- August 12th, 2014, 12:58 pm
#458663
Ah, yes. The prime directive of message boards. "Someone is always to blame, and that blame must be assigned". We have even had people here blame our coaches when players were injured.
Regarding Bonds and Allen, first of all you can't depart if you never arrived, so only Bonds is a departure. I personally have no problem with how the recruiting of Stavian Allen was handled. Yes, we offered and signed a player who had not qualified. Is that an irresponsible act by our staff? I would say it would be under the following circumstances:
1) There was another player of fairly similar talent who wanted to come to LU and would have signed with us last fall, could play the same position(s) and had qualified. I followed our recruiting pretty closely last fall, and don't think that was the case.
2) We did not have a backup plan to fill that need with a Spring signee if he had still not qualified. Meet David Andoh.
No inside info here, but based on his decision to go to JUCO instead of prep school, it is most likely Allen's academic issue was the lack of a qualifying SAT/ACT score. After signing in the Fall, he would have had various opportunities to test again and try to qualify. For a variety of reasons, even some good students struggle with standardized tests. At some point you realize it's not going to happen and you move on. We signed Andoh, who actually was a higher rated prospect out of HS, is 2 years older and more physically mature and has a more developed game. By showing Allen we wanted him here enough to take a chance on him even though he wasn't qualified, IMHO we significantly increased the chances of signing him as Andoh's replacement in 2 years, when he should be much better prepared for D1 ball. If that were to happen, this could actually turn out to be one of the best pieces of recruiting we have ever done.
What can I say about Bonds? He was straight out of central casting; tailor-made for the role of PG at Liberty University. Signed 2 days after his official visit and during the intervening time did nothing to indicate to our coaches or even his own family that he was anything but totally excited to be a Flame. Based on his comments to the press it appears the one person (other than perhaps his GF or a couple of his homies) who may have known he had reservations was his HS coach, Drew Maddux. It seems pretty obvious that Maddux thinks Braxton was too good to be at LU, and I'm willing to bet he made sure the kid knew about the opportunity that was there at UT because of their lack of a PG. I don't buy Braxton's public statement that it was totally about being closer to home. That was for the benefit of his mom and grandparents. I'm sure it was a factor, but it's obvious to me there were also basketball motives, and perhaps a bit of a dislike for the Liberty Way as well. Unlike Allen, this one came out of the blue, and the staff needed to act quickly to bring in a PG so we weren't left with only a walkon to back up Retic. The jury is out on Dembley, just as it is on the 8 other new players joining the team, and just as it would have been on Bonds and Allen.
Who's to blame? I'm going to say that in the case of Allen, there is no blame because nothing bad actually happened. He was replaced with a player who is without question better prepared to help us next year and the support we showed him improves our chances of having him on board in 2 years. In the case of Bonds, I really think it's a stretch to think there is anything our coaches could have done. I blame Bonds, with perhaps an assist from Drew Maddux.
It probably seems like I spend a lot of time defending Dale Layer. I guess I plead guilty as charged in a case like this. The one thing I will not defend is his record over the last 3 years. It needs to change starting this year, and if it doesn't, we need a new coach.
bluejacket wrote:The departures of Bonds and Allen are on this staff, regardless of how long the coaches have been here.
Ah, yes. The prime directive of message boards. "Someone is always to blame, and that blame must be assigned". We have even had people here blame our coaches when players were injured.
Regarding Bonds and Allen, first of all you can't depart if you never arrived, so only Bonds is a departure. I personally have no problem with how the recruiting of Stavian Allen was handled. Yes, we offered and signed a player who had not qualified. Is that an irresponsible act by our staff? I would say it would be under the following circumstances:
1) There was another player of fairly similar talent who wanted to come to LU and would have signed with us last fall, could play the same position(s) and had qualified. I followed our recruiting pretty closely last fall, and don't think that was the case.
2) We did not have a backup plan to fill that need with a Spring signee if he had still not qualified. Meet David Andoh.
No inside info here, but based on his decision to go to JUCO instead of prep school, it is most likely Allen's academic issue was the lack of a qualifying SAT/ACT score. After signing in the Fall, he would have had various opportunities to test again and try to qualify. For a variety of reasons, even some good students struggle with standardized tests. At some point you realize it's not going to happen and you move on. We signed Andoh, who actually was a higher rated prospect out of HS, is 2 years older and more physically mature and has a more developed game. By showing Allen we wanted him here enough to take a chance on him even though he wasn't qualified, IMHO we significantly increased the chances of signing him as Andoh's replacement in 2 years, when he should be much better prepared for D1 ball. If that were to happen, this could actually turn out to be one of the best pieces of recruiting we have ever done.
What can I say about Bonds? He was straight out of central casting; tailor-made for the role of PG at Liberty University. Signed 2 days after his official visit and during the intervening time did nothing to indicate to our coaches or even his own family that he was anything but totally excited to be a Flame. Based on his comments to the press it appears the one person (other than perhaps his GF or a couple of his homies) who may have known he had reservations was his HS coach, Drew Maddux. It seems pretty obvious that Maddux thinks Braxton was too good to be at LU, and I'm willing to bet he made sure the kid knew about the opportunity that was there at UT because of their lack of a PG. I don't buy Braxton's public statement that it was totally about being closer to home. That was for the benefit of his mom and grandparents. I'm sure it was a factor, but it's obvious to me there were also basketball motives, and perhaps a bit of a dislike for the Liberty Way as well. Unlike Allen, this one came out of the blue, and the staff needed to act quickly to bring in a PG so we weren't left with only a walkon to back up Retic. The jury is out on Dembley, just as it is on the 8 other new players joining the team, and just as it would have been on Bonds and Allen.
Who's to blame? I'm going to say that in the case of Allen, there is no blame because nothing bad actually happened. He was replaced with a player who is without question better prepared to help us next year and the support we showed him improves our chances of having him on board in 2 years. In the case of Bonds, I really think it's a stretch to think there is anything our coaches could have done. I blame Bonds, with perhaps an assist from Drew Maddux.
It probably seems like I spend a lot of time defending Dale Layer. I guess I plead guilty as charged in a case like this. The one thing I will not defend is his record over the last 3 years. It needs to change starting this year, and if it doesn't, we need a new coach.