Click here to get the latest on the Bobby Gonzalez drama….
This does not bode well for him at all.
-
About the Author
Vin Parise is a basketball analyst for WFAN Radio, MSG High School Basketball and Cox Communications.
In 2008, Vin began his media career after coaching eight seasons of college hoops at Fairleigh Dickinson, Rutgers and Iona. In addition to VPHOOPS.COM, he is also the college basketball blogger for WFAN.com.
This season, Vin will serve as a color analyst for Cablevision's brand new channel, MSG Varsity. He will also host the TV pregame show for Providence and URI basketball on Cox Communications in Rhode Island.
Vin will also be making regular appearances on WFAN Radio and will serve as an analyst for Iona College Men's Basketball on ICGaels.com.
Email Vin Parise at vinparise@gmail.com. and follow him at twitter.com/vphoops
-
GONZO UPDATE - AND IT IS NOT GOOD
July 7th, 2010
BOBBY GONZALEZ NEWS……AGAIN
July 7th, 2010
Ex-Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez has been charged with shoplifting and criminal mischief for taking a satchel or as some call it ….”man purse”….from a Polo Ralph Lauren store in Short Hills, New Jersey. According to Millburn Police reports - the security device was removed from the bag before it left the store. Gonzalez then left the bag at Joe’s American Bar & Grill, where a manager returned it, with damage on the bag in the area of the sensor.
Gonzalez and his lawyer insist this is a misunderstanding and that everything will be cleared up. It would be very interesting to see what is on the mall and store security video.
This is just more press that will make it harder and harder for Gonzalez to land another good Division 1 coaching job in the future.
Gonzo’s sister, Linda Gonzalez, wrote in yesterday to PirateCrew.com to defend her brother. Below is her post.
showmsg.asp?fid=330&tid=134845290&mid=134845290&sid=959&style=2
Who do you guys believe?
Good piece by Tara Sullivan at northjersey.com
June 21st, 2010
SOUTH ORANGE — The tiny toddler sprang loose from the 30-plus extended family members in the stands at the Meadowlands and scampered into the sparsely attended section behind the baseline. Shaheen Holloway, lined up to watch an opponent’s free throw, caught sight of the little blue blur in a mini Seton Hall cheerleading outfit bouncing through the aisles.
Seton Hall basketball assistant basketball coach Shaheen Holloway with his daughter Shatanik. Five years ago, he walked away from the second year of a professional contract with his German club team to move back home and assume full custody of then 11-year-old Shatanik.“I called a timeout and coach [George] Blaney was like, ‘What’s going on?’ I told him I did it because I needed to yell to someone to watch out for my daughter,” Holloway recalled. “There weren’t too many people in the stands back then and I could see her running around all over the place.”
It wouldn’t be the last time Holloway interrupted basketball life with real life.
“That’s Shaheen. That’s responsibility,” Blaney said. “That’s him stepping up and not being afraid to do what’s right, to do what he had to do. I respected him for doing that rather than being upset with him.”
Holloway learned to straddle the line between being one of Dick Vitale’s famous Diaper Dandy college basketball stars to changing plain old diapers from a precariously young age, becoming a father as a 15-year-old sophomore at St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth. For years afterward, he would travel the globe earning a winter paycheck for his dazzling point guard play and retuning home for summers when his daughter, Shatanik, would move in with him.
But when Shatanik’s mom (she and Shaheen did not stay together) needed more help, when she wanted to return to school herself, Shaheen made a life-changing decision.
“It was my turn, my time,” he said.
Five years ago, he walked away from the second year of a professional contract with his German club team to move back home and assume full custody of then 11-year-old Shatanik. And today, as Holloway celebrates his first Father’s Day since returning to his alma mater as associate head coach to new coach Kevin Willard, he still is framing his every move around his daughter, now 16, a high school senior-to-be.
“I felt we needed to make a bond and have a stronger relationship,” he said. “Fatherhood came at me at a young age. Growing up I never had a dad. My brother and I always said when we had kids we were definitely going to be there for them. For all the read dads out there, they know I’m not looking for a pat on the back. I had plenty of people who said to me, ‘What are you doing? Are you crazy? You’re going to stop your career?’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? Who else is going to do it?’”
