Next Cornell basketball coach

Deserves its own thread. Cornell needs to move quickly so the Class of 2014 doesn't all go someplace else.

Donahue certainly paid his dues at Penn and Cornell even if he seems like a recent addition to the premier-coaching scene.

Are there any head coach slots that "trade up" to the Ivies, or is it a matter of hiring an assistant from somewhere?

At least Noel knew this was coming.

How about Al Skinner???????

Trotsky
Are there any head coach slots that "trade up" to the Ivies, or is it a matter of hiring an assistant from somewhere?

Certainly anything in Division III (in ancient history, Tom Penders went from Tufts to Columbia before a long career of job-hopping). I'm sure many of the small-school conferences, like the MAAC or MEAC would consider the Ivy League a step up; I'd be stunned if Cornell didn't have a larger basketball budget than St. Peter's.

Spiker probably would have been the #1 candidate but I dont see him leaving Army after just one year

The basketball blog has Paul Fortier, a former assistant and current assistant at Washington, and Izzi Metz, another former assistant and current Hobart coach as the two top candidates

Also an interesting coach from Andy Katz "Multiple sources in Indianapolis said that Donahue had contacted coaches about joining his staff with the Eagles, including at least one other Ivy League head coach. "
I could not imagine what current Ivy league coach Donahue would be going after

phillysportsfan
I could not imagine what current Ivy league coach Donahue would be going after

I assume you are joking. Congrats on the BC gig, Jerome Allen.

ugarte

phillysportsfan
I could not imagine what current Ivy league coach Donahue would be going after

I assume you are joking. Congrats on the BC gig, Jerome Allen.

I assume you are joking, why would Allen leave Penn before even taking the job? It is probably Joe Jones since Donahue is apparently good friends with him

phillysportsfan

ugarte

phillysportsfan
I could not imagine what current Ivy league coach Donahue would be going after

I assume you are joking. Congrats on the BC gig, Jerome Allen.

I assume you are joking, why would Allen leave Penn before even taking the job? It is probably Joe Jones since Donahue is apparently good friends with him

I was under the impression that Penn was interviewing everyone but Allen and Allen played under Donahue. I admit that I'm just guessing here but I sincerely thought you were being coy.

Why would Jones leave a head coaching position for an assistantship? If Allen is going to be demoted at Penn, an assistant coaching position at an ACC school would be a huge step up.

Allen has been given the full-time position.

ugarte

phillysportsfan

ugarte

phillysportsfan
I could not imagine what current Ivy league coach Donahue would be going after

I assume you are joking. Congrats on the BC gig, Jerome Allen.

I assume you are joking, why would Allen leave Penn before even taking the job? It is probably Joe Jones since Donahue is apparently good friends with him

I was under the impression that Penn was interviewing everyone but Allen and Allen played under Donahue. I admit that I'm just guessing here but I sincerely thought you were being coy.

Why would Jones leave a head coaching position for an assistantship? If Allen is going to be demoted at Penn, an assistant coaching position at an ACC school would be a huge step up.

Allen got the full head coaching job last week at Penn, he said it was his "dream job", he cannot leave before even starting.

I dont know why Jones would leave but Donahue offered the assistant job to someone and it wasnt Amaker,Allen or Sidney Johnson so it was either Agel who hasnt done much or one of the Jones brothers, Donahue knows Joe

Our top assistant Nat Graham is going with Donahue to BC also.

NancyfromNJ
How about Al Skinner???????

And a player to be named later...

NancyfromNJ
How about Al Skinner???????

I dont think so, pretty funny article calling Skinner the laziest coach in DI basketball. Speaking of crazy suggestions why not former Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez or Cornell grad Dave Bliss who was coach at Baylor during the mess in 2003 when one player murdered another

phillysportsfan

ugarte

phillysportsfan

ugarte

phillysportsfan
I could not imagine what current Ivy league coach Donahue would be going after

I assume you are joking. Congrats on the BC gig, Jerome Allen.

I assume you are joking, why would Allen leave Penn before even taking the job? It is probably Joe Jones since Donahue is apparently good friends with him

I was under the impression that Penn was interviewing everyone but Allen and Allen played under Donahue. I admit that I'm just guessing here but I sincerely thought you were being coy.

Why would Jones leave a head coaching position for an assistantship? If Allen is going to be demoted at Penn, an assistant coaching position at an ACC school would be a huge step up.

Allen got the full head coaching job last week at Penn, he said it was his "dream job", he cannot leave before even starting.

Apologies; I missed the news.

Good comments from Wrobo and Peck in the Ithaca journal. Got to respect Peck for immediately saying none of team is leaving. Next year is going to be an exciting year, a lot of unknowns in a league with no clear favorite except maybe Princeton a slight favorite over Harvard.



The returning players, moreso than anyone else, feel that whoever Andy Noel tabs as Donahue's replacement is walking into an excellent situation. Freshman Errick Peck, one of the key building blocks for the future, said the underclassmen are committed to continuing what the departing senior class of eight has helped create. They believe the talent is already in place, regardless of what the next year's crop of freshmen (which has yet to be announced), will bring.

"I think coaching matters, don't get me wrong, but our bond and what we've done both on and off the court will trump whatever decision, you know, that (is made)," Peck said. "We're a good enough unit, and as a whole we'll be fine next year. I don't think anybody's leaving. Actually, I can guarantee no one's leaving."

Both Peck and Chris Wroblewski stressed that the team would like a coach who understood how this current group plays. Next year's team is going to be different than the 2009-10 brand: less big, more athletic. But there's talent to work with.

"We're going to be a really good team. A lot of people are sleeping on us, especially since our coach left," Peck said. "Honestly I think, in my eyes, we're the favorite to win it. We have a lot of players coming back, a lot of players that people haven't seen come off the bench because we weren't able to get a chance to play."

