Furman Disbands

[cuseman4133]

Looks like it wasn't only a financial decision when Furman dropped lacrosse and baseball. Latest APR numbers show lacrosse and baseball teams were not excelling in the class rooms and graduation rates:

https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2020/5/ ... -data.aspx

Not necessarily. Article doesn't mention either program. Doesn't really mean they weren't doing well in the classroom. Why post about whether a program did really well in the classroom when it doesn't exist anymore?

[TNLAX]

Looks like it wasn't only a financial decision when Furman dropped lacrosse and baseball. Latest APR numbers show lacrosse and baseball teams were not excelling in the class rooms and graduation rates:

https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2020/5/ ... -data.aspx

Not necessarily. Article doesn't mention either program. Doesn't really mean they weren't doing well in the classroom. Why post about whether a program did really well in the classroom when it doesn't exist anymore?

The current APR numbers, recently released, account for the years thru the spring of 2019 academic year. This year, Fall of 2019 n spring of 2020 will be added into next springs APR numbers. If the baseball and lacrosse teams had good numbers, I would imagine the press release would have recognized their accomplishments in the classroom.

[youthathletics]

Looks like it wasn't only a financial decision when Furman dropped lacrosse and baseball. Latest APR numbers show lacrosse and baseball teams were not excelling in the class rooms and graduation rates:

https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2020/5/ ... -data.aspx

Not necessarily. Article doesn't mention either program. Doesn't really mean they weren't doing well in the classroom. Why post about whether a program did really well in the classroom when it doesn't exist anymore?

The current APR numbers, recently released, account for the years thru the spring of 2019 academic year. This year, Fall of 2019 n spring of 2020 will be added into next springs APR numbers. If the baseball and lacrosse teams had good numbers, I would imagine the press release would have recognized their accomplishments in the classroom.

Or maybe they were actually good or even better and they did not want to open up that can of worms. Ya never know.

[LaxPundit07]

TN Lax clearly has a bone to pick with either Furman admins or Coach Meade.

Read the article again. It says “ Fourteen Furman sports topped the national average in Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores”. Which means their APR was higher than the national average. That does not mean that baseball and lacrosse had averages akin to Bob Huggins’ old Cincy basketball teams. Lacrosse annually has one of, if not the highest APRs across NCAA sports. It’s hard to top the national average in that sport. Especially when you aren’t at an Ivy or Patriot League.

Also if you know anything about new programs, you would know they struggle with APR early on because of the amount of attrition since the early classes are so big. I started an NCAA Division 1 program as a head coach. Those early years weigh down your APR until you are well beyond years 7,8,9, and 10. Remember, APR is a multi-year stat. So this one went back to 2015-Furman’s second season.

Again, this article doesn’t even state what men’s lax and baseball’s APR actually was. They could have literally been one point below national average but not included in the article.

Bottomline, TN Lax has an axe to grind with Furman and will find anything to support his narrative. He didn’t even bother to respond when I dismantled his hit piece on Coach Meade last week.

[TNLAX]

Uh oh. A Richie Meade truther is upon us. Never once heard this criticism of RM at Navy. He mentored incredible assistants there that are now head coaches. Charley Toomey and John Tillman come to mind.

When Petro heard that Navy may fire RM, he said he would remove Navy from the schedule in protest because RM was one of the most respected figures in the game. Name the last academy school to be in a national championship?.....I’ll wait.....

Sorry, I just don’t buy you trying to pin this on Richie.

Had to assume your question was rhetorical, but if you need an answer it was Navy in 2004.

If you had ever read the laxpower Navy thread years ago you would have seen a lot of discontent among poster with RM's performance his last few years at the academy. For that matter look at the Hopkins threads and you will see an awful lot restlessness with Hopkins posters as well with Petro. Maybe Petro and RM have seen their best days as coaches.

As for Petro saying that he would remove Navy from their schedule in protest to RM's firing, he didn't! So I don't understand your point.

Meade's won/lost record his last ten years of coaching is awful. Don't blame it on the fact he was starting a new program at Furman, Richmond and HPU have had a lot of success with new programs. RM was the captain of the ship, the buck stops with him.

There are an abundance of reasons that Furman disbanded baseball and lacrosse, it is not solely because of the financial burden brought on by the Corono virus.

