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If the only player Gregory had on this team was Yetna then he had no team. The lengths you will go to make excuses for a below average coach amazes even me.

Touting that Year 2 was only our 3rd winning season in 18 years may be factual, but it illustrates how low the bar has been set for what is acceptable around here. I won't lie, I was excited for the CBI championship - not because that was the top of the mountain, but because it should have been a springboard to something more meaningful. That's why its meaningless.

If by "nothing wrong with our half court offense" you mean Gregory's offense every year here has ranked in the bottom third of D1 then yeah I guess there is nothing wrong. Even with Yetna the offense never ranked higher than 233rd in OER, buy yeah there is nothing wrong with our half court offense lol Sure, a third tier championship, with wins over High Point and Hidden Valley Ranch University, in his 2nd year was pretty impressive but what has happened since has been a disaster. Those are the facts.

Yeah facts can be inconvenient and not learning from prior failures isn't fun either. At the rate Gregory is going, he is going to leave the program in worse shape than he found it, and I didn't think that would be possible! I think Kelly likes watching replays of the Hindenburg disaster in his spare time.

Ideally I'd like to see McClain get redshirted but not sure if Scott can afford to.

Its likely that we will have a another rebuild after next season once Gregory eventually gets fired for performance. While Patrick is a nice get, as a D2 player he is at best Justin Brown, and we are going to need significantly better recruits that this. Plus Gregory still has to find a way to bolt it all together (which he failed to do last year with his more talented new/returning pieces) and he still has to find a way to install a competent half court offense, which he hasn't done in 4 years. This is Strong 2019 all over again and Kelly is just delaying the inevitable.

Glad to hear Kelly pop up on the radar and do a radio interview and hit a wide range of topics. A few highlights: Kelly's response to racism in the MBB program: "Well, there's not much detail I can share there other than that we...in post-season meetings we did learn of some things from some folks, and like any time you hear things you aren't happy with, you look into it and get to the bottom of it...and make the adjustments necessary, so not much I can talk about now. But that is being addressed and will be handled accordingly, AND HAS BEEN, and we'll get ready for next year and be ready to roll." Kelly's response on if changes will inevitably be made: "That's the stuff we will have to talk about when the investigation comes to its closure, guys. But obviously it was a tough season on the the court, particularly after a long, long Covid break, and we will be prepared in terms of recruiting and getting ready for next year." Kelly's response on where Jeff Scott's head is at: "I think his head is in the right place...he knew there were a lot of improvements that needed to be made...I think its all heading in the right direction...recruiting has obviously ticked up in the last year or so in terms of the rankings...adjusting, as well all are, to the transfer portal...I am confident we are heading in the right direction." Kelly's response on ticket sales: "We are at over 93% on season ticket renewals...when you can get season tickets for as low as $125, we really hope, not only Bulls fans, but Tampa Bay sports fans will come out and enjoy the opportunity to watch the Bulls at USF, errr...Raymond James Stadium."

Thanks for sharing Brad - listening to it now.

Totally agree. At 22, I wasn't the stable, rational genius that graces this board.

Why invest a $20k/month mortgage payment when you aren't going to be in that property 3 years from now - either he is successful and someone hires him away or he craps the bed and he is fired. Apathetic mediocrity, which is a USF staple, is the only way he coaches more than 4 years here.

Its possible he wanted to provide some context for leaving without wanting to hurt/trash anyone specifically on his way out the door, while knowing that any specific details were probably best just given to the investigators. Then he could give the right people the right information so the administration could do what they felt was appropriate, while he turned the page and put this behind him. I can understand Akec's dilemma here and the path he chose. Over the decades minority and female employees and students have been discriminated against, harassed or have faced bias, and have felt that their only recourse was to just move on believing they had no voice or would lose any "he said - she said" complaints. Now minorities are being encouraged to speak up, but the USF MBB players felt either (a) that when they did raise their concerns they were not sufficiently addressed or (b) the program did not encourage an open-door policy to raise concerns, and their only course of action was to transfer. Anyone on this board in a leadership role understands that there is a problem USF athletics and the university needs to address, and any blame being put on the student-athletes, either for transferring, complaining, sharing details, not sharing details is deflecting the responsibility from where it should land - the leaders.