Wroblewski said Noel should look for someone like Donahue.

"To me, I have some friends on other teams," Wroblewski said. "I get a unique perspective what they tell me, how they interact with their coach, and to tell you the truth, what they go through seems ... not enjoyable. The coach is basically all business on the floor, off the floor. They don't have a connection with him and what's unique with coach Donahue is you're able to talk sports with him. He's a big Philly fan and you get to know him on a personal level, and he helps you out with jobs, anything he can.

[thequad.blogs.nytimes.com]

Interesting two possible head coaching candidates, Fortier and Metz were the major keys to recruiting our current senior class.




One of the final contributions Paul Fortier made as a volunteer assistant coach at Cornell before leaving for Seattle was passing on a recruiting tip about the son of an N.B.A. coach who was looking at Ivy League colleges.

Fortier got the tip from Tom Newell, the son of the former Cal coach Pete Newell, and a friend of Randy Wittman.

But when Fortier brought Cornell’s coach, Steve Donahue, to see Ryan Wittman play, Donahue did not see a critical building block in his program. He saw rejection.

“We’re not going to be able to get him,” Fortier recalled Donahue telling him.

Fortier left for Washington, his alma mater, a few weeks later. But he told Izzi Metz, then a Cornell assistant, “Izzi, keep recruiting him.”

Metz is now the coach at Hobart College, just down the New York State Thruway from here. He had a hand in recruiting a good chunk of the six players who have been with this senior class all four years. (Two players, Jeff Foote and Andre Wilkins, were later added by transfer.)

Metz helped recruit Jon Jaques and Geoff Reeves, and helped close the deal on Wittman. He said there were two common denominators in Cornell’s senior class.

Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

billhoward
Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

I have to say I'm a bit put off by this comment from Andy Noel:

He [Noel] noted that Cornell never had the opportunity to make a counteroffer as Donahue never provided Cornell officials with details of Boston College's offer.

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

I have to say I'm a bit put off by this comment from Andy Noel:

He [Noel] noted that Cornell never had the opportunity to make a counteroffer as Donahue never provided Cornell officials with details of Boston College's offer.

Put off by the fact that he would mention it, or put off by the fact that Donahue would do that? If the latter, I'm sure Donahue and Noel had discussions on the parameters of what Cornell would be able to offer. Perfectly understandable of him to jump at his "home run" offer;

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

I have to say I'm a bit put off by this comment from Andy Noel:

He [Noel] noted that Cornell never had the opportunity to make a counteroffer as Donahue never provided Cornell officials with details of Boston College's offer.

Unless the counter was, "Cornell is moving to the Big East and offering scholarships next year," I'm not sure it would have made a difference.

Jordan 04

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

I have to say I'm a bit put off by this comment from Andy Noel:

He [Noel] noted that Cornell never had the opportunity to make a counteroffer as Donahue never provided Cornell officials with details of Boston College's offer.

Put off by the fact that he would mention it, or put off by the fact that Donahue would do that? If the latter, I'm sure Donahue and Noel had discussions on the parameters of what Cornell would be able to offer. Perfectly understandable of him to jump at his "home run" offer;

I agree. I've left 4 jobs in my career, all under my own terms, and I've never bothered to give my previous employer a chance to counteroffer. By the time things have progressed that far:

1) My mind is basically already made up anyway,
2) I already have a good idea of what my current employer can offer, and
3) I feel like going through that would somewhat poison the relationship with my current employer even if I decided to stay - I think they would resent the fact that I was shopping around.

I think the only situation where I would ask for a counteroffer is if my primary objective was to be promoted within the company in the first place, in which case I could see using leverage of another offer to achieve that. That doesn't really apply to Donohue's case, though.

Robb

Jordan 04

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

I have to say I'm a bit put off by this comment from Andy Noel:

He [Noel] noted that Cornell never had the opportunity to make a counteroffer as Donahue never provided Cornell officials with details of Boston College's offer.

Put off by the fact that he would mention it, or put off by the fact that Donahue would do that? If the latter, I'm sure Donahue and Noel had discussions on the parameters of what Cornell would be able to offer. Perfectly understandable of him to jump at his "home run" offer;

I agree. I've left 4 jobs in my career, all under my own terms, and I've never bothered to give my previous employer a chance to counteroffer. By the time things have progressed that far:

1) My mind is basically already made up anyway,
2) I already have a good idea of what my current employer can offer, and
3) I feel like going through that would somewhat poison the relationship with my current employer even if I decided to stay - I think they would resent the fact that I was shopping around.

I think the only situation where I would ask for a counteroffer is if my primary objective was to be promoted within the company in the first place, in which case I could see using leverage of another offer to achieve that. That doesn't really apply to Donohue's case, though.

I don't know what kind of jobs any of you have, but if it involves recruiting 18-20 high school kids to spend four years with you playing a sport representing your institution, I would hope you would feel a little less cold-blooded about walking away from them without at least describing to the institution the offer that was taking you away. Particularly given the "patience" that your institution showed when the fruits of your labor were, to put it politely, not readily apparent for five or six years. But, then again, perhaps you wouldn't.

Robb
I think the only situation where I would ask for a counteroffer is if my primary objective was to be promoted within the company in the first place, in which case I could see using leverage of another offer to achieve that. That doesn't really apply to Donohue's case, though.

Right -- moving out (or threatening to) in order to move up, and there was no "up" for Donohue at Cornell. I don't think your point 3 was really applicable in this case either, though -- it was certainly no secret that he was shopping around, and there aren't the (deliberately fostered in order to depress wage movement ahem) negative connotations for his position that there are for worker bees.

