New York Metro Area Coaching Fiasco

They call it a "New York minute" – that's all it takes for your fortunes to turn in this city. What used to be the epicenter of college basketball has fallen on the hardest of times and is in danger of losing any remaining respect on the national stage. The Metro area remains a hotbed for recruiting and, along with North Jersey, constitutes the best pool of talent in the nation. Yet failing to recruit those players has been only one of a seemingly infinite number of problems for every single Metro-area team.

                Back in October, experts pegged this as the Metro area's year. With Seton Hall boasting junior guard Jeremy Hazell and two other NBA hopefuls, Rutgers leaning on sophomores guard Mike Rosario and center Greg Echenique and St. John's returning redshirt senior forward Anthony Mason Jr. and all five of last season's starters, as many as four teams (including Hofstra) were somewhere between hoping and expecting an NCAA bid by March.

                As it turned out, however, none did; Seton Hall and St. John's fell in the first round of the NIT as a No. 4 seed and No. 6 seed, respectively, Hofstra lost to IUPUI in the first round of the CBI and Rutgers missed out on the postseason

                As if that wasn't enough, it sure didn't end there. I originally planned to write this article back in early March, but as worse and worse news continued to develop until (and still possibly beyond) now, I just sat back and waited for the dust to settle before taking one encompassing look at the situation.

                Fordham drew the first bit of attention, finally firing Dereck Whittenburg after a 1-4 start highlighted by numerous run-ins with players on Dec. 3, one day after Jio Fontan announced plans to transfer (he is now at USC). With interim head coach Jared Grasso at the helm, the Rams won their first game against NIT-contender Stony Brook but fell in the final 22 games (a school record) to post the Rams' second-consecutive worst season ever.   

                The rest of the Metro area waited for the end of the season before pulling the plug on coaches, and literally every school except Manhattan (and Stony Brook, if you count that as Metro-area) was searching for someone to head up the program by the end of April. Four more firings, three abandonments and one resignation brought major media attention to the former capital of the college basketball world. A myriad of transfers and hard feelings all around did nothing to help.

                Yet somehow, Fordham managed to get the jump on the rest of the city. Despite numerous criticisms, including the failure to fully commit to a national coaching search and waiting until after the season to review candidates, the Rams struck first with the hiring of Tom Pecora away from Hofstra on March 24 for five years and about $650,000.  Pecora was on St. John's and Seton Hall's radar at first, but he turned out not to be their first choice and when they finally got around to his name, Fordham had pounced. Praise should be given to Executive Director of Athletics Frank McLaughlin and all others heavily involved in the hire, but honestly there was no conceivable way that Fordham could mess this one up in terms of getting the first choice. Since the hire, Pecora appears to be the exact kind of man for the job and could enjoy success in the area for years, probably on a higher scale even than his generally successful stint at Hofstra. 

                After Fordham pulled out of things, it got ugly. Most other colleges mirrored Fordham's move, bringing in whom they considered the top New York-area coach, often opening another gap at a lower-tier school. Seton Hall made a desperation hire in Iona head coach Kevin Willard, giving him a five-year contract that pays $1 million per year on March 28. St. John's then managed to steal all the headlines with a big name (after being turned down by several) in former UCLA head coach Steve Lavin on March 30, giving him six years at $9-9.5 million per. Hofstra then grabbed former Providence head coach Tim Welsh on March 31 and Iona got to C.W. Post head coach Tim Cluess (and Grasso, as the top assistant) while Wagner went outside the box for St. Benedict's High School head coach Dan Hurley, Columbia swiped associate head coach Kyle Smith from St. Mary's to compensate for Joe Jones heading to Boston College as the associate head coach and St. Francis in Brooklyn nabbed former assistant Glenn Braica after Brian Nash resigned for personal reasons. Siena also lost Fran McCaffrey to Iowa in the mix, eventually promoting well-respected assistant Mitch Buonaguro,  and Hofstra quickly came back into play, suspending the newly hired Tim Welsh after a DUI arrest until he resigned, forcing the school to hire BC assistant Mo Cassera as head coach.

