Reasons to still love Dan Dakich as our head coach...

[hammb]

We don’t average 3 to 4 thousand fans a game. Even the Women’s team that currently is rank in the top 20 in the nation average under 1400 fans. So apparently wins and championships don’t bring the fans out.

That's women's basketball. When the men were playing at the top of the MAC, 4-5 years ago, we were bringing in 3000+ fans a game and had multiple sellouts.

Wins will certainly bring out enough fans to fill up Anderson Arena.

As for passing some of the blame onto the assistant coaches/recruiting people? I suppose you could do that, but then who hires them? The head coach, and he is ultimately responsible for everything associated with the BG program.


I like Dan Dakich a lot. If this team continues to improve and show signs of better things to come I would have no problem giving him a one year extension. I don't think he has done enough in his 2nd stint here to warrant a longer extension. If I were the AD I would also want to talk quite a bit with the current players to see how they feel about him. It is no secret that some of his past players have been disillusioned by the Dan Dakich coaching style. The only way he could hope to be successful moving forward is if he has FINALLY cleansed the program of that attitude, and has kids willing to run through a wall for him. If, as the AD, I talked to the kids and they were seriously questioning the direction of the team/program, that would definitely factor heavily into my decision.

I still think that finding a new coach, willing to bring a new philosophy to the program, would be the most beneficial to the team. I think a lot of the problem with our fan support is not only the fact that we haven't had a good team in a number of years, but also the fact that we play a terribly boring brand of basketball. I know in my mind if I'm going to watch a loss I'd much rather watch an exciting up & down the court game than the brand of basketball we play. If you're winning people will come out to watch it no matter how ugly, but if you're struggling & it's boring? Well combine those two with a terrible parking situation and you've got the recipe for a pitiful attendance average.

[Falconboy]

I essentially agree with what DD was trying to accomplish with the pulling of Samaraco , I just can't agree with the way he did it. Ther'es got to be a better way to get other's involved besides sitting your best shooter for the entire 2nd half of a road game no less.

It really sad, cuz there are elements of DD's style that I like but in others he goes to far in my opinion. I hope that if we do part ways with Dakich that we can get a young smart coach that has some of DD's best attributes but with a flair that this generations kids can look up to and attach themselves.

[HoustonFalcon]

The only way to get a team to not rely on a certain player is to get that player out of the game. It becomes habit to pass it to that player, and it becomes habit for that player to shoot whenever he touches it and sees a shot that he wants. If you leave that player in, and you tell him not to shoot the ball unless he is absolutely wide open, then you are essentially playing with 4 players on offense, and that isn't a good move either. So as I see it as a coach, the only way to get your kids to not rely on someone so much is to take that kid out, and force those kids to play. I as a coach have absolutely no problem what Coach Dakich did.

[Flipper]

I don't have a problem with what he did at all...

[falconfan1999]

I am really rooting for Coach Dakich to succeed. If he wins, won't that make most of us happy? I want to see our team taking steps forward, towards becoming a good, competitive squad. One that hangs around the big games and can find a way to win, even if it is luck, such as against Virginia Tech last year. I would say this years top priority for recruiting is to bring in another "big", a STUD point guard, and a pure shooter. And by pure shooter, I mean someone who Loyola Marymount, circa late 80's, would have recruited. Someone with a quick shot and a soft touch. Someone with Damon Jones levels of confidence, but who is coachable as well.

I like Coach Dakich's style and the way he runs his program. We might not have a ton of NBA players, but we don't have Marshall type of discipline issues either. There's a fine line between having a good program and having an out of control program. Coach Dakich makes sure his student-athletes are students first, which is what college is suppossed to be about!

[Globetrotter]

Coach Dakich makes sure his student-athletes are students first, which is what college is suppossed to be about!

So does Coach K.

[CrazyFan]

Coach Dakich makes sure his student-athletes are students first, which is what college is suppossed to be about!

So does Coach K.

And there's only ONE Coach K. Only ONE program has a Coach K. I think his point was to show that winning isn't/shouldn't be everything and that a kids education (the real reason the kid is coming to college) should come first, and Dakich makes sure that's the case.

[Tricky_Falcon]

I was listening to the Jerry Tarkanian show on Sirius this morning. The guest of the day was John Calipari of Memphis and it was like listening to a coach Dakich press conference. I only heard about 10 minutes of his talk with Tark but from what I hard Calipari said it was more important to see his players improve as a team than the actual win/loss record. Calipari said he doesn't care about the wins or losses as much as he does seeing the team play the right way and that again, he sees improvement. If the team is playing the right way, eventually the wins will come.

He also said that the fans put way too much pressure on these kids and that they expect wins every single game and that it's just not going to happen. Memphis I guess has a lot of freshmen and sophomores contributing. He said freshmen and sophomores are awfully inconsistent. One night they could go 5-5 and be lights out and do all the little things and look spectacular and the next could be 1 for 16 and look horrible but that's just how it is when you're that young. There are so many ups and downs for the younger players he said stuff fans couldn't even realize.

He went on to say a lot of the games really come down to where you are playing and the atmosphere. You could be playing the worst team in the country but if they have a loud and rocking fan base behind their team anything can happen in any given game.

[Globetrotter]

Coach Dakich makes sure his student-athletes are students first, which is what college is suppossed to be about!

So does Coach K.

And there's only ONE Coach K. Only ONE program has a Coach K. I think his point was to show that winning isn't/shouldn't be everything and that a kids education (the real reason the kid is coming to college) should come first, and Dakich makes sure that's the case.

The good coaches can do both.

[NY-BG-FAN]

I like Dan Dakich a lot.

That must be the reason you have when his contract is up in your sig.

[hammb]

I like Dan Dakich a lot.

That must be the reason you have when his contract is up in your sig.

As I have stated MANY times, I like Dan Dakich. I think he's a decent to good coach who I fully expect to experience success again as a D1 coach. I don't think that this is the best fit for him, nor do I think he is the best fit for us. Things have not been the same for him since his jaunt to Morgantown.

I think Dan is a great guy. I absolutely loved him in his first stint here. But at the same time I'm not convinced he's the best option to lead our program.

[HoustonFalcon]

Globetrotter, could you please give me a list of coaches that graduate their players and win on a consistent basis. Coach Dakich's numbers will be a litle off due to the fact that he had so many transfers the last three to four years also. But if you look at any big time program, I don't think you can name more than ten coaches that graduate their players on a consistent basis. 10 might be a little low, but you get the point. Coach Dakich is bringing this team around, and he is getting them to class.

[OptionQB]

Anyone who listens to ESPN Radio lately will hear a promo from Colin Cowherd's show "The Herd" where he states "In sports, in order to get people through the door you have to be either good or interesting" and then compares sports to such things as "American Idol" and kids programming among others.

Whether you like Dan as our coach or not, the fact of the matter is, we haven't been good or interesting for awhile.

[Flipper]

Perhaps...but Cowherd is a shade above moss and tiny rocks on the intelligence scale.

[orangeandbrown]

Yeah, you can argue Colin isn't either of those, either.