McCallie steps in it; no "lessons learned;" UConn mention [merged thread]

[Biff]

Speaking of McCallie paranoia, I looked for a good Caine Mutiny still of Bogie rolling the steel balls around in his fingers while he testified about how the officers and crew were all out to undermine him.

No bus to throw them under on the high seas. And you can't see what he took out of his pocket when under pressure too well, but here's a couple of comparison shots.

"They let me down."

Show your other hand, P . . .

Unfortunately JS you were on the right track but did not have the access that I have to the news media. I found an un-cropped version of your photo above. Revealing indeed......

 

[southbendcane]

You do realize we didn't steal them away? They chose to leave.

Where did i mention U Conn stole anyone? I said U Conn did what they had to do and i supported it. I also said they would be a fool not to go to U Conn with all their success. I questioned all the transfers going to South Carolina in the last 2 years. I never said anything about U Conn.

 

[intlzncster]

On the Duke education--as Geno once said---there are as many Duke Graduates as there are Uconn Grad --waiting on tables. A Uconn education isn't terrible as some may believe --- Duke may get you in the door but Uconn grads get to stay. At one time--Uconn Eng. Grads were high desired in Calif Aircraft/missile industries.
The Connecticut Ag school disappeared many decades ago.

Just being a member of the UCWBB program will get you a conversation with just about any business or HR person. Probably the only women's program that can say that.

 

[BigBird]

I wouldn't believe a word out of JPM's mouth or trust her as far as I could throw her.

And some of us would like to find out how far that actually is!

[In the strictly institutional sense. Violence against women is wrong.]

 

[JS]

Unfortunately JS you were on the right track but did not have the access that I have to the news media. I found an un-cropped version of your photo above. Revealing indeed.

Does life as a genius have its drawbacks?

Uncontrollable eyebrow spasms perhaps?

I'm honored to be your set-up guy.

 

[Vowelguy]

Proving not all minds at Duke are great..at assessing the plus/minus of buying Joannie P out or keeping their reputation as a great bball school intact. Methinks the financial considerations outweighed the potential damages of keeping her. Wrong again!

How do you know Duke made the wrong decision?
Yes, she's a train wreck, but what is the buyout? What is the team budget? It may just not be affordable right now.

 

[HuskyNan]

How do you know Duke made the wrong decision?
Yes, she's a train wreck, but what is the buyout? What is the team budget? It may just not be affordable right now.

How much is the bad publicity costing Duke in terms of lower donations from boosters and what is the revenue lost from fewer ticket sales?

 

[bags27]

How much is the bad publicity costing Duke in terms of lower donations from boosters and what is the revenue lost from fewer ticket sales?

Agreed. Whatever she's getting is a rounding error on their budget. Major universities deal with worse issues all the time and, if they can fix them with money, they consider themselves lucky. Private, well endowed, institutions have especially wide latitude with this. So this really continues to perplex....

 

[BroadwayVa]

Duke's a great school in its way; UConn's a great school in its way. No need to compare or compete. That's playing someone else's game (U.S. News & World Report).

As to the purity of Duke's athletics, well, Coach K really changed his tune about recruiting the one-and-go-pro kids when he discovered he couldn't compete with Kentucky.

Lesson: don't throw stones.

Some stones are made of hard rubber and come bounce back at the most unpleasant time.
Or Never say Never!..

 

[Patty Bailey]

LOL, what a great comment from the Duke Basketball Report:

You know, of all the people to get into a media scrap with, Auriemma is one to avoid. First, he's good at it. Second, he enjoys it. And third, no matter who you are, he's better than you are.

OMG - I LOVE this!! And coming FROM Duke, no less LOLOL!

 

[SCGamecock]

Forgive me if im wrong. But i thought i heard She coached a couple of the girls before at some level. Weather it being one of the U.S.A. teams or something else. I know she tried to recruit a couple of them for sure. When you have i think like 4 quality girls transfer to the same school in just a few years it catches your attention. Like i said maybe they just like her style of coaching. I never said she was doing anything wrong. Just said it has to make you wonder a little bit.

