Is Ainge Right?

#78
#78
VolsSportsFan said:
No it most certainly is not. Zo has gotten mountains of criticism here since the day he was hired.
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What was there to criticize until he started losing to teams he had no business losing to and failed to make it into the big dance for what is looking like a 3rd consecutive season? I don't remember any criticism and actually people defended him due to the circumstances he inherited when he first got here. However, it's year 3 and he has 2 Wooden Award nominees and starts 3 seniors and 2 juniors. No excuse for what has been happening on the court this season and really no logical way to defend it.
 
#80
#80
1985Vols said:
What was there to criticize until he started losing to teams he had no business losing to and failed to make it into the big dance for what is looking like a 3rd consecutive season? I don't remember any criticism and actually people defended him due to the circumstances he inherited when he first got here. However, it's year 3 and he has 2 Wooden Award nominees and starts 3 seniors and 2 juniors. No excuse for what has been happening on the court this season and really no logical way to defend it.
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The fact that he was hired period; this board was almost in meltdown when he was hired.
 
#81
#81
VolsSportsFan said:
The fact that he was hired period; this board was almost in meltdown when he was hired.
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That's because nobody had ever heard of him. Even so, I feel he had the support of most fans and still would if he could just show that he knows what he is doing. I have followed UT BB for over 45 years and have never pulled against a coach. However, I have seen several that I thought were lacking in the X's and O's dept. ( Houston, Peterson, Green) and now it looks like CCM may join that club. He has a couple of months left to change my mind
 
#82
#82
VolsSportsFan said:
No I didn't. I was addressing the claim that many were ga-ga over Martin's hiring, and that's complete bullcrap.

Not to mention "support" is relative. It still wasn't near the level Pearl got.
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I didn't mean we were ga ga over him when he was hired but he was supported and everyone was in a wait and see mode after the initial shock of who we hired wore off.

The kind of support u r talking about has to be earned like pearl did....Martin did have top ten attendance backing him though.
 
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#84
#84
VolsSportsFan said:
The fact that he was hired period; this board was almost in meltdown when he was hired.
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This board was pretty much all "fire Pearl" before cuonzo got here and ran off one of the most knowledgeable posters
on the basketball board had in 95 because he spotted right away that CCm couldn't coach. I found it hilarious that some even called him racist. and have any come forward and apologized?
 
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#85
#85
VolsSportsFan said:
100% correct. People have hated Martin since the day he was hired. I think he's earned criticism, but some here just need to be 100% honest and admit there is nothing he can do to win their support.

Even if we went to the Final Four this year, there'd be a big enough segment of the fanbase that would say he got lucky and talk about how we'll still suck long term; I know because that very talk has been posted here.

Which makes me wonder if ANY coach not named Pearl will get full support. And if that answer is no, even if said coach is a proven coach, then we got some big problems.
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That is absolutely bull. If Cuonzo was the least bit competent his supporters would so outnumber his haters that they would seldom show their faces. People support a winner. Cuonzo had tons of support when he came here despite his relative anonymity and lack of meaningful success.
 
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#86
#86
InVOLuntary said:
That is absolutely bull. If Cuonzo was the least bit competent his supporters would so outnumber his haters that they would seldom show their faces. People support a winner. Cuonzo had tons of support when he came here despite his relative anonymity and lack of meaningful success.
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I was one of the first to say " No one will be happier than I for Cuonzo to make me say Bruce who.".
 
#88
#88
InVOLuntary said:
That is absolutely bull. If Cuonzo was the least bit competent his supporters would so outnumber his haters that they would seldom show their faces. People support a winner. Cuonzo had tons of support when he came here despite his relative anonymity and lack of meaningful success.
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You're out of your mind if you don't think there's a sizable portion of this fanbase that has wanted to get rid of Martin since his first season. If what you say is true then his support should have skyrocketed in his first season when he turned things around and had a great SEC season. It got better but nowhere close to anything Pearl ever experienced, and it went straight back down after we didn't make the NCAAT.

And this "tons of support" stuff is some straight up revisionist history. At best he got a wait and see when he was hired, and a ton of cursing because he was a no-name.
 
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#89
#89
knowthevols said:
That's a complement coming from someone with an IQ in the seventies, of course we changed the rules from 85.
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Seriously, why were you against giving Pearl a raise after his first season? We won the SEC East, won at Rupp Arena for the first time since 1999, and got a #2 seed in the NCAAT. All in a year most of us assumed they would be NIT. I would consider that pretty raise worthy.
 
#90
#90
VolsSportsFan said:
You're out of your mind if you don't think there's a sizable portion of this fanbase that hasn't wanted to get rid of Martin since his first season. If what you say is true then his support should have skyrocketed in his first season when he turned things around and had a great SEC season. It got better but nowhere close to anything Pearl ever experienced, and it went straight back down after we didn't make the NCAAT.

And this "tons of support" stuff is some straight up revisionist history. At best he got a wait and see when he was hired, and a ton of cursing because he was a no-name.
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After 6 straight NCAA appearances under CBP, CCM had an uphill battle. His laid back personality didn't help matters. Winning cures all ills when you are a coach.
 
