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I was in Founders having breakfast back in 95. Larranaga was next to me in line. Wish we could of kept him.

He wished that BG had better facilities.

For shitting out loud people. Can we please, please, PLEASE, just once, be happy for someone without all of these coulda/shoulda/woulda digs at the program? It isn't always the same people, but damn is it getting extremely, extremely old.

But I'm sure I'm in the wrong here, as usual...

Jimbo had what he considered to be the level BGSU could and should play at. To say he'd have done the same here as at GMU is folly. GMU fit his personal and coaching style much more, and he has flurished because of it.

I liked the guy, but I don't wish for his return. Are we better off with who we have, we'll decided that next year.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't most people around BGSU and the BG community think that it was best for Coach L to leave when he did? He could never get this program over the top and a change needed to be made. I think most people thought it was the best thing for the program. I agree that to say he could have done here what he has done at GMU is ridiculous and he had many opportunities to just get to the tournament while here and his teams mostly underachieved.

I am happy that he is doing well. I hope he gets to the Finals and for the sake of all mid-majors, I hope they win. Personally, I had a couple of encounters with him and he came across as a total jerk. I was never a big fan of his as a coach and because of the times I met him, didn't think much of him as a person either.

If DD does indeed leave after next year by not getting a contract extension, goes to another school and all of a sudden has manic success , what will ultimatly be our true problem then? As much as we like to think AA isn't the problem , it could be more of one than we all like to admit. DD says he's coaches players to think of themselves as big time being on the same level as a Duke or something to that effect , but how can the players ever truley get that idea when they play in such a old , high-schoolish , aging arena that the only thing going for it is the dynamic crowd noise factor capability.

As I watch George Mason play, it just seems like night and day the way they play as opposed to watching us doodle around on the court like we're retarded half the time. G Mason plays freely , with heart and passion and good team work. Wish our team looked like that.

NWLB wrote:Jimbo had what he considered to be the level BGSU could and should play at. To say he'd have done the same here as at GMU is folly. GMU fit his personal and coaching style much more, and he has flurished because of it.

I liked the guy, but I don't wish for his return. Are we better off with who we have, we'll decided that next year.

As much as I liked JL, I never sensed that he was completely at home at BG or ever REALLY wanted to be here. For him to take the BG job was a logical step up from being an assistant at UVA, but he was never completely in his element here. It's true that the BG program was a little flat by the end of his tenure, despite AD's greate senior year, and I myself was looking forward to a change. I wasn't alone in that sentiment, either. When DD arrived, my dad and I both talked about how much harder the players played under DD than JL.

We might look upon JL's success at George Mason as an indication of a ceiling at BG. However, perhaps JL improved as a coach and as a motivator since being at BG? Somehow, I suspect that that has much more to do with his relative success.

BleedOrange wrote:

NWLB wrote:Jimbo had what he considered to be the level BGSU could and should play at. To say he'd have done the same here as at GMU is folly. GMU fit his personal and coaching style much more, and he has flurished because of it.

I liked the guy, but I don't wish for his return. Are we better off with who we have, we'll decided that next year.

As much as I liked JL, I never sensed that he was completely at home at BG or ever REALLY wanted to be here. For him to take the BG job was a logical step up from being an assistant at UVA, but he was never completely in his element here. It's true that the BG program was a little flat by the end of his tenure, despite AD's greate senior year, and I myself was looking forward to a change. I wasn't alone in that sentiment, either. When DD arrived, my dad and I both talked about how much harder the players played under DD than JL.

We might look upon JL's success at George Mason as an indication of a ceiling at BG. However, perhaps JL improved as a coach and as a motivator since being at BG? Somehow, I suspect that that has much more to do with his relative success.

During his last year here Coach Larranaga was seeing a sports psychologist. Remember how, when he was here, we would be amazing early on in the season - being the first team to knock off Michigan State in their new arena - for one instance - then the further into the MAC we got - the worse we got. Anyway, it looks like the therapy paid off. Maybe we could get Dan to go ASAP!!!!!!!!

BleedOrange wrote:

NWLB wrote:Jimbo had what he considered to be the level BGSU could and should play at. To say he'd have done the same here as at GMU is folly. GMU fit his personal and coaching style much more, and he has flurished because of it.

I liked the guy, but I don't wish for his return. Are we better off with who we have, we'll decided that next year.

As much as I liked JL, I never sensed that he was completely at home at BG or ever REALLY wanted to be here. For him to take the BG job was a logical step up from being an assistant at UVA, but he was never completely in his element here. It's true that the BG program was a little flat by the end of his tenure, despite AD's greate senior year, and I myself was looking forward to a change. I wasn't alone in that sentiment, either. When DD arrived, my dad and I both talked about how much harder the players played under DD than JL.