Most absentee fathers don’t just come from absentee fathers but tend to become one themselves. To break that cycle takes courage and support, and Holloway was blessed with both. His father wasn’t around, but the five-bedroom house where he was raised in South Jamaica, Queens, was overflowing with helpful relatives, including his grandmother, his mom Claudette, his brother Deshawn and his sister Shawntay. Countless aunts, uncles, cousins and neighborhood friends chipped in, too, guiding Shaheen onto the path of adulthood.
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at a new desk inside Seton Hall’s Walsh Gymnasium last week, Shatanik surfing prom pictures on Facebook, father and daughter are unmistakable relatives, locked by so much more than the genes that gave them identical expansive smiles. They easily pass for brother and sister and often are mistaken as such, but over the past five years going from occasional roommates and vacation partners to living together full time, the level of trust between them has deepened. So much so that Shatanik is moving back in with her mom to finish high school in New York with her friends.
Her admittedly overprotective dad is ready to let her go – if only a little. Nothing could separate them now.
“Having Shatanik made me the person you’re talking to today,” Shaheen said. “When she first came into my life I had to grow up quick. It made me more patient, better aware of everyone around me. I had to raise her so that one day she could take care of me, to put her in position where she doesn’t have to depend on no man, not on anybody, to see her go to college, have a successful career. At the end of the day, I want to be able to sit and say I had a part in that.”
When Shaheen was littering the high school sports headlines alongside Paterson Catholic’s Tim Thomas and another great 1996 player from Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania named Kobe Bryant, outsiders might not have predicted his path into coaching, not with his occasional youthful bouts of impatience with teammates not up to his skill level. But rather than give up on them, Shaheen chose to teach, to help, to guide.
Kind of like a parent.
When he returned from Germany, Holloway would need all those skills and more. He got an apartment in Hillside, took a volunteer assistant coaching job at Bloomfield Tech High School and took over with Shatanik.
“It was tough — I didn’t know what to expect going from being with someone for two to three months in the summer to nine months,” he said. “I had been doing all the fun stuff, but now I had to be the good guy and the bad guy. I had to deal with woman things. I would wonder why she was so moody, why she would change in five seconds. Thank goodness I had a lot of help.”
With advice from his sister and his girlfriend, Kim, they made it through, and as they did, Shaheen’s coaching career took off. He worked the 2006-07 season as an administrative assistant at Seton Hall before hooking up with Willard at Iona. This March, he followed Willard back to Seton Hall. Someday, he hopes to be follow Willard into the corner office.
“He’s going to be a terrific head coach, no doubt,” says Blaney, now the associate head coach at Big East rival Connecticut. “He has such a way with people. He has that kind of personality that just makes you feel better because he’s there.”
Perhaps because he understands how important it is to, in fact, be there. Five years ago, he proved it.
SHOULD IZZO GO?
June 10th, 2010
The main news in college hoops right now is Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo.
Should he stay at his dream job where it seems like he’s been to more Final Fours than anyone or head to the Cavs?
Does one of the sport’s finest finally take the plunge and go into the uncharted waters of NBA basketball? Izzo turned down the Atlanta Hawks in 2000 because it wasn’t the right move. But forget uncharted waters….the water next next season for the Cavs without Lebron James could be as rough as the movie A Perfect Storm for someone as accustomed to winning as Izzo is.
But then again….6 million dollars a year is still 6 million dollars a year.
What do you guys think? Before you write in, take a look at this video of Rick Pitino talking about his move to the Boston Celtics in 1997 from Kentucky……PITINO VIDEO
POTENTIALLY BIG GET FOR JASPERS
May 21st, 2010
Nobody has been signing more players this spring in the area than Manhattan’s Barry Rohrssen. ”Slice” has had to overhaul the entire roster and has upgraded the talent at multiple positions the past two months. And it was needed indeed - the Jaspers have struggled the past two seasons and the veteran players have underachieved.
This week, Rohrssen got a steal for the MAAC in 6′6 guard Torgrim Sommerfeldt from Norway. After making his name at the Nike Hoop Summit while playing for the World Team; Sommerfeldt attracted big time talent because of his shooting ability for his size. This kid originally committed to play for Wake Forest before deciding to give pro ball a shot overseas. Recently he’s been recruited by numerous Big East schools in the area and has the ability to be an All Conference player someday.
