If McCall is relieved of his duties

[NilesGold]

I'd prefer Tim Kenney as AD, compared to Bam Bam.

I understand this sentiment, but under Bamford's tenure we hired Carvel, Verdi, and Brown.

[eldonabe]

again if you voted this guy who keep his job please explain why:

Just a gut feeling that the powers-that-be will want to keep him on. They will cite the usual things like the players played hard for him, we were competitive in many games (won when we hit our threes), and we want to avoid the perceived culture of a revolving door. They will note that "we are obviously not satisfied with the record, but we see enough improvement and interest from the players to not start over from scratch when we can tweak the current situation and continue to pursue our upward trajectory."

I know this is not what you want to happen. That said I could see it happening here in "cuddly, everyone gets a trophy" Amherst. If that happens, the entire AD's office needs to be fired immediately because they clearly do not care about having a successful athletics program.

All I see him doing is stumping for money... get some fucking coaches who can win some games in your high profile sports and you will not be able to count the donations fast enough.....

Don Brown was a great start (hopefully), but I openly wonder how much Bamford had to do with that. I suspect very little until it came to the contract negotiations.

[UMass'96]

I'd prefer Tim Kenney as AD, compared to Bam Bam.

I understand this sentiment, but under Bamford's tenure we hired Carvel, Verdi, and Brown.

And Whipple, even though it didn't work out.

I think that when Bamford was hired, if the fans were told that we would win a National Championship in Hockey, have the womens team flirting with top 25 and NCAA's, and we would see versions of Whipple and Brown, the fan base would have gone nuts in support of this. Despite the hoops team tanking. Add in an indoor practice facility and other infrastructure improvements across the board and I'm not sure what more Bamford could have done differently. And for a topping, add the new statues outside the Mullins.

I guess that the question is, what would you expect a new AD to do differently other than replace McCall? I'm not talking about the back office issues, more what the casual fan sees. This board is not an accurate representation of what most UMass fans understand and see. And that is really the audience here.

[DanaDingle3]

"We" also hired Matt McCall and Walt Bell. Has any AD in the last five years made worse hires in the two most visible sports? Football and basketball have been in a free fall.

[McKinney]

Whipple (hired 2014) was McCutcheon. Bamford got here in 2015.

[Juice Stand]

I'd prefer Tim Kenney as AD, compared to Bam Bam.

I understand this sentiment, but under Bamford's tenure we hired Carvel, Verdi, and Brown.

And Whipple, even though it didn't work out.

I think that when Bamford was hired, if the fans were told that we would win a National Championship in Hockey, have the womens team flirting with top 25 and NCAA's, and we would see versions of Whipple and Brown, the fan base would have gone nuts in support of this. Despite the hoops team tanking. Add in an indoor practice facility and other infrastructure improvements across the board and I'm not sure what more Bamford could have done differently. And for a topping, add the new statues outside the Mullins.

I guess that the question is, what would you expect a new AD to do differently other than replace McCall? I'm not talking about the back office issues, more what the casual fan sees. This board is not an accurate representation of what most UMass fans understand and see. And that is really the audience here.

I agree with most of this, except the Whipple bit as has been pointed out that he wasn't a Bamford hire. Whether you think Bamford is a decision maker (McCall and Bell hires) or just along for the ride (Verdi, Carvel, Brown hires), he gets blame for the bad and credit for the good. That's the nature of being in that position. Other than men's basketball, the other three sports are in really good hands. Great points about the infrastructure improvements and statues as well. That practice bubble is super impressive and a welcome sight every time I drive down University Drive, and we've been clamoring for statues here for years (decades?) and finally got them. Personally, I think Bamford has done a decent job when I step back and look big picture.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

The current admin has done a lot of good, no doubt. And as much as Carvel and Don "Ain't Walking Through That Door" Brown fell in his lap, he still needed to pull the trigger on the hires. But the the whifs are big, and very visible.

Based on the Bell experience this year, I think Ryan knows what needs to be done with moving on... the next step, though, is anyone's guess.


*Note on the Brown hire: we still have some years to go before we know if that worked out or not, even if it feels right at the moment. I believe it will work out, but calling that a win right now is very much premature.

[TheInsider]

What he has done to the moral of the dept and what he has done to some hard-working alumni over his tenure cannot be overlooked

[vanmeter]

In the most significant sports Bamford has hired arguably the worst Football head coach in our history and one if the worst basketball coach in our history.