In the real business world, there's opinion that you never (well, almost) make a counteroffer on account of the guy's foot is out the door anyway.

I can't get too worked up over the "Did Steve keep Andy apprised?" discussion because they both knew that the kinds of offers Donahue would get would vault him past David Skorton (who had a pretty good year, too, give or take the P&L statement) and Cornell just couldn't, nor wouldn't, match them. The lowest offer was probably 2, 2-1/2 times what he was making now.

Hockey season's over earlier than we (or Barry Melrose) thought, the lacrosse team hasn't yet shown us what it's capable of, Donahue isn't coming back, and we've got a chance to cry in our beer publicly wiht this forum.

Al DeFlorio

Robb

Jordan 04

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

I have to say I'm a bit put off by this comment from Andy Noel:

He [Noel] noted that Cornell never had the opportunity to make a counteroffer as Donahue never provided Cornell officials with details of Boston College's offer.

Put off by the fact that he would mention it, or put off by the fact that Donahue would do that? If the latter, I'm sure Donahue and Noel had discussions on the parameters of what Cornell would be able to offer. Perfectly understandable of him to jump at his "home run" offer;

I agree. I've left 4 jobs in my career, all under my own terms, and I've never bothered to give my previous employer a chance to counteroffer. By the time things have progressed that far:

1) My mind is basically already made up anyway,
2) I already have a good idea of what my current employer can offer, and
3) I feel like going through that would somewhat poison the relationship with my current employer even if I decided to stay - I think they would resent the fact that I was shopping around.

I think the only situation where I would ask for a counteroffer is if my primary objective was to be promoted within the company in the first place, in which case I could see using leverage of another offer to achieve that. That doesn't really apply to Donohue's case, though.

I don't know what kind of jobs any of you have, but if it involves recruiting 18-20 high school kids to spend four years with you playing a sport representing your institution, I would hope you would feel a little less cold-blooded about walking away from them without at least describing to the institution the offer that was taking you away. Particularly given the "patience" that your institution showed when the fruits of your labor were, to put it politely, not readily apparent for five or six years. But, then again, perhaps you wouldn't.

Andy Noel's "loyalty through hard times" has really been overstated - both here and by Coach Donahue himself. It makes for a good story but the truth is that Donahue earned that loyalty by improving the on-court performance of the team. The team sucked when he started, but it sucked with Scott Thompson's players.

The arc of Cornell's placement in the standings (since OOC record may vary because of SOS) in Donahue's 8 years was t7-t7-t5-t5-2-3-3-1-1-1. The league wins went 3-2-4-6-8-8-9-14-11-13. Keep in mind, most of those years, you could count on losing 4 games to Penn/Princeton. Those patterns reflect a guy that is turning around a team; someone who you should stick with because the evidence bears it out not because you have faith in someone you think is a good guy.

It is clear that, with the graduation of Dale/Wittman/Foote (not to slight the other seniors), Cornell had peaked. Even if they win the Ivy League next year, they are going to take a step back nationally. This was the ideal time for Donahue to move on to a high-profile job and everybody knew it. Donahue didn't need to talk to Noel about the offers he was receiving from BC because they are both smart enough to know that Cornell can't - and even if it could, won't - match the ACC coaching salaries. I would be stunned if, after Donahue told Noel that he was taking the BC job, Noel indicated that he was upset that he didn't get an opportunity to match. The Cornell and BC coaching jobs are simply not on the same plane.

What would have kept Donahue at Cornell was a decision that he wanted to stay in a comfortable situation, at a level he knew he could succeed, for a career like Pete Carill. He had more ambition that that and he moved on. I am not offended in the slightest that he is enough of a realist to know that giving Cornell the opportunity to match would have been not a formality but a joke.

I wish him luck in Boston. He took down Princeton and Penn. Now it is time to take down Duke.

ugarte

Andy Noel's "loyalty through hard times" has really been overstated - both here and by Coach Donahue himself. It makes for a good story but...

I am not offended in the slightest that he is enough of a realist to know that giving Cornell the opportunity to match would have been not a formality but a joke.

I wish him luck in Boston. He took down Princeton and Penn. Now it is time to take down Duke.

I don't know how to say it's been overstated when the guy almost broke down crying when he was saying it. I also don't know how to put together all that was being said with the fact that he was so actively looking. If he really felt that strongly about what Cornell and Noel did for him, the nice thing to do would have been to talk to Noel before leaving. I can't easily put together all the events.

Having said that, I don't expect to understand it, since I doubt we will ever really know what was said or what was really meant as opposed to what was said. My opinion of Donahue has been knocked down a half notch, however. What has transpired after the Sweet Sixteen seems like what you'd expect in any big time program. Donahue seemed to imply that wasn't how he was. But as I said, I doubt we'll ever know. Most of the time in these situations, each side says what they need to say to preserve their own position. It may be contrary to what the other side is saying, but no one argues the point or expects anything differently. Sad, but true.

edit: Does anybody know if he was at the celebration?

Jim Hyla

ugarte

Andy Noel's "loyalty through hard times" has really been overstated - both here and by Coach Donahue himself. It makes for a good story but...

I am not offended in the slightest that he is enough of a realist to know that giving Cornell the opportunity to match would have been not a formality but a joke.

I wish him luck in Boston. He took down Princeton and Penn. Now it is time to take down Duke.

I don't know how to say it's been overstated when the guy almost broke down crying when he was saying it. I also don't know how to put together all that was being said with the fact that he was so actively looking. If he really felt that strongly about what Cornell and Noel did for him, the nice thing to do would have been to talk to Noel before leaving. I can't easily put together all the events.

