The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

A miserable season has Monarch fans asking for the head of Blaine Taylor. I personally think we should weather the storm. Others want a new start.

My theory is that he is tanking the pre season on purpose so that when it comes time for conference play all those Ws we start pulling are going to make the rest of the CAA look really bad. He had to throw the w&m game because it was too early and he didn't want the rest of the conference to catch on to it. Muahahaha. /tinfoilhat.

(12-19-2012 12:07 AM)pandorazboxx Wrote:  My theory is that he is tanking the pre season on purpose so that when it comes time for conference play all those Ws we start pulling are going to make the rest of the CAA look really bad. He had to throw the w&m game because it was too early and he didn't want the rest of the conference to catch on to it. Muahahaha. /tinfoilhat.

Keep dreaming the dream my friend.

(12-18-2012 11:45 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  A miserable season has Monarch fans asking for the head of Blaine Taylor. I personally think we should weather the storm. Others want a new start.

What is going on in the program to keep you so loyal? Serious question. Recruiting is in the tank. Play on the floor is horrible. Conduct off the court is questionable (grades and arrests). I see a man that has lost whatever edge he had. You don't?

He wasn't loyal to you when he was seeking other jobs and dropping the ball on our team.

I honestly like Blaine personally. I hope he resigns on his own accord. It is clearly time for new blood, but we don't need a rift between his loyalists donors and Wood Selig.

A VCU fan recently asked me about Blaine's future. This was my response. Feel free to correct any factual errors:

That’s a good question. Personally, I think he has earned the right to try and rebuild this. People forget that he is a season removed from back-to-back titles. Plus his last two recruiting classes are pretty good. There is some young talent on the team in Palmore, Clark, Bacote, Batten, and Ross. In fact, Bacote is the current CAA Rookie of the Week, and it has been ages since a Monarch has won that honor. We started three freshmen last night, and I hope we continue to do so. With no CAA tournament to redeem ourselves, this year was down the toilet after the first 3 games, so may as well get the young guys some experience.

Having said that, this is Blaine’s mess. He apparently spent more time trying to get another job during his title runs than he did recruiting and trying to build upon his success. He thought he was going to get the Clemson job when it went to Brad Brownell. He then flirted with Wyoming (why he thought that would be a step up from ODU is beyond me). That was followed by losing his top recruiter John Richardson (as well as Dorian Finney-Smith) to Virginia Tech, and then a rumored “mid-life crisis”. As a result, Blaine appeared to be filling scholarships just to be filling them, perhaps out of desperation. Here is what he recruited during that time.

Etoile Imama
Nick Wright
Jason Pimentel
Anton Larsen
Breon Key
Josh Hicks

Of these 6 player, 3 of them are now playing Division II basketball. The only two left, Wright and Larsen, should be playing Division II basketball. We do have two ACC transfers in Painter and Hill. They’ve been average at best (though Painter is starting to assert himself as a go to guy). In any case, the junior and senior class cannot graduate fast enough for me. Nice kids, but they just aren’t very good.

Richardson is back, and Blaine has two scholarships available for next year. He needs to make a recruiting splash with these. If he can land two quality big men to go along with our current redshirt big, and our young talented guards, we’ll recover pretty quickly. If he can’t, I think he is finished. We can’t be competing with Radford and High Point for recruits. Teams that do that lose to VMI at home. The bigger question is, will he get a chance. Wood Selig fired a legend in Wendy Larry after a couple of subpar seasons that ended with a birth in the Women’s NIT. How long is he going to tolerate the men’s product, particular if ticket sales begin to suffer (and they are)?

The team looks good for spurts, and looks terrible for spurts. I hope that is merely the sign of their youth. They cannot play solid defense for 40 minutes, which is unusual for a BT team. It seems like at least one opposing player gets a career high against us every game. However, I am a glutton for punishment I guess. I watched last night, and I will continue to watch. I keep thinking that they are eventually going to turn the corner and beat a decent team (maybe it will be George Mason, ha!!).

So the short answer about Blaine is, I don’t know. He is definitely on the hot seat, if for no other reason, that many big donors want him gone.

