#2 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: Pat Chambers leaves

After March, Pat Chambers was a god to us.  He took us to two straight AE finals, including a championship and our first Big Dance in a decade.  The future looked even brighter.  I’m not going to say he could have gotten away with murder, but he certainly could have pantsed Dr. Robert Brown, BU President, in the middle of Comm Ave and received nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

For these reasons, BU AD Mike Lynch offered Chambers a contract extension through 2016 in early May.  We were excited.  Lynch was excited.  Chambers was excited.  After he signed the extension, Chambers stated:

“This is where I want to be. We’ve made this my dream job and again, you don’t get this type of support anywhere,” Chambers said. “We love the city of Boston, we love the university and we’re very grateful of this opportunity that they’ve given us and for BU basketball and what it’s done for us in this short time as a head coach.”

Less than one month after saying BU is where he wants to be, Chambers accepted the head coaching job at Penn State, a forever underachieving Big Ten program that will never make much more than a ripple next to its football program. 

The hire for Penn State was hailed as an excellent move, and the Nittany Lions fans rejoiced.  Reaction at BU was mixed, to say the least.  I can only speak for myself, but I was a little miffed.  On the one hand, Chambers got us the championship we wanted, left the cupboard full, and we can all understand the appeal of a bigger paycheck closer to home.  But on the other hand, it made it obvious that everything he had said about our program was disingenuous lip service.

Not only was BU not exactly "where [he] wanted to be," but there was unfinished business as well.  As I pointed out in this article in the Penn State Daily Collegian, everyone remembers Chambers' proclamation of turning BU into the "Gonzaga or Xavier of the East"... something virtually impossible in a mere two-year stay.

Look, everyone wants to move up to a better job.  But Penn State is a shitty job.  It's a near no-win situation in a place that doesn't care about basketball.

In the end, the majority of fans are not going to hold this against Pat Chambers, including me.  He is a good guy, and we probably would have made the same decision.  We may just be a little more skeptical the next time a flashy young coach roars into town talking big about his giant aspirations for our modest little program.

Best of luck to you, Coach Chambers, truly - and thank you for everything.  But don't be offended if I call your team the Shittany Lions.

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The postscript to this is the awful situation unraveling now in Happy Valley (which takes on a whole new, terrible meaning).  I have no sympathy for anyone who went down in flames for any part of the cover-up or failure to act on allegations of child rape.  But how is this going to affect Coach Chambers and his historically terrible basketball program?  It's not fair to him or his players, but this is going to suck for them.

A few days ago, Chambers was interviewed about how somber the mood on campus was.  Well, I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.  One can't help but wonder if Coach Chambers regrets his decision to leave BU for this shitshow, or if he'd take it back if he could.

Penn State's first basketball game under Chambers is this Saturday, and was timed to begin right as the football game got out.  In retrospect... yeah that's not going to be good for business.

#11 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: BU AD Mike Lynch joins twitter

Big news from the world of social media, as BU's reclusive chieftain of sport Mike Lynch has joined the ranks of such luminaries as @KourtneyKardash, @charliesheen, and @shitmydadsays.

I'm impressed to note that the tweets appear to be authentic and written by Mr. Lynch himself -- however, the page lacks the "Verified Account" badge as yet so I'll reserve final judgment on that.

You can follow him here:  http://twitter.com/#!/BU_AD_MLynch

While the AD's tweets so far have mainly trumpeted the achievements of the various BU athletic teams (and there's certainly nothing wrong with that!), I'm hoping his account will consist of more than PR pablum and we get to see an insiders view of the department and its day-to-day vision and strategy.  This is something the fans desperately want.  We need more than the date and time of the next basketball game... we need our leaders' true feelings on the outcome, what he ate at the game, what he thought of a clever fan chant, or whether the refs screwed us.  I'd also love to know if the AD at Boston College has been a dick about scheduling a basketball game at The Greek, or if the AD feels the same way about Northeastern as the rest of us do.

One disappointment so far:  As of this writing, nothing from Mr. Lynch as to the failure of BU to be swept up in the conference realignment madness.  Looking forward to his thoughts about how the trickle down could aid BU's rise to collegiate athletic dominance.

