One of the real good guys in the profession.

I wish Fancher well and he is a good guy but something that really jumps out at me in the article is his assessment of progress. "He felt the Seahawks were starting to turn the corner" when they were 9-23 in Buzz's fourth year and Buzz was 42-80 over four years. If those results are in any way believed to be a measure of success then mediocrity is an accepted outcome. That is a problem.

AtlAppMan wrote:I wish Fancher well and he is a good guy but something that really jumps out at me in the article is his assessment of progress. "He felt the Seahawks were starting to turn the corner" when they were 9-23 in Buzz's fourth year and Buzz was 42-80 over four years. If those results are in any way believed to be a measure of success then mediocrity is an accepted outcome. That is a problem.

I think what he was pointing to was that they went from 9-23 last year to 18-14 this year. Of course, whether they would have made that same progress with Buzz at the helm is debatable. I remember Tennessee suddenly got a lot better after they fired Buzz too.

Notice how Fancher thanks Roachel Laney and doesn't thank Cobb? The statement about how no one knew about basketball's success also sounds like a shot at Cobb.

I had a lot of respect for Fancher...until he thanked Laney. I am kidding of course about the respect for fancher. Anyone is entitled to a lapse in judgement. I am thankful Laney is not in charge.

I guess my point was that for NINE years when Fancher was here we were forever wondering in the "promised land" or "about to turn the corner" but we never got there. Some people always have some excuse for why they are just "one year" away from making it happen and it never happens. As a manager/AD, that makes is tough because sooner or later you have to say, enough is enough.

There are people that find a way to make it happen and those who are always "about to turn the corner". Fancher is a good guy but he is in the second category.

I think the problem is that Fancher sort of did turn the corner 04-05. His early years were ugly, but from 04-05 onwards his record looks a lot more like Cremins' or Buzz's than Apke's, Cantwell's, or Capel's. He certainly exceeded historical expectations during that period (and had a ton of big wins - mainly in 06-07).

The reason we're unimpressed by Fancher is that we don't just want to be better than we've been historically. We want to be a LOT better.

wataugan03 wrote:I think the problem is that Fancher sort of did turn the corner 04-05. His early years were ugly, but from 04-05 onwards his record looks a lot more like Cremins' or Buzz's than Apke's, Cantwell's, or Capel's. He certainly exceeded historical expectations during that period (and had a ton of big wins - mainly in 06-07).

The reason we're unimpressed by Fancher is that we don't just want to be better than we've been historically. We want to be a LOT better.

Well, that's part of it. But also, he never made the tournament and only won 20+ games once. He'd have one good year and then follow it with a bad one. Buzz had three straight 20+ win seasons (not counting his one-year return). We had essentially established ourselves as one of the top SoCon programs, along with Davidson and CofC.

Fancher never really got the chance to build on that. But he was also never able to replicate it.

wataugan03 wrote:I think the problem is that Fancher sort of did turn the corner 04-05.

Really?

In the four years to follow he only had two winning seasons and never made the NCAA tournament. What corner did he turn? Excuse me if my expectations are too high.

In NINE years at App playing in a very weak SoCon relative to other conferences.
3 winning seasons, 6 losing
Never made it to the Big Dance
Never won the SoCon tournament
Never even had best regular season record in SoCon

If that is not the poster child for mediocrity then I don't know who is.

In contrast, Bobby Cremins App resume.
He inherited a program that had only won 22 games since joining Division I five years earlier, and had just come off the worst season in school history at 3-23. In his first year at Appalachian his team had a record of 13–14, but then they accumulated an 87–56 record over the next five seasons, with three Southern Conference regular season championships. The Mountaineers posted a 23–6 record, and received an NCAA Tournament slot in 1979 after sweeping the Southern Conference regular season and tournament titles.

How can anyone compare Fancher to Cremins at App?

His three worst seasons all occurred in those first four years. After that, things got a lot better.

In years 1-4 he was 49-69 (27-37) with no wins of note. In years 5-9 he was 88-67 (52-36), with wins over Virginia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Witchita State, VCU, and a Curry Davidsion team. 2006-2007 was without a doubt our third best season, and was in my opinion, the best regular season we've ever had. Were those last five years as good as Buzz's or Cremins'? No. But I stick by my statement that they are closer to what Buzz and Cremins accomplished than what Apke, Cantwell, and Capel accomplished. And I stand by my statement that he turned a corner in 04-05. From that point on we always had a competitive roster and we were always at least in the middle of the pack of the Socon.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think a Fancher team ever advanced to the FINALS in SoCon. It's hard to win the tournament if you're not even in the finals.

T-Dog wrote:Notice how Fancher thanks Roachel Laney and doesn't thank Cobb? The statement about how no one knew about basketball's success also sounds like a shot at Cobb.

It's understandable to a degree as Laney hired Fancher and Cobb fired him. It's hard for most people to say much good about someone who fires them.

I did not know much about Houston Fancher until he joined the staff, but he seems like a stand-up guy. Here is a recent interview. They are talking about Charlotte which is probably not of much interest to you, but you may not have seen your old coach in a while. Fancher is clearly comfortable and good with the media. I think we have assembled a staff that is built for jumping ship if we have some success. I think I speak for 49ers everywhere when I say we would welcome that.

http://www.myfoxla.com/story/28812192/s ... on-fancher