Assistant Coach Opening in Men's Basketball

[DC_Rams]

IMHO the scouting failure and open admission for UMass without Mitchell was a fireable offense.

You had a 3rd year head coach, who has been at major college programs for over 2 decades, in charge of a legitimate D1 basketball program in a multi-bid conference, not prepare for (and admit to) the best player on the opposing team - who didn’t play Wednesday and was announced as out by his coach on Friday.

I don’t think that failure has been fully appreciated for the magnitude it was.

This isn’t high school where there isn’t coverage of another game and injuries aren’t really discussed.

That was potentially the most embarrassing moment for this program since Baron left. It’s astounding how unprofessional and amateur that entire process was.

If Bozeman can at least stop the clown show maybe we’ll have a chance at being better than 10th. Hopefully he’ll set things straight.

The drama Queen returns…

[Blue Man]

IMHO the scouting failure and open admission for UMass without Mitchell was a fireable offense.

You had a 3rd year head coach, who has been at major college programs for over 2 decades, in charge of a legitimate D1 basketball program in a multi-bid conference, not prepare for (and admit to) the best player on the opposing team - who didn’t play Wednesday and was announced as out by his coach on Friday.

I don’t think that failure has been fully appreciated for the magnitude it was.

This isn’t high school where there isn’t coverage of another game and injuries aren’t really discussed.

That was potentially the most embarrassing moment for this program since Baron left. It’s astounding how unprofessional and amateur that entire process was.

If Bozeman can at least stop the clown show maybe we’ll have a chance at being better than 10th. Hopefully he’ll set things straight.

The drama Queen returns…

Oh right my bad. Loads of quality coaches totally don’t pay attention to their team’s opponent before they play them. It’s totally common for all the fans to have a 3 day heads up that the best player on your conference rival isn’t playing but the coach doesn’t figure it out til after the game.

Total dramatics. Happens all the time. My bad!

[section(105)]

.......Bo is not the HC.......

[eli#10]

Mitchell must have been on the court for the pre game shoot around and in the lay up line just before the game......(being said in jest)

We should start an over / under for how many times Cox calls a time out right after the team makes a shot that could break the momentum from making the shot especially when we are making a comeback......

[Rhody15]

I personally just hope he doesn’t game plan for Tre Mitchell next year when we play UMASS...

Funny. i was just about to post this when I saw your message

Maybe I’m missing the joke, but Tre Mitchell left UMASS didn’t he?

Yes, but last year Cox and the staff game planned for Mitchell to play when it was announced on Twitter 24-36 hours prior he was out with an injury.

[Billyboy78]

Funny. i was just about to post this when I saw your message

Maybe I’m missing the joke, but Tre Mitchell left UMASS didn’t he?

Yes, but last year Cox and the staff game planned for Mitchell to play when it was announced on Twitter 24-36 hours prior he was out with an injury.

DC Rams: Honest mistake

[RhodyKyle]

IMHO the scouting failure and open admission for UMass without Mitchell was a fireable offense.

You had a 3rd year head coach, who has been at major college programs for over 2 decades, in charge of a legitimate D1 basketball program in a multi-bid conference, not prepare for (and admit to) the best player on the opposing team - who didn’t play Wednesday and was announced as out by his coach on Friday.

I don’t think that failure has been fully appreciated for the magnitude it was.

This isn’t high school where there isn’t coverage of another game and injuries aren’t really discussed.

That was potentially the most embarrassing moment for this program since Baron left. It’s astounding how unprofessional and amateur that entire process was.

If Bozeman can at least stop the clown show maybe we’ll have a chance at being better than 10th. Hopefully he’ll set things straight.

The drama Queen returns…

Oh right my bad. Loads of quality coaches totally don’t pay attention to their team’s opponent before they play them. It’s totally common for all the fans to have a 3 day heads up that the best player on your conference rival isn’t playing but the coach doesn’t figure it out til after the game.

Total dramatics. Happens all the time. My bad!

Blue Man does often use a ton of hyperbole when he posts (especially in-game threads) but he is 100% right on this one. The only reason I didn't collapse to the floor in embarrassment when Cox made that admission was because I was too in shock that he actually admitted that to feel anything else.

[rambone 78]

I wonder how much of the decision to hire TB was Cox's, and how much was Thorr's.

You might assume it was a HC decision, but with Cox, this could be a Hail Mary call.

It will be interesting to see how much influence Todd will have, when it comes to in game management especially.

If the usage of time outs stays like it was, then we can say that not much has changed lol.

Blue Man, I wouldn't worry about what DC Rams says...when Cox is gone, he'll be gone.

[rhodylaw]

The drama Queen returns…

Oh right my bad. Loads of quality coaches totally don’t pay attention to their team’s opponent before they play them. It’s totally common for all the fans to have a 3 day heads up that the best player on your conference rival isn’t playing but the coach doesn’t figure it out til after the game.

Total dramatics. Happens all the time. My bad!