On to the Little Dance

With a resounding 76-56 thumping of Maine, the Terriers ended the 2009-10 season on a high note. That makes 5 out of 6 wins in February, the only loss coming in the final seconds against Vermont. What made this win more notable than the others is that it was the first of the year over a top-3 opponent. That is a nice hump to get over, and such a convincing win gives hope going into the tournament.

We finish at 17-12 and 11-5 in the America East Conference, which is good for 4th place. How does that compare with the season that got Dennis Wolff fired last year? Well, last year we were 17-12 and 11-5 in the conference, which was good for 3rd place. Scott Brittain was out this year, but Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong missed most of last year, and this year the guys are a year more experienced.

So on the surface, it doesn't look like the coaching change made any tangible year over year difference. However, DWolff wasn't fired for going 17-12 or 11-5. He was fired for going 0-1.

Will Coach Pat Chambers make his mark on this portion of the record? If that's how we judged Wolff, it's only fair we judge Chambers by the same standards. I think it's fair to say that Chambers will be feeling some heavy expections from Mike Lynch et al as he heads to his first America East tournament.

So who do we play? Well right now, it's uncertain. We are supposed to play Binghamton, who finished 5th place despite some crazy obstacles. But one more obstacle may be put Bing's way, namely a voluntary or involuntary absence from this year's tournament in Hartford. NY Times reporter Pete Thamel tweeted that "The America East and Binghamton are deciding if Bearcats should play in conference tournament."

This would be bullshit for us, especially since we dominated Binghamton by 40 last week, and it would leave us with the host team Hartford. Meanwhile, Vermont would move from getting a tough UNH team to getting the hapless UMBC Retrievers. This may all be resolved by the time you read this post, so no use getting worked up about it now. I am sure that Chambers & Co. are doing everything they can to prepare the Terriers for whichever team shows up at 2:30 on Saturday.

More on the tournament to come this week.

Meet BU's new head coach, Pat Chambers

After being called out by good friends, anonymous commenters and none other than AD Mike Lynch, it's time to update the blog. I'm redefining the phrase Better Late Than Never.

As you may or may not have heard, BU finally hired a coach after a month-long search: Mr. Pat Chambers, formerly assisting on the Villanova sidelines. My first reaction, of course, was: Who? The media kept telling me we were looking into these big names like Richard Pitino and Tim Welsh and Fran McCaffery. It only mentioned lesser-known names like Pat Chambers in add-on sentences at the ends of articles about those other guys. And if you used the BU Hoops Blog as your sole source of information on the search, you still thought Tony Jones was the main candidate for the job (sorry).

I'll admit I let myself be drawn into the celebrity search. I liked the idea that a Richard Pitino could come in, energize our players and our fanbase and turn BU into a perennial winner in no time. It sounds nice, but the reality is that doesn't usually happen. It takes tons of hard work, skills gained through experience, and time to build something like a basketball program. It doesn't just happen because you bring in a big name.

That was something I realized the day Pat Chambers was introduced as the new men's basketball coach. I didn't know much about Coach Chambers except that he spent 5 years at Villanova, rising from Director of Basketball Operations (booking hotels and flights?) all the way to associate head coach (X's and O's plus head recruiter). And truth be told, 5 years doesn't seem like that long to be coaching at the highest level.

But anyone who had any doubts about Coach Chambers taking over the program and making it successful should take the time to watch the introductory press conference (I'm looking at you Jake O'Brien). The guy is young and energetic, enthusiastic and optimistic to a fault, and just seems to be a guy that college players could relate to. He also seems like he could be a hard-ass if he wants to (he's got the military haircut for it anyway).

A young, hungry, up-and-coming assistant coach is who we've been hoping for in this program - somebody like Leibovitz, Lonergan, Pikiell and Broadus, who have all been making their marks on this league. And if all goes well, we'll be looking for another coach in 3 or 4 years (although the same could be said if all does not go well at all).

There's no way to know right now if this is a good hire or not. That will be decided in 2 or 3 years by what is produced on the court. For now, however, put me in the effin-pumped column. I think the future's bright for BU basketball.

BU Coaching Rumor Roundup: Globe Says it's Tony Jones

Mark Blaudschun in the Boston Globe, after issuing the requisite safety escape valves for himself (i.e. "appears to be the choice," "expected to be completed," "barring any snags or a change of heart"...), says that the next BU men's basketball coach is Tony Jones.