Having said that, I don't expect to understand it, since I doubt we will ever really know what was said or what was really meant as opposed to what was said. My opinion of Donahue has been knocked down a half notch, however. What has transpired after the Sweet Sixteen seems like what you'd expect in any big time program. Donahue seemed to imply that wasn't how he was. But as I said, I doubt we'll ever know. Most of the time in these situations, each side says what they need to say to preserve their own position. It may be contrary to what the other side is saying, but no one argues the point or expects anything differently. Sad, but true.

edit: Does anybody know if he was at the celebration?

I didn't mean to imply that Donahue wasn't sincere in his thanks to Noel, only that based on the evidence being accumulated, Noel would have been a fool to dump him. I'm sure that while losing in 2000-2002 he felt like the sword might drop at any moment - it is the sort of thing a guy with self-respect might think and that kind of fear probably acts as self-motivation to boot. But here has to be some grace period to turn around a moribund program and the team started improving about as quickly as one could have hoped.

What transpired after the Sweet 16 is that, after three years of being courted by teams that could pay him more, the RIGHT teams finally started calling. I don't think he played it coy at all. He told anyone who asked that he would leave for the right offer and even Andy Noel, when interviewed, seemed to indicate that Donahue was up-front with him in exactly the same way. He didn't make bullshit pronouncements about how he was going to retire at Cornell or that this job was the best job he could ever have. He said he'd leave "for a home run."

The job he was offered was for a reported $900K per year for seven years to coach at a big-city school, well-respected for its academics that competes at the top level of college sports. Sounds like a home run to me.

Jim Hyla

ugarte

Andy Noel's "loyalty through hard times" has really been overstated - both here and by Coach Donahue himself. It makes for a good story but...

I am not offended in the slightest that he is enough of a realist to know that giving Cornell the opportunity to match would have been not a formality but a joke.

I wish him luck in Boston. He took down Princeton and Penn. Now it is time to take down Duke.

I don't know how to say it's been overstated when the guy almost broke down crying when he was saying it. I also don't know how to put together all that was being said with the fact that he was so actively looking. If he really felt that strongly about what Cornell and Noel did for him, the nice thing to do would have been to talk to Noel before leaving. I can't easily put together all the events.

Having said that, I don't expect to understand it, since I doubt we will ever really know what was said or what was really meant as opposed to what was said. My opinion of Donahue has been knocked down a half notch, however. What has transpired after the Sweet Sixteen seems like what you'd expect in any big time program. Donahue seemed to imply that wasn't how he was. But as I said, I doubt we'll ever know. Most of the time in these situations, each side says what they need to say to preserve their own position. It may be contrary to what the other side is saying, but no one argues the point or expects anything differently. Sad, but true.

edit: Does anybody know if he was at the celebration?

Donahue was not at the celebration. Noel didnt mention that he left either. Donahue probably did not want to be there as it would have taken attention away from the other teams present

Al DeFlorio

Robb

Jordan 04

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Nice article on what mid-majors will, won't (or can't) pay coaches. Story starts about Butler but bulk of it relates to how making a coach highly paid affects the core of the university: e.g. what you pay someone who's put a module on Mars vs. someone who's won 29 games. [www.insidehighered.com]

I have to say I'm a bit put off by this comment from Andy Noel:

He [Noel] noted that Cornell never had the opportunity to make a counteroffer as Donahue never provided Cornell officials with details of Boston College's offer.

Put off by the fact that he would mention it, or put off by the fact that Donahue would do that? If the latter, I'm sure Donahue and Noel had discussions on the parameters of what Cornell would be able to offer. Perfectly understandable of him to jump at his "home run" offer;

I agree. I've left 4 jobs in my career, all under my own terms, and I've never bothered to give my previous employer a chance to counteroffer. By the time things have progressed that far:

1) My mind is basically already made up anyway,
2) I already have a good idea of what my current employer can offer, and
3) I feel like going through that would somewhat poison the relationship with my current employer even if I decided to stay - I think they would resent the fact that I was shopping around.

I think the only situation where I would ask for a counteroffer is if my primary objective was to be promoted within the company in the first place, in which case I could see using leverage of another offer to achieve that. That doesn't really apply to Donohue's case, though.

I don't know what kind of jobs any of you have, but if it involves recruiting 18-20 high school kids to spend four years with you playing a sport representing your institution, I would hope you would feel a little less cold-blooded about walking away from them without at least describing to the institution the offer that was taking you away. Particularly given the "patience" that your institution showed when the fruits of your labor were, to put it politely, not readily apparent for five or six years. But, then again, perhaps you wouldn't.

I didn't say I didn't describe the offers, now, did I? Of course I did - and I always told them exactly why I was leaving. Sometimes it was for the money, sometimes for the opportunity, sometimes for the girl I was following. It's not like they just showed up to work one day and my desk was already cleaned out.

But thanks for assuming I'm a cold, heartless human being because I wanted to save my employer the trouble of putting together a counter offer I knew I wasn't going to accept.

ugarte

What transpired after the Sweet 16 is that, after three years of being courted by teams that could pay him more, the RIGHT teams finally started calling. I don't think he played it coy at all. He told anyone who asked that he would leave for the right offer and even Andy Noel, when interviewed, seemed to indicate that Donahue was up-front with him in exactly the same way. He didn't make bullshit pronouncements about how he was going to retire at Cornell or that this job was the best job he could ever have. He said he'd leave "for a home run."

That's all well and good, and for all we know, he may have been completely keeping Andy in the loop or not. I don't care. The only thing that rubs me the wrong way was his public statements to the CU and Ithaca communities:

"No matter what you read, there's nothing that I've even entertained that I would even consider leaving Cornell for. Nothing. There's just not. I've said no to every single one of the (calls) that have inquired about me leaving here...To beat this situation, in terms of the people I work for, the university I represent, the family loving the area as much as they do, all those things, it would have to be an incredible situation for me to leave Cornell."

