Nice piece. Good for him and his staff on evolving and changing what they do to elevate their expectations. I hope they go dancin' this year.
Cuck Fhristion.
Assclown.
Never fully understood the flat out vitriol for Christian by Ohio fans. I mean, he's the only coach to bring a MAC regular season title to Athens outside of Larry Hunter in 35 years.
I personally liked the guy ... thought he was a good coach. Was very disappointed he didn't stay longer in Athens ... but couldn't blame him for jumping to an ACC job that was very close to his hometown.
I don't dislike the guy but I certainly don't care what he does for the rest of his career. He had a nice little run in Athens in terms of wins and losses but he wasted a ton of talent that was GIVEN TO HIM by Groce and didn't get us to the Tourney. Once again, I wish no ill will towards the man but I don't feel anything towards him at all. Just like Saul, I can't hate the guy for being a mediocre coach and recruiter. Nice guy who just didn't belong in Athens. But I won't root for him elsewhere. I'd rather root for guys like Fuss and Tommy F.
The 2013/14 team under Christian played harder and more resiliently than any other Bobcat team I can remember. My lasting memories of that year were getting down double digits multiple times but still rallying for wins, despite multiple nagging injuries and a season-ender. I really appreciated their effort. I'm not even mad at not returning to the tournament in 2013. Akron was really, really good that year and they were the only MAC team to beat us. What I did not like was the following:
1) That he was hired with the belief that he was a long term solution. He used us as a lifesaver to get out of TCU. I never thought he truly belonged in Athens or that we was OUR coach. The hire looked temporary the whole way, and I'm surprised Schaus could not see that. I think it was JSF who said that Groce's system gives you a chance to beat anyone, but JC's system will have you win the games you're supposed to, but never pull the upset.
2) There were lots of signs that players did not like him. Treg Setty told us on this board that he hated him. Jon Smith quit the team before the CIT he had enough. His on-court body language did not seem to reach the players when they made a mistake, particularly Ivo and Stevie who seemed to hang their heads on the bench. But what do I know? Stevie ended up working on his BC staff, and as mentioned before, we were winning games, so how much does that really matter?
Last Edited: 10/21/2019 12:06:34 PM by shabamon