Blaudschun's source says, "They are talking and working on a few things. But it looks pretty good." His sources have been wrong before, but he says he's talked to folks both at BU and at Tennessee.

Meanwhile, Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel gives a little more background on Jones. He says Jones was a finalist for the coaching job at Marshall University - a Conference USA team that we lost to this year - and was considered by Tennessee State this year. he has been the top assistant to Bruce Pearl (a damn good basketball coach) for the last eight years between Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Tennessee, and currently makes $182,434 as an assistant. At UT, Jones handles scheduling, in-game substitutions and some recruiting duties (Blaudschun says he "is known as an aggressive recruiter").

Jones confirmed to UT's hometown paper that he interviewed with Mike Lynch, but would not comment beyond that.

BU Coaching Rumor Roundup: LaFleur gets some big backing

Most of the attention in the media for the coaching search so far has focused on Richard Pitino, but today Andre LaFleur was getting some help.

Writing for the Hartford Courant, Mike Anthony says that BU is interested in UConn assistant Andre LaFleur. But he says he has not been contacted by BU for an interview yet. His quote is very PC:

"I'm not the kind of guy who can work with one foot out the door," LaFleur said. "I'm focused on what we can accomplish here and now. I feel like [UConn] can mount a real challenge in the next few weeks. But you always hope you'll get an opportunity to run a program; you hope your name will come up when there are openings."

However, speaking to Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe, LaFleur is a little more transparent:

"I am very interested," said LaFleur, who played at Governor Dummer and Northeastern. "I think I can bring a lot to the table."

Not only that, but he's got his boss a.k.a. Connecticut's multi-million dollar man in his corner.

"I called Mike Lynch and talked to him about Andre," said Calhoun yesterday as he prepared the Huskies for today's first-round NCAA Tournament game against
Chattanooga. "I think there was some interest." [...]

Calhoun and UConn associate head coach George Blaney believe LaFleur is ready to take the next step. "He's a great recruiter and he's very aware," said Blaney. "He's more than ready."

Did DW get a raw deal?

Boston Globe writer Mark Blauschun is a friend of Dennis Wolff's, so he's a pretty good guy to go to for quotes when nobody else can get in touch with him. Yesterday he reported that Wolff was "surprised but not stunned" by the firing. Today, he bothered Wolff at home long enough to get some more info, if you're interested in the former head coach's state of mind:

Meanwhile, Wolff was at home in Walpole, absorbing the firing and pondering his future.

"I was up all night thinking about it," said Wolff, who had four years remaining on a 10-year contract, which could cost BU as much as $1.2 million. "I enjoyed my time at BU and this was clearly not the way I would have liked to see my relationship end. But they think that someone else can do a better job. I hope for the kids' sake that everything works out."

I'm excited that BU is trying to move the basketball program and I think this will be a good thing on the whole, but a large part of me thinks DW got a raw deal. He did win games and titles, and even though this timing will make hiring a new coach easier, you'd think he could have had one more shot at a winner with his heralded junior class. The team was on an upswing with the best record in 4 years and 3rd place in the conference, and nobody had transferred in like 2 or 3 years!

However, Lynch made clear that 3rd place isn't going to cut it for BU in the America East, and in the end, that's a good thing. BU should be dominating. And it's not like Dennis won't have 1,200,000 ways to console himself.

I'm grateful Dennis Wolff ran a clean, honorable program without taking shortcuts. He recruited good students with good character. I would rather have that and 3rd place this year than what is going on over at Binghamton these days.

Wolff Was 2 Legit 2 Quit

ESPN.com's Andy Katz spoke with recently shit-canned BU head coach Dennis Wolff:

"Wolff said he was in New York recruiting and was called back to Boston to meet with administrators. Wolff said he was asked to resign. He refused and was let go."

Damn. Well, you can't call the guy a quitter.

Story mentions he's in the process of negotiating a buyout now. Said AD Mike Lynch, "This decision was not made quickly or easily. However, after a thorough analysis, I believe that a change in leadership is in the best interests of our men's basketball program."

Wolff won 247 games over 15 years at BU.