How much longer is USC willing to put up with Paris?
- Thread starter rockingamecock
- Start date
At this point I’m shocked they haven’t fired him. It says a lot about the general sentiment at Carolina around basketball that they’re just riding this. I don’t fault Paris too much. Had he gotten some more productive bigs and better shooters, his schemes could have been good. In any case, it’s time for a change for everyone I think.
Hes cooked at the end of the year for sure. The day after our teams exit from the SEC tournament I expect we announce his termination.
I dont think firing him now would improve the performance of the team. Its a lost season and no one cares. We just got to wait 2 more months.
I dont think firing him now would improve the performance of the team. Its a lost season and no one cares. We just got to wait 2 more months.
I was wondering the other day if maybe Donati is just going all-in on football, at the expense of basketball. We could certainly hope so. If we could be a consistent 9-win team in football, it wouldn't bother me if we ever won a game in basketball, or any other sport, really. Under Donati's watchful eye, Beamer has assembled the most serious staff he's had since he's been here (one has to assume with some help from Donati), he managed to retain the biggest talent pieces from last year's team and picked up some nice additions in the portal.
Without any of us knowing the true state of our finances, NIL, etc, I had to wonder if Donati sees that we aren't equipped to be competitive in every sport, so we have to pick which sport we really want to compete in and push resources there. I can't see Paris being retained, but I can see Donati letting things play out and then hiring a budget-friendly coach to replace Paris.
@adcoop, in another thread, mentioned Paris had a four year extension worth $12.5 million. As @18IsTheMan points out in the post above, the real question is whether or not Carolina can afford to fire Paris. Will paying Paris, if fired, take money away from football? Do you want that to happen, especially now?
I would sacrifice the entire basketball program, men and women if it meant winning 9 games a year in football.
But I also know there's no deal like that out there.
But I also know there's no deal like that out there.
Not necessarily a deal but maybe a strategy.
We've always been kind of one foot in, one foot out with both football and basketball as far as the real commitment to success.
Maybe if Donati moves us to all-in on football we could get to a fairly consistent 9-win team. We can't expect championship-caliber teams, but if we get very serious about the financial commitment to football, it's not out of the realm of possibility. I think that necessitates a de-emphasis on basketball, though.
Sacrificing MBB could potentially create a major impact to the revenue of the sports department. Just making deep runs in the tourney can significantly boost revenue for a program.
From a financial perspective it would be a smart decision to build a good/competitive MBB program.
The question is do we have the resources to build competitive programs in football AND basketball?
Maybe we have the resources to go all-in on football and build that into a winner but may have to sacrifice success in MBB for that.
Success in football would greatly overshadow any financial gain from success in basketball. Football always has an always will pay the bills and lead the way.
I feel very confident that the only individuals who really know the answer to that question are in the AD's office.
I see a consistent 7 win football team with 9 win seasons thrown in every few years if Donati is serious about football. South Carolina just isn't a place that top talent recruits want to go to in big numbers. It doesn't matter what the results of the previous season are or who the coach is, recruiting always ranks around 15th to 20th and in the bottom half of the SEC.
I don't know if it's because the campus is in downtown Columbia and Columbia isn't any sort of "cool" college town or the total lack of a winning history in football or even because the stadium is so far removed from campus. Whatever it is, top HS players rarely have much interest in coming to South Carolina. Portal players are hired guns who follow the money and I don't know that we have deep enough pockets to build a team out of the portal. Something is going to have to change regarding NIL and the portal or the only teams with a chance to really win big are going to be the teams with billionaire alumni who are willing to open the checkbook.
Let's hope Briles is what we hope he is and not what the TCU fans say he was.
For the entire existence of South Carolina Men's basketball we have made a deep run in the tourney exactly one time and we see how much that paid off. Do we become Kentucky, but in reverse (focus on football and not basketball)?
How many deep runs in the tournament has SC made?
Building an even decent football program would pay dividends that would dwarf any money MBB could bring in.
If we're smart, have a smart AD (which maybe we seem to have now) in the current environment, and are willing to financially invest, I could see building something closer to a consistent 9-win team. 7 wins on a yearly basis surely seems like it should be attainable.
With 9 SEC games going forward, getting 9 wins is going to be tougher than it has been. It is going to be tougher for every SEC team. I saw Kirby's presser either right before or after the SECCG. He made the point that an extra conference game means half of the teams in the SEC will have one more loss each season. That third cupcake game every year got a lot of SEC teams into bowls.
The 3 OOC games going forward are going to be 2 cupcakes and Clemson. That means we go from starting the season with an assumed 3 wins to an assumed 2 wins. Putting the cupcakes as the two first games to use as "warmups" will now mean we will have 9 SEC games in a row before we play Clemson. Do you open with a cupcake and save one for later when you need sort of a rest before a big game? I don't know what the best scheduling strategy will be, but it is going to be tricky to set up the schedule to help create wins.
Well I don’t know what Vanderbilts finances are like, but they seem to be doing well in both…
They have a lot more wealthy alumni than we do, that's for sure. By a long shot I would imagine.
