Was looking forward to VT vs NCSU. Until I tuned in and saw Jason Capel.

Just be glad he's not in our Black & Gold

Worst coach in App history.

We need to fire him again just to make sure.

I dislike him as much as anyone, but he wasn't ready to be a head coach. He was appointed because he played at UNC, and that is impressive to some people. He actually was a good recruiter and got decent players to play here. His problem was not developing their talent, and not stressing education nearly well enough. That was the UNC influence. Probably not a bad guy, and I think he did his best, but ultimately App set him up for failure by hiring someone who wasn't qualified based on where he played college basketball.
And yes, he set the program back over a decade while he was here

The Rock wrote:I dislike him as much as anyone, but he wasn't ready to be a head coach. He was appointed because he played at UNC, and that is impressive to some people. He actually was a good recruiter and got decent players to play here. His problem was not developing their talent, and not stressing education nearly well enough. That was the UNC influence. Probably not a bad guy, and I think he did his best, but ultimately App set him up for failure by hiring someone who wasn't qualified based on where he played college basketball.
And yes, he set the program back over a decade while he was here

That's the thing that kills me, he had the blueprint for fake classes and he still had APR issues!!! Weren't UNC's APR scores above perfect for like 20 years or something crazy?

FWIW, the APR did start to turn around in Capel's last couple of years. The publicly announced scores run a year or two behind, but we were well on our way to recovery by the time he was let go.

I blame Cobb for the APR issue..........We took a flyer on capel....we lost the bet.

I am not denying Capel was a bad coach, but I can't think of many coaches in the nation that would be successful with the lack of experience he had prior to taking over as head coach. With that being said, a large part of the blame has to go to Cobb for hiring such an inexperienced coach. I think everyone on this message board and others knew Buzz would be a short term coach, and to try and compensate for his mistake, Cobb just hired Capel. Maybe he wanted to keep the UNC connection train rolling. Who knows.

If Fox doesn't work out for the program, I would love to see a shot at Matt McMahon. Last former athlete who left as an assistant coach, came back and has done great things with the football team.

/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09 wrote:I am not denying Capel was a bad coach, but I can't think of many coaches in the nation that would be successful with the lack of experience he had prior to taking over as head coach. With that being said, a large part of the blame has to go to Cobb for hiring such an inexperienced coach. I think everyone on this message board and others knew Buzz would be a short term coach, and to try and compensate for his mistake, Cobb just hired Capel. Maybe he wanted to keep the UNC connection train rolling. Who knows.

If Fox doesn't work out for the program, I would love to see a shot at Matt McMahon. Last former athlete who left as an assistant coach, came back and has done great things with the football team.

Yeah but Satt didn't leave another, better HC job to be our coach. I think we had our shot to hire McMahon - twice. Only way I see him ever coaching at App is if he gets let go by Murray State.

/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09 wrote:I am not denying Capel was a bad coach, but I can't think of many coaches in the nation that would be successful with the lack of experience he had prior to taking over as head coach. With that being said, a large part of the blame has to go to Cobb for hiring such an inexperienced coach. I think everyone on this message board and others knew Buzz would be a short term coach, and to try and compensate for his mistake, Cobb just hired Capel. Maybe he wanted to keep the UNC connection train rolling. Who knows.

If Fox doesn't work out for the program, I would love to see a shot at Matt McMahon. Last former athlete who left as an assistant coach, came back and has done great things with the football team.

but, would McMahon want to come back after being passed over for Capel? I heard he was in the running when Fox was hired. If true, I wonder if he was offered the job and turned it down.

I doubt he would return. That's why I said I would love to see, with high doubt that it would ever happen. I remember meeting him when I was in high school and went to basketball camp at App. He is a cool dude, and from what I witnessed a great coach. .

Another memory from that camp...Some of you may remember this name...The high school kids would run with Apps players at night..Johnathan Mitchell caught a pass while crashing the lane and threw it down hard..I have never seen a human jump that high in my life.

/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09 wrote:I doubt he would return. That's why I said I would love to see, with high doubt that it would ever happen. I remember meeting him when I was in high school and went to basketball camp at App. He is a cool dude, and from what I witnessed a great coach. .

Another memory from that camp...Some of you may remember this name...The high school kids would run with Apps players at night..Johnathan Mitchell caught a pass while crashing the lane and threw it down hard..I have never seen a human jump that high in my life.

