My sense is that hope remained.Catbird wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:32 amThis is a good take. The most worrisome thing about all this is that the administration let it get to this point without making any decision one way or another. As you said, this is not a case of needing more information to make a decision.Homer wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:04 amI think it would depend on how big of a rebound we're talking about. I agree there's a decent chance the team bounces back to some extent, if only through simple mean-reversion -- you're not going to lose by 7 every week.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:25 am I'm not so sure a rebound won't happen.
Will that be enough to renew hope that the next couple of years will show marked improvement?
I dunno, but I DO know that there's a sense that they have two excellent incoming classes.
My take, though, would be this. If you're Hopkins, you went into last offseason with the program having had extremely similar results 3 of the past 4 seasons: 8-6 or 8-7 regular season, back into the NCAAs with a couple high-end wins, lose in the first round (badly). You're not looking at erratic results where you need more time to figure out if the program's coming or going; you're looking at a very stable baseline of performance. And apparently that baseline wasn't enough to get Petro's contract extended at the time. Without having any knowledge of exactly what the standard for retaining the staff beyond 2020 might be, it seems reasonable to assume it involves some nontrivial improvement on last year's result. Otherwise why not just do the extension already?
So if we're talking about a turnaround that includes 10+ wins, or a Big Ten title, or winning an NCAA game, then we're getting into a more interesting conversation. But if we're just talking "Petro confirms ability to do exact same thing he's done 4 years running" + "next two classes look good," then that's nothing Hopkins didn't know in June 2019. And if they didn't extend him then and do extend him now (under that hypothetical), I don't really understand the rationality of that decision.
What I'm surprised by is that if not the HC, there was also no change in the assistants.
Patience has to be thin.
I doubt the Administration at this point as the sort of expectations about the program as do older alums. No knock on the AD, but her higher ups aren't likely pushing for glory on the lax field in specific as would have been the case a generation ago. And there's no Jerry Schnydman or analog.
But gotta remember that a handful of such alums still have disproportionate sway.
At least one of whom has a grandson inbound. And Petro has sons.
How all this may factor, hard to tell.
It will be interesting.