Blue Man does often use a ton of hyperbole when he posts (especially in-game threads) but he is 100% right on this one. The only reason I didn't collapse to the floor in embarrassment when Cox made that admission was because I was too in shock that he actually admitted that to feel anything else.

Of the things that happened last year, this one event actually does not raise that big of a flag for me. Twitter reports on injuries cannot be relied on. Imagine if we didn't game-plan for the best player in the conference and then day of game he gets cleared to play. This board would go insane. I think you have to be ready for the best player to be there coming into the game. When he isn't there at tip-off you need to adjust your game plan. THAT is the bigger problem for me. I didn't see enough adjustments in-game in any game last year.

A good assistant can be extremely helpful in that regard. Cox was an excellent assistant coach who I think made Hurley a better in-game coach while he was here. Hopefully, Bozeman brings that to this team.

[steveystuds06]

Oh right my bad. Loads of quality coaches totally don’t pay attention to their team’s opponent before they play them. It’s totally common for all the fans to have a 3 day heads up that the best player on your conference rival isn’t playing but the coach doesn’t figure it out til after the game.

Total dramatics. Happens all the time. My bad!

Blue Man does often use a ton of hyperbole when he posts (especially in-game threads) but he is 100% right on this one. The only reason I didn't collapse to the floor in embarrassment when Cox made that admission was because I was too in shock that he actually admitted that to feel anything else.

Of the things that happened last year, this one event actually does not raise that big of a flag for me. Twitter reports on injuries cannot be relied on. Imagine if we didn't game-plan for the best player in the conference and then day of game he gets cleared to play. This board would go insane. I think you have to be ready for the best player to be there coming into the game. When he isn't there at tip-off you need to adjust your game plan. THAT is the bigger problem for me. I didn't see enough adjustments in-game in any game last year.

A good assistant can be extremely helpful in that regard. Cox was an excellent assistant coach who I think made Hurley a better in-game coach while he was here. Hopefully, Bozeman brings that to this team.

Completely disagree...McCall said Mitchell was likely out after their game against Fordham. It was then official early Saturday morning. We didn't play them until 8 pm.

[Blue Man]

Oh right my bad. Loads of quality coaches totally don’t pay attention to their team’s opponent before they play them. It’s totally common for all the fans to have a 3 day heads up that the best player on your conference rival isn’t playing but the coach doesn’t figure it out til after the game.

Total dramatics. Happens all the time. My bad!

Blue Man does often use a ton of hyperbole when he posts (especially in-game threads) but he is 100% right on this one. The only reason I didn't collapse to the floor in embarrassment when Cox made that admission was because I was too in shock that he actually admitted that to feel anything else.

Of the things that happened last year, this one event actually does not raise that big of a flag for me. Twitter reports on injuries cannot be relied on. Imagine if we didn't game-plan for the best player in the conference and then day of game he gets cleared to play. This board would go insane. I think you have to be ready for the best player to be there coming into the game. When he isn't there at tip-off you need to adjust your game plan. THAT is the bigger problem for me. I didn't see enough adjustments in-game in any game last year.

A good assistant can be extremely helpful in that regard. Cox was an excellent assistant coach who I think made Hurley a better in-game coach while he was here. Hopefully, Bozeman brings that to this team.

No sale. It wasn't a twitter report. He didn't play the Wednesday game, in the post game presser McCall said Mitchell was doubtful to play Saturday against URI. He also had a pre-game press junket Friday where he confirmed Mitchell wouldn't dress.

Sure maybe you could prepare for the best player to potentially play - but to not even have a backup plan? It's not like you're a high school coach with a day job. Your whole job is preparing for games and getting your team ready to play. That was inexcusable.

I would agree with your overall assessment of gameplanning for the best player if it looked like scouting was a strong suit for this staff. There were plenty of excuses, admissions of "we didn't know what they were going to do" and just a general feeling of we're totally flying by the seat of our pants here for a majority of the year.

I agree with your assertion that the bigger issue was the lack of adjustments in game and at halftime.

To put a pretty little bow on it, to come out and ADMIT PUBLICLY in a press conference that you had no idea and you should've adjusted your game plan AFTER YOU LOSE to a conference rival without their two best players - that was the fireable offense to me.

In keeping this on topic - the hope that a more experienced coach can come in and get some of the basics back onto this bench that we severely lacked will be a welcome one. Bonus points for being an ex-Ram.

Forgot what arguing with DC Rams is like though - I poke fun at obvious issues on the team and he has to defend his guy because he takes it personally, so I'm a "drama queen" - it's been fun man. We'll miss you next year when you follow coach wherever his next stop is. We'll still be here rooting for and bitching about our program because we don't have anywhere else to go.

[section(105)]

......I gotta say, and ask, if DC made DH a better in-game bench coach......how what happened to that acumen when he moved a chair over?.......

[rambone 78]

If Cox has to rely on an assistant to try and become good enough to keep his job, he's in a world of hurt.

