Gordon and Reece Dismissed

[hammb]

Huger also had an interview with wtol (not sure if it's available online) which aired today. Said he doesn't listen to the noise good or bad so he hasn't heard any of the calls for his job. Not much else in the minute interview

https://youtu.be/P4uKKEN9gq0

That's the full 5:00 interview. Basically says he's as frustrated as we are. He has no idea how to fix it and hasn't been able to sleep in months trying to fix it. Still thinks he's the man for the job.

Also calls out the fans, questioning if we're only going to be game when they're winning.

Hopefully that can be his death knell like it was Brandon's but I doubt it.

Oh still blame COVID cancelling one Mac tournament then not having fans last year...

[FalconTurf]

A shooter always thinks the next shot is going down and the coach always thinks the next win will start a positive streak. When they don’t they’re done!

I agree that fans need to stick with the team to a degree. When the team appears to have quit so will the fans. As a BG fan who knows the last NCAA was about 13 months before I was born I understand I didn’t pick a perennial power as my team to follow and still sticking with that team can be painful.

All this said I’m not sure anything less than a reset is necessary. I wish Huger was the guy but it’s not looking good. Recruiting for next year and one giant change in team chemistry and focus is needed to right this ship. Time is running out

[Globetrotter]

Some times relationships just need to end. This one is going nowhere. He needs fresh eyes because his approach isn't working in any aspect. Go be an assistant somewhere and try to get back to the head job somewhere else.

[TommyG]

I’m firmly in the camp that the dismissal was likely justified. You don’t cut kids this day and age for nothing. I don’t think Huger has a chance at straightening this out, but I really don’t think he wanted to create the distraction of cutting 2 kids over nothing. Speaking about it publicly wouldn’t really help him much either.
I think he gets another year, but BG should move on. They just went thru this with Orr. Nothing worse for a fan base than a bad team with a coach you don’t think can turn it around. Year whatever it is for Huger and the ceiling is probably 6th or 7th place next year. I just think you’d be better off moving on. As someone else said, you can’t even sell hope.
Issue is, I still think the AD has to go first…you cannot let him make another hire.

[guest44]

I'll stick to my theory that this is classic scapegoating. The type you get when someone is totally embarrassed in a moment, and in over their head while realizing it is going to get worse. They type you do when Justin Turner isn't sitting on that bench to fix it. Maybe waiting a year to give Huger a raise and extension would have inspired Huger to recruit higher than Mattos and Elsasser when the next season was "our year".

"Our Year" Picked to win the league. Did Covid cause BG to choke it's final three games in the regular season?

https://bgsufalcons.com/sports/mens-bas ... le/2019-20

Also, does any program have more team drama? Frye quit after a bad loss at Central Michigan that year. BGSU pays Michael Brown to do what? Those are expensive high fives and ass slaps. Might as well pay him with Frack dollars I suppose.

[jpfalcon09]

The lack of transparency from the university is only going to stoke more questions about what happened and where the direction of the program is headed. Huger will essentially become a lame duck if Moosbrugger isn't going to act and that's only going to negatively impact recruiting. Kids aren't going to want to play for a coach who probably isn't going to be sticking around. Better to rip that band-aid off now than let it drag out another year.

[guest44]

That’s where the problem lies. Moosbrugger has no idea what to do. Hughes is gone and not able to direct him. Elsasser has a kid on the team. Short of the President or the Board of Trustees getting involved nothing will happen. As long as the paycheck gets deposited, head in the sand and just lay low. That’s BGSU athletics. The most self serving department on campus.

[jpfalcon09]

Huger also had an interview with wtol (not sure if it's available online) which aired today. Said he doesn't listen to the noise good or bad so he hasn't heard any of the calls for his job. Not much else in the minute interview

https://youtu.be/P4uKKEN9gq0

That's the full 5:00 interview. Basically says he's as frustrated as we are. He has no idea how to fix it and hasn't been able to sleep in months trying to fix it. Still thinks he's the man for the job.

Also calls out the fans, questioning if we're only going to be game when they're winning.

Hopefully that can be his death knell like it was Brandon's but I doubt it.

Oh still blame COVID cancelling one Mac tournament then not having fans last year...

What a lame interview. Never once took accountability for the poor season. The covid excuses are hilarious. Everyone was dealt the same hand. He comes off like a politician who is trying his hardest to keep his position amidst a ton of turmoil.

Blergh.

