Where do we go from here?

dholcombe wrote:I walked approximately that route to the MAX every class day.

And you didn't trip on the trolley tracks that go directly to the PSU campus?

dholcombe wrote:
And who stops to get kitchen appliances during a beer run

Nobody, but if you are on an appliance run, you might as well get a case of beer while you're out!

blacksheep wrote:

Nobody, but if you are on an appliance run, you might as well get a case of beer while you're are out!

It looks like you've have already started your case this morning

Had a quick chat with Dorian recently when he was in town from his home in Las Vegas.  He's slimmed down and looking good, and from what he told me, enjoying life

The last time we had a lengthy conversation was just over a year ago when he decided school was just not for him.  He got good grades in high school, but his undetected dyslexia made it very difficult for him when he got to UP.  He could still pass his classes, but he was overwhelmed by the academic rigor and eventually just starting missing most of his classes.

He was hoping for a new start after UP, but after sitting out the entire season at College of Southern Idaho after blowing out his knee in the first game, he stopped working-out which allowed him to get too big....probably close to 275 when he eventually left PSU.

Still a wonderful guy to talk to, IMO, he's keeps in touch with his friends from the old days, Kevin Bailey, Kory Thieleke, and Derrick Rogers.

Geezaldinho wrote:

dholcombe wrote:I walked approximately that route to the MAX every class day.

And you didn't trip on the trolley tracks that go directly to the PSU campus?

I always managed to safely walk across the tracks without tripping

Begin rant.

Walking is faster than that waste of $ streetcar that they call public transportation. It's only faster if there is one there at the very moment you start walking..and even then it's sometimes slower. I have walked all the way from Morrison to deep NW where the street car turns around along the path so I could hop on at a stop if one showed up and never seen a single street car multiple times. I think I've ridden the street car 2x despite having spent multiple years walking along its path. I have a hard time figuring out who uses it. People in motorized wheel chairs so they don't run the battery down? People in human propelled wheel chairs are just as fast or faster than me on foot. People with crutches? Tourists?

IMO if you're going to spend a bunch of money on public transport go all in and spend the extra money to elevate it (like the L in Chicago or BART at the Oakland Colisseum) or dig a hole and put it underground (like the Subway in NY or BART in downtown SF).

End rant.

dholcombe wrote: I have a hard time figuring out who uses it.

I thought this thread was about getting a case of beer across town...

dholcombe wrote:And who stops to get kitchen appliances during a beer run (I honestly don't recall what aisle it was, but it was an aisle you don't use every day)?

I distinctly remember once going to pick up a blender to use for our Margarita Monday! Not sure if beer was involved, but it probably was. And it was probably Old Milwaukee's Best Light. Barf.

Geezaldinho wrote:

dholcombe wrote: I have a hard time figuring out who uses it.

I thought this thread was about getting a case of beer across town...

In a stomach.

I think this thread has come to it's natural answer at last.

Where do we go from here? The pub!

Dean Murdoch wrote:Also he said there were TWO Australians committed for 2017, one ranked No. 2 in Australia (that would be Makuach Maluach) and the other ranked "top 20" - an educated guess could be the second commit was/is Grant Anticevich, also a Newington College guy. 6-6, 180 lb. forward ranked #19 by AUSA Hoops.

Yup, as most will remember, players from Newington visited UP a couple of years ago when they were in the Northwest for games against high school teams....

L-R Maluach and Anticevich.

IMO, if Chier returns to UP (and the odds are better than 50-50 that he will) then Maluach and Anticevich are morel likely to want to join their former teammate at UP.

DoubleDipper wrote:Rev did not get an assistant coach position at Stanford.

He has two or three irons in the fire, but at the moment it would appear USF has the inside track on his services.

No announcement from the Hilltop, but it looks like former North Carolina star, NBA player, and top aid to Kyle Smith at Columbia, Derrick Phelps, will join the USF staff.  

If it's true, he will join former Columbia coach Kevin Hovde on Smith's staff.....further lessoning Rev's chance of latching on at USF.....and giving the Don's a real recruiting presence on the east coast.

EDIT: Just received an email from a friend saying that Smith is expected to round out his staff USF with Todd Golden, an assistant at Auburn.  Many here will remember Golden for his stellar career at St. Mary's (2 NCAA Tournaments), graduating in 2007, and he was for one season a member of Smith's staff at Columbia.

So, Malcolm Porter was 2nd team all state, 1st team all Metro after having been the Metro co-player of the year last year. In the Northwest Shootout, he scored the tie breaking basket for the Oregon boys, according to the Oregonian, finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds, seemed as if he was important to the outcome, but is officially undecided in his choice of a school at which to continue his basketball career, even though I am certain that his father was in attendance.