So how did he slip through the cracks? His knees. Sommerfeldt has had 3 knee surgeries in the past 18 months and will not be 100% for another 4-5 months. If there was a veteran, established program & coach in the area….they could sign this kid no problem. But all three local Big East coaches are 1st year guys that needed low-risk, home run signings this off-season. And to their credit, Rutgers, Seton Hall and St. John’s have all done that.
That being said, if this kid gets healthy and plays to his potential….he could be an extremely good player for the Jaspers and Rohrssen in the future.
IF YOU WERE THE AD
May 11th, 2010
With all of the turnover we saw this spring in the metropolitan area, we also saw no two Athletic Directors think alike when it came down to who they were going to hire. Some knew exactly who they wanted from the get-go….while others got turned down a few times before settling on plan B or C.
Different philosophies amongst administrators lead to schools falling into one of the following categories.
The Rising Star Hire
- Clearly the path taken by the two New Jersey Big East Schools. Seton Hall’s Kevin Willard is 35 and Rutgers’ Mike Rice is 41. Both have shown in only 3 years as a head coach that they know what they are doing. And their personalities both fit what the schools need right now. Seton Hall needs stability, professionalism and X & O’s right now - enter Willard. Rutgers needs passion, positive energy and hard work right now - enter Rice. Obviously recruiting is the foundation of all success; but these other qualities are just as important right now for these two schools.
The No Brainer Hire
- Fordham Basketball needed a new leader after the Dereck Whittenburg regime. Many candidates were mentioned, but all of the other options silenced once Tom Pecora was interested in the job. Regardless of who else was interested, Pecora was the home run hire here by far. He is New York’s media darling for college hoops and there’s not a high school coach in the tri-state area that dislikes him. He is polished on and off the court and he is great with the press. The students will love him on campus and he’ll be loved by the alumni. Throw stats and more qualified resumes out the window when a school finds their No Brainer hire.
Win the Presser Hire
- Hands down this hire goes to St. John’s. Yes, they really liked and wanted Paul Hewitt to leave Georgia Tech. And yes, they fantasized about Billy Donovan coaching in the Garden. But at the end of the day, credit Chris Monasch for getting a big name that will draw media attention to come to St. John’s. This program has been dull and boring. It needed life….it needed buzz….it needed juice in the greatest city in the world. And they’ve gotten it with Lavin so far. Now we have to see how it goes after the honeymoon period is over.
The Out of the Box Hire
- Who was going to get the Iona job? Fran Fraschilla?…Norm Roberts?…Steve Masiello?…nope…enter Tim Cluess from D2 power CW Post in Long Island. Iona returns the majority of their team from a 21 win and 3rd place MAAC finish. Iona decided they wanted experience and they wanted someone who has won a lot of games. They chose a proven resume over candidates mentioned heavily in the media. Well they got that with Cluess, whose winning percentage in 19 years of coaching is way higher than my high school or college GPA ever was.
The Stability Hire
- Andy Toole was hired by Mike Rice when he was 26 years old to be an assistant coach at Robert Morris. He is now the 29 year old head coach of Robert Morris and is the youngest Division 1 head coach in the country. Mike Rice was extremely successful and leaves Toole a program in great shape. If they wanted, the NEC power from Pittsburgh could have taken hundreds of high level resumes throughout the country for their vacant basketball coaching position. Instead, Robert Morris officials chose stability…they chose head coach/player relationships…and they waned to give someone a shot. When the foundation is strong at a mid-major, the Stability Hire is becoming the more and more popular route to go.
So the formula looks like this folks-
When the situation is average to bad, but with potential….usually the Future Star Hire wins out.
When a program is down and out without any buzz….usually the No Brainer or Win the Presser Hire is the way to go.
And when a program is headed in the right direction….the Stability or Out of the Box Hire are the two most acceptable ways of winning the press conference.
If you were AD though, is there a certain candidate you would hire and nothing could change your mind about it? Or would you be the type willing to bend and take a chance? What type of candidate would you pursue if you were AD?
WHAT IF….