[Old Cage]

I don't know if coaches in other sports ever sit on hiring committees, but I sure would value the opinions of some combination of Cannella, Hodges, Brown, Carvel and Verdi, if only for a look at resumes and a group interview for the finalists.

[Kelz626]

What he has done to the moral of the dept and what he has done to some hard-working alumni over his tenure cannot be overlooked

^100%, Bamford is an egotistical careerist who doesn’t care about UMass or anything else other than “being right” and putting whatever spin he needs to control the narrative. He didn’t fire Bell or hire Brown, alumni and boosters forced his hand. Without them intervening if we were able to win the Maine game win Bell still as coach he would’ve been back in 2022 and Bamford would have weaved some story if “we’re right on track” “there’s no talent in MA high school football so it’s hard to win” “we had to gut the roster so we could get good “culture” guys in here so it’s going to take time” etc

It’s not a surprise for the 2 biggest hires he made he hired young, wildly unqualified coaches so that he could be in control of the programs and influence what they did. From what I have heard there’s at least some in the department that believe McCall will be back next year which is insane. Hopefully Ry guy will do the right thing but I wouldn’t be surprised if he strung out the McCall era by another year just so he doesn’t have to fire his 2 most important hires in a 6 month span

[69MG]

Hoping we don't see this type of announcement from RB. Duq. is 6-20 and 1-13 in conference (we all know who the "1" was). Of course, Dambrot had a couple of very good years and we have not.

Jon Rothstein
@JonRothstein
3h
Duquesne AD Dave Harper tells me that Keith Dambrot will return next season.
Dambrot is currently in his fifth season as the head coach of the Dukes.

[BR72]

again if you voted this guy who keep his job please explain why:

Just a gut feeling that the powers-that-be will want to keep him on. They will cite the usual things like the players played hard for him, we were competitive in many games (won when we hit our threes), and we want to avoid the perceived culture of a revolving door. They will note that "we are obviously not satisfied with the record, but we see enough improvement and interest from the players to not start over from scratch when we can tweak the current situation and continue to pursue our upward trajectory."

With all due respect for your "gut feeling", there is no sane world in which McCall should not be fired unless he wins the A10 tournament. The powers that be are not completely clueless. They see the attendance (or lack thereof), the paucity of game activity on this site, McCall's abysmal conference record, the absence of any actual program, etc., the same as we do. I can only guess what will happen to season ticket sales next year if he's back and the program can't survive another season with (optimistically) 1-2,000 fans in the stands. Whatever you may think of Bamford et al, I give them at least enough credit to realize that they have no choice.

[minutefanjsf]

again if you voted this guy who keep his job please explain why:

Just a gut feeling that the powers-that-be will want to keep him on. They will cite the usual things like the players played hard for him, we were competitive in many games (won when we hit our threes), and we want to avoid the perceived culture of a revolving door. They will note that "we are obviously not satisfied with the record, but we see enough improvement and interest from the players to not start over from scratch when we can tweak the current situation and continue to pursue our upward trajectory."

With all due respect for your "gut feeling", there is no sane world in which McCall should not be fired unless he wins the A10 tournament. The powers that be are not completely clueless. They see the attendance (or lack thereof), the paucity of game activity on this site, McCall's abysmal conference record, the absence of any actual program, etc., the same as we do. I can only guess what will happen to season ticket sales next year if he's back and the program can't survive another season with (optimistically) 1-2,000 fans in the stands. Whatever you may think of Bamford et al, I give them at least enough credit to realize that they have no choice.

Pin this. Let’s hope insanity doesn’t rule the day at the end of the season.

[Juice Stand]

I think one of the problems with McCall is that nobody can really pinpoint what type of identity his teams tend to have, other than the snarky comments about no defense. I seriously doubt that's an objective of his. The one thing I can remember him saying about building a culture, or having an identity is getting guys that are proud to play for UMass, that want to be here, and I hope that's true for most of the roster. I mentioned in another thread that a good amount of this roster is made up of local (New England) guys, so maybe there is a real love of UMass among them. The grass is not always greener on the other side, and the transfer portal is becoming a bit of a wild west free agency crap-shoot.

When McCall is relieved of his duties, I hope that the remaining eligible players want to stay here. I really like Noah, TJ, Garcia, Preston and Cairo. Dyondre hasn't shown much yet, but I like his athleticism and think he has potential. I'll add Greg Jones and Dibaji, but I'm not sure where they stand in terms of eligibility.