Hmmn?

I'd be stunned if his father wasn't in attendance.

Eleven days ago I wrote this when some were speculating Rev might end up on the staff at USF:

 EDIT: Just received an email from a friend saying that Smith is expected to round out his staff USF with Todd Golden, an assistant at Auburn.  

Golden was officially announced as the Associate Head Coach at USF today....

There are still a number of assistant coach positions open around the US, and as it's without question that Rev wants to keep coaching, I'm confident he'll land something soon.

Last I heard he was looking at a school in the ACC and one in the Pac-12.  (If it's Georgia Tech in the ACC, they just got a hot young head coach in from Memphis with a full head of curly hair....Rev could show an excellent contrast in styles).

DoubleDipper wrote:There are still a number of assistant coach positions open around the US, and as it's without question that Rev wants to keep coaching, I'm confident he'll land something soon.

Last I heard he was looking at a school in the ACC and one in the Pac-12.  (If it's Georgia Tech in the ACC, they just got a hot young head coach in from Memphis with a full head of curly hair....Rev could show an excellent contrast in styles).

Yup, that's where Rev is headed, Georgia Tech....good for him.

Portland to Atlanta for both Rev and Athletic Performance Coach Brad Scott.....hope they like it there, it's a great city, but having spent almost his entire life on the West Coast, there's definitely going to be a period of adjustment for Rev and his family!!

Buckhead is a nice area to live......Go Rev!

I thought I’d resurrect this tread to save some time and effort. Work you way through it before you update.

And no fair deleting your posts from the last go-round. Let the world know how your posts have aged.

IMO, this thread has aged very well...what was true then is still true today as we (hopefully) head toward another coaching change, except that back in 2016 some of us rooted for Rev to stay despite his WCC record, but it's unlikely that will be the case with TP.

In 2016 there was actually very little support for hiring Porter except from a PR and money raising standpoint...and most agreed that if he were hired, he'd have to have very strong assistants.  

PilotNut wrote:I think we need to make sure we have a coach who has proven success at the D-I level.  While someone who has coached in the NBA certainly will know their X's and O's, being able to find, relate to, and successfully recruit high school players (or transfers) is quite a different skill set.   Assistant Coach hires would be particularly critical if someone like him is hired.

While Porter would likely fire up fresh fan interest locally, the high school athletes he would need to recruit now were not even born when he was a Blazer! (wow.   )  So, would his NBA career itself be that much of a draw for a recruit?

The saddest discovery from this thread is the number of active PN posters who have completely disappeared, including our administrator, during the Porter era due to a total lack of interest brought on by UP being woefully non-competitive in the WCC. There were some very knowledgeable writers back then, and hopefully many will return one day.

Phew, I was afraid I had been a supporter of hiring someone with NBA experience and would have to eat crow, but that is not the case.  On March 21, 2016 I wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:There may be some former NBA players and coaches who are very successful at the college level (I honestly don't know).....but as I am not a big fan of the NBA in general, I'm a tad skeptical about a "big name" former Blazer hire at UP, again.

Oh, and my way too early choice to be the next UP MBB head coach is Gonzaga's third assistant Brian Michaelson.

https://gozags.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/brian-michaelson/386

However, if TP were to declare it time to "retire," and a wholesale change of coaches is not deemed necessary, I would have no problem elevating Coaches Geving or Johnson to the top job, as together they have recruited 12 of the 13** scholarship players on the roster...and I don't have any problem at all with the quality of the players...

**Diabate is the lone holdover from Coach Cantu's recruiting...who BTW, is still being paid his coaching salary by UP until this coming June.

Geezaldinho wrote:I thought I’d resurrect this tread to save some time and effort. Work you way through it before you update.

And no fair deleting your posts from the last go-round. Let the world know how your posts have aged.

Not sure how everyone's posts have aged, but I do know that the level of interest in Pilot basketball has not done well. Most of the people in this thread hardly ever post anymore, myself included. Heck 7587 has even deleted his account.

My money was on keep Reveno and spend money on a high profile assistant or get Damon Stoudamire. I think either of those would have worked out well and looking at where those people ended up either choice looks better than the Porter hire. The Porter hire was one of my greatest disappointments as a pilot fan given his several prior nba coaching failures.

I don’t think there was much chance of Waldschmit  going for Damon after his three marijuana arrests and fine, and his explanation that they were “just kids”. The memory of the jail blazer era, fair or not, was still fairly fresh here . Marijuana possession was a crime when he played , not mainstream economy like now.