I think TB will help, but not enough to justify keeping Cox.

Cox has way too many issues to solve imo.

Again, just my opinion, like it or not....and I know a couple here who won't......

[bigappleram]

......I gotta say, and ask, if DC made DH a better in-game bench coach......how what happened to that acumen when he moved a chair over?.......

Any good assistant is going to make the staff and HC better don’t think Cox had any special sauce he added specifically, that is now missing. To overly credit Cox in what Dan accomplished here is foolish- Dan won bc he recruited P6 level talent to the A10, established a clear identity built on defensive intensity and created a culture of winning.

[rambone 78]

Bottom line is, TB will help Cox is some areas. I doubt in game coaching will improve much, however.

Do I think Bozeman will become HC whenever Cox is let go?

Way too early to tell on that one.

[PeteRI]

For starters I'd like to see Coach Cox not be so thin skinned the next time he gets a legitimate question about his in-game decisions by the Morey Hershgordons of the world.

[rambone 78]

For starters I'd like to see Coach Cox not be so thin skinned the next time he gets a legitimate question about his in-game decisions by the Morey Hershgordons of the world.

He gets defensive because he doesn't have any answers.....that's not good to put it mildly.

[CTRamfan]

I think Bozeman is a huge upgrade to the staff. The two young assistants will benefit from his presence. Cox might call on Todd's experience when needed. Cox had a really "light weight" group of assistants in my opinion.
c
I think that the program is poised for success. A good roster, thanks to Cox's recruiting.

Cox is 49-38 [.557] in his first three years as a head coach. Last year's SOS [4.93] was our hardest since 99-00. Considering the roster change and two key injuries, I could not have imagined us doing much better.

[SGreenwell]

I think Bozeman is a huge upgrade to the staff. The two young assistants will benefit from his presence. Cox might call on Todd's experience when needed. Cox had a really "light weight" group of assistants in my opinion.
c
I think that the program is poised for success. A good roster, thanks to Cox's recruiting.

Cox is 49-38 [.557] in his first three years as a head coach. Last year's SOS [4.93] was our hardest since 99-00. Considering the roster change and two key injuries, I could not have imagined us doing much better.

Oof. I mean, you can look at the stats and squint and go, "Hey, that's not bad!" But the problem is how the season unfurled. The team got worse as the season went on, and lost to bad teams and in conference play. We lost seven of our last eight. UMass beat us twice. And IIRC, we had a similarly disappointing end to the 2020 season.

[SmartyBarrett]

But the problem is how the season unfurled.

[Blue Man]

I think Bozeman is a huge upgrade to the staff. The two young assistants will benefit from his presence. Cox might call on Todd's experience when needed. Cox had a really "light weight" group of assistants in my opinion.
c
I think that the program is poised for success. A good roster, thanks to Cox's recruiting.

Cox is 49-38 [.557] in his first three years as a head coach. Last year's SOS [4.93] was our hardest since 99-00. Considering the roster change and two key injuries, I could not have imagined us doing much better.

Oof. I mean, you can look at the stats and squint and go, "Hey, that's not bad!" But the problem is how the season unfurled. The team got worse as the season went on, and lost to bad teams and in conference play. We lost seven of our last eight. UMass beat us twice. And IIRC, we had a similarly disappointing end to the 2020 season.

We're starting to see the Baron-apologist side of the fan base come back. Just like no one cared about 20 win seasons against cupcakes, no one cares about a tough SOS if you don't actually beat any of the good teams you play.

Like Smarty says, there's a very troubling theme developing of the 3 teams under Cox getting worse as the season progresses. Similar to Baron.

Any one can manipulate statistics, but you need the context and actual data to make an educated conclusion to any experiment.

We had the best point guard, potentially in program history, certainly in the last 20 years, come and lead his team to 2 NCAA tournaments. Cox came in and moved him off the ball. Though we weren't maximizing his talents or production, having Jeff Dowtin on the court covered up a lot of this teams issues. Now without him, it was apparent how lost we are on offense.

Once he left this team was 10th in the conference with a losing record. Now there will be zero Hurley players left, no players who have been to an NCAA tournament, and we get a culture reset.

Bozeman will bring some sort of winning experience as a head coach. Let's just hope that rubs off on the rest of the staff and team, or we're in for a long season, coaching search, and rebuild.

[Jersey77]

I think Bozeman is a huge upgrade to the staff. The two young assistants will benefit from his presence. Cox might call on Todd's experience when needed. Cox had a really "light weight" group of assistants in my opinion.
c
I think that the program is poised for success. A good roster, thanks to Cox's recruiting.

Cox is 49-38 [.557] in his first three years as a head coach. Last year's SOS [4.93] was our hardest since 99-00. Considering the roster change and two key injuries, I could not have imagined us doing much better.

Oof. I mean, you can look at the stats and squint and go, "Hey, that's not bad!" But the problem is how the season unfurled. The team got worse as the season went on, and lost to bad teams and in conference play. We lost seven of our last eight. UMass beat us twice. And IIRC, we had a similarly disappointing end to the 2020 season.

