Re: The Judge is willing to accept mediocrity

1. We pay a coach to win games.

2. If he doesn't win enough games - there are usually 2 options - no raises or he gets fired.

3. For the most part (other than you and a handful of others), we are ALL saying he isn't winning enough games - specifically in the ACC, the ACC Tourney, and the Dance.

4. Clemson history has NOTHING to do with it - he is paid to win games NOW.

5. You consistently say - in so many words - for what we are paying him, we are getting what we are paying for.

6. This leads me to believe that you think - if we paid him more, it would then be OK to have higher expectations.

7. This is typical "worker mentality" - pay me, and then I'll show you what I can do.

Look at other BIG MONEY coaches - they start way low and then, based on PERFORMANCE, they get increases - not the other way around.

Say whatever you want - I wouldn't pay CBB what he is making now for what he has produced. By the standards of winning games, winning ACC Tourney games, getting to the Dance & winning games at the Dance.

I wouldn't pay him $100,000 for what he is doing - because it isn't what we want and it isn't where we should be.

And if we win - there will be crowd support - I have seen HUGE Clemson Tiger Basketball fan support - and it came after we were winning. Always has, always will.

Judge Keller®

All-In [44000]

TigerPulse: 81%

Posts: 32933

Joined: 2/22/03

It's frustrating that you get that from my posts.

Jan 13, 2022, 3:46 PM

I am not okay with mediocrity, for our basketball program or for any of our programs.

I believe we can be a consistently good basketball team. I want that, at least as much as you do if not more. If you told me we could win a national championship in football next year, or a national championship in basketball next year, I would take the basketball national championship without hesitation. Not because I don't want to see us win big in football, because I do. I love winning. But we've won a few football national championships now, and we haven't won one in basketball. I'd love to see it. I am in the minority here in feeling that way.

But before we can strive for that level of success, we need to start making the NCAA Tournament regularly. We've made 2 of the last 3, and we don't know about this year yet but we have some work to do.

Being in the NCAA Tournament every year and being a top 4-5 ACC team is doable at Clemson. But it's not easy. If it were, we would've done that here and so far over 100 years of basketball we haven't done it. So what we've been doing isn't working.

The first shift has to be in our mindset. Yes, we are a football school, and yes, we always will be. That's fine. But as I've always said, why can't we also prioritize basketball? I know it makes some people feel scared and uneasy to dare talk about caring a lot about basketball, because it might somehow compromise our proud reputation as a football school. I'm not advocating for lowering football on the priority scale, but I am advocating for elevating basketball. How do we do that, with finite funds?

If you are absolutely unwilling to ever consider choosing basketball needs over football wants, then this conversation isn't for you. In that case, you're choosing to always put basketball a distant second to football. I don't see how you can complain about basketball not being more successful if you're only willing to give it the leftover scraps.

What I do know is that we can't continue to have a budget for assistant coaches that is below the national average. The thought of that would be insane for our football program, even during eras when we were awful. Heads would've rolled. But when it comes to basketball, nobody here seems to care. It is no big deal, and in fact, our coach is supposed to just overcome that and still assemble a staff that can compete in recruiting and player development alongside the 25-30 teams we think we should be competing with. How is that rational?

We can't keep waiting 20 years between facility updates. Everyone is happy about our facility renovations from 6 years ago, but we have to keep it up. You know, like we do in football. I don't have any delusion that Clemson basketball will ever set the standard for facilities like football has, nor do I think we need a slide or a mini-golf course. But I would like to see us think outside the box. Yes, we need the things top 25 programs have, but we also need to use our creativity and ingenuity to see what else the players today might want that we aren't offering - and that others aren't either.

You think it's an excuse when I talk about program expenditures, but we spend WAY less on basketball that many teams in the ACC. Our basketball expenditures are toward the bottom of the ACC. Why don't you think that's relevant? Would you be okay with our football program spending toward the bottom of the ACC? Conversely, do you think that ACC football programs that spend among the least in the conference should expect to compete with teams at the top of the conference on a consistent basis?

We have to have better fan support. It's not impressive to have recruits come to games to a half-filled (or less) arena. I know a lot of you talk about how we used to have good crowds, but we haven't shown that we can do that in the era of social media and a whole host of distractions and other things to occupy fans' time that didn't exist in decades past. Our team plays hard, they punch above their weight almost every night, and they are good guys that represent Clemson well. I don't understand why fans would find that boring. And even if they do, shouldn't they still show up to support a team that they want to be successful?

Look, I'm a Clemson basketball fan more than I'm a Brad Brownell fan. I think Brad is a great guy and a very good coach. I believe he is limited by Clemson's mediocre investment in the program. He has overachieved relative to that investment, and if we want more success, we need to invest more. This logic that he is a bad coach and all we need is a new coach is not sound. A new coach isn't going to fix our issues, nor is it going to result in the consistent success we all want. Our basketball history provides plenty of evidence for that.

If Graham Neff decides that we need to go in a different direction and hire a new coach, I will support the new guy. But we will never be a consistent winner if we don't fix the issues I have outlined here.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

"All those 'Fire Brownell' guys can kiss it." -Joseph Girard III

"Everybody needs to know that Coach Brownell is arguably the best coach to come through Clemson." -PJ Hall

The Judge is willing to accept mediocrity