Ed DeChellis Has Earned More Time To Build Penn State Basketball

Frazier is about to become an exceptional point guard. He’s athletic, a great distributor and will be a great scorer if he takes the next step.

Ed’s recruiting has been decent these past few years, and this year he’s bringing in at least 4 guys (could be 5-6, including a JUCO or late qualifier), 3 of which are clearly legitimate prospects, one of whom basically plays the Talor Battle position and is the co-player of the year in Ohio.

They may suck early next year, but if Ed’s doing the job that we hope he’s doing, he needs to show growth by the end of next year that makes this team an tournament contender in 2013.

For summarizing my thoughts.

that does the afternoons on ESPN here in Hampton Roads has been droning on for weeks about the money that the three CAA schools bring to the conference for every NCAA tournament win – something like $1.4mil/win.

At this point PSU MBB is nothing more than the KC Royals, or for you locals, the Pirates- soaking up the salary cap/luxury tax money from the spendy teams to an extent that as long as we run the ship cheap enough we can make money off everyone else.

I think I hurt his feelings.

2 NCAA appearances
2 NIT appearances (with at least one of them looking like a bubble team)
1 complete rebuilding year.

people say “Oh football is king so it’ll never work” What about florida, ND, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas Tech, Texas…lots of schools have winnning programs on both sides of the ball.

the team probably doesn’t even make the tournament. You can’t tell me that 4 seniors would have played harder or better for another coach. Ed was their guy so they poured their heart and souls out, not just for themselves but for him too. Ed is being held responsible for 5 terrible years that has proceeded the last 3. He won an NIT (it’s still something) and he took the team to the tourney. You just said yourself, that why would a coach want to come here? Ed is moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. So you’re going to fire him to hire somebody on his level or a step below? After 8 years? What a fool proof plan that is.

This depends on your definition of mediocrity vs. the Success of our mantra. I view the “Success” we tout as not solely victories on the field or court, but off it. And I think DeChellis has done a great job off the court, helping his players become men and giving them a foundation to succeed in life, if not in basketball.

How you make the consistent basis when “the facilities suck and nobody cares about basketball”? I just don’t understand how people think you can take a turd and turn it into a diamond.

unlike when ED first took over

He needs to be given some credit. He put the team together, he created the offense and defense.

I still think this is a clear exaggeration:

Striking recruiting gold once in 8 years is probably the best we can hope for at PSU. Our roster consists mostly of guys that wouldn’t even get playing time at schools like Butler, Xavier or Wichita St. That’s why there is little hope.

Battle, Brooks, and Frazier would all, at a bare minimum, play at any of those schools. Jones and Jackson would see time. Billy Oliver clearly wouldn’t, but I’m less sure about Marshall (who has a real chance to be a quality guy) and Woodyard (who at least provides some semblance of depth). Additionally, you’re cherry picking mid-majors who have had massive amounts of success over the past few years. It’s not like you’ve just picked out some random schools.

Ed can’t go into Philly and get top talent. There are too many good schools there. I might be wrong, but I don’t think Pittsburgh has much local basketball talent. I bet if I looked at Pitt’s roster, most of those kids either came from Philly or out of state.

Ed’s strategy has always been to go to the backyard of a powerhouse and take their Plan B kids. He got Claxton from under UConn’s nose. He got Cornley from Columbus. Brooks was a Plan B for Kentucky. Battle was Syracuse’s Plan B.

You can build a very respectable program from Plan B kids. But when you are taking kids a powerhouse would consider a Plan B kid, you are never going to consistently beat that Powerhouse that has Plan A kids. At some point, Ed has to change the strategy. He has to gamble and go after those Plan A kids. If he strikes out it could mean a year or two where he has a weak class which could lead to the end his career. But if he lands one or two of them, it could be a program changer.

I almost lost it with DeChellis—my guy— so with a new guy? I guarantee I would have been banned from BSD

Lewis is apparently a 2 guard, but he’ll get a chance to play here in both spots.

Yes, that award is a very good thing. Also, the Ohio Mr. Basketball (which he’s also a contender for) has been won by some guys you may have heard of before.
(hat tip to Ben for the link)

out of Curley’s comments. Man, I need to get started on the rules for the Spring pressers.

ok..

I hate myself for responding to this.

Down the stretch, Battle put the Michigan State game out of reach, hit clutch shots against Wisconsin, Minnesota (twice, knocking them well off the bubble), and kept PSU in the Big Ten Title game.

So who do we go to? No one knows until Ed tells them. Other teams will be guessing. Fans will be guessing. Hopefully the Penn State players on the floor will NOT be guessing.

You need A guy. The guy that you’re going to go to. It’s not even about the other team, it’s about ours and having an identity. Losing Battle as the “clutch shot guy” doesn’t make us better because we’ll be more mysterious. It makes us worse for having to spend time figuring out who that guy is.

but he didn’t e-mail me congratulating PSU on reaching the tournament. Weird.

our greedy athletic department only cares about money.

Only greedy if you consider that the money they make goes into funding the numerous teams that we have on campus. And that the funding doesn’t come out of the general fund. But you know, I digress…

For some reason they dont think investing in a good coach will work out, yes they have to spend more up front but once penn state basketball starts selling out every game you’d think they would be happy with all the money they are pulling in.

The numbers have been debated before and I don’t want to do the math, but there’s no guarantee that (A) A new coach will win more games or (B) that attendance alone will make up for the revenue that we’ll be missing if we hire a new coach.

Look, DeChellis works for somewhere around half a million dollars. A coach that you’d theoretically want is looking for something like $1.5 million, probably more. Do you think ticket sales make up for that shortfall. I think that’s very optimistic, and what if the new coach is a complete failure.

As for football, you’re crazy if you don’t think we have either the boosters or the revenue to hire a top notch coach after Joe leaves. I don’t see how “Success with Honor” is smoke and mirrors. You’re projecting, which is fine, but I see no NCAA violations, a very successful football program (excluding this mediocre year), mutliple national championships from men’s and women’s sports, and high national rankings.

But what do I know, I’m just looking at facts…..

Also, Curley would be absolutely retarded to let the football program languish like he does the basketball program.

I want to get it out of the way— I agree with you that he doesn’t care how well the basketball team does as long as it makes money, but this is not necessarily greedy or evil. It’s just business, and that business keeps PSU athletics in the black, one of only a handful of pograms across the country can say. And that’s going to be EVEN MORE important once those funding cuts come down on the appropriations from the state— G-Span is NOT going to want the athletic department to be dipping into the general fund.

And this brings me to why Curley would be retarded to let the football program suffer the same fate as the basketball program. The basketball program can get along just fine with fans being angry about it because there aren’t that many fans, nor are there that many boosters (if any at all). No boosters to get pissed, no boosters to lose money from. Football, my friend, is a very VERY different animal. There are a lot of very deep pockets tailgating in the shadow of Beaver Stadium, and they are NOT going to be happy shelling out thousands of dollars for season tickets and box seats to go watch a team that gets to a crappy bowl game only most years. They will get angry, and the entire athletic department suffers.

Curley will spend money because he has to. He might not be the most forthcoming little weasel about anything, but he’s no moron. We’re going to do what it takes to keep this football program among the nation’s best. (I refuse to say elite, because we all know where that goes OMG VT IS ELITE)