[LaxPundit07]

Uh oh. A Richie Meade truther is upon us. Never once heard this criticism of RM at Navy. He mentored incredible assistants there that are now head coaches. Charley Toomey and John Tillman come to mind.

When Petro heard that Navy may fire RM, he said he would remove Navy from the schedule in protest because RM was one of the most respected figures in the game. Name the last academy school to be in a national championship?.....I’ll wait.....

Sorry, I just don’t buy you trying to pin this on Richie.

Had to assume your question was rhetorical, but if you need an answer it was Navy in 2004.

If you had ever read the laxpower Navy thread years ago you would have seen a lot of discontent among poster with RM's performance his last few years at the academy. For that matter look at the Hopkins threads and you will see an awful lot restlessness with Hopkins posters as well with Petro. Maybe Petro and RM have seen their best days as coaches.

As for Petro saying that he would remove Navy from their schedule in protest to RM's firing, he didn't! So I don't understand your point.

Meade's won/lost record his last ten years of coaching is awful. Don't blame it on the fact he was starting a new program at Furman, Richmond and HPU have had a lot of success with new programs. RM was the captain of the ship, the buck stops with him.

There are an abundance of reasons that Furman disbanded baseball and lacrosse, it is not solely because of the financial burden brought on by the Corono virus.

The more I think about this hot take, the more it irritates me.

What evidence do you have of Meade not taking input from his young assistants? And where/how did you gather that evidence?

In the meantime, I will offer a few more facts.

1. I recently listened to an interview with John Tillman on a podcast. He raved about Coach Meade and his tutelage. Charley Toomey at Loyola, John Tillman at Maryland, Anthony Gilardi at Stony Brook, Ryan Moran at UMBC, Matt Hogan's brief stint at Penn, Stan Ross went on to coach professionally. His coaching tree is lengthy and impressive. Clearly he knows how to cultivate young assistant coaches.

2. Richie Meade was hired in May of 2012. At the time of his hire, and stated clearly in the Furman press release, Furman was planning to start lacrosse in the 2014-2015 academic year. Fast forward a few months and all of a sudden, Furman is now planning to start in 2013-2014; leaving Coach Meade and his staff less than a full year to develop a roster and to recruit players 2-3 years late in the recruit cycle. This was at the height of early recruiting. At that point and time, most players were committing in their sophomore years of high school. Now Coach was left to make a roster from the scrap heap---and by all accounts did not know this would happen when he was hired. Ask Coach Torpey at High Point how important it is to have that extra year. He had half his roster on campus for a full academic year and taught the young men how to be college athletes, practice, train, etc.

3. Coach Meade took the NAVAL ACADEMY to the national championship game. NAVY. He was the US team head coach and served as the IMLCA President. Does the coaching body of your peers elect you as president of their organization if you aren't a leader?

[TNLAX]

Uh oh. A Richie Meade truther is upon us. Never once heard this criticism of RM at Navy. He mentored incredible assistants there that are now head coaches. Charley Toomey and John Tillman come to mind.

When Petro heard that Navy may fire RM, he said he would remove Navy from the schedule in protest because RM was one of the most respected figures in the game. Name the last academy school to be in a national championship?.....I’ll wait.....

Sorry, I just don’t buy you trying to pin this on Richie.

Had to assume your question was rhetorical, but if you need an answer it was Navy in 2004.

If you had ever read the laxpower Navy thread years ago you would have seen a lot of discontent among poster with RM's performance his last few years at the academy. For that matter look at the Hopkins threads and you will see an awful lot restlessness with Hopkins posters as well with Petro. Maybe Petro and RM have seen their best days as coaches.

As for Petro saying that he would remove Navy from their schedule in protest to RM's firing, he didn't! So I don't understand your point.

Meade's won/lost record his last ten years of coaching is awful. Don't blame it on the fact he was starting a new program at Furman, Richmond and HPU have had a lot of success with new programs. RM was the captain of the ship, the buck stops with him.

There are an abundance of reasons that Furman disbanded baseball and lacrosse, it is not solely because of the financial burden brought on by the Corono virus.

The more I think about this hot take, the more it irritates me.

