Fire DACKO?

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Should dacko be fired?

Poll ended at Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:26 pm

Yes absolutely....RIGHT NOW
10
30%
Yes but after the season
11
33%
No keep her
12
36%
 
Total votes: 33

Flu23
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Fire DACKO?

Post by Flu23 » Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:26 pm

What do you think

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MullinsManiac
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Post by MullinsManiac » Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:36 pm

Marnie was given a lot of rope, given the bad feelings left behind by her predecessor. But I'd say enough time has passed that Joanie O'Brien can no longer be blamed for the state of the women's hoop program. I'd say unless Dacko can make the program at least respectable by the end of the season, she's probably gone.
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Post by lane one » Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:20 pm

I do not think it is reasonable to blame Coach Dacko for the state of the Junior and Senior classes in her third year of coaching. She was recruiting non-scholarship players at Cornell, so wasn't going to be able to bring in A10 talent in the her first year, and Coach O'Brien didn't even leave her a mailing list of players interested in UMass. Coach Ford is getting alot of production from players he inherited. Coach Dacko is not.

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philosopher
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Post by philosopher » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:20 pm

Our women's program had to scrape UP to get to the bottom of the barrel. Coach Dacko was in a worse situation than starting a program from scratch. She is bringing in talent, and needs a minimum of two more years before her work in Amherst can be judged fairly. I have spoken with some top flight women's coaches who believe Dacko will turn the program around if the hounds just stay off her heels and let her do her job. One of my sources had a similar job to do over 20 years ago, when the competition wasn't nearly as fierce. She said it was hell then. It is hell squared, now.

I figure it this way: years one and two were cleanup from O'Brien. This is really her first year to do any real coaching. Next year should bring some of the rewards of her work. Any talk about firing her until next year is over and in the books is idiotic.

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Umass_Minuteman
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Post by Umass_Minuteman » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:17 pm

Come on. Lets give her more of a chance to get the program in good shape.
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cox'n
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Post by cox'n » Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:24 pm

Golly, give her a FAIR chance!

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Post by Skip » Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:48 pm

philosopher wrote:I figure it this way: years one and two were cleanup from O'Brien. This is really her first year to do any real coaching. Next year should bring some of the rewards of her work. Any talk about firing her until next year is over and in the books is idiotic.
By your logic, last year was her first year to do any real coaching. This is her fourth season.

2002-03: 14-14, 6-10 A-10
2003-04: 6-22, 2-14 A-10
2004-05: 14-15, 6-10 A-10
2005-06: 2-7

Four years was long enough to determine that Lappas should be fired. I don't see why we shouldn't expect better results out of the women's basketball team right now.

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Umass_Minuteman
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Post by Umass_Minuteman » Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:15 pm

Skip wrote:
philosopher wrote:I figure it this way: years one and two were cleanup from O'Brien. This is really her first year to do any real coaching. Next year should bring some of the rewards of her work. Any talk about firing her until next year is over and in the books is idiotic.
By your logic, last year was her first year to do any real coaching. This is her fourth season.

2002-03: 14-14, 6-10 A-10
2003-04: 6-22, 2-14 A-10
2004-05: 14-15, 6-10 A-10
2005-06: 2-7

Four years was long enough to determine that Lappas should be fired. I don't see why we shouldn't expect better results out of the women's basketball team right now.
True. But it is important to keep in mind, the men's basketball team was coming off a postseason bid when Lappas took over, and thus was not in that bad shape. When Dacko took over, the Woman's basketball team was in very bad shape. We need to give her more time.
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BostonBert
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Post by BostonBert » Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:16 pm

I challange someone to find a women's program that went from terrible to sucessful in 3 seasons. Stop counting this season because they are 2-7, yea they may end up 2- twenty something but they could also finish up with 16 or 17 wins. The building process takes a very long time. And furthermore, if you aren't going to the games don't bitch about the program. The attendance has been pretty weak. If you don't like women's hoop that's fine - but don't bash this coach until you have a vested interest in the team.

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Post by Skip » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:17 pm

I'm not looking for the program to go from terrible to successful in three years.

As much as everyone loves to bash Joanie O'Brien, the program was not terrible when Dacko took it over. The team went 8-8 in the A-10 the year before and lost in the championship game of the A-10 tournament. And I'm sick of hearing how there were no recruits for Dacko that first year. When Travis Ford took over, Lappas left him with no recruits, and he seemed to do just fine.

I also don't expect us to win the Atlantic 10 every year. But is it too much to ask for us to at least be a .500 team in the league. The bottom half of the Atlantic 10 is very weak. We should at least be the fifth or sixth best team every year.

I'd settle for us being a slighty better than average team, and in three and half years under Dacko, we are not even close to that.

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Post by CrooksisRhyming » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:43 pm

BostonBert wrote:I challange someone to find a women's program that went from terrible to sucessful in 3 seasons. Stop counting this season because they are 2-7, yea they may end up 2- twenty something but they could also finish up with 16 or 17 wins. The building process takes a very long time. And furthermore, if you aren't going to the games don't bitch about the program. The attendance has been pretty weak. If you don't like women's hoop that's fine - but don't bash this coach until you have a vested interest in the team.
I have been following the program for the past four years and to be honest, it's almost time for Dacko to go. UMass has never had a successful women's program and Dacko isn't doing anything to change that. In her first season as head coach she did OK with the best player in UMass history (Jen Butler) after that she fell off by a lot. Players liek Judit, Sharpton, Nelson, Tatham, Govan, Mayweather, Campbell... were and are very talented, but were unable to play to the best of their ability under Dacko. I understand that Nelson had the injury to her ACL, but that's over, she's back and their losing again... losing bad.

