Sorry, Ed, but it’s time for a change
It really pains me to write this article. And it’s probably in frustration and a rash opinion attributed to the frustration of yet another painful loss–and to an Iowa Hawkeye team that came in at 6-11 (0-4) with losses to such powerhouses as Northern Iowa and UT-San Antonio, but right now, I can’t see any reason why Ed DeChellis should continue to be the head coach of the Penn State basketball team.
Last year’s NIT run was magnificent. It was pure unadulterated fun for a program that hasn’t much to root for in the past few years. It brought meaningful basketball back to Penn State for the first team in nearly a decade, it renewed interest among students in a team that we wanted to care about, but just couldn’t bring ourselves to suffer through the pain of watching a Big Ten bottom dweller year-in and year-out. Last year, Ed DeChellis seemed like Penn State’s savior.
He was the Big Ten coach of the year, and even though Penn State didn’t make the NCAA tournament, we knew we were moving in the right direction. We had a legitimate superstar in Talor Battle, we had young guys who looked like difference makers. We even had a good recruiting class coming in, with a point guard rated by some as the best in Texas.
But all of that goodwill has come and gone in the first 17 games of this season. We’ve seen a team that thought they’d compete for an NCAA bid lose to mid-major cellar dwellers like UNC-Wilmington and Tulane, we’ve seen a team that’s used to pulling off miracle wins lose in the final minutes to Temple and Virginia Tech, and we’ve seen a team that so desperately needed to distance itself from the Big Ten basement start its conference schedule at a putrid 0-5, losing every game in painful fashion. We knew we would struggle this year, but not this much. This much is wholly unacceptable.
It’s not Ed DeChellis’s fault that Jamelle Cornley and Stanley Pringle left, creating a giant void in Penn State’s starting lineup. But it is his fault that the development of every player on this team, sans Battle, has been nonexistent. Jeff Brooks is still the same enigma he was the day he first stepped foot in the BJC. Andrew Jones, who played so well down the stretch last year and into the NIT has taken a major step back–he’s been less assertive, less aggressive, and worse on the defensive end and as a rebounder. And that problem of getting into early foul trouble hasn’t gotten any better, either. Need I go on? We haven’t seen much improvement from D.J. Jackson, from Chris Babb, from Andrew Ott.
And it doesn’t seem like the future’s much brighter. Sure, Frazier’s shown glimpses of the talent that had him so highly recruited, but Bill Edwards doesn’t realize he’s no longer in high school, that he’s not the best player on the court. Sasa Borovnjak certainly doesn’t look like someone who will contribute down the line, and aside from Taran Buie–and let’s not consider that a DeChellis coup, since he would’ve followed his half-brother anywhere–Penn State’s other commits haven’t exactly been pulling in offers from the best teams around. Trey Burke committed to Penn State over a host of mid-majors, and not even good ones. Beating out the likes of Akron, Cleveland State, and James Madison isn’t an accomplishment. Peter Alexis doesn’t have a single other offer. I don’t know about Ed, but nobody else in the Big Ten seems to think these guys are big time players.
Ed DeChellis got lucky when he brought in Talor Battle. There’s no reason for a superstar of his caliber to come to play for Penn State, and it’s not fair that he’s been stuck here amidst middling mediocrity. Jamelle Cornley was a warrior, and he had the heart and determination that few could ever match. But he was perhaps emblematic of Penn State’s success–he was undersized, fairly unathletic, but succeeded in spite of that, overcoming his own physical limitations through pure guts.
You can’t recruit guts, but you can recruit talent, and that’s something Ed has failed to do. You can instill in your players a sense of pride, and that’s something Ed has failed to do. Nobody on that team, aside from Talor Battle, wants to touch the ball. Nobody on that team, aside from Talor Battle, wants to shoot. Nobody on that team, aside from Talor Battle, would be starting for any other power conference in the country. Penn State is the only major-conference team with just one double-digit scorer.
We all thought the NIT Championship was a step in the right direction for Penn State. We thought it was a stepping stone for future greatness, to the NCAA Championship, back to the Sweet Sixteen. Who knows, maybe we’d be competing for a Big Ten championship one year.