OK fine, but the perception that he put out for us was that he was just happy as a clam in Ithaca sitting next to a phone, and if it happened to ring with a great offer, he would probably take it. The picture I get from external reports is that he and his people were out there actively selling himself to any and every big program that would listen, knowing his stock would never be higher. To me, there's a difference between taking calls and making calls, and I feel he was dialing a lot more than he let on. He's telling us "guys, look...this offer fell in my lap...they came knocking," when really he was carrying around a resume and head shot to Seton Hall and BC.

I'm fine with higher ambitions. But just be straight with us, and don't blow smoke up our asses. Say "I love it here, but this is my chance to move up. I hope you understand if I try to land one of these openings."

RichH

ugarte

What transpired after the Sweet 16 is that, after three years of being courted by teams that could pay him more, the RIGHT teams finally started calling. I don't think he played it coy at all. He told anyone who asked that he would leave for the right offer and even Andy Noel, when interviewed, seemed to indicate that Donahue was up-front with him in exactly the same way. He didn't make bullshit pronouncements about how he was going to retire at Cornell or that this job was the best job he could ever have. He said he'd leave "for a home run."

That's all well and good, and for all we know, he may have been completely keeping Andy in the loop or not. I don't care. The only thing that rubs me the wrong way was his public statements to the CU and Ithaca communities:

"No matter what you read, there's nothing that I've even entertained that I would even consider leaving Cornell for. Nothing. There's just not. I've said no to every single one of the (calls) that have inquired about me leaving here...To beat this situation, in terms of the people I work for, the university I represent, the family loving the area as much as they do, all those things, it would have to be an incredible situation for me to leave Cornell."

OK fine, but the perception that he put out for us was that he was just happy as a clam in Ithaca sitting next to a phone, and if it happened to ring with a great offer, he would probably take it. The picture I get from external reports is that he and his people were out there actively selling himself to any and every big program that would listen, knowing his stock would never be higher. To me, there's a difference between taking calls and making calls, and I feel he was dialing a lot more than he let on. He's telling us "guys, look...this offer fell in my lap...they came knocking," when really he was carrying around a resume and head shot to Seton Hall and BC.

I'm fine with higher ambitions. But just be straight with us, and don't blow smoke up our asses. Say "I love it here, but this is my chance to move up. I hope you understand if I try to land one of these openings."

If anything, the reports that he turned down a 5 year, $700,000/year offer from Hofstra, make his statements and his actions appear consistent, not inconsistent. Only the very naive among us would truly think that Donahue would have no designs on parlaying his success and national profile into career advancement. Do I think he was sitting at his desk with a Rolodex calling every vacancy? No, not really. He knew he wouldn't have to.

The quote that stuck in everybody's mind - and turned into an eLF thread title - was that a "home run" offer was required to lure Donahue away. The fact that he turned down $700K at a CAA school, and ended up accepting nearly a million dollars a year in the ACC strikes me as true to his word. The fact that he "said no to every single one of the (calls) that have inquired about me leaving here" as of March 29 says to me he simply was never wowed by the caliber of program calling up to that point.

You mean was Steve Donahue at the gathering the day after in front of Day Hall? He was indeed (Take Your Son to Work week, too) ...

[clear]

... as were players who didn't know it was 28 degrees, but maybe living in that drafty Collegetown house made them immune:

[clear]

More photos at [www.billhoward.phanfare.com]

Crowd photos from the game at [www.billhoward.phanfare.com]:

[clear]

I think he was true to his word but it is hard to tell with so many conflicting media reports.

Here's a quote that says Noel did make a counter offer, who knows if it is true
[blog.syracuse.com]
"The school did submit a counter-offer in order to keep Donahue, but did not have the money, the big market or the challenge of the Atlantic Coast Conference to keep its coach another year."

Noel said Donahue said no to “seven or eight schools” who inquired after the current season about his interest in their vacancies. Boston College got involved with Donahue more than week ago. Noel said the deal was consummated 48 hours ago. Donahue met with Boston College president William Leahy Tuesday morning before traveling to Ithaca to meet with Cornell players. Donahue did not return messages left on his cell phone.

Noel said he expects to receive an avalanche of applications for the Cornell vacancy. He said he had received eight resumes or email queries by the time he got to Newman Arena for the winter sports celebration.

Noel said he’s conducting a national search and believes the Cornell job has been elevated on Donahue’s watch. He expects to attract an elite pool of candidates.

[www.nydailynews.com]
So half the Ivy league will have a new coach next season as Donahue has hired Joe Jones as an assistant. His other assistants are Nat Graham our top assistant and John Gallagher from Penn.

As a parting gesture to the Big Red, Donahue is emptying some of the Ivy cupboards. Adn as you've noted, what he did for Cornell makes the job more attractive. Steven Donahue proved Cornell can have a great basketball team. If only we could find a football coach in the same vein - here's hoping we finally him. "Kent Austin" even sounds like a good Ivy league name, plus it's reversible, like Winthrop Taylor.

I think Donahue's point during the Sweet 16 run was that he was going to deal with coaching opportunities after the season was over. Not that they were ideal spots for him, but I think he fell behind in the Seton Hall and St. John's openings because he was coaching Cornell. I think he made up his mind to aggressively explore every opportunity after the season. He gave 10 years to Cornell and turned around a dead program. I mean, pretty much nobody cared.