Several schools have had SEVERAL high quality transfers over the last few years. This may be a relatively recent phenomena but SC isn't the only school benefitting from this. Arguably the best transfer in the last few years decided to go to UCONN. Why should that be met with suspicion? The girl wanted to play for a good coach, in a good program that wins. The same could be said for those transferring to SC.. or Ohio State... or Baylor... or Louisville.. etc.

Dawn had prior recruiting relationships with Allisha Gray and Alexis Jennings, kinda like UCONN had with high profile transfer Batouly Camara.. Gray actually was committed to SC before deciding to instead go to UNC with Mavunga, Cherry and DeShields. Kaela Davis is good friends with Kelsey Bone, who once was at South Carolina but transferred to A&M to be closer to home. SC and Bone parted ways in good spirits and Bone actually recommended SC to Davis. Sarah Imovbioh was a graduate transfer from UVA and she wanted to spend her last year of eligibility playing for a winning program with lots of visibility... serves her right because she's now playing for the Nigerian national team along with another former Gamecock, Elem Ibiam.

 

[uconnfan68]

Where did i mention U Conn stole anyone? I said U Conn did what they had to do and i supported it. I also said they would be a fool not to go to U Conn with all their success. I questioned all the transfers going to South Carolina in the last 2 years. I never said anything about U Conn.

Thought you were implying something unethical was being done. Just because they wanted to go to UConn doesn't mean Geno will take them anyway. The last 3 kids just fit our needs and their wants.

 

[MilfordHusky]

How much is the bad publicity costing Duke in terms of lower donations from boosters and what is the revenue lost from fewer ticket sales?

I'm thinking that Cam has reduced his $100K annual donation.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Both have demonstrated a tragic inability to be objectively introspective.

Well said, Kib!

 

[Rocket009]

For all the negatives, you have to appreciate McCallie for providing such a spicy topic for the off-season. Perhaps she will make regular statements about once every couple of weeks just to keep us entertained.

Seriously though, her statement farther reveals her cold indifference/bitterness to others that seems to be her trademark. She's trying to point the finger elsewhere when it's pretty obvious that she is not able to build a team (not just on the court but with her staff too).

 

[Ron and Vida]

Count me skeptical, as well, of the "I just want a guaranteed championship" characterization of what Stevens told McCallie.

This "quote," to no one's surprise, is self-serving on McCallie's part.

-- It reflects badly, by implication, on Stevens. Coupled with the education remark, makes her sound naive, facile, passive, glory-seeking, maybe a touch lazy.

-- It absolves McCallie of implicit fault for losing anyone so misguided.

But consider McCallie's own observation that Stevens came back from international play with a changed attitude. And consider this actual Stevens quote:

"At this time, I feel it would be best for my basketball career to go in a different direction.”

She's not saying that playing on the USA team woke her up to the sudden necessity of winning a national championship, much less a guaranteed one.

She's saying she wants better coaching that will elevate her game for the remainder of her college career and for the next level. I think there's a more explicit statement about that somewhere.

And maybe, just maybe, she prefers a better atmosphere. Sailors in the grip of Captain McCallie can't be blamed for jumping ship -- or getting a tad rebellious.

 

[Ron and Vida]

If they give Academy Awards for movie posters this is a winner.

 

[Plebe]

Azurá says 'I want a guaranteed national championship.'

Geno knows as well as anyone that championships are not guaranteed, but who can blame Azurá for saying that, she's ambitious and wants to win. She probably wonders why Duke can't win any championships despite often getting higher-ranked recruiting classes than UConn. Obviously, she is frustrated and realizes a NC will never happen for her at Duke. Azurá, we welcome you to UConn with open arms! You came to the right place, let's do it!

I would be willing to bet dearly on the fact that Azurá never said "guaranteed," because if she were the type of player who would say such a thing, Geno and his staff would sniff that out in no time and any interest would have died right there.

She might have said something along the lines of, "I want to compete for a national championship," which McCallie then edits to her liking.

How classless of JPM, seriously.

 

[Henry]

I didn't know that the P in Joanne P McCauley stood for "crybaby". Obviously, Stevens saw the difference in coaching after having played for USA basketball. She came in as a freshman with significant ability and probably did not feel that the coaching did much for her. You do not win an NCAA championship with poor coaching. Joanne needs to take a look in the mirror.

 

[BigBird]

Let's remember how the story ends: with moral ambiguity. "I thought the wrong man was on trial, so I torpedoed Queeg for you."

