Mike Porter
Postdoc
Posts: 3619
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-03-24 06:17 PM - Post#364425
In response to AsiaSunset
I agree with you about recruiting. Recruiting needs a total staff effort and a bit of luck, especially with the state of D1 basketball today.
Just a couple observations - both Tosan and Xaverian Lee were only offered by Princeton. Hard work by their staff? Maybe - but it just as well might be a bit of luck.
When Fran Dunphy was our coach, I used to hear from a few people very close to the program that he would only make an effort if Penn was at or near the top of a potential recruit’s list. Fran didn’t think Earl Hunt was a guy that could help Penn. He also failed to recruit Louis Dale who had sent him his tape. Is there a lesson here? - perhaps it’s that anecdotal evidence doesn’t tell a very complete story - about Fran or about Steve.
What we know is that this season was a misery and that results the past few years aren’t consistent with what we’ve come to expect. I think at a minimum all of us think certain things need to be tweaked. Others think more radical changes are in order. I’m sort on the fence right now.
Hi Asia - always respect your opinions and insights and we’ve chatted for a long time (hope you and family are well).
I think Coach Donahue is a good guy, had history at Penn, and I really wanted it to work because I thought he could be here long term (though my concern from day 1 was recruiting).
I was in favor of tweaking some things (ideally mixing up assistants) a few years ago for recruiting, but despite poor results, Coach Donahue made no changes on his own.
Really curious to understand what has you on the fence? Have you seen something that makes you believe a switch can be flipped in year 10 and this staff can drive Penn back to a consistent top 3 team that also performs well out of league? For me, any continuation of this is just delaying the inevitable.
Here’s what I see when I try to break it down:
- 9 years and not a single top 100 team despite 2 full recruiting cycles
- 1 Ivy Championship (ranked 125) when the rest of the league was down and key players were holdovers from previous staff
- Downward trend since championship (6 years ago)
- Continually underperforming in Ivy’s (look back to even AJ’s Junior and Senior years)
- The last time we beat Princeton was before my 6 year old daughter was born, 0 for 10.
- Believe we already confirmed the worst ever performance by Penn in Ivy League season (if I’m remembering right) even before we play and likely lose, again, to Princeton to close the season
I think the results are the results, and we’ve seen what we are going to get, no?
I’m genuinely struggling to understand those who think we should keep on the staff at this point. Is it believe it can be turned around against the results seen to date? Fear of the unknown that we’ll go back to the void?
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