So where is the issue? Last year we started to see what her recruits are capable of and what did we get? I am very impressed with Kate Mills and Rosanio, but the rest of the team is is pretty rough shape. Now, here comes the part where everyone mentions how the team is so young and to expect bumps in the road... but wait, this isnt really true. Sure there is youth, but we still have Katie Nelson (remember, the point guard that was supposed to be the program's answer) and we have Ashley Sharpton, who, I maintain, is the Kyle Wilson of the women's program. To round out the senior class we have Patrycia Gulak, who, at one point, was a Big East caliber basketball player (St. Johns).

So what's going on? How isn't this team winning? One would think that with three returning seniors, one solid junior (Tamara Tatham), and the sophomore duo of McDonald and Mills, we would at least have a respectable team. Then we go and get embarassed by B.C., there is no other way to put it. If our men's team EVER lost by 40 to B.C. there would be a 200 page uproar on this board. Instead, we want to give her a chance, she needs a chance, she has to have another chance. You want to know why? It's because, for the most part, no one gives a flying rat's ass about the women's program, so it's ok to allow it to sink further and futher into obscurity.

Honestly, Dacko has to go sooner than later. Maybe give her another year to see how Mills and McDonald play out, but we can't keep her if we're going to keep losing. Then again, I guess her track record is what's keeping most of you on her side. She was a stellar coach at Cornell, with her ONE 15-win season and ZERO league titles. Sure, it was a change of pace for Cornell, but then how come the pace has stayed the same since she's been here? To quote the Real World... "It's time to stop being nice, and start being real."

She's not working out, it's time to move on.
"Wherever I go, I’ll never be bashful about being from UMass, baby.” -Victor Cruz

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Post by InnervisionsUMASS » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:48 pm

CrooksisRhyming wrote:
I have been following the program for the past four years and to be honest, it's almost time for Dacko to go. UMass has never had a successful women's program and Dacko isn't doing anything to change that. In her first season as head coach she did OK with the best player in UMass history (Jen Butler) after that she fell off by a lot. Players liek Judit, Sharpton, Nelson, Tatham, Govan, Mayweather, Campbell... were and are very talented, but were unable to play to the best of their ability under Dacko. I understand that Nelson had the injury to her ACL, but that's over, she's back and their losing again... losing bad.

So where is the issue? Last year we started to see what her recruits are capable of and what did we get? I am very impressed with Kate Mills and Rosanio, but the rest of the team is is pretty rough shape. Now, here comes the part where everyone mentions how the team is so young and to expect bumps in the road... but wait, this isnt really true. Sure there is youth, but we still have Katie Nelson (remember, the point guard that was supposed to be the program's answer) and we have Ashley Sharpton, who, I maintain, is the Kyle Wilson of the women's program. To round out the senior class we have Patrycia Gulak, who, at one point, was a Big East caliber basketball player (St. Johns).

So what's going on? How isn't this team winning? One would think that with three returning seniors, one solid junior (Tamara Tatham), and the sophomore duo of McDonald and Mills, we would at least have a respectable team. Then we go and get embarassed by B.C., there is no other way to put it. If our men's team EVER lost by 40 to B.C. there would be a 200 page uproar on this board. Instead, we want to give her a chance, she needs a chance, she has to have another chance. You want to know why? It's because, for the most part, no one gives a flying rat's ass about the women's program, so it's ok to allow it to sink further and futher into obscurity.

Honestly, Dacko has to go sooner than later. Maybe give her another year to see how Mills and McDonald play out, but we can't keep her if we're going to keep losing. Then again, I guess her track record is what's keeping most of you on her side. She was a stellar coach at Cornell, with her ONE 15-win season and ZERO league titles. Sure, it was a change of pace for Cornell, but then how come the pace has stayed the same since she's been here? To quote the Real World... "It's time to stop being nice, and start being real."

She's not working out, it's time to move on.

Well, until you quoted the Real World, you were pretty much right! :lol: :lol: :P
Stop waiting for UMass to do something big and help UMass do something big. - Shades

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BostonBert
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Post by BostonBert » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:27 pm

CrooksisRhyming wrote: Honestly, Dacko has to go sooner than later. Maybe give her another year to see how Mills and McDonald play out, but we can't keep her if we're going to keep losing. Then again, I guess her track record is what's keeping most of you on her side. She was a stellar coach at Cornell, with her ONE 15-win season and ZERO league titles. Sure, it was a change of pace for Cornell, but then how come the pace has stayed the same since she's been here? To quote the Real World... "It's time to stop being nice, and start being real."

She's not working out, it's time to move on.

Well at least you know something about the team and have the right to voice your opinion of the program and it's coach. I just think its a little ridiculous that people who don't ever go to a game and care less about how the team does would potentially come onto this board and just bash the coach and the team because its just one more thing they have to bitch about and be negative about which all too often becomes the theme in many threads.

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Post by lane one » Thu Dec 15, 2005 9:55 pm

A record at Cornell needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There is a definite pecking order in the Ivy League. Any athlete that can get into Cornell can get in, can also get into H-Y-P. H-Y-P get first choice. For the most part, Cornell gets the left overs. Of the Ivy's, Brown tends to be the most inclined to take things other than pure academics into account in the admissions process (and not just for athletes), so some athletes are admitted to Brown that could not get into Cornell, so Cornell often has a tough time competing against Brown as well. When four of seven other teams in your conference have a huge recruiting advantage over you, 0.500 becomes a much better record than appears at first glance.

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Post by lane one » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:35 pm

I didn't think there was any heat to loose in Ithaca this time of year.

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