Throughout all this, Rutgers made headlines almost daily. Already considering letting Fred Hill go after several disappointing years and star sophomore center Gregory Echenique's announcement that he would transfer to Creighton, the Scarlet Knights were basically handed an out when Hill unleashed an expletive-laden tirade at a baseball game, apparently violating the personal conduct clause in his contract. Yet Rutgers tread carefully, spending two weeks negotiating what became an $800,000-$850,000 buyout on the $1.9 million left on Hill's contract rather than risking legal action (likely due in part to Bobby Gonzalez's impending suit against Seton Hall for his firing). When that dust had settled, Rutgers reportedly reached out to the likes of Bob Knight (who presumably turned down an interview), Fran Fraschilla, the recently fired Al Skinner and former Philadelphia 76ers head coach Eddie Jordan (who withdrew from consideration) but ultimately chose Fordham alumnus and Robert Morris head coach Mike Rice. Endorsed by the legendary Bob Hurley of St. Anthony's, Rice had seemingly missed out on several big-time jobs in the city after Fordham and Seton Hall each grabbed men reportedly ranked just one spot higher on their boards than Rice but in the end grabbed one of the better opportunities available in the end, as Rutgers is a likely candidate to move to the soon-to-be Big 10 superconference. Rice had apparently given up on moving back to New York when he signed an extension through 2016-2017 at Robert Morris on April 9, but once the Rutgers job opened up, he had the inside track in terms of endorsements. Just as Pecora noted in his press conference that he was "probably going to the first [New York] school that called him," Rice would likely have done the same thing. 

Whether these hires turn out to be successful is very much up in the air; only Lavine and Rice have already hit the recruiting trail with success, although Pecora did manage to bring in talented guar Branden Frazier and has several potential Atlantic 10 starters interested. The only sure thing is that the Metro area will look much different next season and, although Seton Hall retains most of its contributors and will probably make the NIT at the least, it should take at least another year after this to recover from the utter catastrophe of this past season. Yet as poorly as the city's colleges did with a great opportunity this year, it is only a matter of time before some daring coach makes the moves necessary to bring his team and hopefully the rest of the Metro area back to the top of the college basketball world. With these New York coaches now in place, the rest of the nation has little chance of stealing highly touted North Jersey and New York City kids; even Jay Wright and Rick Pitino will have to fight to pull players like Edgar Sosa, Samardo Samuels and Corey Fisher out of their homes, and there certainly won't be any more Lance Stephenson-type fiascos. With Rice and Grasso combing North jersey for top talent, Lavine gobbling up the class of the area, Willard and Cluess scouring the Bronx and Pecora and Hurley hitting the other boroughs, few New York City high schoolers will even meet with coaches outside the area. New York's time may have been delayed, but it will not be denied.

 

 

 

Here's what has changed in the Metro area since last season:

 

 

Fired Dereck Whittenburg (seventh season); hired Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora on March 24 to a five-year contract at $650,000 per.

 

Freshmen shooting guard Lance Brown and point guard Brennan Melvin expected to transfer; Jayon James decommitted, expected to attend Prep School.

 

 

Joe Jones (seven years) resigned to become associate head coach at Boston College; hired St. Mary's associate head coach Kyle Smith on May 2.

 

 Tom Pecora (nine years) resigned to become head coach at Fordham; hired former Providence head coach (10 years) Tim Welsh on March 31 but resigned after DUI arrest; hired BC assistant coach Mo Cassera on May 6.

 

Freshman forward Halil Kanecevic transferred to Saint Joseph's.

 

 

Kevin Willard (three years) left to become head coach at Seton Hall; hired C.W. Post head coach Tim Cluess and former Fordham interim head coach Jared Grasso as associate head coach.

 

 

 Bought out Fred Hill (four years) for $800,000-$850,000 of $1.9 million remaining; hired Robert Morris head coach Mike Rice on May 4.

 

Sophomores shooting guard Mike Rosario transferred to Florida, center Gregory Echenique transferred to Creighton and forward Patrick Johnson announced plans to transfer; Gilvydas Biruta announced plans to decommit but later recommitted.

 

 

Fired Bobby Gonzalez (four years); hired Iona head coach Kevin Willard on March 28 to a five-year contract at $1 million per.

 

 

Fran McCaffery (five years) left to become head coach at Iowa; promoted assistant Mitch Buonaguro to head coach on April 8.

 

 

 Brian Nash (five years) resigned; hired former assistant Glenn Braica on April 27.

 

 

 Fired Norm Roberts (six years); hired former UCLA head coach Steve Lavin on March 30 to a six-year, $9-9.5 million contract.

 

Freshmen guards Tyshawn Edmondson and Omari Lawrence announced plans to transfer.