04-09-2015, 04:15 AM
So Muir called me last night and we had a nice conversation for about 15 minutes. It's clear that Dawkins isn't going anywhere, and I told him that's a real problem for me. I made sure he understood that my viewpoint wasn't because the team missed the tournament this year, or any game here or there, or any play call here or there. I also told him that I was looking at the last five years, and I don't see acceptable results, but more importantly I don't see improvement and I don't see that the team is playing to the level of its talent - in sharp contrast to the previous 20+ years.
My greatest disappointment from the call, however, was that it seems to me that Muir is resigned to Stanford MBB not being capable of regaining its former stature. His view "from the inside" as he put it, is that the landscape of college basketball has changed to one where Stanford would need to embrace the "one and done" if it is going to succeed. He talked a lot about how the top teams are loaded with McDonald's All-Americans. I got a little animated and said, "Mr. Muir I couldn't disagree with you more strongly. At one point that was the attitude about football, and look what a couple of great coaching hires did. And prior to Mike Montgomery, that was also the attitude about men's basketball."
He also said he didn't think it was fair to put this all on Johnny. I rather pointedly asked him, "well who are you going to put this on if not him?" and he started talking about injuries and a game or a play here or there. I told him that we were simply going to have to agree to disagree because lots of teams deal with injuries, and that each of the last five years it's been a game here or there so it's not just this season it's a pattern of inconsistency and not getting the most out of the talent on the roster.
Bottom line is that we agreed to disagree about keeping Dawkins, but he did acknowledge that things need to change with MBB in a significant way going forward. I'm sure next year's excuse will be that it's a young, inexperienced roster and that we shouldn't expect a team that loses over 50% of its firepower to graduation to be at that level.
I was really disappointed in the conversation. It surprised me greatly to see the extent to which Muir focused on just this season, and to which he made the same excuses he made to me two years ago. It sounded like a broken record.
Bottom line - get ready for a lot of empty lower bowl and Sixth Man seats next season.
My greatest disappointment from the call, however, was that it seems to me that Muir is resigned to Stanford MBB not being capable of regaining its former stature. His view "from the inside" as he put it, is that the landscape of college basketball has changed to one where Stanford would need to embrace the "one and done" if it is going to succeed. He talked a lot about how the top teams are loaded with McDonald's All-Americans. I got a little animated and said, "Mr. Muir I couldn't disagree with you more strongly. At one point that was the attitude about football, and look what a couple of great coaching hires did. And prior to Mike Montgomery, that was also the attitude about men's basketball."
He also said he didn't think it was fair to put this all on Johnny. I rather pointedly asked him, "well who are you going to put this on if not him?" and he started talking about injuries and a game or a play here or there. I told him that we were simply going to have to agree to disagree because lots of teams deal with injuries, and that each of the last five years it's been a game here or there so it's not just this season it's a pattern of inconsistency and not getting the most out of the talent on the roster.
Bottom line is that we agreed to disagree about keeping Dawkins, but he did acknowledge that things need to change with MBB in a significant way going forward. I'm sure next year's excuse will be that it's a young, inexperienced roster and that we shouldn't expect a team that loses over 50% of its firepower to graduation to be at that level.
I was really disappointed in the conversation. It surprised me greatly to see the extent to which Muir focused on just this season, and to which he made the same excuses he made to me two years ago. It sounded like a broken record.
Bottom line - get ready for a lot of empty lower bowl and Sixth Man seats next season.