I think Pitino was hired pretty quickly by New Mexico after being fired by Minnesota. I'd like to see Kelly go after proven, offensive-minded mid-major coaches like: Ritchie McKay, Liberty 3 NCAAT appearance in all 3 years 5 consecutive 20 win seasons #11 in Offensive Efficiency Rating each of last 2 seasons Virginia Associate Head Coach (2009 - 2015) $640k total compensation in 2018 (last available) Scott Nagy, Wright State 4 NCAAT and 3 NIT appearances in last 10 years at South Dakota State and Wright State Eight 20 win seasons over last 10 seasons #9 in Offensive Efficiency Rating in 2020-21 and #41 the prior season $500k base salary in 2020 McKay is also African American and could help heal the program, as well as possibly retain some of the players that have entered the portal.

I'm fine with someone with USF connections as a tiebreaker, but at the end of the day we need the best person for the job and nothing else.

I expect Durr will also enter the portal.

I think Scott was a good "get" by Kelly, but we will have to see how good of a HC he is. McKay and Nagy should be on Kelly's short list.

Eric Henderson is the SDSU coach whose name I omitted.

If the allegations are true then they probably could avoid the $435k buyout, but think it would be best to pay it since it is relatively small and have everyone walk away. Any litigation over a buyout just keeps an ugly story alive longer. No need for the death penalty - too many good offensive coaches (see my post on McKay and Nagy) out there for Kelly to convince to come to USF like he did with Scott for football. What was alleged is out there on other pay sites through some extraordinary reporting, so don't want to repeat that here and violate any site rules on that, especially since none of it has been confirmed via the investigation.

Like some have mentioned, I'd like to see an offensive minded coach comes in if Kelly has the guts to do what is screamingly obvious here. Below are few mid-major coaches who have led top offenses by OER over the last 2+ seasons. Some of these can be pretty easy to scratch off due to any number reasons (coaching success, content with staying, no Florida recruiting ties, buyouts, their own less-reported controversies, etc.). Matt Langel - Colgate (#3 in OER on 2020-21 and #20 in OER in 2019-20); NCAAT in 2 of last 3 years Ritchie McKay - Liberty (#6 and #11); made NCAAT each of last 3 seasons Casey Alexander - Belmont (#7 and #23); 2 NCAAT appearances Scott Nagy - Wright State (#10 and #41); 4 NCAAT appearances at 3 NITs at 2 different schools South Dakota State (#20 and #13); Nagy's replacement - only 2 years as a HC The list goes deeper but McKay, as an African American coach who has a long resume (former UVA associate head coach), could help repair MBB's image and Nagy who just flat out wins wherever he goes are both appealing.

There is no gratification in seeing an entire team go through what they have been reportedly put through, by a coaching staff that is clearly struggling to find success here. But Kelly has been given a gift - instead of repeating the hand wringing he did with Strong for a year, he now has the opportunity to justifiably hit the reset button NOW on the program, show his ability to lead in a crisis, be part of the solution, be an advocate for all his student-athletes and hire a replacement that will breath life back into the program, all while being the hero who declares that he is an advocate for all student-athletes and that discrimination of any kind will not ever occur in USF athletics (moving forward disclaimer). He has been given an opportunity to be THE hero here. I hope he is up to it.

You both should be fired immediately! Just kidding lol

You are mixing two different things - one is a critique I have of how Gregory runs his offense and the other is a single statement around the "word coming out on Gregory soon enough". I apologize if I wasn't clear there, but meant that I was ahead of the curve on the later. You called it irresponsible, but everyone has to know that when 5-6 players transfer out, soon to be 8 with Durr, there is a reason and it was going to come out. Gregory has had a role in this and should not walk away unblemished. The investigation will let us know if he was present when these statements were made and did nothing, not present but became aware of them and did nothing or facilitated a disingenuous apology, or whether he is so disconnected from his staff and players he has no awareness to what happened. Sure, I want Gregory fired for being a terrible HC, but if the investigation finds him responsible for enabling this type of behavior or being so disconnected to what his assistants are doing, then I am not sure how anyone can keep defending him.

I love those 3 winning seasons though. I was in Vegas back in 2012 when we almost made the Sweet 16. It was an amazing weekend to be a Bulls fan and be surrounded by other, albeit short term, USF fans. Hoping USF can get back to doing that on a semi-regular basis.

Sorry, by drought I mean the 9 year drought we have been in from the NCAAT/NIT.

I read it as well. Its amazing that someone in a leadership role would openly say those things in the current environment.

Gregg Marshall would have been someone I wanted USF to look at if Gregory was fired for performance, but really think Kelly is limited in who he can hire now. Hiring anyone with a hint of controversy would be incredibly challenging and tone deaf. Now Kelly has to thread the needle and find a high character coach who hopefully can coach, otherwise we are looking at longer drought for the program.