[Schadenfreude]

The lack of transparency from the university is only going to stoke more questions about what happened

You sure? While we don't know the details and there may be even more to this, it is reasonable to to assume that, at a minimum, Coach Huger has concluded both of these young men were bad apples and that the team will be better off without them. He has hinted as much, saying "there are standards of behavior within the framework of our team that we expect to be met by all of our student athletes," and that these two young men were guilty of a "[f]ailure to do so on a consistent basis."

We have hints at why as well. Reece seems to all but acknowledge he talked some form of trash about a teammate to an opposing team:

Reece was approached by an opposing player in a game leading up to the Central Michigan game, and he was asked about the opinion of a BGSU teammate which transferred from that program. Based on the answer he gave, about which the teammate found out and went to the coaching staff with, Reece claimed the BGSU staff “made an example out of that” by benching him.

(Boy, I miss Nick Piotrowicz right now. What did Reece say, exactly? It isn't clear that Mr. Crisan even asked that question.)

So we know Reece got benched for saying something, presumably not nice, about a teammate to an opposing team.

How did he respond? By skipping practice.

Personal frustrations, combined with the desire to remove himself from a situation that could potentially boil over, led Reece to miss a practice leading up to the CMU game.

“I used that more so as a way to get a mental relaxation, as well as for the betterment of the team,” Reece said. “Nobody wants to see me and [the player] get into it. And what’s more crazy is, I told [him] right before the altercation that if he had a problem with it, let’s handle it outside of the program. Let’s handle it so that we’re not affecting the team. We’re not affecting anyone. It’s just something that me and you handled as
men. Instead, the team got into it.”

(We'd all love some mental relaxation, wouldn't we?)

This doesn't seem that complicated to me, even if we don't know specifically what happened or the depth of it.

[guest44]

(We'd all love some mental relaxation, wouldn't we?)

Sure. Dylan Frye got some in the year Huger called "Our Year". It's been all underachievement since that moment.

Can you also breakdown why Reece and Gordon played 18 and 23 minutes the night before the dismissal? Preferably by highlighting something for no reason.

[Globetrotter]

The lack of transparency from the university is only going to stoke more questions about what happened

You sure? While we don't know the details and there may be even more to this, it is reasonable to to assume that, at a minimum, Coach Huger has concluded both of these young men were bad apples and that the team will be better off without them. He has hinted as much, saying "there are standards of behavior within the framework of our team that we expect to be met by all of our student athletes," and that these two young men were guilty of a "[f]ailure to do so on a consistent basis."

We have hints at why as well. Reece seems to all but acknowledge he talked some form of trash about a teammate to an opposing team:

Reece was approached by an opposing player in a game leading up to the Central Michigan game, and he was asked about the opinion of a BGSU teammate which transferred from that program. Based on the answer he gave, about which the teammate found out and went to the coaching staff with, Reece claimed the BGSU staff “made an example out of that” by benching him.

(Boy, I miss Nick Piotrowicz right now. What did Reece say, exactly? It isn't clear that Mr. Crisan even asked that question.)

So we know Reece got benched for saying something, presumably not nice, about a teammate to an opposing team.

How did he respond? By skipping practice.

Personal frustrations, combined with the desire to remove himself from a situation that could potentially boil over, led Reece to miss a practice leading up to the CMU game.

“I used that more so as a way to get a mental relaxation, as well as for the betterment of the team,” Reece said. “Nobody wants to see me and [the player] get into it. And what’s more crazy is, I told [him] right before the altercation that if he had a problem with it, let’s handle it outside of the program. Let’s handle it so that we’re not affecting the team. We’re not affecting anyone. It’s just something that me and you handled as
men. Instead, the team got into it.”

(We'd all love some mental relaxation, wouldn't we?)

This doesn't seem that complicated to me, even if we don't know specifically what happened or the depth of it.

Wouldn't a good coach take them into a room and have them talk it out?

[Schadenfreude]

I would add that the idea that Huger sacked two of his most talented basketball players because he is trying to scapegoat them for the way the season has gone seems ludicrous. No rational head coach would do that.

[guest44]

I would also add that no rational coach would keep starters on the floor until the final horn, continue to press, and give up school record 112 points the night before the dismissals.

[Falcon]

I’m in agreement that while I don’t love our style all the time, Reece and Gordon both admitted in the article times when THEY chose to step away from the team. Reece essentially quit for one game after getting benched for talking bad about a teammate. Look I’ve seen 80% of the games and there were multiple times I saw Joe and Myron sulk or be bad teammates or not run back. As talented as they were. There is definitely more to this that we don’t know.

[Falcon]

Back during the Frye era I also heard from some people close to him that he was deal with some real life stuff... shoot I’m pretty sure his father moved here during that time. Not sure those two situations compare but I do think him stepping away at that time could have cost us a regular season championship.