Is MM a winner?

[DoctorJ]

^ & ^^

Them fightin words!


McCall's tenure has not been a success and boy does he need next year to be. I've said it before, this isn't entirely his fault.. he got off to a rough start with the botched firing of DK/hiring of Pat Kelsey. That coupled with the major roster turnover each of his first 3 years and he has been almost setup to fail. But at some point you've got to move past that. What's concerned me is that he hasn't seemed to figure out the coaching aspect... Tre helped mask a lot of that these last two years, but the offense is generally sluggish, the adjustments are minimal and the press is poor, among a few other things. Some people are very happy to pretend that this isn't the case, but it's DK all over again, except that we at least had two NITs by this time and were tending forward towards an NCAA appearance (before it was to fall apart again).

I think McCall can succeed... he finally has some stability with the roster from one season to the next and hopefully jettisoning TB gets rid of the power-dynamic issue they were experiencing in the locker room. Those things should help him overcome some of his shortgivings and give him more time to develop as a head coach.

For his and our sakes... it needs to happen now.

I agree with this^

Tony Barbee is going to Central Michigan. I have a degree of TRUST with someone in the family. What are we to McCall? A stop on the road. He needs to win now, otherwise I think we need to look at the most talented people available and if one of them is Tony Barbee we know he's at least loyal. Take the best guy. But there is a learning curve in Amherst that outsiders little understand. Kellogg did some good things but wasn't able to maintain stability and lost the team his last year at Duquense. But he got Deeky and other talent, just not as often as we needed it and wasn't a X and Os type of guy.

I actually like McCall but he needs to do something now, he had a lot of time and not even an NIT, not even a CBI!

[Merlin Samuels]

In short, if tomorrow someone should happen to transfer out or change their mind about coming, I look forward to the next round of venom. If there is one thing consistent about this program it is that our fan base is entirely predictable.

Please folks, only reserve your venom for Derek Kellogg, Tony Bergeron, or Tre Mitchell. Basically anyone JLH approves of. Just not Matt McCall. It upsets our friend here.

The facts are McCall is 46-65 in four seasons as the head coach. He was granted a reset by firing his staff. He has now been granted another reset with the Bergeron buyout.

I actually think this current team can make a run, possibly even a surprising tournament bid. So to answer the original question: no, McCall is not a winner yet, but he has a good opportunity to be this coming season with what I think are some talented transfers and a solid core.

UMass is not Kansas, or North Carolina, or Kentucky, despite some of us being there when they went toe to toe with those programs and beat them.* Kellogg ripped off a 25 win season in his fourth year and followed it up with two more 20+ seasons. He was granted a reset during his first years when Vance Walberg (aka fire Vince Wahlburg) was let go. My point is that it might take a fourth year after totally annihilating the best returning roster UMass has seen in a long time and starting from scratch. I believe a better coach would have turned it around much quicker, but we don’t have the luxury to can a guy every two seasons.

If this ends up being a wildly great season and McCall takes a Power Conference job, or if it’s another dismal year and he’s gone in a different fashion: please hire somebody like John Becker or King Rice. These are coaches that do more with less and aren’t “up-and-coming” young coaches. They have been consistent—especially Becker—in the broader region and could do even more with the resources here.

*I vividly remember watching Cal take down Dean Smith and UNC, also shout out to DK for beating Kansas

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Please folks, only reserve your venom for Derek Kellogg, anyone every associated with Derek Kellogg, Tony Bergeron, Tre Mitchell, or Tre's mom. Basically anyone JLH/Ali/HRM or eldon disapproves of. Just not Matt McCall. It upsets our friend(s) here.

Fixed that for you.

[JoleonLescottsHair]

In short, if tomorrow someone should happen to transfer out or change their mind about coming, I look forward to the next round of venom. If there is one thing consistent about this program it is that our fan base is entirely predictable.

Please folks, only reserve your venom for Derek Kellogg, Tony Bergeron, or Tre Mitchell. Basically anyone JLH approves of. Just not Matt McCall. It upsets our friend here.

The facts are McCall is 46-65 in four seasons as the head coach. He was granted a reset by firing his staff. He has now been granted another reset with the Bergeron buyout.

I actually think this current team can make a run, possibly even a surprising tournament bid. So to answer the original question: no, McCall is not a winner yet, but he has a good opportunity to be this coming season with what I think are some talented transfers and a solid core.

UMass is not Kansas, or North Carolina, or Kentucky, despite some of us being there when they went toe to toe with those programs and beat them.* Kellogg ripped off a 25 win season in his fourth year and followed it up with two more 20+ seasons. He was granted a reset during his first years when Vance Walberg (aka fire Vince Wahlburg) was let go. My point is that it might take a fourth year after totally annihilating the best returning roster UMass has seen in a long time and starting from scratch. I believe a better coach would have turned it around much quicker, but we don’t have the luxury to can a guy every two seasons.

If this ends up being a wildly great season and McCall takes a Power Conference job, or if it’s another dismal year and he’s gone in a different fashion: please hire somebody like John Becker or King Rice. These are coaches that do more with less and aren’t “up-and-coming” young coaches. They have been consistent—especially Becker—in the broader region and could do even more with the resources here.

