Larrañaga officially steps down at Miami

Well, at this point, the Miami season is kinda over. 4-8 with no wins against anyone in the top 250 and losses to the #235 and #282 teams. I mean, they practically need to win every single remaining game on their schedule to have much of a chance at a tourney bid.
Technically Miami just needs to win enough games to finish 15th or better and then win all of the ACC tournament games it plays (likely 5). So I’m saying there’s a chance…
 
Hang in there, Leonard.

Why? When it is time to go, it is time to go. If Hamilton still thinks he can make FSU a contender and bring in and develop top talent then he should stick around but if the game has passed him by then he only serves to tarnish his legacy by hanging on.

It is damn rare for a coach to go out on top the way K, Jay, and Roy did. Most drag their programs down first. I hope Hamilton can see which path he is on.
My comment was a humorous acknowledgement of the changing of the guard. Don't overthink it. :sneaky:
 
I didn’t drag Handsome Tony for abandoning his command just before the ship sailed for a season long voyage, so can’t speak for those that did. But to answer your second question: no, what Larranaga did was not even worse than leaving before the season.

He lost his team and program last year. He tried to keep things going, but failed. There is no upside for him or the program in him staying on board and there might be some upside with him leaving now, so that Miami can turn its sights fully to the future.

Maybe Tony would have put Virginia in position to perform better this season, maybe not, but my guess is that the season would play out a bit better for UVa had he not unceremoniously absconded for points unknown.
Or, he knew the season was going to be a disaster because he had already lost his fire, and tried to save it by giving someone other than himself a chance.
I find what Larrañaga did here much more objectionable, because he was actually recruiting the Boozers, among things when he knew he had nothing left. Thankfully they didn’t fall for it. But they could have.
 
Or, he knew the season was going to be a disaster because he had already lost his fire, and tried to save it by giving someone other than himself a chance.
I find what Larrañaga did here much more objectionable, because he was actually recruiting the Boozers, among things when he knew he had nothing left. Thankfully they didn’t fall for it. But they could have.
Perhaps if he had landed the Boozer it might have given him a second wind that would have carried him through another year or two? It really isn't that difficult to imagine. And perhaps the Boozers sensed what was happening and that is why they went to Duke (among other reasons).

It is scary to me how people have angst towards these coaches - first Bennett, now Larranaga. Mind your own business unless you are directly related to a player or coach in the program. Save your angst for real problems. I wish this was my biggest problem in life.
 
Strange, but leaving in the middle of a season, unless for health reasons, is really bad. IMHO, it tarnishes legacies for both Larranaga (again assuming no health issue) and Bennett.

Why should he stick around if he doesn't think he is doing a good job? I do not understand the fans thinking the coaches has to stay at a job hurting both themselves and the team. By this reasoning if you are unhappy at a job, you should stick around until you are fired? Also I do not see ANYTHING to tarnish their legacy. Shall we not be holier than thou please?

I do not understand people passing judgement on amazing coaches who have done nothing wrong their entire career. You can fire a coach midseason, but if somebody who is clearly underperforming and lost the fire wants to leave, they are horrible people?
 
'Jim Larrañaga on why he’s stepping down:"I'm exhausted... What shocked me beyond belief, was after we made the Final Four, 8 of my players said they were gonna leave. You have to ask yourself, as a coach, what is this all about?"'

We are one of the teams doing well with the new landscape, for the time being. But honestly, the new college landscape sucks and I bet if we constantly lost all our players even after we reach Final 4 etc, and then have a hard time finding new players, many here would sing a different song.
 
The younger coaches have a different frame of reference and perhaps different expectations. Its a different skill set with shorter-term goals and rewards. Probably higher turnover and shorter career length. Not for everyone.
 
The younger coaches have a different frame of reference and perhaps different expectations. Its a different skill set with shorter-term goals and rewards. Probably higher turnover and shorter career length. Not for everyone.
I can't imagine a results driven individual, as a BB coach has to be, could ever enjoy operating under the current madness that is college basketball and sports.
 
For all the hand wringing over NIL and the portal and how evil this all is we should all remember that Miami was arguably the FIRST big portal player when they signed first-team All-B12 star Nijel Pack to what was — at the time — an unheard of contract which paid him $800k over two years. It was the deal that blew open the world of NIL and laid bare the notion that players were being paid for their Name Image and Likeness. No, Miami was the school that was paying them to play basketball.

A year later, Miami laid a big offer on the table and snatched away one of the best players on rival Florida St, Matthew Cleveland. This wasn’t just a player going in conference, this was a kid taking the money to move to a huge rival.

So, yeah, Jim whining about how the game has changed rings a little bit less than completely honest to me.
 
Just because you play the game doesn't mean you enjoy it. Sounds like he had enough of it, quite understandably. People stay we with jobs they don't like all the time, whining every day as they make their morning commute back in.
I can understand walking away from coaching in college now. For a Coach, the reality is that your players have agents and handlers negotiating right now, for next year. So, as he stated, there’s no point in building a “foundation” with younger bench players. This is going to get worse before it gets better. Paying a QB $8 million doesn’t solve any problem. It just raises the stakes. There is no salary cap. Universities being “allowed” to pay $23 million direct to football and basketball players isn’t going stop the bidding wars. More money is just going to fan the flames.

No money has been created. When the price of something surges, while the fundamental value doesn’t increase, you have a bubble. Whether it’s tech stocks, real estate or minor league football and basketball salaries, it’s a bubble. No one knows when the bubble will pop. But it will pop.
 
For all the hand wringing over NIL and the portal and how evil this all is we should all remember that Miami was arguably the FIRST big portal player when they signed first-team All-B12 star Nijel Pack to what was — at the time — an unheard of contract which paid him $800k over two years. It was the deal that blew open the world of NIL and laid bare the notion that players were being paid for their Name Image and Likeness. No, Miami was the school that was paying them to play basketball.

A year later, Miami laid a big offer on the table and snatched away one of the best players on rival Florida St, Matthew Cleveland. This wasn’t just a player going in conference, this was a kid taking the money to move to a huge rival.

So, yeah, Jim whining about how the game has changed rings a little bit less than completely honest to me.

The Nijel Pack recruitment was public, seemingly orchestrated by a noisy booster, and Pack wasn’t necessarily the best player on the team. That could easily have led to a Miami culture of transactionalism, exacerbating what was already going on everywhere else.

This slow-moving train wreck of a program might, therefore, be another example of the law of unintended consequences.

Or it might be an example of the widespread employment of Baby Boomers who are too old to robustly do very difficult jobs. People in power—whether they’re politicians or multi-millionaire coaches—don’t like to walk away until forced.
 
The Nijel Pack recruitment was public, seemingly orchestrated by a noisy booster, and Pack wasn’t necessarily the best player on the team. That could easily have led to a Miami culture of transactionalism, exacerbating what was already going on everywhere else.

This slow-moving train wreck of a program might, therefore, be another example of the law of unintended consequences.

Or it might be an example of the widespread employment of Baby Boomers who are too old to robustly do very difficult jobs. People in power—whether they’re politicians or multi-millionaire coaches—don’t like to walk away until forced.
gratuitous shot at geezers noted. We're cutting off your Metamucil. (hold your thought as you get older!)
 
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