Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Steve Donahue fired

Now it is official.




I wish it had worked out differently for Donahue and BC, but this is the right move. When everyone knows things are not working out, holding out hope for a miracle turnaround just prolongs the inevitable. Now BC can give another coach a shot at rebuilding the basketball program and give the current basketball players a chance to win.

I will have more tonight after the press conference and when the first replacement names start getting floated.

20 comments:

Joseph said...

So, now bates is elevated to sainthood. Any chance that he wanted to wait until BC hockey east tournament was done to avoid disruptive news? Obvious that Pearl was not in the mix from whatever side.

Joseph said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ToTheHeights said...

The decision should have been made March 1 when BC’s record was 8-21 and the Syracuse win lost its luster. An announcement on March 12 after the GT game should have more or less been a formality. I look forward to some sort of explanation in the press conference, but I am not holding my breath.

I am happy, but this was so mismanaged I am almost too cynical to think a good hire can be made. Maybe Pearl was a pipe dream, but it stings even more knowing he was available up until just before BC had a coaching vacancy.

Legal Eagle said...

Pearl was never happening. Go back and read the post by Tim Epstein that ATL posted. Way too much going on with Pearl. BC didn't need that kind of distraction/dark cloud hanging over the program.
Plenty of great candidates out there who should be jumping at the chance to come to an ACC school with as much to offer as BC.

Good luck to Bates. I hope he has a very difficult decision to make.

GP11 said...

Agreed with what's been said regarding Pearl having no shot. There's obviously so many voices in the big decisions made Pearl untouchable. It's unfortunate because I think he would have been a success, but he is not the only one who can succeed at BC. Hopefully Howland is option A, B, C, and D. I do hope the timing was due to Bates wanted to have someone in his back pocket (or a few choices). Let's hope this process is seamless and quick so that the new coaching staff can get to rebuilding this program ASAP. Thankfully in BBall it only takes a couple years if you have the right guy in place.

DannyOzark said...

What do you think it would take to pry Skinner from Bryant?

Bravesbill said...

Danny, that would be the worst decision imaginable.

@timstwrt said...

Amaker.

Bravesbill said...

Also a terrible choice. He's already failed out of one big conference. And given the fact that Harvard can probably pay him more than BC and Harvard has dominated BC for a decade, why on earth would he leave to go to BC? He should stay at Harvard and ride out his job security ala Few and Smart or wait until a better job opportunity arises.

@timstwrt said...

Amaker supposedly makes $700,000, which is less than Donahue was making. He also took over Michigan when they were under NCAA sanctions and banned from the postseason.

BC is still a better job than Harvard, and he can stay in his own house and his wife can keep her job at Harvard Medical School. I don't think he's the only choice, but he'd be a good one.

Capital Eagle said...

Atl, can you get the transcript of the PC. Could only hear AD answers and not the questions. Thanks.

ccw said...

Ammaker makes over $1.1M at Harvard. We're not going to pay much more than that.

ATL_eagle said...

Amaker would take the BC job. I hope we don't go that way, but don't believe any of the nonsense that Harvard is a better job.

Legal Eagle said...

ATL-

I am guessing there is a post coming about this, but just in case, why are you down on Amaker?

ccw said...

Everyone over rates the attractiveness of their own job.

Look at Shaka Smart. Guy's making very good money at VCU. They love him. His family is happy. Why mess it up?

A good coach would pause at the BC situation. No history of an instate recruiting base. So-so facilities. High academic standards. No fan support.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

Praise Jesus.

Joseph said...

I reserve praising Jesus for things somewhat more urgent tan BB, but then, I have always thought that possibly there was more to life than sports, like a good solid education that helps us to prioritize life's details.

Big Jack Krack said...

"Sorry it didn't work out......."

I wish we never hired the guy in the first place. What a waste of 4 years. His player rotations were really questionable and I'd love to be able to talk to the players. SD had no idea how to recruit, ..........

Whistling and calling timeouts when they weren't indicated at crunch time, etc. He was a curious micro-manager.

Good luck, Steve - but I don't feel sorry for you with such a golden handshake.

BC Hoops Guy said...

The best guy for the job is Mike Lonergan from GW. Check out his track record in building programs. Won a D3 national championship at Catholic. Assistant coach at Maryland. Built a perennial 20 game winning program at Vermont. Took over a mess at GW and within 3 years took them to the NCAAs - with 4 sophomore starters from his first full recruiting class. He knows the New England prep scene and will keep talent at home plus he has strong ties in the fertile DC/Balt region. His teams play great defense and reflect his personality - intense and full effort at all times. Maybe name is not as "sexy" as Amaker or Howland - but he makes almost too much sense for BC.

Hoib said...

nappy

Double praise. I'm just so relieved that this has happened, and so I'll just be glad today for this and weigh in on prospects for future posts. Thank you Brad Bates, get us a basketball Daz.