We're starting to see the Baron-apologist side of the fan base come back. Just like no one cared about 20 win seasons against cupcakes, no one cares about a tough SOS if you don't actually beat any of the good teams you play.

Like Smarty says, there's a very troubling theme developing of the 3 teams under Cox getting worse as the season progresses. Similar to Baron.

Any one can manipulate statistics, but you need the context and actual data to make an educated conclusion to any experiment.

We had the best point guard, potentially in program history, certainly in the last 20 years, come and lead his team to 2 NCAA tournaments. Cox came in and moved him off the ball. Though we weren't maximizing his talents or production, having Jeff Dowtin on the court covered up a lot of this teams issues. Now without him, it was apparent how lost we are on offense.

Once he left this team was 10th in the conference with a losing record. Now there will be zero Hurley players left, no players who have been to an NCAA tournament, and we get a culture reset.

Bozeman will bring some sort of winning experience as a head coach. Let's just hope that rubs off on the rest of the staff and team, or we're in for a long season, coaching search, and rebuild.

Blue Man, what do you think the expectations are for 21-22 in order for Cox to get an extension?

[steviep123]

I think Bozeman is a huge upgrade to the staff. The two young assistants will benefit from his presence. Cox might call on Todd's experience when needed. Cox had a really "light weight" group of assistants in my opinion.
c
I think that the program is poised for success. A good roster, thanks to Cox's recruiting.

Cox is 49-38 [.557] in his first three years as a head coach. Last year's SOS [4.93] was our hardest since 99-00. Considering the roster change and two key injuries, I could not have imagined us doing much better.

Oof. I mean, you can look at the stats and squint and go, "Hey, that's not bad!" But the problem is how the season unfurled. The team got worse as the season went on, and lost to bad teams and in conference play. We lost seven of our last eight. UMass beat us twice. And IIRC, we had a similarly disappointing end to the 2020 season.

We're starting to see the Baron-apologist side of the fan base come back. Just like no one cared about 20 win seasons against cupcakes, no one cares about a tough SOS if you don't actually beat any of the good teams you play.

Like Smarty says, there's a very troubling theme developing of the 3 teams under Cox getting worse as the season progresses. Similar to Baron.

Any one can manipulate statistics, but you need the context and actual data to make an educated conclusion to any experiment.

We had the best point guard, potentially in program history, certainly in the last 20 years, come and lead his team to 2 NCAA tournaments. Cox came in and moved him off the ball. Though we weren't maximizing his talents or production, having Jeff Dowtin on the court covered up a lot of this teams issues. Now without him, it was apparent how lost we are on offense.

Once he left this team was 10th in the conference with a losing record. Now there will be zero Hurley players left, no players who have been to an NCAA tournament, and we get a culture reset.

Bozeman will bring some sort of winning experience as a head coach. Let's just hope that rubs off on the rest of the staff and team, or we're in for a long season, coaching search, and rebuild.

100% agree - and I'll add, this is the first season of (with the exception of Jermaine Harris) David Cox recruits for David Cox as a head coach. The 3 prior seasons had various degrees of David Cox recruits that he recruited for Hurley which isn't the same. It was very disappointing that the prior 2 years showed the team getting worse as the season went on (I feel that season 1 had a midseason collapse followed by an end of year run that led into a first 2/3rds of the next season - since then, really disappointing). For me, next season is make or break.

[steviep123]

Oof. I mean, you can look at the stats and squint and go, "Hey, that's not bad!" But the problem is how the season unfurled. The team got worse as the season went on, and lost to bad teams and in conference play. We lost seven of our last eight. UMass beat us twice. And IIRC, we had a similarly disappointing end to the 2020 season.

We're starting to see the Baron-apologist side of the fan base come back. Just like no one cared about 20 win seasons against cupcakes, no one cares about a tough SOS if you don't actually beat any of the good teams you play.

Like Smarty says, there's a very troubling theme developing of the 3 teams under Cox getting worse as the season progresses. Similar to Baron.

Any one can manipulate statistics, but you need the context and actual data to make an educated conclusion to any experiment.

We had the best point guard, potentially in program history, certainly in the last 20 years, come and lead his team to 2 NCAA tournaments. Cox came in and moved him off the ball. Though we weren't maximizing his talents or production, having Jeff Dowtin on the court covered up a lot of this teams issues. Now without him, it was apparent how lost we are on offense.

Once he left this team was 10th in the conference with a losing record. Now there will be zero Hurley players left, no players who have been to an NCAA tournament, and we get a culture reset.

Bozeman will bring some sort of winning experience as a head coach. Let's just hope that rubs off on the rest of the staff and team, or we're in for a long season, coaching search, and rebuild.

Blue Man, what do you think the expectations are for 21-22 in order for Cox to get an extension?