Let me repeat, I am merely making the point that it is financially rewarding when teams make the tourney.
At this point in time, I am not of the mindset that the MBB program should be sacrificed. This season is most probably a lost cause. There is no benefit to firing Paris at this juncture. He can finish the season, at which point he can be dismissed, and the search for a replacement will commence. At that time we can determine what Donati's vision for the program will be.
Vanderbilt is loaded with money. Their baseball team has always been elite because they weren't constrained by NCAA limits on scholarships. They let their endowment provide full rides to as many baseball players as they wanted to. Clark Lea didn't suddenly unlock the secret to coaching in 2024. Vandy went out and bought a football team.
Yep, that's why Pavia was so hellbent on returning. Vandy was paying probably plenty more than the NFL with his size.
Well yeah no doubt but are they going to turn into a powerhouse or something with NIL? They never put any money into a big football stadium or anything before NIL. They never really cared and were an academic school.
It's true but maybe that's partly b/c prior to NIL they didn't really see a viable path to success. Now that players can be openly paid, it could open the flood gates. Maybe.
Vandy is a private school and relatively small for an SEC school, about 13,000 students. They only have about 140,000 living alumni and most don't live nearby (22,000 live in Nashville). By comparison, SC has about 38,000 students and 300,000 living alumni with quite a few living within 4 hours drive of Columbia. Vandy has never had any real reason to build a big stadium.
Now that they have tasted football success, I imagine they will want it to continue and NIL has made it possible for them to compete with a lot of schools for talent. They may not turn into a perennial powerhouse, but I am afraid the days of SC seeing them as an automatic W might be over. I wouldn't be surprised if Vandy became more of a rival than UK for SC. UK will never go big into football. Their big money goes to basketball.
Until the last 2 seasons, IU was a worse football program than Vandy. Much worse. Worst in all of P4.
If Vandy hadn't flipped Curtis, I might have expected a regression this coming season, but that was monumentally huge for them. It gives them the possibility of stringing together good seasons.
We have a lot of doctors and lawyers too! I just happen to NOT be either of those.
Agree…and I am not sure any coach could improve much…with this talent level.
I suppose there would be an increase in ticket sales and merchandise but doesn't the conference get the tourney dollars?
For sure.
But there's rich grads and wealthy grads, lol. I have a vision of a lot Vandy students being from old money. Maybe not.
Get serious about the financial commitment to football? We are paying a head coach with no previous head coaching experience 8 Mil. Reportedly we pay a QB 3-4 Mil. As I have said before, the problems with regard to the football program have very little to do with money. The issue is in the decision making. We won big the last time we had a real coach (Spurrier). Problem was we got Spurrier on the back end. We are paying people. We are just not paying the right people. With Indiana doing what they are doing, the days of making excuses about money, recruiting footprint, etc are just noise. You are either good enough to win or you are not.
I don't necessarily think you have to "sacrifice" the basketball program for the sake of football, but I think the revenue from a successful football program would do more to lift the basketball program than vice versa. So, not a "football only" mentality, but a "football first" mentality.
But, as @adcoop points out, while we may not spend as much on football as some programs, we are almost certainly getting one of the worst ROIs in all FBS.
But, as @adcoop points out, while we may not spend as much on football as some programs, we are almost certainly getting one of the worst ROIs in all FBS.
The baseball program reached the pinnacle and was well established and look where the baseball program is now. Hopefully with Donati as AD things will be different as leadership is key and we have been lacking.
I'm hoping for baseball program to get back as a pinnacle program. No reason it shouldn't do that. I believe results should be seen sooner than MBB maybe even football.
Yeah I mean what Indiana and Vanderbilt did is proof it was not money. Carolina HAS invested a lot of money in a competitive manner with other programs. I think the difference is people generally feel good about the trajectory of the football program and the talent it fields that can compete with anyone. I mean you look at Donati, Darren Usher, the positional coaches, Beamer (depending on who you talk to), and the recruiting and there’s a lot of upside. Back to the original point, I can’t remember the last time the basketball program had a pulse. I’m sure Paris’ money is sort of middle of the road SEC money. There have been no impact transfers and outside of Ellis, very little reason to believe a talented, competitive squad is being assembled.
I understand the predicament of firing him midseason, leaving the team with no real head coach the rest of the way, but it would show the rest of the world that we are finally getting serious about our basketball program. He's not a good coach, the product is horrendous, and I will not be watching one moment of another game in this season.
Based upon what I just witnessed with regards to the hires made on the football staff under our current AD. I believe our new AD is going to make a very solid hire for the men's basketball program. Despite what some may think, our basketball program can turn into a high caliber program, it just takes one good decision. That decision is to hire a solid/proven coach to change the culture and thus turn the situation around. Paris was a lousy hire, pure and simple, by an AD who was clearly out of his depth. I have a great deal of confidence in our new AD!
The rest of the world could not care less about our seriousness for the basketball program.
Whatever we do, above all we should do for our own self interests.