I remember him. The team around that time was somewhat erratic until Fancher got a few more years under his belt. The guys who came off of the bench around that time ended up winning the most games in App bball history a few years later (DJ Thompson, D. Scott, Nate Cranford, etc.)

app97 wrote:

/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09 wrote:I doubt he would return. That's why I said I would love to see, with high doubt that it would ever happen. I remember meeting him when I was in high school and went to basketball camp at App. He is a cool dude, and from what I witnessed a great coach. .

Another memory from that camp...Some of you may remember this name...The high school kids would run with Apps players at night..Johnathan Mitchell caught a pass while crashing the lane and threw it down hard..I have never seen a human jump that high in my life.

I remember him. The team around that time was somewhat erratic until Fancher got a few more years under his belt. The guys who came off of the bench around that time ended up winning the most games in App bball history a few years later (DJ Thompson, D. Scott, Nate Cranford, etc.)

Shawn Hall was a beast too. Little dude had hops as well.

I don't keep up with hoops but it seems to me firing Fancher was the first of several mistakes for the men's program.

app97 wrote:

/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09 wrote:I am not denying Capel was a bad coach, but I can't think of many coaches in the nation that would be successful with the lack of experience he had prior to taking over as head coach. With that being said, a large part of the blame has to go to Cobb for hiring such an inexperienced coach. I think everyone on this message board and others knew Buzz would be a short term coach, and to try and compensate for his mistake, Cobb just hired Capel. Maybe he wanted to keep the UNC connection train rolling. Who knows.

If Fox doesn't work out for the program, I would love to see a shot at Matt McMahon. Last former athlete who left as an assistant coach, came back and has done great things with the football team.

but, would McMahon want to come back after being passed over for Capel? I heard he was in the running when Fox was hired. If true, I wonder if he was offered the job and turned it down.

Now that Cobb and basically everyone else running the AD at the time is gone I don't think Matt would have any ill will towards App. Thing is he is at a better basketball school now so it's unlikely he'll be available next time around.

CVAPP wrote:I don't keep up with hoops but it seems to me firing Fancher was the first of several mistakes for the men's program.

There are some who agree with you, but I don't. Fancher had some nice years, but in nine years he never even played for the SoCon title and only once had back-to-back winning seasons (and that was followed by a 13-18 year). Total record of 137-136. I know App's a football school, but if you care about basketball, that's not good enough.

I'm in the minority here, but I don't even think bringing Buzz back was a mistake. He instantly improved the program, even in his brief second stint.

The mistake was hiring Capel to replace him.

Rekdiver wrote:I blame Cobb for the APR issue..........We took a flyer on capel....we lost the bet.

I think it was worse than that. First you hire "that other guy" back, then Capel. Smells like sabotage to me. What could lead you to doing those two things other than hatred for the BB program.

EastHallApp wrote:

CVAPP wrote:I don't keep up with hoops but it seems to me firing Fancher was the first of several mistakes for the men's program.

There are some who agree with you, but I don't. Fancher had some nice years, but in nine years he never even played for the SoCon title and only once had back-to-back winning seasons (and that was followed by a 13-18 year). Total record of 137-136. I know App's a football school, but if you care about basketball, that's not good enough.

I'm in the minority here, but I don't even think bringing Buzz back was a mistake. He instantly improved the program, even in his brief second stint.

The mistake was hiring Capel to replace him.

Matt left the year Buzz left if I remember correctly. Cobb had a strange way of doing things.

/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09 wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:

CVAPP wrote:I don't keep up with hoops but it seems to me firing Fancher was the first of several mistakes for the men's program.

There are some who agree with you, but I don't. Fancher had some nice years, but in nine years he never even played for the SoCon title and only once had back-to-back winning seasons (and that was followed by a 13-18 year). Total record of 137-136. I know App's a football school, but if you care about basketball, that's not good enough.

I'm in the minority here, but I don't even think bringing Buzz back was a mistake. He instantly improved the program, even in his brief second stint.

The mistake was hiring Capel to replace him.

Matt left the year Buzz left if I remember correctly. Cobb had a strange way of doing things.

Correct - he left after being passed over for the HC job at his alma mater, despite having a decade of college coaching experience and being the top assistant on staff, in favor of someone with one year of experience as the most junior assistant on staff.