(12-19-2012 08:47 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  A VCU fan recently asked me about Blaine's future. This was my response. Feel free to correct any factual errors:

That’s a good question. Personally, I think he has earned the right to try and rebuild this. People forget that he is a season removed from back-to-back titles. Plus his last two recruiting classes are pretty good. There is some young talent on the team in Palmore, Clark, Bacote, Batten, and Ross. In fact, Bacote is the current CAA Rookie of the Week, and it has been ages since a Monarch has won that honor. We started three freshmen last night, and I hope we continue to do so. With no CAA tournament to redeem ourselves, this year was down the toilet after the first 3 games, so may as well get the young guys some experience.

Having said that, this is Blaine’s mess. He apparently spent more time trying to get another job during his title runs than he did recruiting and trying to build upon his success. He thought he was going to get the Clemson job when it went to Brad Brownell. He then flirted with Wyoming (why he thought that would be a step up from ODU is beyond me). That was followed by losing his top recruiter John Richardson (as well as Dorian Finney-Smith) to Virginia Tech, and then a rumored “mid-life crisis”. As a result, Blaine appeared to be filling scholarships just to be filling them, perhaps out of desperation. Here is what he recruited during that time.

Etoile Imama
Nick Wright
Jason Pimentel
Anton Larsen
Breon Key
Josh Hicks

Of these 6 player, 3 of them are now playing Division II basketball. The only two left, Wright and Larsen, should be playing Division II basketball. We do have two ACC transfers in Painter and Hill. They’ve been average at best (though Painter is starting to assert himself as a go to guy). In any case, the junior and senior class cannot graduate fast enough for me. Nice kids, but they just aren’t very good.

Richardson is back, and Blaine has two scholarships available for next year. He needs to make a recruiting splash with these. If he can land two quality big men to go along with our current redshirt big, and our young talented guards, we’ll recover pretty quickly. If he can’t, I think he is finished. We can’t be competing with Radford and High Point for recruits. Teams that do that lose to VMI at home. The bigger question is, will he get a chance. Wood Selig fired a legend in Wendy Larry after a couple of subpar seasons that ended with a birth in the Women’s NIT. How long is he going to tolerate the men’s product, particular if ticket sales begin to suffer (and they are)?

The team looks good for spurts, and looks terrible for spurts. I hope that is merely the sign of their youth. They cannot play solid defense for 40 minutes, which is unusual for a BT team. It seems like at least one opposing player gets a career high against us every game. However, I am a glutton for punishment I guess. I watched last night, and I will continue to watch. I keep thinking that they are eventually going to turn the corner and beat a decent team (maybe it will be George Mason, ha!!).

So the short answer about Blaine is, I don’t know. He is definitely on the hot seat, if for no other reason, that many big donors want him gone.

To be fair, Imama and Hicks were actually solid recruits. Imama had injury problems and never saw the court and Taylor hated Hicks for whatever reason, but Hicks looked fine in limited minutes. Same with Pim and Key. They looked fine, but Taylor hated them and pushed them out eventually. Mitchell, DeLancey, Illiadis, Thompson, and Sam Harris certainly belonged on that list.

Yeah. I didn't include Mitchell as he was a transfer. The others were busts, but were members of pretty good classes. (Every coach is going to miss out on a recruit sometimes.) The problem with the two classes I mentioned is that no one in them was good.

I didn't see last nights game, but when I saw the score I wasn't surprised. I wouldn't have been surprised had I woke up this morn to find out he's been fired.

I thought Pim and Key were more academic reasons and not coach hating player reasons.

I don't think it's necessary that every player on the team to be overjoyed with the head coach. Most of Jim Calhoun and Bobby Knights players hated them for 99 percent of the season. It's the coaches job to set a standard and push them and the players job to reach those goals. I question how close to the situation any of us are to really know the truth.

(12-19-2012 09:18 AM)ODUR8R Wrote:  I don't think it's necessary that every player on the team to be overjoyed with the head coach. Most of Jim Calhoun and Bobby Knights players hated them for 99 percent of the season. It's the coaches job to set a standard and push them and the players job to reach those goals. I question how close to the situation any of us are to really know the truth.

The people that really know the truth have always laughed at some of the comments made on these message boards.

Unfortunately, the perception does not always match reality. It's the program's job to try to keep these two as close as possible, but not all information can be made public. And that is where things get screwed up. In times like these (losing), it gets worse.

(12-19-2012 09:10 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  I thought Pim and Key were more academic reasons and not coach hating player reasons.

Both Pim and Key left academically eligible. Not sure if they met the extra "Blaine Taylor Special Standards", but they are/were eligible to play.

