[msqueri]

Agreed, but we’re now on year four of ”this is the year, or else…”, which is why I think Shaw’s job is very safe.



I really wish I knew why Haase has had such trouble.  He’s a good recruited. Every year, his teams have a couple of guys who you think might be legit pac-12 stars. He seems like a good guy; his players play hard. And yet every year, the whole seems less than the sum of its parts.



BC

I think the main problems are retention and inability to coach offense. Both have been big failures. I also don't think he's that good of a recruiter. He's invested a lot in high-end prospects, which he's done great with, but if Ingram leaves after next year it will be yet another of those who don't stay very long. Otherwise, his recruiting has been mediocre (e.g., if you look at his median recruits compared to past Stanford coaches' median recruits).

Travis, Okpala, Terry, Williams, da Silva, Davis, Wills, White, and Ryan departures + bad offense + mediocre roster building outside the stars who leave eligibility on the table anyway = performance you and I view as the sum being less than the whole of the parts.

Ingram coming back was really nice wind in our sails. We haven't gotten that kind of break in recent years with the NBA decisions of Okpala, Terry, and Williams or the transfer decision of Travis or the maddening inability of a Stanford graduate program to accept da Silva. This is the first season where I genuinely have some optimism. Some. I don't really have any faith in this coaching staff and my guess is we fall short of the tournament. But I can see a path for us.

Mixed views on how much to link the Shaw and Haase fortunes/tea leaves. Which one deserved to be fired first is a judgment call. I have felt both and Muir should go for a while now. But that's part of the problem - the top three men in the athletic department have all been failing, which makes it more difficult to know where to start. It's even possible they've all benefited from that situation and the attendant lack of any one thing being the glaring wart. My view was that while basketball didn't fall to the depths of football Haase also had less goodwill and less of an ability to point to highs he's capable of, so I would have fired him first. But I respect those who think football has been worse and would start there. Football is also a more important sport and an easier sport for us to compete in given the respective landscapes for the two sports, so there's real logic in holding football to a higher standard. In any case, firing either Shaw or Haase has had a weird quality to it because Muir is the one with NO claim to being able to retain his job. 

It feels like we're in limbo as an athletic department while we wait to see where the see-saw ends up between competing in major sports or receding. I wouldn't be shocked if Muir gets fired soon and we bring in a new AD to usher us into big tv contract/major conference land, if we decide to quiet quit from the rat race and view Muir/Shaw/Haase as perfect figureheads for the dignified retreat, if some combination of AD/football coach/conference next steps get announced in tandem, if Shaw and Haase stay on as long as possible, or if Shaw gracefully walks away independent of all of this. But the longer none of it happens we're going to feel stuck in the mud while the world passes us by.

[msqueri]

Agreed, but we’re now on year four of ”this is the year, or else…”, which is why I think Shaw’s job is very safe.



I really wish I knew why Haase has had such trouble.  He’s a good recruited. Every year, his teams have a couple of guys who you think might be legit pac-12 stars. He seems like a good guy; his players play hard. And yet every year, the whole seems less than the sum of its parts.



BC

I think the main problems are retention and inability to coach offense. Both have been big failures. I also don't think he's that good of a recruiter. He's invested a lot in high-end prospects, which he's done great with, but if Ingram leaves after next year it will be yet another of those who don't stay very long. Otherwise, his recruiting has been mediocre (e.g., if you look at his median recruits compared to past Stanford coaches' median recruits).

Travis, Okpala, Terry, Williams, da Silva, Davis, Wills, White, and Ryan departures + bad offense + mediocre roster building outside the stars who leave eligibility on the table anyway = performance you and I view as the sum being less than the whole of the parts.

Ingram coming back was really nice wind in our sails. We haven't gotten that kind of break in recent years with the NBA decisions of Okpala, Terry, and Williams or the transfer decision of Travis or the maddening inability of a Stanford graduate program to accept da Silva. This is the first season where I genuinely have some optimism. Some. I don't really have any faith in this coaching staff and my guess is we fall short of the tournament. But I can see a path for us.

Mixed views on how much to link the Shaw and Haase fortunes/tea leaves. Which one deserved to be fired first is a judgment call. I have felt both and Muir should go for a while now. But that's part of the problem - the top three men in the athletic department have all been failing, which makes it more difficult to know where to start. It's even possible they've all benefited from that situation and the attendant lack of any one thing being the glaring wart. My view was that while basketball didn't fall to the depths of football Haase also had less goodwill and less of an ability to point to highs he's capable of, so I would have fired him first. But I respect those who think football has been worse and would start there. Football is also a more important sport and an easier sport for us to compete in given the respective landscapes for the two sports, so there's real logic in holding football to a higher standard. In any case, firing either Shaw or Haase has had a weird quality to it because Muir is the one with NO claim to being able to retain his job. 

It feels like we're in limbo as an athletic department while we wait to see where the see-saw ends up between competing in major sports or receding. I wouldn't be shocked if Muir gets fired soon and we bring in a new AD to usher us into big tv contract/major conference land, if we decide to quiet quit from the rat race and view Muir/Shaw/Haase as perfect figureheads for the dignified retreat, if some combination of AD/football coach/conference next steps get announced in tandem, if Shaw and Haase stay on as long as possible, or if Shaw gracefully walks away independent of all of this. But the longer none of it happens we're going to feel stuck in the mud while the world passes us by.