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Post by RUFresh on Feb 27, 2007 21:07:02 GMT -5
our men's basketball season ends before march even begins, but wanted to give a round of applause to the team and the coaching staff.
must have been tough for the kids from the start, knowing your coach is leaving after the season but still trying to play hard for him.
they did provide us with some good memories this year though. >Almost and should've beat george mason - a team that reached the final four last season.
>Almost and should've beat winthrop - a team that will go far in this year's tourney.
>Played their hearts out in the opening weekend, especially against Washington State a team that is likely to get at worst a 4 seed.
>Beat Richmond @ Richmond by 17 points. Beating an A-10 team, especially Richmond, is a very nice win for the program and its fans.
Coach Samuels, we'll miss you and it's a shame we couldn't get a championship (even though in your first year we were close). Good luck in your future endevaors.
Same goes for Chris Oliver and Reggie McIntyre. Thanks for your great careers and I wish you guys went out in a better way.
I'm very interested in watching the coaching search over the next few weeks. I hope all of our current players stay for next year ... and hopefully we'll find a big man still out there to help us for next year.
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ru1985
2 star recruit
Posts: 34
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Post by ru1985 on Feb 28, 2007 10:34:23 GMT -5
With all due respect...
Applaud the kids all you want, but why in the world would you want to cheer that coaching staff? Coach Samuels quit on this team before the season even started - all in the name of sparing himself the indignity of not getting renewed at the end of the season. It was a selfish act. I refuse to applaud that.
He gave Radford four of the worst seasons in history, and he managed to do it while having two of the best players in Radford history in Oliver and WHF. That's not a source of pride for me. It's an embarrassment.
Good memories? Almost beat GMU. Almost beat Winthrop. We didn't. And in close games, coaching counts. Those two near misses were just reminders that this guy didn't get the job done over and over again. Truth is, we peaked with the Richmond win - and looking at UR now, they were SO bad this year, that win is only impressive in that we'd never beaten them in Richmond before. LOOK AT SAMUEL'S CAREER RECORD! I refuse to celebrate a single minute of his tenure on the Radford bench. To do so would be a slap in the face to Ron Bradley, Oliver Purnell, Joe Davis and Chuck Taylor.
If you're going to miss him, then I seriously question whether you have the best interests of the Highlander program at heart. In his only sniff of a championship - a miracle run in his first season - he promptly got tossed out of the game on national television for carrying out the tired sideline antics that seemed to characterize his tenure. For that, he was awarded a two-year extension that further sank this program to the depth that it now resides.
Toast the careers of Reggie and CO. Raise a glass to a new beginning for Radford hoops. But you can't make me fondly recall a single accomplishment during this abyssmal five year stint. Today, I know that this man will never coach another game for RU. That, my friends, is worth celebrating.
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Post by RUFresh on Feb 28, 2007 11:28:55 GMT -5
i too am excited for what's next for our highlanders and i think with a new coach we're heading in the right direction. but personally, coach samuels has done a lot for me when i went there. that's why i applaud him.
sure almost is not actually getting the job done, but let's face it ... we just weren't good this year. for the highs to come out and play their hardest ... that's all you can ask.
I probably should've rephrased my statement to say coach, I wish things could've worked out better ... rather than we'll miss you (as a whole).
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Post by vabigpoppa on Feb 28, 2007 16:01:44 GMT -5
im just glad this season is over! 8-22 is just embarrassing i agree that samuels is a nice guy, but he just didnt cut it as a head coach. im excited for a fresh start, and i hope we get a coach (greenberg) in here ASAP Along w/ new recruits, more dough for the program, and hopefully a worthwhile dedmon reconstruction plan of some sort!
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Post by jackbauer on Feb 28, 2007 22:21:52 GMT -5
Samuels didn't abandon the team, I think. He gave them plenty of notice about his depature and personally, I think he left because of how crummy the Big South is with its officials and rulings. What exactly did he do that was so horrible for his one-game suspension earlier in the season? And the calls some of these refs make, especially in key situations at home? Not a surprise to me. Off the record, he would constantly bash the refs for being so anti-RU and he's right about that numerous times. Heck, I remember how those zebras wrecked the High Point game at home.
Now, the season on a whole? I can't say I'm disappointed because I wasn't expecting much at all. This is a very young team with two guys in Oliver and McIntyre who were good but just not good enough to shoulder the load on their own. Johnson did come on late to help provide some help, but by then the rest of the league was playing at full strength and still overpowered the Highlanders.
Hopefully RU can pull in a good coach like Greenberg and some quality recruits (hopefully a solid big man to compliment Johnson) and can be on its way towards getting back into respectability around the Big South.
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ru1985
2 star recruit
Posts: 34
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Post by ru1985 on Mar 2, 2007 11:21:49 GMT -5
You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're joking.
His resignation was a calculated act. He ran off the only staff that produced a winning season - barely - and replaced them with three guys who had ZERO bench experience. He waits until eight days before the season opener - hardly what anyone would consider "plenty of notice" - and handcuffs the university into letting him coach because they can't find anyone else with any experience to take the reins on such short notice. In retrospect, RU should have let one of the green assistants take over because they couldn't have done any worse.
He was suspended after the GMU game for berating the officials with obscenities as they left the court. Although he may have been justified, his dispicible track record got him the one game heave-ho.
So you think he resigned because of the Big South and the officiating? I guess it must have been bad in the MEAC too. It couldn't be that he was smart enough to see the handwriting on the wall? It wouldn't have anything to do with his taking the winningest program in Virginia during the 1990s and turning it into one of the losingest programs in the 2000s? Coaches use bad officiating as a crutch because they have to have someone or something to blame when they don't want to look in the mirror. I listened to one of his post-game interviews on the radio, and he had the audacity to blame the players. If he had even the slightest measure of success ANYWHERE, I might give him the benefit of the doubt. But he hasn't. It can't always be somebody else's fault. Please.
Let's not make too many excuses for this team. They weren't any younger than most teams. It didn't help that even Samuels realized that his junior class - his recruits - weren't good enough to help him much on any given night. Who should we blame for that? The trainer? They were led by two seniors, two sophomores who saw a significant amount of time last season and a freshman point guard who was solid from the start. Johnson didn't come on late, he scored in double figures in seven of the first nine games and 20 out of 30 overall. What this team couldn't do is defend. And that is on the coach. Do you realize that this team only held four teams below 40% shooting all year? One was in a win over DIII Shenandoah, and in two of the other games, they STILL lost! The top two defensive teams in the Big South are Winthrop and High Point. No surprise that they finished 1-2 in the standings.
Fresh, I apologize. I don't mean to discount any personal relationship you may have with Samuels. But, on a strictly professional level, I can't look at his tenure here as anything more than a colossal train wreck. They can't name a new coach fast enough, be it Brad Greenberg, Mike Greenberg or the guy who changes my oil.
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