After he found the "home run" at BC, I do not think there were many options. I am sure he had to tell the BC AD that he would accept if offered. And this is the same AD that fired the football coach for looking elsewhere. BC wants someone devoted to BC. You don't want to anger your new boss. Coach Donahue did what he had to do and I appreciate that he did not feed us garbage lines about how he would never leave. He is a class act. The reaction of the Cornell players should tell you that.

[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

phillysportsfan
[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

Listen, have you tried to book a flight from Pittsburgh to anywhere and compared it to booking a flight from Boston? To go to Philly, you can also drive the PA Turnpike for what Google says is a 5-hr trip (10 for both ways), or you can take the Acela from Boston in slightly less time and have a few drinks while reviewing videos of potential recruits on your MacBook Air. At close to $1M per year, the cost of a ticket is not an issue.

On the other hand, there's no question that if Cornell were in the Greater Philly area the fences for this home run would have been a good 100 ft further out. Besides, what's a basketball coach doing using a baseball metaphor? Shouldn't the BC job have been a buzzer beater, a slam dunk, or something like that?

Oh, and a word to anyone from the Sun who might be reading this. For next year's April Fool issue, how about either Cornell leaving the Ivy League to join the Bit Ten or the Ivies going big time with scholarships and "flexible" academic standards. (Maybe even joining the Big East football schools to form a new league. '"I learned Cornell does have a football team." said one Big East coach, "Whodathunkit."') You can quote Andy Noel as saying he started pushing for this after Donahue left, and he was tired of being beaten by the likes of Kentucky and Syracuse. Just think of the difference even one scholarship player might have made in either the lacrosse NC game or against Kansas in the last minute. Now that we're going big time, we can look forward to kicking some Big Ten butt. It will be like the thirties all over again. Remember, you read it here first.

Swampy

phillysportsfan
[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

Listen, have you tried to book a flight from Pittsburgh to anywhere and compared it to booking a flight from Boston? To go to Philly, you can also drive the PA Turnpike for what Google says is a 5-hr trip (10 for both ways), or you can take the Acela from Boston in slightly less time and have a few drinks while reviewing videos of potential recruits on your MacBook Air. At close to $1M per year, the cost of a ticket is not an issue.

Ummm...the point was that the coaching position at TEMPLE is now open, not Pitt. Temple is a wee bit closer to Philly than Boston.

Swampy

phillysportsfan
[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

Listen, have you tried to book a flight from Pittsburgh to anywhere and compared it to booking a flight from Boston? To go to Philly, you can also drive the PA Turnpike for what Google says is a 5-hr trip (10 for both ways), or you can take the Acela from Boston in slightly less time and have a few drinks while reviewing videos of potential recruits on your MacBook Air. At close to $1M per year, the cost of a ticket is not an issue.

On the other hand, there's no question that if Cornell were in the Greater Philly area the fences for this home run would have been a good 100 ft further out. Besides, what's a basketball coach doing using a baseball metaphor? Shouldn't the BC job have been a buzzer beater, a slam dunk, or something like that?

Oh, and a word to anyone from the Sun who might be reading this. For next year's April Fool issue, how about either Cornell leaving the Ivy League to join the Bit Ten or the Ivies going big time with scholarships and "flexible" academic standards. (Maybe even joining the Big East football schools to form a new league. '"I learned Cornell does have a football team." said one Big East coach, "Whodathunkit."') You can quote Andy Noel as saying he started pushing for this after Donahue left, and he was tired of being beaten by the likes of Kentucky and Syracuse. Just think of the difference even one scholarship player might have made in either the lacrosse NC game or against Kansas in the last minute. Now that we're going big time, we can look forward to kicking some Big Ten butt. It will be like the thirties all over again. Remember, you read it here first.

What are you talking about????, there is no opening at Pitt, there might be an opening at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ, central NJ which is probably an hour, hour and half drive.

And are you just joking, how is there an opening at Temple??? Temple is not going to get rid of Dunphy for awhile

Robb

Swampy

phillysportsfan
[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

Listen, have you tried to book a flight from Pittsburgh to anywhere and compared it to booking a flight from Boston? To go to Philly, you can also drive the PA Turnpike for what Google says is a 5-hr trip (10 for both ways), or you can take the Acela from Boston in slightly less time and have a few drinks while reviewing videos of potential recruits on your MacBook Air. At close to $1M per year, the cost of a ticket is not an issue.

Ummm...the point was that the coaching position at RUTGERS is now open, not Pitt. Rutgers is a wee bit closer to Philly than Boston.

FYP

ugarte

Robb

Swampy

phillysportsfan
[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

Listen, have you tried to book a flight from Pittsburgh to anywhere and compared it to booking a flight from Boston? To go to Philly, you can also drive the PA Turnpike for what Google says is a 5-hr trip (10 for both ways), or you can take the Acela from Boston in slightly less time and have a few drinks while reviewing videos of potential recruits on your MacBook Air. At close to $1M per year, the cost of a ticket is not an issue.

Ummm...the point was that the coaching position at RUTGERS is now open, not Pitt. Rutgers is a wee bit closer to Philly than Boston.

FYP

D'oh, and *sigh*, all in one... Merci for the fix!

Robb

ugarte

Robb

Swampy

phillysportsfan
[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

Listen, have you tried to book a flight from Pittsburgh to anywhere and compared it to booking a flight from Boston? To go to Philly, you can also drive the PA Turnpike for what Google says is a 5-hr trip (10 for both ways), or you can take the Acela from Boston in slightly less time and have a few drinks while reviewing videos of potential recruits on your MacBook Air. At close to $1M per year, the cost of a ticket is not an issue.

Ummm...the point was that the coaching position at RUTGERS is now open, not Pitt. Rutgers is a wee bit closer to Philly than Boston.

FYP

D'oh, and *sigh*, all in one... Merci for the fix!

