Christian was abusive to players and had a near mutiny on his hands. Look at how his players responded at the end of the second season.
Ask Maurice N'Dour what "promises" were made to get him to Athens.
Ask about the near fistfight during practice between Christian and one of his coaches.
I sure wouldn't want my kid to play for him at BC.
Thanks for the insights. I sensed there were lots of problems, but don’t have any insider info.
I wonder if he has mellowed in his old age.
I can confirm all of that. Again, where Christian left us was with a dumpster fire raining down on us. So I am not the least bit sad that he left.
Thank you...thank you...thank you. I continue to get killed on this board for saying Christian hire was awful. Everyone wants to say..."he won 49 games in two years". Ummm....did you see the roster he was left with?? There are some well respected basketball guys on this board who could have won 20 games with that talent. Not getting back to tourney at least once in those two years with JC at the helm set this program back. It was a brutal hire and now people are finally learning some things that went on behind the scenes with this guy. I lost all respect for him in Memphis when I saw 5 seniors turn their backs on him while on the court. By the way, I'm still waiting on JC to win his first ever NCAA Tourney game. Let me know when it happens.
It is a shame that we lost by 25 to Akron in the MAC title game with ALL of our Sweet 16 guys back. Christian was, as someone said, a re-tread. We should not have been in position to get a re-tread when Groce left. We should have been in position to get a top mid-major coach or a hot young assistant. I was all for Jeff Boals, who it seems like is doing well at Stony Brook. Jeff cared for OU, is an Ohio guy and while he would have used us to get to a higher job, he would have stayed more than 2 years, trust me. Players' coach, former Bobcat -- it was a no-brainer.
That's what worries me about when Frank leaves. What will be done? Hot young coach at a Troy or a Middle Tennesee or a top assistant somewhere? I definitely don't want any re-treads.
RE: Frank's replacement. A hot young coach like Neal Brown at Troy wouldn't come to Ohio. That's a lateral move. It would have to be an assistant or a winner at a lower level like FCS or D2.
As far as Boals goes, I wanted him simply for the Ohio ties even though he had no head coaching experience. Boals is recruiting Ohio hard for Stony Brook, though it doesn't look like he's having much success getting kids to go over there yet (one Ohio kid currently on the roster). And his record as a coach has been too early to tell his coaching acumen, frankly (18-14 in the first season, 13-19 this season). But hiring him made so much sense! Ohio grad, worked under Matta like Groce, and on and on and on.
To me, either Dustin Ford or Chris Holtmann were the logical choices. Ford was the players' choice if I recall correctly. And we know how good Holtmann turned out to be. I think Schaus saw Christian's MAC record and got too excited and pulled the trigger way too quickly. If you go back and read through the old threads, the Christian hire moved very fast.
It's not like Ohio completely fell apart under Christian, but the foundation that Groce laid was destroyed by JC's sledgehammer.
Last Edited: 3/28/2018 11:41:37 AM by GoCats105