Jagdaddy
Head Coach
In all seriousness, I don't know what the expectations are for the womens's program versus the men's program or what the resource allocation is relative to elite and other second (on a good day) and third (on a bad day) tier programs. (I'd slot our women's program well below elite but above most programs), and because of that it's hard for me to know what to do with McGuff. On the positive side, they have an identity and a pretty good plan A, recruit pretty well, if perhaps not ideally to what they are trying to do, and win a lot of games. On the negative side, they get bullied by physical teams, typically don't have a great plan B if plan A doesn't work, haven't been able to recruit and develop bigs although I'm hoping Elsa can be the exception (she's on her way IMO but needs to be pushed in the weight room, required to get meaner and rewarded more with the ball if possible) if she doesn't get poached by an elite program.
I think we need: a GM for both the men's program (pending) and the women's program; for the women's program to recruit rangier, stronger girls for the 2-4 slots and the bench if the pressing style is something they plan to stick with; for the strength program to be looked at hard and held accountable (If Elsa gets stronger, especially in her hands, she'll be a monster); for there to be greater urgency to play as hard and as physically as the top teams do; and, frankly, for there to be greater accountability, like benching, for stupid, sloppy play. Honestly, when they don't play stupidly or sloppily, they're clearly just one level below the elite teams even with the physicality issue.
I think McGuff is comfortable, and I don't know how much better he can be if the program is fully supported but he's also made uncomfortable with clear, high expectations. There's definitely significant downside risk to getting rid of him, but I suspect that he doesn't have what it takes to take them to the next level and would love to be wrong.
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