May 10th, 2010
What if St. John’s doesn’t lose at the buzzer in the 1st round of the 2010 NIT at Memphis. What if they win at the buzzer instead? And then go on a semi-magical run all the way to Madison Square Garden and beat North Carolina. Does Norm get fired? Does Steve Lavin ever get to check out real estate in New York City this spring?
What if everything doesn’t snowball into one week Seton Hall fans will never forget? Punches, ejections, technical fouls and arrests. Do the cards play out the same way? Or does Kevin Willard return to Iona for a 4th season instead of beginning his reign at Seton Hall? And then does Tim Cluess never leave CW Post for his dream job of coaching Division 1 basketball at Iona. And current CW Post head coach Chris Casey (formally of St. John’s with Norm Roberts) is most likely unemployed this season.
What if the ball bounces another way back in that April baseball game between Pitt & Rutgers? What if the ball bounces in favor of Fred Hill Sr.’s team….not Pitt? What if the umpire makes a different call? Fred Hill is most likely coaching against Jim Calhoun this winter and Mike Rice is most likely coaching against Dan Hurley at Wagner this winter.
What if Tim Welsh catches a cold that day and never decides to go out for a few drinks? Everything is most likely great in Hofstra land and Tim Welsh is house hunting today in Long Island. Instead, Hofstra’s head basketball coach is Mo Cassara. Cassara was unemployeed last month because he worked for Al Skinner at Boston College. He was working the phones and sending his resume everywhere. He was calling everyone he knew and bracing himself for the possibilty of unemployement. Today, he wakes up as the head coach of a great mid major program.
Sometimes this world of college basketball defies logic. It’s not about the recruiting classes, or the GPA’s, or the zone offenses.
Sometimes it is how the stars are aligned….how the course of events play out….and the right and wrong decisions of others.
We will never, ever forget the crazy coaching carousel of 2010, will we?
Courtesy of NEWSDAY
May 5th, 2010
Ex-Hofstra coach Tim Welsh appears in court
Welsh, who faces drunken driving charges, had the second hearing in his case adjourned until June 1.
A day after resigning as coach of Hofstra’s men’s basketball team, Tim Welsh was back in court Tuesday morning, though not for long.
Welsh, who faces drunken driving charges, had the second hearing in his case adjourned until June 1. His wife, Megan, and his new attorney, Ronald Bekoff of Garden City, accompanied him in the third-floor courtroom at First District Court in Hempstead. Welsh and his wife left just before 9:30, when the hearing originally was scheduled to begin.
When Welsh was arraigned Friday, his attorneys at the time worked to schedule his second hearing as soon as possible in hopes of expediting the case while he fought to keep his job. But immediacy is no longer an issue in the wake of Welsh’s decision to resign Monday morning.
Hofstra hired Welsh on March 31, signing him to a five-year, $3-million contract that was the largest in the school’s history for a coach. His tenure lasted 34 days and was marred by his arrest early Friday when police said they found him drunk behind the wheel on Hempstead Turnpike.
In a telephone interview with Newsday Monday night, Welsh said of the incident: “Whatever happened, happened. Life is full of challenges, ups and downs. Right now, we’ll bounce back. Hofstra will bounce back.”
JERSEY’S FINEST HAVE TAKEN DIFFERENT ROADS
May 4th, 2010
I remember a game from November of 2007 like it was yesterday. I was coaching in the game and it was Iona at Robert Morris. One program was down at the time…another program was on the way up. But both teams had 1st year head coaches. It was a Friday night and it was Kevin Willard’s coaching debut at Iona. It was also Mike Rice’s coaching debut at Robert Morris. Rice inherited a much better situation than Willard. Robert Morris lost to Syracuse by 6 in the 2008 NIT, lost to Michigan State by 15 in the 2009 NCAA Tourney and came within seconds of upsetting Villanova in this year’s Big Dance. Willard took over 2-28 and by year 3 had 21 wins this past season in New Rochelle, NY. Willard played at Pitt, worked for the Boston Celtics and Louisiville under legendary Rick Pitino and was a head coach by 32 years of age. Rice was part of fired coaching staffs at Niagara and Marquette….and had to work at Chicago State and the Hoop Group (a New Jersey Basketball Camp Company) before landing at St. Joe’s with Phil Martelli 6 years ago. Then to Pitt with Jamie Dixon…. and then to Robert Morris where he did a great job. Willard’s father sits next to Rick Pitino on Louisville’s bench….Rice’s father is the Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier of the Portland Trailblazers. One guy had to fight and scrap for his dream job. The other guy was pursued as hard as you can be pursued.