I know you asked Blue Man, but for me it is NCAA or Bust. I was toying with, "would an NIT bid with a deep run be good enough" and I'm 99% no with that. I think the only thing that would change my mind is if they had a poor start, came on like gangbusters and were a bubble team, which *might* give a one year reprieve in my eyes, which would turn into NCAA or bust only the following season,

So let's call it NCAA or bust.

[STC]

This section of the board is called NCAA’s or Bust for a reason. Anything less is not deserving of an extension.

[STC]

A 20 win season and a tournament miss would mean one of two scenarios occurred:

1. URI racked up a bunch of wins against cupcakes, beat nobody, and had a razor thin resume come Selection Sunday.
2. URI folded for a 3rd consecutive season with Cox at the helm.

Either way, no extension is deserved.

Trying to envision a scenario in which URI wins 20 games, misses the tournament and Cox is deserving of an extension...

[Jersey77]

We're starting to see the Baron-apologist side of the fan base come back. Just like no one cared about 20 win seasons against cupcakes, no one cares about a tough SOS if you don't actually beat any of the good teams you play.

Like Smarty says, there's a very troubling theme developing of the 3 teams under Cox getting worse as the season progresses. Similar to Baron.

Any one can manipulate statistics, but you need the context and actual data to make an educated conclusion to any experiment.

We had the best point guard, potentially in program history, certainly in the last 20 years, come and lead his team to 2 NCAA tournaments. Cox came in and moved him off the ball. Though we weren't maximizing his talents or production, having Jeff Dowtin on the court covered up a lot of this teams issues. Now without him, it was apparent how lost we are on offense.

Once he left this team was 10th in the conference with a losing record. Now there will be zero Hurley players left, no players who have been to an NCAA tournament, and we get a culture reset.

Bozeman will bring some sort of winning experience as a head coach. Let's just hope that rubs off on the rest of the staff and team, or we're in for a long season, coaching search, and rebuild.

Blue Man, what do you think the expectations are for 21-22 in order for Cox to get an extension?

I know you asked Blue Man, but for me it is NCAA or Bust. I was toying with, "would an NIT bid with a deep run be good enough" and I'm 99% no with that. I think the only thing that would change my mind is if they had a poor start, came on like gangbusters and were a bubble team, which *might* give a one year reprieve in my eyes, which would turn into NCAA or bust only the following season,

So let's call it NCAA or bust.

We all would like to see an NCAAT for 21-22, but not sure that will be Thorr's requirement.
He will want a marked improvement over this past season's 10-15 and avoid the late season collapses. Then maybe a short term extension.
Not sure a bid will be in the cards for us this coming season, just looking at the top tier A-10 teams ahead of us: Bonnies, Richmond, VCU, Dayton, and SLU. I can see the A10 in 21-22 having at least 3 teams in, but doubtful 5 or more.
IMO.

[ramster]

I think Bozeman is a huge upgrade to the staff. The two young assistants will benefit from his presence. Cox might call on Todd's experience when needed. Cox had a really "light weight" group of assistants in my opinion.
c
I think that the program is poised for success. A good roster, thanks to Cox's recruiting.

Cox is 49-38 [.557] in his first three years as a head coach. Last year's SOS [4.93] was our hardest since 99-00. Considering the roster change and two key injuries, I could not have imagined us doing much better.

The group of assistant coaches were all hired by David Cox. If a "lightweight group" then that falls on David Cox, nobody else.

Bozeman should help, but it's a problem that Cox had to make this replacement. Dan Hurley had 3 Assistants promoted from his staff at URI: Bobby Hurley promoted to HC Buffalo,(then to HC Arizona State) Luke Murray promoted to AC Xavier (then to AC Louisville and then to AC UCONN) and David Cox promoted to HC URI. David Cox has had nobody promoted in 3 years and is now having to replace his #1 Assistant Coach. Both Head Coaches dealt with the same Assistant Coach salary pool level at the same school in the same A10 Conference - salary pool is a weak excuse that didn't hold Hurley back.



Cox Record:
2019: (9-9) 8th place (18-15) Underachieved with the talent he inherited from Dan Hurley

2020: (13-5) 3rd place (21-9)...After winning 10 straight games the wheels came off as URI lost 4 of their last 7 games giving up a sure at-large bid. After 10 straight wins:
Lost horribly at Dayton - not even in the Nationally televised game
Beat St Joseph's
Lost @ Davidson
Beat @ Fordham 76-75 with meticulous performance by Jacob Toppin in the last minute
Lost badly at home to Saint Louis 72-62
Lost Destroyed at home by Dayton 57-84
Beat @ UMASS 64-63

No way would this team have done any good in the A10 Tournament that was cancelled. No momentum at all.

2021: (7-10) 10th place (10-15). Terrible year. Best player shot 23.5% on 3Ps and 33.7% overall. Team had been picked as high as 3rd in A10 preseason local press and 6th by A10 Coaches.

What will get URI in the NCAA Tournament will be performance in the A10. It does't much matter what we do in OOC if we finish as poorly in the A10 as 8th and 10th place as in 2 of the past 3 years.

