be had Bobby Cremins decided to accept the Head Coaching position in 1993? I can't help but think he could have changed things here on a long-term basis. I still don't understand to this day how he changed his mind.
Where Would Our Men's BBall Program ...
- Thread starter sanfordcock
- Start date
Hard one to figure.
Fogler built us up gradually, which led to those really good teams in '97 & '98. I really don't know what happened from there, whether he got lazy in recruiting or what. I thought he was building us into something special. Bummer.
Fogler built us up gradually, which led to those really good teams in '97 & '98. I really don't know what happened from there, whether he got lazy in recruiting or what. I thought he was building us into something special. Bummer.
To me the bigger Cremins what if is what if we had hired Cremins to takeover when McGuire retired after the 1980 season? We hired Bill Foster from Duke, but Cremins was a young up and comer, still at Ap State. He'd be hired by Georgia Tech after the following season. He could have had all that success he had at Tech here (starting in 1985, 9 NCAA tourney appearances in a row).
If we are looking in retrospect, that's the move we really needed.
If we are looking in retrospect, that's the move we really needed.
Along those same lines... I've always wondered how our program would have progressed if Felton had been allowed to stick around. He was really gaining some momentum and I thought headed in the right direction.
Fogler got burnt out, unfortunately. It happens. Too bad, too, because I really liked the guy, and he seemed like he really cared about making the team better. Probably why he got burnt out, he just cared a little too much.
And as far as the topic goes, why even ask the question? That was almost 25 years ago now. You might as well ask what things would be like if the South successfully seceeded from the Union. So many little things could have happened between now and then. Not trying to be negative at all, it just seems like a fruitless endeavor.
Now, I could totally see something more like "Would we have won the SEC with Cremmins, etc.?", you know, something specific. And to answer that question, I'd say maybe. I certainly don't see him performing any better than Fogler did, who actually, given our program's history, overperformed.
And as far as the topic goes, why even ask the question? That was almost 25 years ago now. You might as well ask what things would be like if the South successfully seceeded from the Union. So many little things could have happened between now and then. Not trying to be negative at all, it just seems like a fruitless endeavor.
Now, I could totally see something more like "Would we have won the SEC with Cremmins, etc.?", you know, something specific. And to answer that question, I'd say maybe. I certainly don't see him performing any better than Fogler did, who actually, given our program's history, overperformed.
Felton was getting kicked out of 5 point bars for being drunk, and his player where on the verge of mutany
Marshall is the bigger question. And no one has ever offered a reasonable explanation why Hyman refused to interview him twice!
I saw Cremins this weekend in Atlanta. He is one funny dude. Still lives in Hilton Head. He changed his mind because his heart was never set on coming back here. He came here and got swept up in the emotion of the idea. When the emotion subsided, he said he knew he had made a terrible mistake.
In Frank McGuire: The Life and Times of a Basketball Legend, McGuire is quoted as having advised Bobby not to come to USC. Not the right environment for him, and he'd be doing it for all the wrong reasons.
As Frank I fell out of favor with the Blatts during the mid 70s amidst all the turmoil in the USC athletic department, there was no way in the world that McGuire's replacement would have anything to do with McGuire (former player, assistant coach, etc.). Frank would also have no say-so in his replacement.
My guess is that if Frank had his way, we would have stayed in the ACC (no steady decline in the program during the 70s), he would have retired in the early 80s, and handed the reigns over to Don Walsh. Walsh saw the writing on the wall and left USC before it got that bad.
I've also heard that Bobby made the decision to come without consulting his wife, although I don't recall reading that in the book.
I recall 2 things he did that hurt his tenure: (1) he got cute with the press and shot his mouth off about what he perceived of as 'irregularaties' in AAU ball (2) again, with the press, he stated that we could expect a tourney team only once in 5 years - true, perhaps, but he was no Steve Spurrier at that time - honesty to the point of bluntness can get you fired.
We'd be a third world nation struggling to maintain with horrible education, dilapidated infrastructure and a bunch of mindless fools running things... Pretty much exactly the way things are today MINUS the federal programs that keep things like the schools, banks, health care- you know the unimportant stuff- running.
Sounds like paradise right? I never get that "the south shall rise again" mindset..
