Seattle U

Would we be where Seattle U is right now - trying to move up to D1 and struggling to join a conference??

I'd like to say yes. Just to make me feel better. (but 2 national championship B-Ball banners would be pretty sweet hanging in Chiles....)

Can we chalk this up with failing to hire Adelman back in the 80s as one of the greatest mistakes in our basketball program's disturbingly long history of them?

Rob's Jacket wrote:Can we chalk this up with failing to hire Adelman back in the 80s as one of the greatest mistakes in our basketball program's disturbingly long history of them?

What what WHAT? Didn't know this one either. Looks like we may have hired the wrong former Blazer. And it seems all the Blazers fired him for was winning two conference championships and losing to the Bad Boys and Jordan's Bulls in our Finals appearances.

The rumor I've always heard is that Adelman was our first choice to replace Jack Avina, but that we wouldn't pay him as much money as he was making as an assistant with the Blazers. Since we wouldn't up the offer, Adelman turned down the job, and we got Larry Steele.

And we all know how that turned out . . .

Ah the folly of being blinded by the Blazer mystique ! Larry Steele was totally unqualified for the job. He had no prior coaching experience. I believe that the schools administration was deceived into thinking that the pr alone would help to bring greater attention to the program. Then, after his disastrous first 3 years he was given a contract extension. That was pure folly!

Agreed! Coach Avina had some very good years, but the Chiles Center was not getting filled up like the administration desired. Combine that with the fact that to get good teams, Jack had to take some chances on a few players, and they may have burned him with off-court antics (I only heard rumors; I'm not in a position to know all the facts.) So the administration decided to try to fill the Chiles Center by getting a big-name Blazer for coach and hoping for the best. The downward spiral ensued that we are still struggling to escape today.

I don't know how Greg Anthony's transfer to UNLV played into all this; would he have stayed if Coach Avina had been retained, or did he decide first? (And was he asking for "extra" benefits that Tark would offer that we wouldn't?) I just know he was about the best player I ever saw in a Pilot uniform for that one year.

Adelman was up for the UP job a least 3 times, and we didn't seriously consider him any of those. I think it was a good move. He would have stayed until he got the first big time offer in the pros or college.

UP would have just ben a place to hang his hat for a while.

I don't know, Geez . . . I think I'd have rather had Adelman's hat hung on us for a couple of years as opposed to the "stability" brought to us by Steele.

I tend to agree with RJ. Yes, Adelman probably would have moved on... but he certainly would have left the program in much better shape than Steele did. He could have been a spark to the program to get it/keep it rolling...

While a clean, honest program is the most important, you have to think that just about ANY coach other than Steele would have been an improvement...

At our last SAAC meeting, Larry Williams told us that Seattle University is not going to be in the WCC...yet. The program, although it has reached D-1 status, is still in a major budgetary deficit (something like 20 million dollars) compared to the rest of the WCC schools. The WCC wants SU to continue to build its programs up before they allow them into the conference.

PS you all know that Adelman applied for the job two years ago and wasn't chosen...(he is my old roomie's dad!)...and was devastated. I totally agree that he could have turned our basketball program around.

The problem with Adelman was that no one believed he would stay around long enough to rebuild the program. The feeling was that he would bolt at the first Pro offer, which was certain to come.

PilotRunner wrote:PS you all know that Adelman applied for the job two years ago and wasn't chosen...(he is my old roomie's dad!)...and was devastated. I totally agree that he could have turned our basketball program around.

I've been hearing a lot about the talk of Seattle U. potentially rejoining the WCC, and one of the possible concerns was weakening the strength of the conference rating and possibly the number of teams that could potentially go to the NCAA tourney. Has anyone else heard about that objection? Other than that it would be a great idea...