farfromtheshow

I tweeted that one earlier today... Like I said on here, and in the article I wrote for OBW, UMBC is immediately better with Aki at the helm and Jay Greene having a bigger role... they are who the players have looked towards for guidance the past two seasons...

ball_of_rubber

A much as I like Aki, I see a Macon situation, and neither were their fault. If UMBC wants any form of long-term stability, Aki should recruit as he were to be first assistant next year, then go back to first assistant once a full-time head coach is hired next year.

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

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farfromtheshow

Absolutely NOTHING similar between Thomas and Macon as far as who they are as a person, basketball mind, coach, and work ethic... zero... analogy does not work.

Thomas, by all accounts, was one of the few threads holding the UMBC team together (along with Greene), Macon was... part of the problem at Bing.

Thomas is a very hard, diligent worker, who has put a great deal of energy - and given a great deal of himself - to the team. Macon... was none of those things, was hands off in practices as an assistant, and when he took over as head coach, spend many practices sitting in his office while assistants ran practice... The level of incompetence... I can't begin to describe. Odds are that this is a one year gig for Thomas, and I can't tell you if he will be a decent coach this year or not, but I can tell you that any comparison between him and Macon is a tremendous disservice to Thomas, and to the work and effort he's put in to UMBC basketball...

ball_of_rubber

I understand what you're saying, but I think you're missing my point. No one is saying that Thomas is incompetent like Macon was, but in my opinion, Macon's incompetence was exacerbated by the fact that he was professionally unprepared for a head coaching role to begin with. Connection to Broadus aside, if he were to have remained an assistant coach and a new head coach was brought in (yes, circumstances didn't allow it, I understand, but we're speaking in hypotheticals right now), who knows, he could still be there or at a higher level school. Like I said, hypothetical.

My overall point was, and I think you took it the wrong way earlier, is that I really hope that Thomas's inexperience doesn't hurt this program. I want him back next year, because like you said, he and Greene are the glue holding this team together, and I have no doubts about that. It's just for now, in the year 2012, he's not ready for a full-time head coaching in the long run; but right now, he is the best choice to step in during this turmoil.

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

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umbc32244

Random, but are these our new uniforms?

http://www.umbcretrievers.com/sports...PLAYER_ID=6418

Not a huge fan....

ball_of_rubber

Really? We're going to K-Mart now?

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

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umbc32244

Sounds like Walt Fuller is out at UMBC too.

....down to one AC with a DBO.

ball_of_rubber

He's still on the UMBC site....

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

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umbc32244

Yeah, typical haha.

Oh, and I also saw that UMBC won against UMES in their scrimmage yesterday (Twitter), but I have no idea how it went down. Still a good sign I guess.

ball_of_rubber

Didn't see that, but earlier today I saw Randy Monroe at Fairfield watching practice.

Of course, this is all amidst current students complaining that the campus isn't going to close down until the last minute. Some things just never change.

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

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ball_of_rubber

And Fuller is being replaced by....John Zito.

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

http://retrieverbasketballrallymonkey.com/

umbc32244

I guess Aki wanted familiarity on his staff....

Quickdraw62

It seems strange that Coach Fuller would resign so close to the season after just being hired by Randy Monroe in July; he was lauded for bringing a wealth of experience and recruiting success to a struggling program. Strange......