Pim and Key were roomates. Key was by far our best point guard last year, yet he rotted on the bench all season until the CIT. I believe there may have been some attitude issues with Pim. He probably didn't deserve much more time than he got last year, but we could certainly have used him this year and next year.

Something obviously went on there on the discipline side. As I said, they were academically eligible and they certainly weren't chased out for game play.

(12-19-2012 09:42 AM)The Flagship Wrote:  

(12-19-2012 09:18 AM)ODUR8R Wrote:  I don't think it's necessary that every player on the team to be overjoyed with the head coach. Most of Jim Calhoun and Bobby Knights players hated them for 99 percent of the season. It's the coaches job to set a standard and push them and the players job to reach those goals. I question how close to the situation any of us are to really know the truth.

The people that really know the truth have always laughed at some of the comments made on these message boards.

Unfortunately, the perception does not always match reality. It's the program's job to try to keep these two as close as possible, but not all information can be made public. And that is where things get screwed up. In times like these (losing), it gets worse.

If there is info we don't have that somehow exonerates all of this, and you do, you would be doing a service to Taylor by leaking it (even if you PM someone with the info so it doesn't come from you). By keeping mum, the war drums will only keep beating louder with each bad loss.

I can see why some are loyal to Blaine. He has led the Monarchs during some of the best years for the program. However, IMO, if any of us did our work so poorly that it brought our competitive and profitable firm into the red, we would be canned. Further, I believe he has brought the program as far as it's going to go under him. The next hire will have a good framework of young players to build upon and get us over the hump.

As for comparing him to past coaches, I think it's unfair to all of those guys as BT was the only one to have the Ted, a practice facility and a much-improved campus as a recruiting tool.

(12-19-2012 08:14 AM)thegame60377 Wrote:  

(12-18-2012 11:45 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  A miserable season has Monarch fans asking for the head of Blaine Taylor. I personally think we should weather the storm. Others want a new start.

What is going on in the program to keep you so loyal? Serious question. Recruiting is in the tank. Play on the floor is horrible. Conduct off the court is questionable (grades and arrests). I see a man that has lost whatever edge he had. You don't?

What Mid-Major coach doesn't answer calls by prospective employers?
It's part of the game.

I would extend his contract to 2 years. There is no way we improve overnight with a new coach. I'd rather give the time to BT than to a total newcomer.

(12-19-2012 12:45 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  

(12-19-2012 08:14 AM)thegame60377 Wrote:  

(12-18-2012 11:45 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  A miserable season has Monarch fans asking for the head of Blaine Taylor. I personally think we should weather the storm. Others want a new start.

What is going on in the program to keep you so loyal? Serious question. Recruiting is in the tank. Play on the floor is horrible. Conduct off the court is questionable (grades and arrests). I see a man that has lost whatever edge he had. You don't?

What Mid-Major coach doesn't answer calls by prospective employers?
It's part of the game.

I would extend his contract to 2 years. There is no way we improve overnight with a new coach. I'd rather give the time to BT than to a total newcomer.

Why would you extend his contract? It's already good through 2015.

LINK

(12-19-2012 10:43 AM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  As for comparing him to past coaches, I think it's unfair to all of those guys as BT was the only one to have the Ted, a practice facility and a much-improved campus as a recruiting tool.

I would have given Capel one last shot in the Ted. Capels teams were notorious for first half leads then tanking in the 2nd half. It's kind of erie that BT's teams have performed the same way.. Finishing strong has been an issue for both.

(12-19-2012 12:50 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(12-19-2012 12:45 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  

(12-19-2012 08:14 AM)thegame60377 Wrote:  

(12-18-2012 11:45 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  A miserable season has Monarch fans asking for the head of Blaine Taylor. I personally think we should weather the storm. Others want a new start.

What is going on in the program to keep you so loyal? Serious question. Recruiting is in the tank. Play on the floor is horrible. Conduct off the court is questionable (grades and arrests). I see a man that has lost whatever edge he had. You don't?

What Mid-Major coach doesn't answer calls by prospective employers?
It's part of the game.

I would extend his contract to 2 years. There is no way we improve overnight with a new coach. I'd rather give the time to BT than to a total newcomer.

Why would you extend his contract? It's already good through 2015.

LINK

I meant give him 2 years to right the ship.