Well, kids was what was hoped a coach would be a role model for. I think that’s what tipped the scale to Terry.

I noticed I didn’t weigh in last time on whether it was a good hire, though I had opinions in private.

So this time I’ll say UP needs to step up to the plate and hire a head coach with a winning record.

Having watched the hires over the last 30 or so years, I think we have exhausted the assistant and former Trailblazer route. I would include  a D1 coach as part of that, but coach Meek is counterpoise.

That and the administration has to pony up for assistants to round out whatever recruiting or coaching gaps there are. The two coaches closest to success lost assistants who made a difference without having them replaced.

DoubleDipper wrote:Oh, and my way too early choice to be the next UP MBB head coach is Gonzaga's third assistant Brian Michaelson.

https://gozags.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/brian-michaelson/386

However, if TP were to declare it time to "retire," and a wholesale change of coaches is not deemed necessary, I would have no problem elevating Coaches Geving or Johnson to the top job, as together they have recruited 12 of the 13** scholarship players on the roster...and I don't have any problem at all with the quality of the players...

**Diabate is the lone holdover from Coach Cantu's recruiting...who BTW, is still being paid his coaching salary by UP until this coming June.

I was interested in giving one of the assistants a shot this year given the budget situation if we'd had to continue paying terry and not used him as head coach. I'm reluctant to try the same experiment next year when we'd likely have to sign a multi year deal with one of them. Giving is a good assistant, but I saw enough of him as a great coach at psu to be off the opinion he's better than Porter, but worse than Reveno and not what we're looking for of we want to move back to the middle of the WCC

DoubleDipper wrote:
However, if TP were to declare it time to "retire," and a wholesale change of coaches is not deemed necessary, I would have no problem elevating Coaches Geving or Johnson to the top job, as together they have recruited 12 of the 13** scholarship players on the roster...and I don't have any problem at all with the quality of the players...

DoubleDipper wrote:Despite Porter's NBA credentials, he is not a winner at the collegiate level, and until there is a change at the top, I doubt the Pilots will win any WCC games...I hope I am wrong.

New Year, Time for a New Head Coach

Dear Scott...

It's time to let Terry go. You know it.  Even his most ardent UP boosters know it.  He should have been let go at the end of last season.  With everything that has gone on this past year, pause made sense.  Now, it's time though.  Yes, you'll have to pay him for an empty chair,  but I'm sure the staff will be happy to pick up the slack.  Let Johnson or Geving take the reins for the rest of the season.  Fact is, they could do no worse than TP.  Let me say that again, they can do no worse; but I'm sure they'd be highly motivated to turn the ship around.  

What about the kids?  As a coach, TP just hasn't gotten it done at the collegiate level.  1-31 in league the last two years, 7-61 total (.103).  Overall, he's never won more than 11 games in a season, and it won't be any different this year.  Does he deserve to coach these boys?  The staff brought in some solid pieces and it is clear that their is potential.  TP has shown an inability to help them realize it, however.  With "new" leadership, two bits says they'd respond well.  They deserve the opportunity.  Fact is, they deserve better.

What about the fans? Please don't make us watch him muddle his way through another awful conference year.  Even with solid recruits, he's likely to "improve" on his losing record (will he end up below .100 in conference lifetime?).  Give us something to hope for, even if it is in transition.  You're going to let him go at the end of the season regardless.  This way, you can get a headstart on the search for a replacement.  I'm sure it would be easier to stay the course, but we fans deserve better.

Make the change Scott.  What's the downside?  It's time to let Terry go.

Sign it and send it!!

Knowing Scott, you will get a response, and if your idea of letting TP go sooner than later is already on Scott's mind, your letter will reinforce his thinking.

Now don't kill the messenger here, but I am skeptical UP will let TP go early because of the PR price the university will have to pay.

People of a certain age (an age old enough to still have plenty of property, money in the bank, and investments that are still paying handsomely) think of TP as a City of Portland hero and icon, and to fire him would cause a number of these people to turn their backs on UP...regardless of his record as a coach.  It was a number of these people who "encouraged" Scott to hire TP in the first place, and although they now know it was the wrong hire, they still don't want TP to be embarrassed by being fired/let go early.

I am of the opinion TP will "decide to retire" at the end of the season and return to his life as a Blazer Alum, something he loves and knows how to do well.

However, don't let my thoughts dampen your enthusiasm for sending Scott the letter...maybe it will get the ball rolling sooner than later.

Go for it!!

optimist wrote:What's the downside?  It's time to let Terry go.

This could have been done this past offseason at the same cost. There's no reason to do this now given that the team has basically performed at or mildly above the low expectations that were set for them.