OT.....state of CofC athletics

[upstatecougar]

Any thoughts on current state of affairs with our athletics programs. I dont follow like I used to but:

Basketball......realize a NCAA a few years ago but think we would all be stunned if we made a run this CAA tournament. Are we a program stuck in neutral??

Baseball.....realize its early but hammered by GSU midweek and swept by USC Upstate....not a great start.

Soccer.....used to be great. We hire the assistant coach who was under Lundy who was average at best last 10 years. Lazy hire IMO......again early in the season but just tied a DIII school. Have not scored a goal yet this season.

Thoughts?

[GoCougsGo]

We seem to have faired better in all sports with our athletes that transitioned over from the SoCon than what we have now. Being swept by Upstate wasn’t a good look for baseball but I gotta tell ya, that team looks very similar to our super regional team a few years back.

[hungry]

Swept by Upstate not a good look.
But- academics look really good. That does matter.

[cougarsurf11]

Is this the appropriate thread to share that the CAA played only 56.7% of their games? BY FAR the lowest of any conference that played this season and well below the 86% average.

https://twitter.com/tayloreldridge/stat ... 31168?s=20

[swampcougar1]

Is this the appropriate thread to share that the CAA played only 56.7% of their games? BY FAR the lowest of any conference that played this season and well below the 86% average.

https://twitter.com/tayloreldridge/stat ... 31168?s=20

Poor leadership school and conference level.

[sweetpea]

Well. If we had a conference commissioner....

[swampcougar1]

Well. If we had a conference commissioner....

And if we had any AD,s that are not yes men to him

[matrojan]

Soccer- Totally Agree. Nothing against Wiggans, but what tools does he have that will turn this program around. And if he had those tools why didnt he fix the issue as an assistant!

-I think the jury's stlil out on Baseball. Though I am no expert.

-I would view Earl as a successful coach at CofC by and large. I am willing to die on that hill. Not that I am an Earl sycophant, but I believe that folks have a very distorted view of what CofC has accomplished historically.

- I think Coach Harmony is a terrific hire for WBB, and believe she will eventually be lured away by a better job.

- Golf teams seem to be doing really well by and large.

[charlestondxman]

CofC’s women have only gotten to play 8 conference games because of pauses. They went 5 weeks without a game. Next year I feel though will be significant with their recruiting. Basketball next year for both teams is gonna be very significant. Especially with UNC coming to town for the men. People are gonna buy season tickets just for that if we get back to normal by November.

Softball is stuck behind JMU and Hofstra.

But compared to the other 2 ADs in town I think we’re in a better trajectory. CSU won 2 D1 basketball games all season. Both by a point each. Having fans this year (even with the limited amount we had) was a big deal for us in the CAA. Nobody else in the league really had any, and we got all but one of our home games in.

The CAA staying with the stricter protocols hurt a lot. A lot of the other teams fans are complaining we ducked others on the road, but it wasn’t our fault one of our players tested positive and caused us to miss 4 games because of the two-week pause rule.

[swampcougar1]

Soccer- Totally Agree. Nothing against Wiggans, but what tools does he have that will turn this program around. And if he had those tools why didnt he fix the issue as an assistant!

-I think the jury's stlil out on Baseball. Though I am no expert.

-I would view Earl as a successful coach at CofC by and large. I am willing to die on that hill. Not that I am an Earl sycophant, but I believe that folks have a very distorted view of what CofC has accomplished historically.

- I think Coach Harmony is a terrific hire for WBB, and believe she will eventually be lured away by a better job.

- Golf teams seem to be doing really well by and large.

Basketball has been div 1 20 years. 16 of those years we have won more than 50% of our games.. If expecting to win more than half our games is distorted excuse the hell out of me

[matrojan]

Soccer- Totally Agree. Nothing against Wiggans, but what tools does he have that will turn this program around. And if he had those tools why didnt he fix the issue as an assistant!

-I think the jury's stlil out on Baseball. Though I am no expert.

-I would view Earl as a successful coach at CofC by and large. I am willing to die on that hill. Not that I am an Earl sycophant, but I believe that folks have a very distorted view of what CofC has accomplished historically.

- I think Coach Harmony is a terrific hire for WBB, and believe she will eventually be lured away by a better job.

- Golf teams seem to be doing really well by and large.