Cox Career A10: (28-24) .538 which is mediocre.

I'm not so confident that URI is poised for success. Part of recruiting is not just bringing players in, but keeping them. Losing Toppin to Kentucky as a Freshman and Tyrese Martin to UCONN as a Sophomore were devastating losses as both were projected starters. Losing Russell might be ok to some here but teams like Richmond, Saint Louis and St Bonaventure seem to be able to keep their players, even when they have Grad Years and also extra Covid eligibility years. Don't blame Russell for leaving but bottom line he still left.

Incoming recruits the level of EC Mathews, Hassan Martin, Kuran Iverson, Stanford Robinson, Jared Terrell and Cyril Langevine enabled Dan Hurley to move URI to the upper tier of the A10 with the likes of Dayton, VCU and Saint Louis. They came to URI highly regarded and Dan Hurley help develop them all into better players year after year. Hurley achieved 2 NCAA Tournaments and an A10 Championship.

That same level of talent and rate of development does not seem to be happening these last 3 years. Players are leaving, which was not happening under Hurley. Defensive effort and pressure has fallen well off from the level that the Hurley teams demonstrated. Defense performance is more aligned with Baron Teams than with Hurley Teams unfortunately.

Todd Bozeman is here to help with this year's team but he also represents a possible option to replace David Cox. Big 4th year of his 5 year contract. No extension was granted. It's a business.

[Rhody15]

A 20 win season and a tournament miss would mean one of two scenarios occurred:

1. URI racked up a bunch of wins against cupcakes, beat nobody, and had a razor thin resume come Selection Sunday.
2. URI folded for a 3rd consecutive season with Cox at the helm.

Either way, no extension is deserved.

Trying to envision a scenario in which URI wins 20 games, misses the tournament and Cox is deserving of an extension...

I can easily see us winning 20 games with the soft OOC schedule Cox will make to pad the win column and make his case look good for an extension.

[section(105)]

......is 20+ wins, an NIT invite enough to show improvements to earn an extension.......?

[ramster]

......is 20+ wins, an NIT invite enough to show improvements to earn an extension.......?

No.

20 wins would be double this past year's 10 wins. We lost our best, most spectacular player to Maryland. 20+ wins???

[rambone 78]

I don't see 20 wins with this group, or coach.

Whatever happens early next season, with the likely cupcake schedule, won't matter if we flop late again.

I'm sure Cox knows this is a make or break season.

I don't see a leopard changing it's spots however. With so many players leaving after next season, it will be a good time to make a change, and let the new coach build a roster.

Another year of mediocrity will only delay the inevitable.

[Blue Man]

Oof. I mean, you can look at the stats and squint and go, "Hey, that's not bad!" But the problem is how the season unfurled. The team got worse as the season went on, and lost to bad teams and in conference play. We lost seven of our last eight. UMass beat us twice. And IIRC, we had a similarly disappointing end to the 2020 season.

We're starting to see the Baron-apologist side of the fan base come back. Just like no one cared about 20 win seasons against cupcakes, no one cares about a tough SOS if you don't actually beat any of the good teams you play.

Like Smarty says, there's a very troubling theme developing of the 3 teams under Cox getting worse as the season progresses. Similar to Baron.

Any one can manipulate statistics, but you need the context and actual data to make an educated conclusion to any experiment.

We had the best point guard, potentially in program history, certainly in the last 20 years, come and lead his team to 2 NCAA tournaments. Cox came in and moved him off the ball. Though we weren't maximizing his talents or production, having Jeff Dowtin on the court covered up a lot of this teams issues. Now without him, it was apparent how lost we are on offense.

Once he left this team was 10th in the conference with a losing record. Now there will be zero Hurley players left, no players who have been to an NCAA tournament, and we get a culture reset.

Bozeman will bring some sort of winning experience as a head coach. Let's just hope that rubs off on the rest of the staff and team, or we're in for a long season, coaching search, and rebuild.

Blue Man, what do you think the expectations are for 21-22 in order for Cox to get an extension?

NCAA tournament minimum - at large or A10T win.

Have a team that looks like it can play cohesive basketball.

Right now I would say it's been embarrassing to watch the product we've put on the court.

The only saving grace for Cox I believe, is that he sold his soul to keep Fatts here. Fatts did whatever he wanted, and it cost the team.

For all we know, the team without Fatts may actually function as a unit and win some games. If that's the case than maybe we'll have a chance.

Either way I do believe this will be Cox's last season if we do not make the tournament.

[RhowdyRam02]

IMHO the scouting failure and open admission for UMass without Mitchell was a fireable offense.

You had a 3rd year head coach, who has been at major college programs for over 2 decades, in charge of a legitimate D1 basketball program in a multi-bid conference, not prepare for (and admit to) the best player on the opposing team - who didn’t play Wednesday and was announced as out by his coach on Friday.