That said, BC is a better gig than Rutgers.

Swampy
Oh, and a word to anyone from the Sun who might be reading this. For next year's April Fool issue, how about either Cornell leaving the Ivy League to join the Bit Ten or the Ivies going big time with scholarships and "flexible" academic standards. (Maybe even joining the Big East football schools to form a new league. '"I learned Cornell does have a football team." said one Big East coach, "Whodathunkit."') You can quote Andy Noel as saying he started pushing for this after Donahue left, and he was tired of being beaten by the likes of Kentucky and Syracuse. Just think of the difference even one scholarship player might have made in either the lacrosse NC game or against Kansas in the last minute. Now that we're going big time, we can look forward to kicking some Big Ten butt. It will be like the thirties all over again. Remember, you read it here first.

Nope, you could have read it on MetaEzra first. Two years ago:

[www.metaezra.com]

Cornell put the job posting up, anyone here qualified?

Job Description
Head Coach, Men's Basketball-12409

Description


Cornell University is accepting applications for the position of the Robert J. Gallagher '44 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. Responsibilities include the organizing and administering of all phases of a NCAA Division I (Ivy League) program including: recruiting student-athletes; training and preparing athletes for competition; monitoring and supporting the academic success of student-athletes; hiring an assistant coaching staff, supervising and evaluating basketball staff; managing budgets; public relations, fundraising and promotional activities and performing other duties as assigned.

Note: All applicants must apply via Cornell's on-line process in order to be considered.

Qualifications


Bachelor's degree required with 5 plus years of experience or equivalent. The successful candidate must have demonstrated knowledge of NCAA rules; high ethical standards; commitment to academic success; excellent organizational and administrative skills; successful coaching experience with a preference for head coaching experience; success in recruiting student-athletes to a basketball program committed to academic and athletic excellence. Visa sponsorship for this position is not available.

**Review of candidates will begin immediately and continue until a successful candidate is chosen.**

Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's land-grant institution. Its staff, faculty, and students impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas and best practices to further the university's mission of teaching, research, and outreach.


Cornell University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action educator and employer.

Job
-Coaches
Primary Location
-Ithaca
Organization
-Intercollegiate Athletics Adm.
Schedule
-Full-time
Job Type
-Standard
Overtime Status
-Exempt
Contact Name
-José A Delgado
Number of Openings
-1

University Job Title
-Head Coach
Level
-G
Sector*
-Endowed

cornell had issues with bigger things than money in keeping the coach here.. and I dont think the million number is close to correct either.. why give skinner over 2 million a yr and then give the replacement so little?

CC was offering over 2 million last week have to think BC is in the same range.. perhaps incentive driven with 1 million base?

upperdeck
cornell had issues with bigger things than money in keeping the coach here.. and I dont think the million number is close to correct either.. why give skinner over 2 million a yr and then give the replacement so little?

CC was offering over 2 million last week have to think BC is in the same range.. perhaps incentive driven with 1 million base?

Meaning?

upperdeck
cornell had issues with bigger things than money in keeping the coach here.. and I dont think the million number is close to correct either.. why give skinner over 2 million a yr and then give the replacement so little?

Skinner had been the head coach at BC for 13 years, with 9 years at URI before that. When recruiting a guy making ~250K you don't have to offer him the starting salary of the long-time coach he is replacing. I'm sure if they wanted to hire Larry Brown they'd expect to pay more but one of the advantages of hiring and up-and-comer is that the starting salary is going to be lower.

phillysportsfan

Swampy

phillysportsfan
[www.newjerseynewsroom.com]

And Rutgers might finally fire Fred Hill after he cursed at the Pitt baseball team during a Rutgers game as his dad is the baseball coach. I wonder if Donahue would have rather gone there as it is much closer to Philly but he would have had to do a lot more work to build Rutgers, although they would have been more patient than BC will be

Listen, have you tried to book a flight from Pittsburgh to anywhere and compared it to booking a flight from Boston? To go to Philly, you can also drive the PA Turnpike for what Google says is a 5-hr trip (10 for both ways), or you can take the Acela from Boston in slightly less time and have a few drinks while reviewing videos of potential recruits on your MacBook Air. At close to $1M per year, the cost of a ticket is not an issue.

On the other hand, there's no question that if Cornell were in the Greater Philly area the fences for this home run would have been a good 100 ft further out. Besides, what's a basketball coach doing using a baseball metaphor? Shouldn't the BC job have been a buzzer beater, a slam dunk, or something like that?

Oh, and a word to anyone from the Sun who might be reading this. For next year's April Fool issue, how about either Cornell leaving the Ivy League to join the Bit Ten or the Ivies going big time with scholarships and "flexible" academic standards. (Maybe even joining the Big East football schools to form a new league. '"I learned Cornell does have a football team." said one Big East coach, "Whodathunkit."') You can quote Andy Noel as saying he started pushing for this after Donahue left, and he was tired of being beaten by the likes of Kentucky and Syracuse. Just think of the difference even one scholarship player might have made in either the lacrosse NC game or against Kansas in the last minute. Now that we're going big time, we can look forward to kicking some Big Ten butt. It will be like the thirties all over again. Remember, you read it here first.

What are you talking about????, there is no opening at Pitt, there might be an opening at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ, central NJ which is probably an hour, hour and half drive.

And are you just joking, how is there an opening at Temple??? Temple is not going to get rid of Dunphy for awhile

My bad. I didn't click the link and read the article you recommended. Instead, I saw "Pitt" in the first sentence and "there" in the second. So I put 2 + 2 together and made 3.

phillysportsfan
[thequad.blogs.nytimes.com]

Interesting two possible head coaching candidates, Fortier and Metz were the major keys to recruiting our current senior class.