#91
#91
VolsSportsFan said:
You're out of your mind if you don't think there's a sizable portion of this fanbase that hasn't wanted to get rid of Martin since his first season. If what you say is true then his support should have skyrocketed in his first season when he turned out and had a great SEC season. It got better but nowhere close to anything Pearl ever experienced, and it went straight back down after we didn't make the NCAAT.

And this "tons of support" stuff is some straight up revisionist history. At best he got a wait and see when he was hired, and a ton of cursing because he was a no-name.
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I and Basketbalvols predicted a 20 win season based on the team Bruce left. BTO questioned this and I bumped the link. He has done what Ie95 said his first year. Live with it, it's fact now.
 
#92
#92
VolsSportsFan said:
You're out of your mind if you don't think there's a sizable portion of this fanbase that has wanted to get rid of Martin since his first season. If what you say is true then his support should have skyrocketed in his first season when he turned things around and had a great SEC season. It got better but nowhere close to anything Pearl ever experienced, and it went straight back down after we didn't make the NCAAT.

And this "tons of support" stuff is some straight up revisionist history. At best he got a wait and see when he was hired, and a ton of cursing because he was a no-name.
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You fell and hit your head if you belive that people would want Cuonzo fired if he made a final four. Anyone that doubted Cuonzo his first year was absolutely hammered on this board. I witnessed here. After his second year failure the doubters were still beat up on pretty heavily. Now in his third year with tournament hopes hamging by the typical thread, most of the dwindling Martin lovers don't have any ammunition left.

Is this not a mirror image of the Derrick Dooley fiasco?
 
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#93
#93
InVOLuntary said:
You fell and hit your head if you belive that people would want Cuonzo fired if he made a final four. Anyone that doubted Cuonzo his first year was absolutely hammered on this board. I witnessed here. After his second year failure the doubters were still beat up on pretty heavily. Now in his third year with tournament hopes hamging by the typical thread, most of the dwindling Martin lovers don't have any ammunition left.

Is this not a mirror image of the Derrick Dooley fiasco?
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There have been more than a few that have posted that even if we make the NCAAT, Martin's style of basketball is "too boring". Would they shut up if he made the Final Four? They would for a while, but heck we have people saying they wouldn't want a 3 time Final Four coach to come here. And I've seen enough posters on here to know that there are is a legit faction of this fanbase that want 1 guy coaching and 1 guy only, and that's Bruce Pearl, and I believe it's bigger than just some small fringe portion.

It mirrors the Dooley situation to an extent, except that I think it's unfair to Martin to compare him to Dooley. Dooley had zero big wins, and Martin generally did better than Dooley did.
 
#94
#94
VolsSportsFan said:
There have been more than a few that have posted that even if we make the NCAAT, Martin's style of basketball is "too boring". Would they shut up if he made the Final Four? They would for a while, but heck we have people saying they wouldn't want a 3 time Final Four coach to come here. And I've seen enough posters on here to know that there are is a legit faction of this fanbase that want 1 guy coaching and 1 guy only, and that's Bruce Pearl, and I believe it's bigger than just some small fringe portion.

It mirrors the Dooley situation to an extent, except that I think it's unfair to Martin to compare him to Dooley. Dooley had zero big wins, and Martin generally did better than Dooley did.
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There are people on this board who are pretty high up that have posted they would leave this board never to return if Pearl is rehired so who carries the most venom?
 
#95
#95
knowthevols said:
There are people on this board who are pretty high up that have posted they would leave this board never to return if Pearl is rehired so who carries the most venom?
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You mean compared the ones that have stated if Pearl isn't rehired they are done with UT basketball?

And what the heck does "pretty high up" mean?
 
#96
#96
VolsSportsFan said:
There have been more than a few that have posted that even if we make the NCAAT, Martin's style of basketball is "too boring". Would they shut up if he made the Final Four? They would for a while, but heck we have people saying they wouldn't want a 3 time Final Four coach to come here. And I've seen enough posters on here to know that there are is a legit faction of this fanbase that want 1 guy coaching and 1 guy only, and that's Bruce Pearl, and I believe it's bigger than just some small fringe portion.

It mirrors the Dooley situation to an extent, except that I think it's unfair to Martin to compare him to Dooley. Dooley had zero big wins, and Martin generally did better than Dooley did.
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There will be a very small minority that still complains while winning just like when pearl was here but if Zo leads us to a final four the overwhelming majority will be jumping around hugging each other including myself.
 
#97
#97
VolsSportsFan said:
You mean compared the ones that have stated if Pearl isn't rehired they are done with UT basketball?

And what the heck does "pretty high up" mean?
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You or I either one have never seen that posted on this board and the other about higher up you can discuss when you meet with him again to discuss strategy.
 
#100
#100
TennaciousD957 said:
Did anyone else here Ainge early this week say that it was well-known in the circle of boosters and ex-players that Cuonzo feels like he could happy coaching basketball anywhere and that he doesn' t have to be at UT? I had never heard this before, but it did make perfect sense considering that he never shown a shred of passion when we lose a game. Is he pulling a Dooley and biding his time to get out of Knoxville?[/QU

He could probably leave UT if he wanted to and get a job with a mid-major as a lot of them are always needing coaches. If he doesn't make the NCAA Tourney this season we should help him make that move.
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