I don’t think that failure has been fully appreciated for the magnitude it was.

This isn’t high school where there isn’t coverage of another game and injuries aren’t really discussed.

That was potentially the most embarrassing moment for this program since Baron left. It’s astounding how unprofessional and amateur that entire process was.

If Bozeman can at least stop the clown show maybe we’ll have a chance at being better than 10th. Hopefully he’ll set things straight.

The drama Queen returns…

Says the person that threatens to run away more than a middle school student yet never actually leaves the board

[RhowdyRam02]

Oh right my bad. Loads of quality coaches totally don’t pay attention to their team’s opponent before they play them. It’s totally common for all the fans to have a 3 day heads up that the best player on your conference rival isn’t playing but the coach doesn’t figure it out til after the game.

Total dramatics. Happens all the time. My bad!

Blue Man does often use a ton of hyperbole when he posts (especially in-game threads) but he is 100% right on this one. The only reason I didn't collapse to the floor in embarrassment when Cox made that admission was because I was too in shock that he actually admitted that to feel anything else.

Of the things that happened last year, this one event actually does not raise that big of a flag for me. Twitter reports on injuries cannot be relied on. Imagine if we didn't game-plan for the best player in the conference and then day of game he gets cleared to play. This board would go insane. I think you have to be ready for the best player to be there coming into the game. When he isn't there at tip-off you need to adjust your game plan. THAT is the bigger problem for me. I didn't see enough adjustments in-game in any game last year.

A good assistant can be extremely helpful in that regard. Cox was an excellent assistant coach who I think made Hurley a better in-game coach while he was here. Hopefully, Bozeman brings that to this team.

One thing with this is we already had played them three and a half weeks earlier with Mitchell and we had information from last year as well. There really wasn't a need to game plan for what they'd do with Mitchell, we knew what that would look like. Planning for what they would do without Mitchell would have been far more productive if his status is up in the air. You know what they're doing with him, you don't know what they're doing without him, so plan for without knowing you have the previous plan in your back pocket if you need to change on the fly.

I will agree there weren't near enough in game adjustments

[ElmCityRhody]

CUT BAIT !

[RhowdyRam02]

Oof. I mean, you can look at the stats and squint and go, "Hey, that's not bad!" But the problem is how the season unfurled. The team got worse as the season went on, and lost to bad teams and in conference play. We lost seven of our last eight. UMass beat us twice. And IIRC, we had a similarly disappointing end to the 2020 season.

We're starting to see the Baron-apologist side of the fan base come back. Just like no one cared about 20 win seasons against cupcakes, no one cares about a tough SOS if you don't actually beat any of the good teams you play.

Like Smarty says, there's a very troubling theme developing of the 3 teams under Cox getting worse as the season progresses. Similar to Baron.

Any one can manipulate statistics, but you need the context and actual data to make an educated conclusion to any experiment.

We had the best point guard, potentially in program history, certainly in the last 20 years, come and lead his team to 2 NCAA tournaments. Cox came in and moved him off the ball. Though we weren't maximizing his talents or production, having Jeff Dowtin on the court covered up a lot of this teams issues. Now without him, it was apparent how lost we are on offense.

Once he left this team was 10th in the conference with a losing record. Now there will be zero Hurley players left, no players who have been to an NCAA tournament, and we get a culture reset.

Bozeman will bring some sort of winning experience as a head coach. Let's just hope that rubs off on the rest of the staff and team, or we're in for a long season, coaching search, and rebuild.

Blue Man, what do you think the expectations are for 21-22 in order for Cox to get an extension?

They should be no less than an NCAA appearance. For him to take over what he took over and not have the team in or in position to go to the tournament in four seasons is fireable. No idea what they are

[rhodylaw]

If they do not make they tourney, we need a top 4 A10 regular season finish OR a top 50 NET to talk extension. That is bubble area. Making the NIT with a 6th place A10 and 70 RPI finish is not good enough for me in year 4 .

[reef]

No extension unless we make the big dance !!!

[Bos8]

Sutton lands at FGCU
https://hoopdirt.com/daily-dirt-5-24-21/

[Rhody72]

No extension unless we make the big dance !!!

And he is gone if we make the big dance. There are plenty of programs who want a coach who can recruit tourney quality talent and are willing to pay much more than URI. Then it will start allover again for URI basketball. When you leave a coach hanging you can forget about recruiting top talent here this year and forget about keeping him if you have a great year.

[ramster]

No extension unless we make the big dance !!!

And he is gone if we make the big dance. There are plenty of programs who want a coach who can recruit tourney quality talent and are willing to pay much more than URI. Then it will start allover again for URI basketball. When you leave a coach hanging you can forget about recruiting top talent here this year and forget about keeping him if you have a great year.

And why, 72, was the Head Coach left hanging with no extension?


and then there is this........extended 2 years after only her 2nd year at URI

RESULTS


KINGSTON, R.I. – March 9, 2021 – Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Coach of the Year Tammi Reiss has agreed to a two-year contract extension that will keep her at Rhode Island through the 2025-26 season, Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn announced Tuesday.