One of the final contributions Paul Fortier made as a volunteer assistant coach at Cornell before leaving for Seattle was passing on a recruiting tip about the son of an N.B.A. coach who was looking at Ivy League colleges.

Fortier got the tip from Tom Newell, the son of the former Cal coach Pete Newell, and a friend of Randy Wittman.

But when Fortier brought Cornell’s coach, Steve Donahue, to see Ryan Wittman play, Donahue did not see a critical building block in his program. He saw rejection.

“We’re not going to be able to get him,” Fortier recalled Donahue telling him.

Fortier left for Washington, his alma mater, a few weeks later. But he told Izzi Metz, then a Cornell assistant, “Izzi, keep recruiting him.”

Metz is now the coach at Hobart College, just down the New York State Thruway from here. He had a hand in recruiting a good chunk of the six players who have been with this senior class all four years. (Two players, Jeff Foote and Andre Wilkins, were later added by transfer.)

Metz helped recruit Jon Jaques and Geoff Reeves, and helped close the deal on Wittman. He said there were two common denominators in Cornell’s senior class.

The Ithaca Journal reports that Izzi Metz is out of the race.

IJ
Izzi Metz won't be Cornell's next men's basketball coach.

Metz withdrew from consideration after deciding he was happy as the head coach at Division III Hobart, Cornell assistant coach Woody Kampmann said Thursday.

Kampmann was an assistant to Metz at Hobart for the 2006-07 season, before joining Steve Donahue's staff. Kampmann and Metz remain close friends.

Donahue was introduced as Boston College's head coach on Wednesday, ending his 10-year tenure with the Big Red.

In an interview with The Journal on Tuesday, Donahue offered a vote of support for two of his former assistants -- Metz and current University of Washington assistant Paul Fortier.

"I hope they are guys that will get great consideration," Donahue said. "I think both of those guys would be tremendous."

Attempts to reach Metz were not successful.

Cornell director of athletics Andy Noel said Tuesday he hoped to make a decision quickly, though not at the expense of a thorough search. It is Noel's second major job search this school year. He hired Kent Austin to replace Jim Knowles as football coach on Jan. 27.

I am glad Metz is out of the search, he was here for a few years and then went to D3 Hobart, his alma mater. I know a lot of Patriot/Ivy league coaches come from D3 schools but it seems a little odd for a guy to be a D1 assistant and then to drop down to a D3 head coach job instead of hanging around D1 as an assistant.

I hope they hire Fortier, he was here for 2 years, is currently the top assistant at University of Washington, and played pro ball in Europe for awhile. Fortier had interviewed for the Brown job so it is not a stretch to think he would leave his alma mater for a head coaching job.

[www.theithacajournal.com]

Donahue is supporting Metz or Fortier to get the job so with Metz out of the picture, I guess Fortier is probably the leading candidate

A bit of perspective from perhaps an unlikely locality: [blog.al.com]

Imagine if the president of a public university had to be the most highly compensated person and got bumped up if somebody else made more. "Mister President, the new football coach says $3.5 million or he's staying put at his old job." "Well, all right. No sacrifice is too great for our loyal alumni and students."

Imagine if it was student fees, not corporate sponsorships or alumni donations or your endowment, that paid for the coach. At Duke, each of the 6600 students would have a line item on their tuition-room-board-activities-fee statement: "Coach K, 2010-2011 - $600"

Al DeFlorio
A bit of perspective from perhaps an unlikely locality: [blog.al.com]

This got me wondering who makes the most at Cornell. According to the university's 2007 IRS filing, the top five salaries go to med school professors and range from $1.8 million to $3.3 million.

Weder

Al DeFlorio
A bit of perspective from perhaps an unlikely locality: [blog.al.com]

This got me wondering who makes the most at Cornell. According to the university's 2007 IRS filing, the top five salaries go to med school professors and range from $1.8 million to $3.3 million.

From New York Times, 2/22/2009

Generally, fertility doctors are among the highest paid.

At Cornell, Dr. Zev Rosenwaks of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility received $3,149,376, and at New York University, Dr. James A. Grifo, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, was paid $2,393,646. Both substantially out-earned their presidents.

And from the Brown Daily Herald, 3/11/2009

the center at Cornell performs over 2,500 in-vitro fertilization procedures every year. According to the center, one in-vitro procedure costs around $8,900.

Al DeFlorio
A bit of perspective from perhaps an unlikely locality: [blog.al.com]

And if you want to read more, from InsideHigherEd.

And another one of our assistants, Woody Kampmann, joins BC as Dir of Basketball Ops, leaving us with Kevin App who has been here one year. Apparently someone interview here today and Fortier still seems to be the favorite

[sports.espn.go.com]
Great article about Donahue

The Cornell Sun reports today that Cornell has interviewed Matt Langel, assistant at Temple, and Bill Courtney, assistant at Virginia Tech, with Gary Close, assistant at Wisconsin, coming next week.

[cornellbasketball.blogspot.com]

Basketball coach to be named tomorrow at 3pm

phillysportsfan
[cornellbasketball.blogspot.com]

Basketball coach to be named tomorrow at 3pm

Uh... interesting photo.

Slightly off topic for this thread, but didn't want to start a new one. Great Globe article about Donahue, including his reaction to Gant's injury and his early efforts at BC.

www.Boston.com

2
Slightly off topic for this thread, but didn't want to start a new one. Great Globe article about Donahue, including his reaction to Gant's injury and his early efforts at BC.

www.Boston.com

“That was great for all of us,’’ Gant said. “But now I’m a BC fan.’’

He could've added "as well".

Good article on Coach Courtney:

[sports.espn.go.com]