CJS on Jim Rome podcast today

[AuricGoldfinger]

Most of the Vandy talk is in the first 13 minutes of the pod:

* Talks about the difficulties of breaking in a new PG with a tough schedule
* Says the team didn't respond well to having Grambling right before exam week
* Talks about challenges of recruiting to a high academic institution like Vanderbilt
* Seems to indicate his philosophy is to keep the freshmen on the bench until he thinks they are ready
* Enthusiastic for positive changes associated with Vandy United, Candice Lee, and Chancellor Diermeier
* Says Dean Smith had the greatest influence upon his coaching

Caution: NSFW language from Jim.

[Jason94]

Most of the Vandy talk is in the first 13 minutes of the pod:

* Talks about the difficulties of breaking in a new PG with a tough schedule
* Says the team didn't respond well to having Grambling right before exam week
* Talks about challenges of recruiting to a high academic institution like Vanderbilt
* Seems to indicate his philosophy is to keep the freshmen on the bench until he thinks they are ready
* Enthusiastic for positive changes associated with Vandy United, Candice Lee, and Chancellor Diermeier
* Says Dean Smith had the greatest influence upon his coaching

Caution: NSFW language from Jim.

His philosophy on freshmen is consistent with how they've been used this year, but he played Tyrus Thomas almost 20 mpg as a freshman, and Shane DeZonie played every game save one last season and got over 10 mpg. Both Thomas and DeZonie shot the ball from three well as freshmen, but neither could do much of anything else. Thomas was about a frail a freshman I've seen and DeZonie was a turnover machine. Tough to believe that Shelby is significantly less ready than they were.

[Vandy187187]

I honestly believe in his recruiting strategy of 3-4 stars and develop them and keep them. That being said people are leaving whether by design or not it's either a talent eval problem or a retention problem the last 2 years.

I like defense and rebounding focus. What I am not liking is the lack of importance on preseason wins (pre-sec-season) and shooting/scoring the ball. 4 years in we need to want/try/achieve winning every game we can. Not hey I'm gonna tweak lineups and stuff so we are good for SEC don't care if we lose a few games. Win every game you can learn along the way but don't sacrifice losses for experience.

Scoring is an issue and when you can't shoot the ball you need more structured and motion offense to create points vs 1 on 1 execution. There's things I love about Stack and things that drive me crazy at the same time. He needs to move towards the middle on his approach. He needs to also stay off Twitter and if you want to get thrown out of the game to make a point, do it the right way.

[MrMemorial]

Tyrus Thomas is a former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for Louisiana State University before being drafted fourth overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2006 NBA draft.

[charlestonalum]

I am glad he realizes scheduling the Grambling game before exam was a mistake. He is still learning. When he quits learning we are in big trouble. People forget that with all of his immense coaching experience, Vanderbilt is his first college coaching responsibility. He is still learning what it takes to be successful...

[Jason94]

I am glad he realizes scheduling the Grambling game before exam was a mistake. He is still learning. When he quits learning we are in big trouble. People forget that with all of his immense coaching experience, Vanderbilt is his first college coaching responsibility. He is still learning what it takes to be successful...

The mistake isn't scheduling Grambling before exams - he scheduled a game prior to exam last year. The mistake is not being prepared and losing the game against a team that we should be far superior to. How many times will he make this "mistake" before learning to not do it again? The rigors of academics for Vanderbilt student athletes should no longer be a surprise to him.

I guess that most here want a coach who either 1) knows what it takes to be successful from the jump or 2) is a quick learner and doesn't make what he considers to be a mistake two seasons in a row. I assume we aren't paying CJS over 7 figures for the fun of it. He is currently utilizing a rotation that implies he expects to win this season, and therefore should be judged by how much actual winning is occurring. Beyond losing to teams we shouldn't be losing to, we aren't losing to these teams because they got on some fluky hot streak from three - which would at least be understandable. We are playing a very experienced rotation while making a lot of freshman like mistakes while our freshmen save Colin Smith sit on the bench.

If he changes approach and gives his freshmen more PT to provide valuable experience, then expectations and criteria for success will be adjusted accordingly.