"When we hired Tammi, the goal was to set a new standard of excellence for women's basketball at the University of Rhode Island," Bjorn said. "She has revitalized the program and brought in student-athletes who are excelling in all areas on and off the court. Tammi has met and exceeded all expectations, and it is exciting to think that she and her staff are still early in their process."

The contract extension for Reiss was announced shortly after she was named the A-10 Coach of the Year. This season, Reiss led the Rams to an 11-7 record overall, and an 11-4 mark in conference play. It was the second-most league wins in program history, behind only the 13-3 mark of the 1995-96 team. Reiss also joined Linda Ziemke (1995-96) as the only URI women's basketball coaches to be named A-10 Coach of the Year.

"I would like to thank President David Dooley, his wife, Lynn, and our Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn for their belief in myself, my staff and our program," Reiss said. "I am so excited for the future of Rhody women's basketball. I would be remiss if I didn't thank the players who chose to play for us at URI and bought into our culture and vision so quickly. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to my assistant coaches and support staff. This would not be possible without their hard work, passion and dedication to their jobs and our program. So, 'Thank You' to each and every one of you! I have never been more excited to say, "Go Rhody!"

In two seasons since taking over the program, Reiss is 24-23 overall and 17-14 in conference play. In the 10 seasons before her arrival, Rhode Island was 24-126 in league play. She has turned the Ryan Center into a true home court advantage, with Rhody going 17-6 at home over the last two seasons.

In addition to Reiss being named the league's coach of the year, redshirt junior Emmanuelle Tahane was named Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year. She also earned First-Team All-Conference and Academic All-Conference honors. Redshirt sophomore Marie-Paule Foppossi was named to the A-10 Second Team All-Conference, while freshman Catherine Cairns landed on the league's All-Rookie Team.

Off the court, seven of the 11 players with available grade-point averages on the roster have a 3.0 or higher, and three more have a 2.87 or better.

Reiss' team will be the No. 4 seed at the Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Championship, which begins play on Wednesday. The Rams earned a double bye and will play against a yet-to-be-determined opponent Friday at 2:30 p.m.
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[STC]

If Cox makes the tournament in a contract year and then decides to take his talents to a P5 I can live with that outcome. First off, I'm okay with making that contractual bet like Thorr did to setup this scenario. Secondly, if Cox makes the tournament and takes his talents elsewhere isn't that a sign that URI is continuing to become that attractive mid major job where coaches can achieve success and parlay it into a P5 gig?

Obviously, if URI makes a tournament run this year my preference would be to keep Cox longterm, but by not extending him Thorr has hardly created a doomsday scenario.

[rjsuperfly66]

Obviously, if URI makes a tournament run this year my preference would be to keep Cox longterm, but by not extending him Thorr has hardly created a doomsday scenario.

Thorr has arguably played this the best he can... There are obviously people who thought after 3 years they have seen enough, but it's rare for a coach to get canned after 3 seasons without large institutional failures. He's in the perfect spot after next season to make the difficult decision ... a shorter-term extension to help with recruiting without sacrificing a larger commitment, a longer-term extension if things feel more like he is the guy moving forward, or a termination.

[Rhody72]

...
And why, 72, was the Head Coach left hanging with no extension?


and then there is this........extended 2 years after only her 2nd year at URI
...

The answers are $$$.

[section(105)]

........Tammi has the program in right upward direction.......DC has at best got the program in level, meh direction .......at worst falling direction........

[STC]

Obviously, if URI makes a tournament run this year my preference would be to keep Cox longterm, but by not extending him Thorr has hardly created a doomsday scenario.

Thorr has arguably played this the best he can... There are obviously people who thought after 3 years they have seen enough, but it's rare for a coach to get canned after 3 seasons without large institutional failures. He's in the perfect spot after next season to make the difficult decision ... a shorter-term extension to help with recruiting without sacrificing a larger commitment, a longer-term extension if things feel more like he is the guy moving forward, or a termination.

I have zero issue with how Thorr has played the situation thus far. Thorr has handled this exactly how I would hope my AD would handle it.

[4Diffs]

Sutton lands at FGCU
https://hoopdirt.com/daily-dirt-5-24-21/

So much for those who thought he might land at a P5 or equivalent. I said he was not as highly regarded as some thought he was, and I think this proves that point.

At least it is a nice part of Florida, Fort Myers is very nice.

Wish him luck there.

[NYGFan_Section208]

So...DC is gonna be at Dunkin Donuts in NK for Dunkin Iced Coffee Day, with Tammi Reiss. How many people pull up to the window, camera ready...DC says "How can I help you?" and the customer says, "I, uh, was kinda hoping to see Tammi...?"

[ramster]

...
And why, 72, was the Head Coach left hanging with no extension?


and then there is this........extended 2 years after only her 2nd year at URI
...

The answers are $$$.

The answers are performance.