Should Matt Doherty be Fired?

[Easy Mac]

This is bordering on pathetic. I feel sorry for UNC fans who have to sit through this crap. DUkes team is just as young and wins, but UNC doesn't? IT has to be the coach. I'd say if this team doesn't reach 18 wins he has to be fired. I mean he's barely .500, its sad.

[Lathum]

I dissagree. Granted duke wins, however, they have had players like J. Williams and Battier mentor them while they were redshirting.

The players from North Carolina don't have anyone mentoring them, however, they have shown flashes of brilliance ( remember the pre-season NIT ) I think he recruited a great class and he needs credit for that. Give him another year with this group and then see how they perform.

College isn't like the pros where you can switch coach's so quickly. Alot of these kids went to UNC because of Doherty and it wouldn't be fair to then to fire him unless they were being mistreated like those kids from Arizona.

I would feel diffrentlly if they were seniors and juniors, but give him a chance to let his own players get into the program and then we can judge him.

[Radii]

definitely not. No nononono. I grew up 20 minute from chapel hill, spent my fist 18 years there, first year falling in love with basketball was 1982, i bleed carolina blue, I am as die hard as it comes.

Dean Smith leaves, Bill Guthridge can coach but he cannot recruit for shit. He recruits no one worthy of note. Plus he was 2 million years old and everyoen knew he wasn't going to coach long. So hard to get recruits for a short term coach anyway.

Guthridge leaves, Doherty steps in, you have pussies like Brian Morrison who don't want to play for Doherty and transfer out.

Still despite going 8-20 he brings in an amazing recruiting class, May/Felton/McCants, starts one of the youngest teams in the country, and, despite having no depth whatsoever, and losing their only talented big man in Sean May for 6-8 weeks, he has them looking at a 15 win season still, if they can just play .500 ball the second time through the ACC.

The ACC is young all the way around, but the teams on top all have at least some experience. Blake at Maryland, Josh Howard at Wake Forest, Dahanty Jones at Duke. UNC doesn't.

Duke is winning, but remember they had an even better recruiting class than UNC and returning upperclassmen. UNC is rebuilding and making nice steps forward.

Going into the season I was praying for .500 ball. The early wins over Kansas and Stanford had me dreaming of 20 wins again, but .500 ball will still be acceptable to me.

If Doherty can keep this team above .500, pull in a decent recruiting class next year, this team is back to 20 wins a year and back on track quite possibly next year.

[MrBug708]

LOL


Matt Doherty isnt a bad coach.


Its a travesty what Lavin has done at UCLA

[bbor]

Not unless the Dean is coming back.

[daedalus]

Suggestions that Matt should be fired is absolutely assinine. He's only now getting players who should be playing in the ACC. The two guys who transferred out may be cool people and all but no way in Hell should they be logging significant minutes in that conference. As Radii said, Guth didn't exactly leave a strong foundation for Matt to build on. Also, changing coaches twice in 3-4 years has to be Hell on recruiting. The debacle over Jason Parker and the idiotic advice given to Disagna Diop didn't help situation any.

Given the fact that the Heels are rebuilding and playing with a small forward at power forward and without their singular inside presence against a Duke team that brought in the current recruiting class of the Year/Decade/Century/Millenium, Matt and the kids did an insanely good job tonight. Of course, the Duke kids also did an awesome job of withstanding the pressure that the Heels put on them and coming out on top in the end. That was impressive also.

F'n Duke. :(

[Neuqua]

While I've been a duke basketball fan since the early 90s (You could call me a fairweather fan but I was 7 when they won the first national title and I've followed them since) and I have to admit that Doherty deserves another year or two before the thought of firing even comes to mind. He's a very good coach, and also a very good recruiter.

UNC has some incredible young players on their roster, and I'm sure in a year or two they'll be battling once again for the ACC crown. They just need experience at this point, Jones and Duhon have done wonders for Duke. However, no one is there to teach Felton, Mccants (btw where was he today?), May, etc what the ins and outs of college basketball are.

And quite frankly, I'm hoping UNC turns things around. It's not much of a rivalry when one team is always beating up on the other.

:D

Neuqua

[tucker342]

I don't really like UNC, but there is no way he should be fired, it's not his fault that UNC isn't very good. Next year UNC will be back in the top 15 I bet. They're young this year

[daedalus]

Originally posted by Neuqua
And quite frankly, I'm hoping UNC turns things around. It's not much of a rivalry when one team is always beating up on the other.

:D

I. Feel. Hatred. :)

[bbor]

Hate is such a strong word...

KILL DUKE!

[scooper]

Heh Heh Heh. A Notre Dame fan here. Matt Dougherty=TDG (The dead guy)

TDGII=Bob Davie.

God Bless Mike Brey.

[the_meanstrosity]

UNC couldn't be in better hands. Matt Doh is a great guy who has learned from some of the top coaches. Yes, he's a bit hard nosed, but I'd rather have that than some of the current crop of young coaches out there who don't understand their role to the young players.

Give Doh a couple of years to turn it around. He will. No one hits the recruiting trail harder and that hard work will pay off big time for those patient UNC fans.

[albionmoonlight]

Teams like UNC, Duke, Kentucky, etc. are built on tradition and being different from all of the other teams. As soon as you start changing coaches every 5 years, you become like every other team. Give the man a chance.

[Easy Mac]

Why is it when 2 teams have great freshmen, they are treated differently.

If they win, it would be because Doherty is a great coach.

If they lose, its because of the players, not the coach.

Doesn't make any sense.

[Radii]

There is a huge difference. Duke is coming off yet another dominant season, they lost some amazing talent, but they still have senior leadership. Duke is reloading.

UNC is coming off the worst season in the history of the program. UNC has no senior leadership. Hell, UNC has no junior leadership.

Look at the guys that played signifigant minutes in last night's game(10+ minutes):

Duke:

Horvath - Junior (15 minutes)
Jones - Senior (39 minutes)
Sanders - Senior (31 minutes)
Redick - Freshman (33 minutes)
Ewing - Sophomore(27 minutes)
Duhon - Junior (37 minutes)

2 seniors, 2 juniors, a soph, and a freshman.

Now, UNC:

Williams - Sophomore (37 minutes)
Noel - Freshman (37 minutes)
Sanders - Freshman (17 minutes)
Felton - Freshman (39 minutes)
Manuel - Sophomore(35 minutes)
Scott - Sophomore (16 minutes)
McCants - Freshman (19 minutes)

3 sophomores, 4 freshmen. And the sophs only college experience is an 8-20 season, with what leadership? Kris Lang? Jason Capel? Good role players. Not leaders.


There's no comparasion at all. And, incidentally, Duke's recruiting class was #1 in the nation last year(the freshman they have right now). UNC's was #2 I believe.

Doherty will be fine.