Both backgrounds are different. Both have taken different roads to get here. But both are Big East head coaches in the Garden State. Rice’s energy and New Jersey connections will energize the State University. He plans on being visible and marketing the program like Greg Schiano has done with football on the other side of campus. Willard’s full court ‘Pitino like’ play will have the fans in Newark rocking and forgetting they ever sat in the ‘GonZone.’
In 1997 both Seton Hall and Rutgers opened the same year. Rutgers went to Kevin Bannon. Seton Hall went to Tommy Amaker.
In 2001 both jobs opened again. Rutgers to Gary Waters. Seton Hall to Louis Orr.
In 2006 both opened yet again in the same year. Rutgers to Fred Hill. Seton Hall to Bobby Gonzalez.
And now 2010. The rivalry is back and most likely here to stay. You are not gonna find two guys that love the metropolitan area more than Mike Rice and Kevin Willard. These two want to be here and want to win….bad. The recruiting wars will be vicious and the games will be beyond intense.
And who would have thought that the matchup in 2007 in Pittsburgh would be a sneak peek of a Big East rivalry.
HOW BOLD WILL PERNETTI BE?
April 20th, 2010
The standoff is finally over. Fred Hill and Rutgers agreed on $850,000 to step down as Rutgers’ men’s basketball coach. The firing and buyout amount has been a public war in New Jersey, with AD Tim Pernetti and Hill as the central figures. Hill was originally offered $600,000 of the $1.9 million he was owed for the remaining three years of his contract. Hill rejected it, played hardball, refused to leave, came to work everyday - and in return got himself an extra $250,000. Rutgers had been trying to fire Hill for cause….and without settlement….following an ugly on-field incident at a Rutgers-Pitt baseball game of April 1st. But in the end, Rutgers and Pernetti accepted the fact that they had to end the drama and move forward.
But Pernetti’s job as AD begins now. This hire will make or break his name in the Rutgers community. Yes, he is a football guy….but RU Football has been, is now and always will be two words - Greg Schiano. But the hoops coach will be all him.
This has been the year of turnover in the metropolitan area for basketball coaches. But it has also been the year of bold moves by Ahtletic Directors locally….
St. John’s - Chris Monasch decides to go with ESPN’s Steve Lavin. A big name in the college hoops world, but still a bold move considering he hasn’t coached in seven years.
Seton Hall - Joe Quinlan and Patrick Hobbs made a bold move of their own when they hired 35 year old Kevin Willard from Iona. A perfect example of trying to snag a guy before he gets really big, and then you can’t get him.
Fordham - Frank McLaughlin ignored the critics who said he had to hire a coach who had been to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, Fordham made a great choice by hiring one of the most well liked and best recruiters in the area - Tom Pecora from Hofstra.
Hofstra - Jack Hayes had a lot of big time interest from current coaches for one of the best mid-major jobs on the east coast. Instead, he hired SNY & ESPN analyst Tim Welsh….going with what felt like the right fit, as opposed to just hiring a big name assistant or current head coach.
Iona - In maybe the boldest move of all….Pay Lyons shocked the area by hiring Tim Cluess from Division 2 power C.W. Post. Facing different needs than the schools looking to clean house; Lyons knew what he wanted for his veteran team - a proven winner and a proven head coach.
Now what will Pernetti do? Will he just read the papers and interview guys that the media says he should, but make no sense….like ex-Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien. Will he go the St. John’s route and hire ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla? Or will he try to find that next young coaching star like Seton Hall did in Kevin Willard? My guess is that Pernetti wants to find the next up-and-comer. Why wouldn’t he? Greg Schiano was once an up-and-comer himself and he is close friends with Pernetti.
That is why I truly think Rutgers will hire Mike Rice from Robert Morris.
Just my gut feeling right now. What do you guys think?