*I vividly remember watching Cal take down Dean Smith and UNC, also shout out to DK for beating Kansas

Oh, look, it’s Merlin. And here we all were just wondering why you don't post here that much.

[eldonabe]

The facts are McCall is 46-65 in four seasons as the head coach. He was granted a reset by firing his staff. He has now been granted another reset with the Bergeron buyout.

MM is not getting a "reset" from TB leaving.

First, Umass can't afford to buy him out even if they wanted to.

Second, they have only really lost one player - albeit their best player, but a good core is still staying.

Third, nobody is saying you can't criticize MM. There are a lot of people here who did not like him almost immediately because he wasn't a "Umass guy" or a "guy from the area". JLH has been pretty consistent in calling that out. Maybe not is so many specific words all the time, but that is the crux of his criticism of the critics.


If Umass has another bad or disappointing year, MM is probably gone in the spring. Many believe last year was a failure, sorry but I disagree. It was a solid season under the circumstances, but it sounds like most feel like it was a failure because Tre left and that is all on MM. He did hire a used car salesman to be his top assistant and he had little chose in the moment but to roll those dice, clearly he came up with craps on that.

In simplest term, there will be a time when it is clear that MM must go, but we have not reached that time yet as far as I am concerned.

[Tman1319]

Or it was a failure because they didn’t beat anyone of significance. I guess Northeaster was a too 125 RPI team. Outside of them, the wins were pretty empty in regards to a tournament (any tournament) resume. In year 4, I expect more than that from any coach.

Eldon - yes, some fans never wanted to accept McCall for the reasons you said (and others), but some people would take any modicum of minor success just because he ISNT DK. DK failed here, move on!

I do question your statement the other day that you know he will succeed. I really have to disagree with the statement. Not that I feel he will never succeed, just that anyone is assured he will. McCall can certainly explain the game, but I haven’t seen him reach his players for them to execute. Some of that may be the current youth of the roster, but he has failed so far. I also worry about HIS specific recruiting. TB might have given and taken away Tre, but he also is heavily responsible for the a number of our most talented players on the roster.

In the end, I think we all want him to succeed next season.

[LS71]

Maybe this sentiment has been posted elsewhere already, but in light of hockey's success and listening to Carvel talk about his coaching philosophy, too bad we can't clone a hoops version of that mindset.

[natwam2547]

^ Eh apples and oranges. It's a pet peeve of mine when sports media try to compare pro sports. Having a hockey/football mentality is vastly different to having a baseball/basketball mentality. So I guess I have to apply it to college athletics as well IMO.

[PreecherJenkins]

nat- i am not sure he was comparing basketball to hockey or pro to college. seemed to me he was talking about a leader who has a plan and Matthew Wayne McCall who does not seem to have a plan.

Year 2 transfers
Year 3 Tony/Tre
Year 4 Tony/Tre
Year 5 Transfers

[LS71]

^ Exactly!

https://www.masslive.com/umass/2021/04/ ... nship.html

Carvel’s answer to Matt’s question about his vision.

And talk about my vision, and my vision was never to win a national championship. My vision was to build a program that great pride could be taken in.

[KahunaK]

^ Exactly!

https://www.masslive.com/umass/2021/04/ ... nship.html

Carvel’s answer to Matt’s question about his vision.

And talk about my vision, and my vision was never to win a national championship. My vision was to build a program that great pride could be taken in.

So if MM brings in quality kids who graduate on time with solid GPAs, work hard every game, represent the program and the university in a positive way in which the fan base can take pride in- will that be enough? Methinks not for the people on this board.

Carvel had NHL, and previous head coach experience at one of only 60 hockey schools and could recruit in a hotbed of hockey high schools (Massachusetts though UMASS only has a few players from there--- and also can recruit in that country just north of here). Also plays in one of the top conferences in the sport and has some of the best facilities in the country. To his credit, he wanted to get rid of the a*******s and bring in good guys. Is that just what happened with the ball program?-Perhaps. This coming year will be the first real test for MM though losing Tre and Gray are big hits

[Roadtrip]

Seven guards, three wings, two bigs: bad plan.

[NilesGold]

^ More like 5 guards, 5 wings, 2 bigs, and 1 spot open

[LS71]

^ Exactly!

https://www.masslive.com/umass/2021/04/ ... nship.html

Carvel’s answer to Matt’s question about his vision.

And talk about my vision, and my vision was never to win a national championship. My vision was to build a program that great pride could be taken in.

So if MM brings in quality kids who graduate on time with solid GPAs, work hard every game, represent the program and the university in a positive way in which the fan base can take pride in- will that be enough? Methinks not for the people on this board.

Carvel had NHL, and previous head coach experience at one of only 60 hockey schools and could recruit in a hotbed of hockey high schools (Massachusetts though UMASS only has a few players from there--- and also can recruit in that country just north of here). Also plays in one of the top conferences in the sport and has some of the best facilities in the country. To his credit, he wanted to get rid of the a*******s and bring in good guys. Is that just what happened with the ball program?-Perhaps. This coming year will be the first real test for MM though losing Tre and Gray are big hits

The point is....build the program and the wins will come.

[SignMan]

^ We must be in the long-term building stage.