We might look upon JL's success at George Mason as an indication of a ceiling at BG. However, perhaps JL improved as a coach and as a motivator since being at BG? Somehow, I suspect that that has much more to do with his relative success.

Winning does a lot of good things. I'm not sure why you think Larranaga didn't really want to be in BG. Is there specific reasons? Give me some examples.

My answer to the question why Larranaga didn't fit in at BG is, to put it briefly, he was an Eastern boy.

He grew up in the Bronx, played high school ball at Archbishop Malloy, and played callege ball at Providence. I believe I've got the names correct.

Before coming to BG, he had been an assistant for a while at Virginia under Terry Holland. Through his recruiting, mainly in New York City, Washington D. C., and other Eastern areas, he helped bring Virginia into the national spotlight. His highest profile recruit was Ralph Sampson.

I also think he liked living the kind of high life more possible on the East Coast. I believe he flew to London frequently to attend the Wimbledon Tennis tournament.

George Mason is 20 miles from Washington D. C. and I just think that Larranaga feels much more at home there than he felt at BG.

One way to describe his leaving BG is to use the phrase DD has used sometimes when his players have left--it was a "mutual decision". He did not leave as a really popular coach among the BG fan base.

I didn't ask why Larranaga didn't fit in. Anyone who coached for 11 years at one college had to fit in and be comfortable with his surroundings.

I'm not saying he prefers to be anywhere other than the east coast. But to say that he never really wanted to be in BG is probably stretching the truth. I think part of the reason why he left was because his coaching philsophy and the way it came across to the students started to get old. Not that it was bad coaching style.

He found a great fit and it worked out perfectly. Congrats to him and his family.

watching us doodle around on the court like we retarded half the time.

Irony?

dduncan wrote:

BleedOrange wrote:

NWLB wrote:Jimbo had what he considered to be the level BGSU could and should play at. To say he'd have done the same here as at GMU is folly. GMU fit his personal and coaching style much more, and he has flurished because of it.

I liked the guy, but I don't wish for his return. Are we better off with who we have, we'll decided that next year.

As much as I liked JL, I never sensed that he was completely at home at BG or ever REALLY wanted to be here. For him to take the BG job was a logical step up from being an assistant at UVA, but he was never completely in his element here. It's true that the BG program was a little flat by the end of his tenure, despite AD's greate senior year, and I myself was looking forward to a change. I wasn't alone in that sentiment, either. When DD arrived, my dad and I both talked about how much harder the players played under DD than JL.

We might look upon JL's success at George Mason as an indication of a ceiling at BG. However, perhaps JL improved as a coach and as a motivator since being at BG? Somehow, I suspect that that has much more to do with his relative success.

Winning does a lot of good things. I'm not sure why you think Larranaga didn't really want to be in BG. Is there specific reasons? Give me some examples.

That's a fair question, and Salsa answered it pretty well. I'm speaking from intuition and general impressions that came from being extremely close to the program during the late 80's. I was around JL on a daily basis and was very steeped in BG hoops then. There was nothing particularly overt, and it's not like I can present "hard data" on this. Also, I'm not saying he was like a vampire in the sunlight, just that he would have never, ever picked BG to be on his top 500 places to live before coming here. Some people might pick BG quite highly, and understandably so, but JL reeked of the east coast and came to BG for career reasons only.

I think of it this way - if I was offerred a position of Director of IT of a large organization with a $50K raise, and it was in some place I didn't care for, such as Detroit, I would take the position and make the best of living in the Detroit area. I would settle in, make friends, send my kids to school, but all the while I might look forward to the day when I could return to my roots.

Jim Larranaga brought back some respectability to the program. Just about every year his teams would win an ooc game against a Top 25 team on the road (Kentucky, Michigan State - the first home loss for the Spartans at the Breslin Center in the most exciting BG basketball game I ever saw...wasn't at Anderson for either the MSU or UofM wins). But something just didn't click long term and his seperation from BG after 11 years was right for both parties. Like DD, he was a coach that I thought was going to get us to the big dance. Instead it was trips to the NIT every so often and first round road trip defeats.
I haven't said it before and I'd like to think we could figure out a way to renovate Anderson to 7,500 capacity, but if not we need a new facility.

Interesting end to an AP story on Coach L:

Larranaga said he's no longer trying to "climb the coaching
ladder." He's at Mason to stay, he says, but that begs the
question: Is Mason in the big-time to stay?
"This exposure is tremendous," he said. "And we'll feel the
effects in the immediate future, and I think far greater if we can
continue to make the NCAA tournament - and have kids believe that
we're the Gonzaga of the East."