[dorelover82]

With the reduced academic demands on college athletes at Vanderbilt today, it is not reasonable to blame failure on exam week. When is the last time Duke blamed a loss to a mid-major on a Friday night prior to exams. That is not blaming CJS, but asking more of our players who are extremely well supported academically and financially. If we can't schedule Grambling and overcome challenges we are further away than I hoped.

[dorelover82]

With the reduced academic demands on college athletes at Vanderbilt today, it is not reasonable to blame failure on exam week. When is the last time Duke blamed a loss to a mid-major on a Friday night prior to exams. That is not blaming CJS, but asking more of our players who are extremely well supported academically and financially. If we can't schedule Grambling and overcome challenges we are further away than I hoped.

[underdog74]

Jim Rome throwing around four-letter bombs sounds so trite, like a kid thinking he sounds cool using the F word. Someone should tell Rome that it does his brand no favors.

[VUaskew]

Jim Rome throwing around four-letter bombs sounds so trite, like a kid thinking he sounds cool using the F word. Someone should tell Rome that it does his brand no favors.

He's so 1988. Smarmy little twerp.

[CrimeDore]

I am glad he realizes scheduling the Grambling game before exam was a mistake. He is still learning. When he quits learning we are in big trouble. People forget that with all of his immense coaching experience, Vanderbilt is his first college coaching responsibility. He is still learning what it takes to be successful...

? I don’t think anyone forgets that he had no college coaching experience before this. It shows repeatedly. And he shouldn’t still be figuring it out in Year 4.

[memphisVUalum]

I am glad he realizes scheduling the Grambling game before exam was a mistake. He is still learning. When he quits learning we are in big trouble. People forget that with all of his immense coaching experience, Vanderbilt is his first college coaching responsibility. He is still learning what it takes to be successful...

The mistake isn't scheduling Grambling before exams - he scheduled a game prior to exam last year. The mistake is not being prepared and losing the game against a team that we should be far superior to. How many times will he make this "mistake" before learning to not do it again? The rigors of academics for Vanderbilt student athletes should no longer be a surprise to him.

I guess that most here want a coach who either 1) knows what it takes to be successful from the jump or 2) is a quick learner and doesn't make what he considers to be a mistake two seasons in a row. I assume we aren't paying CJS over 7 figures for the fun of it. He is currently utilizing a rotation that implies he expects to win this season, and therefore should be judged by how much actual winning is occurring. Beyond losing to teams we shouldn't be losing to, we aren't losing to these teams because they got on some fluky hot streak from three - which would at least be understandable. We are playing a very experienced rotation while making a lot of freshman like mistakes while our freshmen save Colin Smith sit on the bench.

If he changes approach and gives his freshmen more PT to provide valuable experience, then expectations and criteria for success will be adjusted accordingly.

The mistake was scheduling it two days after the Pitt road game so that he couldn't really have time to get them as ready for Grambling as Grambling, who had a week off, was for them. They had a day and a half before they were on the court again. Who was responsible for scheduling it in that cavalier a manner? CJS or someone outside of the school? Stackhouse mentioned after the Grambling game this between games timeframe discrepancy as compared to Grambling's much longer period rested and preparing for VU in advance of the game.

[Doreknox]

I am glad he realizes scheduling the Grambling game before exam was a mistake. He is still learning. When he quits learning we are in big trouble. People forget that with all of his immense coaching experience, Vanderbilt is his first college coaching responsibility. He is still learning what it takes to be successful...

? I don’t think anyone forgets that he had no college coaching experience before this. It shows repeatedly. And he shouldn’t still be figuring it out in Year 4.

I'm pretty sure it did not take Folger, VBK and CKS four years to discover scheduling a game during exam week was a bad idea. Vanderbilt used to take a long break from games during exams. If CJS is still trying to grasp basic aspects of his job in his fourth year, then he doesn't need to be coaching at a challenging place like Vanderbilt.

I wonder how much more buyout $$$ the extension is going to cost us?

[memphisVUalum]

I am glad he realizes scheduling the Grambling game before exam was a mistake. He is still learning. When he quits learning we are in big trouble. People forget that with all of his immense coaching experience, Vanderbilt is his first college coaching responsibility. He is still learning what it takes to be successful...

? I don’t think anyone forgets that he had no college coaching experience before this. It shows repeatedly. And he shouldn’t still be figuring it out in Year 4.

