? No need to add the "I don't agree with how JP hired him but" and just be excited for the start TJ is having.

 

[cyclonehomer]

I don't agree with this, but can we all just agree to put the debate away and let it go? No need to add the "I don't agree with how JP hired him but" and just be excited for the start TJ is having.

I'm with you there. I was absolutely wrong about TJ and am so excited to see what he can do to build off the start. Can't believe the turnaround the team has made already.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I suppose I could have phrased it better, that "you" was meant more as a collective than a specific "you." There are plenty of people who don't believe there were legitimate concerns regarding how quickly JP made his decision and the seeming lack of effort to cast a wide net to find the best option.

I'm very glad it's working out with TJ. Still worried about the process the AD took to make the decision and do believe that while going with your gut about fit is an important part, it shouldn't constitute the entirety or most of the search to fill a major collegiate athletic head coaching opportunity.

Why not? Is there some law I’m not aware of?

 

[cyclonehomer]

Why not? Is there some law I’m not aware of?

For me? It's about controlling every part you can when the results aren't entirely in your hands, like in athletics. A part of that, to me, is doing due diligence on a wide variety of options available to ensure you don't miss a great fit because a close personal friend wants the job.

I'm very glad it's working out! TJ has these guys playing great basketball as a team.

 

[Sigmapolis]

8-0 and things are still toxic. *sigh*

 

[jdoggivjc]

I was fine with the hire, but stayed out of the conversations because ISU basketball was in such bad shape that I had no real opinion as to whether TJ was going to work here or not.

I guess the one thing that allowed me to buy into TJ a lot quicker than others is when I look at Hoiberg. Why is it Hoiberg was as successful as he was at ISU, but so far been such a failure at Nebraska. I get that Hoiberg will always have a special connection with Ames and ISU that would always give him some kind of advantage, but that doesn’t explain the disparity between his time at ISU vs Nebraska - it’s not like ISU is some basketball blue blood while Nebraska is some place that would be impossible to win at (I mean, look at the success Greg McDermott of all people has had at Creighton, just a few miles down I-80). So what would be the difference? My first answer would be TJ. And if TJ was the reason behind Hoiberg’s success, then why wouldn’t he be successful if he were given control of the ship?

I just didn’t expect he’d be this successful this quickly. Nobody did. I don’t even think the biggest sunshine pumpers expected we’d be sitting at 8-0 right now.