Basketball has been div 1 20 years. 16 of those years we have won more than 50% of our games.. If expecting to win more than half our games is distorted excuse the hell out of me

I was talking about Earl's tenure as a whole not this season in particular.
As far as this season the combination of unusually high turnover with the nerfed season/off-season cost us significantly.

[ATLCoug]

Earl’s tenure up to the CAA title was great. We got better every year and made it to the mountain top. Instead of building upon that, we have gotten worse every year since, and I don’t expect next year to be any better. He had some great assistants in the past who have moved on and Earl has been exposed as a result.

If we want to be a team that goes to the dance every year or nearly every year, Earl ain’t the guy.

[cougarsurf11]

Not to turn this into another conference realignment thread, but the CAA also had no nationally televised conference games this year. CAA semifinals/finals on CBS Sports Network will be the first.

[Barking Spider]

Everything from March 2020 till the Fall of 2021 when the majority of the population has been vaccinated and the health of every single person associated with C of C Athletics is safe again is all that really matters. Records, personal and team development or regression are inconsequential to making sure not one single person has long term health effects from COVID-19.

This is from a die-hard Cougar fan who wants us to be the best. In real life health matters. I am looking forward post-pandemic times to when scores and performances matter.

My 2 cents

[matrojan]

Everything from March 2020 till the Fall of 2021 when the majority of the population has been vaccinated and the health of every single person associated with C of C Athletics is safe again is all that really matters. Records, personal and team development or regression are inconsequential to making sure not one single person has long term health effects from COVID-19.

This is from a die-hard Cougar fan who wants us to be the best. In real life health matters. I am looking forward post-pandemic times to when scores and performances matter.

My 2 cents

+1

[GoCougsGo]

I think the tenor of the post goes beyond a pandemic affecting pretty much everything. This is a longer term look back. We really haven’t done much in the last 5-6 years when looking at it in totality.

[swampcougar1]

I think the tenor of the post goes beyond a pandemic affecting pretty much everything. This is a longer term look back. We really haven’t done much in the last 5-6 years when looking at it in totality.

You are very correct. Since our latest AD took over our sports overall have deteriorated big time. I understand the covid issue but have not all other schools had to deal with same issue?

[nvrgivup_gocougs]

Matt Roberts needs to go!!!!

[hungry]

Another blank piece of paper?

[swampcougar1]

Another blank piece of paper?

Only if you are lazy?

[matrojan]

The thing that I really didn't love about the Matt Roberts hire was that he had no experience in a place like Charleston. He worked at Oklahoma, SMU? Midwest Football factories.
How on earth is that possibly translatable at CofC. A poor, relatively speaking, Basketball focused, southeastern public University.

I will give him a pass for Flo Sports since I am not sure to what degree we were able to push against that. Also given the budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic, I assume the money from Flo was critical. That said I hope we exit it as soon as possible.

Major admin decisions.
- Getting Heath fired and replaced by Holbrook (looking like a mistake)
- 2018 Earl 5 year extension (at the time it definitely seemed like a good call)
- Replacing Lundy (Bad)
- Hiring Robin Harmony(Good)

What else?

[swampcougar1]

Flo was signed in May of 2019. Covid shortfall was not existent at that time. Roberts had never been in decision making role at any of those schools. His major attribute was fund raising roles he had. I seriously doubt the ADs in the CAA are anything but yes men to the commish.

[hungry]

Hard to find someone without a football background and future dreams. Won't we always be a stepping stone to get to a Power 5 job with football? I know Joe Hull missed it. Maybe Matt not so much since his alma mater UNC has such a basketball background.
Looking at Kresse as good, he was followed by Hamster bad (hired with Higdon interference), Cremins good (hired with Kresse help), Wojcik bad (hired with Benson interference), Grant probably will be good (no presidential interference). You need to let things move forward unless it's a bad situation. Buyouts without a better replacement in line not affordable.
I'm still hoping Holbrook will work out. If not, that's on Matt. UNC connection.
I liked Lundy but he was certainly slipping.
Also hope women's sports turn around- tennis, softball, soccer, volleyball, beach volleyball have all been better recently. I too like Coach Harmony.

[hungry]

Does AD get any credit for department academic results? They are great.

[GoCougsGo]

Does AD get any credit for department academic results? They are great.

To me, that is allllllll Kate Tiller. The woman has performed Herculean efforts over the years getting the academic performance up there. She deserves a tremendous amount of credit for her dedication to the athletes especially baseball. She took them from academic warning under Pawlowski to top of the class