I'm pretty sure it did not take Folger, VBK and CKS four years to discover scheduling a game during exam week was a bad idea. Vanderbilt used to take a long break from games during exams. If CJS is still trying to grasp basic aspects of his job in his fourth year, then he doesn't need to be coaching at a challenging place like Vanderbilt.

I wonder how much more buyout $$$ the extension is going to cost us?

Again, I think it was more of an issue of only having a day and a half after they were in a major road trip game at Pitt before they were on the court again, this time with a team that was rested (while we were not rested and did not have a lot of time to study Grambling after the Pitt game), against a team that had rested a week and which had used that off time preparing for a try at grabbing an SEC win like for a bowl game in football.

(Exam week was just another facet of the situation.) The reason I know about the full week Grambling had is that Stackhouse mentioned it in an Anchor podcast after the Grambling game.

That is what is meant by a trap game.

We played in an exhilerating, tense battle out of town December 7 before the December 9 Grambling game that we lost by two points with Wright injured. Grambling had last played December 3, scheduling a soft game versus a team they blew out easily in advance of playing us.

And Grambling was coming into town with a mission to build their resume, which is something our players should expect every team to do against Vanderbilt: smaller conference teams imagine they have a shot at victory and power five coaches don't want to lose to us. But our players/coaches can of course have a mission to win for pride too, so it shouldn't matter about the missions of other teams.

But if Wright had been healthy perhaps we would've made it through the ordeal.

After the game, an HBC media promo journalist heralded Grambling's winning with three starters fouling out but those starters didn't go out until the last couple of minutes of the game. This mainly gave Grambling fresh legs for two minutes, as it turned out, rather than kill their chances. They were mainly needed then to sink free throws.

For the Grambling game, I think VU might've needed an extra day to prepare/rest than what we had. And of course that puts it closer to exams if we had done that. It is like bootcamp preparation for the quick turnover between games at tournament time but maybe it was a bridge too far.

Scheduling is an art that can affect your season. If we had more depth and reliable young guns to put out on the floor who can make plays, it would help with the challenging schedule.

[Nashmann]

After so many excuses....you have to look deeper. We just stink at this point. I just don't see enough talent to play any better unless coached up a lot more. Have not seen enough of the freshmen to know if they would make a difference, Colin is the only one playing any kind of minutes...

[memphisVUalum]

We are always quick to attack our team as "stinking" when we lose by a couple of points to one team or another. We do not notice later that other SEC teams struggled against teams we narrowly lost to like Memphis or narrowly defeated like Temple.

Perhaps it is more important to build your wins résumé and confidence than to go through pre-SEC boot camp at exam time?

Other teams are certainly trying to build their résumé using us so perhaps we should do the same in scheduling strategy. I notice that Missouri looks like they're practically undefeated but if you look at whom they have beaten so far, it isn't much to brag about. Sometimes that helps, but on the other hand they are 10-1 and unranked because of their schedule.

Of course perhaps if we were only scheduling cream puffs before the SEC season, we might hear complaints about that. We will go into playing SEC play with more experience than Mizzou but with our confidence battered. Mizzou will go into SEC play with less experience than some.

[AuricGoldfinger]

Again, I think it was more of an issue of only having a day and a half after they were in a major road trip game at Pitt before they were on the court again, this time with a team that was rested (while we were not rested and did not have a lot of time to study Grambling after the Pitt game), against a team that had rested a week and which had used that off time preparing for a try at grabbing an SEC win like for a bowl game in football.

(Exam week was just another facet of the situation.) The reason I know about the full week Grambling had is that Stackhouse mentioned it in an Anchor podcast after the Grambling game.

That is what is meant by a trap game.

We played in an exhilerating, tense battle out of town December 7 before the December 9 Grambling game that we lost by two points with Wright injured. Grambling had last played December 3, scheduling a soft game versus a team they blew out easily in advance of playing us.

FWIW we played Pitt at home.

[geeznotagain]

? I don’t think anyone forgets that he had no college coaching experience before this. It shows repeatedly. And he shouldn’t still be figuring it out in Year 4.