What evidence do you have of Meade not taking input from his young assistants? And where/how did you gather that evidence?

In the meantime, I will offer a few more facts.

1. I recently listened to an interview with John Tillman on a podcast. He raved about Coach Meade and his tutelage. Charley Toomey at Loyola, John Tillman at Maryland, Anthony Gilardi at Stony Brook, Ryan Moran at UMBC, Matt Hogan's brief stint at Penn, Stan Ross went on to coach professionally. His coaching tree is lengthy and impressive. Clearly he knows how to cultivate young assistant coaches.

2. Richie Meade was hired in May of 2012. At the time of his hire, and stated clearly in the Furman press release, Furman was planning to start lacrosse in the 2014-2015 academic year. Fast forward a few months and all of a sudden, Furman is now planning to start in 2013-2014; leaving Coach Meade and his staff less than a full year to develop a roster and to recruit players 2-3 years late in the recruit cycle. This was at the height of early recruiting. At that point and time, most players were committing in their sophomore years of high school. Now Coach was left to make a roster from the scrap heap---and by all accounts did not know this would happen when he was hired. Ask Coach Torpey at High Point how important it is to have that extra year. He had half his roster on campus for a full academic year and taught the young men how to be college athletes, practice, train, etc.

3. Coach Meade took the NAVAL ACADEMY to the national championship game. NAVY. He was the US team head coach and served as the IMLCA President. Does the coaching body of your peers elect you as president of their organization if you aren't a leader?

It was Richie's decision to move the start date. Chemotti at Richmond had the same timeline and has done very well. Torpey at HPU used the extra year and it worked for him.

He didn't win the World Championship when he was the USA head coach.

And yes, volunteer organizations constantly promote people to run them who may not be the best fit at the time.

[LaxPundit07]

TN Lax, your displeasure with Coach Meade and Furman are obvious. You are a new poster. You have made ten posts; nine of them on the Furman thread and one on the thread about schools dropping sports.

You started with a shot across the bow; "RM went thru a number of quality asst coaches his first few years (Birsner, Haus, Cohn) because he was a stubborn coach who would not take input from the younger coaches who knew the game. There was very little talent in the pipeline heading to FU after 2017 because kids didn't want to play for RM."

You refuse to provide any evidence for this. You ignore his lengthy history of mentoring quality assistants who have become great head coaches (national champion head coaches!). I outlined them in an earlier post which you conveniently ignored. You also mention kids not wanting to play for RM without any further explanation or evidence.

The bottomline is: your posting history makes it evident that you, your husband/boyfriend, your brother, or your friend were slighted by Coach Meade at some point and you are here to kick him and Furman while they are down. I have been around and in this sport my entire life and there are very few as respected as Coach Meade. Your crack about the volunteer IMLCA organization and his presidency shows your ignorance. I have been in those meetings. Coaching bodies don't elect their peers to that position if they aren't a strong leader of men. Don't believe me? Go ask the Looney family.

Take your ball and go home.

[old salt]

Anyone have insights into what Richie Meade's plans might be ?
Does he still have a daughter in HS in Greenville & another daughter still at Furman ?

Does his contract preclude him for coaching elsewhere without a buyout ?

Would love to hear him in the broadcast booth for PL games on CBSSN, PLN webcasts of Navy home games, & WNAV radio call of Navy away games. Pete & Joe are great together, but Richie'd be a great color guy for either's play by play. With all the other Navy sports to broadcast, they need a lax wingman. After Furman's return to NMCMS, it's time to end his exile. Does SW fly direct between Greenville & BWI ?

[RedFromMI]

Southwest GSP to BWI one nonstop per day. You can also fly through ATL (leg from GSP not much more than a half hour).

[cuseman4133]

I've heard he's enjoying a really good buyout. Six digits for the next two years. Doubt we see him coaching D1 again.

[Unknown Participant]

Watching (or maybe re-watching) the 3/1/2020 Furman Duke game on youtube. Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKltZGGh7ZY

Among other issues, including atrocious settled offense, and so-so GK play, at 43:50 of the video (Q2), down 9-1, Furman produces a FB off the FO. Furman does not set up in a fast break offense, so when the Furman wing middie shoots wide no one backs it up. Possession Duke. Brutal.