Not trying to make that connection here, but just trying to keep the cultural reference precise. (Pedant? moi?)

I always loved that movie. I may be incorrect (happens often), but I think that either the book or the stage adaptation contains the line, "If you had been better sailors, he would have been a better captain." How many things does that apply to? And then there's the obvious inverse of this.

If JPM isn't getting good personal and career counseling, perhaps she should be. Saying "perhaps" may be way too generous.

 

[shinobimono]

I would be willing to bet dearly on the fact that Azurá never said "guaranteed," because if she were the type of player who would say such a thing, Geno and his staff would sniff that out in no time and any interest would have died right there.

She might have said something along the lines of, "I want to compete for a national championship," which McCallie then edits to her liking.

How classless of JPM, seriously.

I tend to agree with you. In fact, my initial reaction to the "guaranteed" quote was that coach McCallie probably exaggerated something Azurá may have said about wanting to win a NC, just as a way to sucker punch her top player after she leaves the program. But even if Azurá did say it, I don't think it would finger her "as the type of player who would say such a thing," rather, I see it as a completely guileless statement that shows her desire to win and her high regard for UConn basketball, where NCs do seem "guaranteed" when seen from the outside. After all, if Duke can have better recruiting classes than UConn, but UConn wins the NC year after year (and demolishes Duke in the process), playing at UConn sure looks like the closest thing to a "guarantee." I think such a statement indicates both her dissatisfaction with her coach and her desire to excel. Whether she said it or not is immaterial to me, I'm just happy she's at UConn.

 

[tennparker3]

I highly doubt Dawn is doing any dirty work to get transfers. With Davis and Gray she has more or less benefited from location and recent successes with local recruits.

She wouldn't have Gray though if Hatchell hadn't blocked a transfer to Tennessee. So she benefited from Gray wanting to go to the SEC and be relatively close to home.

 

[Charliebball]

Probably the same way any other school is getting high quality transfers.

Dawn Staley has never coached Kaela Davis, Alisha Gray, Alexis Jennings or Sarah Imovbioh for "summer ball" or USA Basketball. You would've had a point had Azura decided to transfer to SC... but she didn't, so there's really no basis for your point. Azura was dead set on UCONN a long time before her transfer was announced apparently.

SCG..........if you haven't read it yet, check out the article I posted under Transfers about Staley/Martin and their feelings about transfer mania.........very thought provoking stuff you will enjoy it........

 

[easttexastrash]

Now... I love me some Kiah and am THRILLED we have her on the Lib. BUT - Just keeping you honest:
Kiah - Stats her senior year at UConn:http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-baskbl/stats/2014-2015/teamcume.html


Kiah - 2 years in the WNBA

WNBA CAREER STATS
PPG RPG APG BPG MPG SPG
6.5 7.0 0.8 1.9 26.0 0.7

UCONN Sr Year
4.5 6.8 3.7 18.3

So, in 8 more minutes, she's averaging two more points..

Well, let's recognize that the competition in the WNBA is a bit tougher, so can you really compare stats? I doubt that there are many who will not say that Stokes is performing better as a pro than she did as a Husky. Her stats against college competition should have been much better than they were based on her WNBA stats. So who would be responsible for those stats, Stokes or Geno? Exchange the names Williams and JPM and the answer would obviously be JMP, right? It couldn't have had anything to do with Williams, right? If she were that unhappy at Duke I find it difficult to think that she gave 100% effort all the time.

And didn't JMP prepare Haley Peters for the WNBA? And Karima Christmas, Chelsea Gray, Jasmine Thomas and Krystal Thomas. Were all of these players so immensely talented that they made WNBA squads despite the coaching of JPM?

Like I have said, and has been no secret, I am not a JPM fan, but she has developed some talent and Williams, despite whatever complains she has, was prepared for play in the WNBA.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

You are going to compare someones senior year stats in college to the WNBA?

Exactly. She's playing, actually starting, against the best players in the world, and scoring more. But she's being compared with her numbers against the AAC? These numbers are so far superior to what she did in college! And she's improving with each game. So her total figures for her rookie and full sophomore pro seasons aren't as relevant as what she's doing right now.

Big improvement. YUUUGE.