I'm pretty sure it did not take Folger, VBK and CKS four years to discover scheduling a game during exam week was a bad idea. Vanderbilt used to take a long break from games during exams. If CJS is still trying to grasp basic aspects of his job in his fourth year, then he doesn't need to be coaching at a challenging place like Vanderbilt.

I wonder how much more buyout $$$ the extension is going to cost us?

Again, I think it was more of an issue of only having a day and a half after they were in a major road trip game at Pitt before they were on the court again, this time with a team that was rested (while we were not rested and did not have a lot of time to study Grambling after the Pitt game), against a team that had rested a week and which had used that off time preparing for a try at grabbing an SEC win like for a bowl game in football.

(Exam week was just another facet of the situation.) The reason I know about the full week Grambling had is that Stackhouse mentioned it in an Anchor podcast after the Grambling game.

That is what is meant by a trap game.

We played in an exhilerating, tense battle out of town December 7 before the December 9 Grambling game that we lost by two points with Wright injured. Grambling had last played December 3, scheduling a soft game versus a team they blew out easily in advance of playing us.

And Grambling was coming into town with a mission to build their resume, which is something our players should expect every team to do against Vanderbilt: smaller conference teams imagine they have a shot at victory and power five coaches don't want to lose to us. But our players/coaches can of course have a mission to win for pride too, so it shouldn't matter about the missions of other teams.

But if Wright had been healthy perhaps we would've made it through the ordeal.

After the game, an HBC media promo journalist heralded Grambling's winning with three starters fouling out but those starters didn't go out until the last couple of minutes of the game. This mainly gave Grambling fresh legs for two minutes, as it turned out, rather than kill their chances. They were mainly needed then to sink free throws.

For the Grambling game, I think VU might've needed an extra day to prepare/rest than what we had. And of course that puts it closer to exams if we had done that. It is like bootcamp preparation for the quick turnover between games at tournament time but maybe it was a bridge too far.

Scheduling is an art that can affect your season. If we had more depth and reliable young guns to put out on the floor who can make plays, it would help with the challenging schedule.

I think Memphis’ post is over-thought.

[Ndorefin]

I don’t believe anyone will build their resume by beating VU this year!

[Jason94]

I am glad he realizes scheduling the Grambling game before exam was a mistake. He is still learning. When he quits learning we are in big trouble. People forget that with all of his immense coaching experience, Vanderbilt is his first college coaching responsibility. He is still learning what it takes to be successful...

The mistake isn't scheduling Grambling before exams - he scheduled a game prior to exam last year. The mistake is not being prepared and losing the game against a team that we should be far superior to. How many times will he make this "mistake" before learning to not do it again? The rigors of academics for Vanderbilt student athletes should no longer be a surprise to him.

I guess that most here want a coach who either 1) knows what it takes to be successful from the jump or 2) is a quick learner and doesn't make what he considers to be a mistake two seasons in a row. I assume we aren't paying CJS over 7 figures for the fun of it. He is currently utilizing a rotation that implies he expects to win this season, and therefore should be judged by how much actual winning is occurring. Beyond losing to teams we shouldn't be losing to, we aren't losing to these teams because they got on some fluky hot streak from three - which would at least be understandable. We are playing a very experienced rotation while making a lot of freshman like mistakes while our freshmen save Colin Smith sit on the bench.

If he changes approach and gives his freshmen more PT to provide valuable experience, then expectations and criteria for success will be adjusted accordingly.

The mistake was scheduling it two days after the Pitt road game so that he couldn't really have time to get them as ready for Grambling as Grambling, who had a week off, was for them. They had a day and a half before they were on the court again. Who was responsible for scheduling it in that cavalier a manner? CJS or someone outside of the school? Stackhouse mentioned after the Grambling game this between games timeframe discrepancy as compared to Grambling's much longer period rested and preparing for VU in advance of the game.

Scheduling is the responsibility of the head coach. These things happen all the time as well in conference scheduling, where a team could have to play Thu-Sat while their Sat opponent plays Tue-Sat - it is a little tougher, but not an excuse IMO. And again, we had a similar situation last season where we played Loyola Chicago on two days after they had essentially 5 or 6 days (they played a DII team three days ahead). This is also something that is typically not made long in advance - as in probably this summer. He lost those games last year as well, so one would have thought that he had learned his lesson had he thought that was a critical factor.