But the fact is that it was just a blip on a landscape of suck, not just for Penn State basketball, but for Ed DeChellis. When he inherited it from Jerry Dunn, this team was as bad as it could ever be, but after 8 years, your predecessor’s failures are no longer an excuse. It’s a shame, because you can tell just how much a good team means to DeChellis–as an alumni of the school, as someone who probably always dreamed of coaching this team.
But even he wouldn’t have dreamt of someone who’s struggled so mightily to develop a personality for his teams. It’s been an identity crisis for the Lions since the day he got here–on one hand, you have a team that supposedly wants to run the ball, on the other, a team that spends 33 seconds of the shot clock before jacking up an off-balance three. On one hand, you’ve got a pressuring defense, that creates turnovers and opportunities, and on the other, the world’s weakest zone. You’ve got a team that will look like world-beaters for 10 minute spurts, and then get outhustled, outenergied, and outplayed on their way to collapsing mightily down the stretch.
It’s not all Ed DeChellis’s fault. To say that would be remarkably disingenuous. Ed’s giving it his all, and if he had the players who could succeed on their own, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.
But right now, Penn State is 8-9, with an 0-5 conference mark. Any dreams of the NIT are just about dead. This team more closely resembles Ed’s 11-19 team of 2007, or the 9-19 team in 2004. And, as is quite obvious, this season is far more resembling of Ed DeChellis’s career than last year.
I’m sorry, Ed, but a 29-76 mark in conference isn’t getting it done. You’ve had 8 years now to find something that works, and you simply haven’t. When Penn State has succeeded, it’s been in spite of you, not because. It’s been your reluctance to use set plays, to abandon a zone that clearly isn’t working, to refuse to tinker with the lineup that’s been the root of such failure.
Ed deserves some credit, though. Right now, Penn State has some of the best facilities in the country, and any coach who inherits them immediately has a recruiting chip. Ed put the taste of success into the students, and we’re eager to get that back. Taran Buie should be here for four years, and everyone seems to think he’ll be just as good as his brother. And let’s not look over the remarkable work Ed has done with his philanthropies, especially Coaches vs. Cancer, let’s not forget his own determination in overcoming a battle with cancer.
But frankly, success on the court should be the only barometer determining a coach’s future–not just at Penn State, which so sorely needs it, but at any school. There are plenty of deserving young candidates at mid-major schools from the CAA and MVC, like Hofstra’s Tom Pecora, or Dana Altman, at Creighton, to name a few. Brian Gregory’s excelled at Drexel, and has Big Ten ties–he was an assistant at Michigan State. Maybe Lon Kruger would want to re-join the coaching ranks at a power conference. I don’t know who the next coach at Penn State should be, but after going out and getting Cael Sanderson, the administration has shown that they’re willing to pay whatever it takes to get their man.
I’m sorry Ed, but it’s time to go.
Releated Posts:
- I’ll Let the Beastie Boys Recap This One:
- Well, Taran Buie’s Starting Now: Chris Babb Transfers
- Ed DeChellis Signs Contract Extension
- Talor Battle Enters NBA Draft
- The Glass is Half Full
Good article, though I disagree on the “lack of talent” part. There's talent aside from Battle, it's just not being properly tapped into, which is a coaching problem as you've been suggesting.
Also Trey Burke is only a junior right now, so he has yet to be fully evaluated. I have a feeling major programs will be after him his senior year if he's the 'hidden gem' he's supposed to be.
Really spot on. I've considered it a slap in the face to alumni like me who consistently pay for (but not attend) basketball season tickets just to support the program when they extended DeChellis' contract following back to back losing seasons prior to the NIT championship run. We support the basketball program to ensure our student athletes are in the best position to succeed in that sport, and the administration has shown they couldn't care less if the basketball team even showed up to play as long as it existed.
This losing is getting really old. And how often do you hear of a coach who seemingly has tenure at any program especially with a 29-76 mark since his hire? That is atrocious and disrespectful to boosters and fans across the country. Tim Curley, please heed this message. Reassign DeChellis to fundraising or charity work and actually hire a qualified big name coach. This program is starving for some basketball success and the potential for revenue with both basketball and football being successful surely can't be lost on you. It's time to let DeChellis go.
29-76 record in conference play? Are you kidding me?! That would make us like the Baylor of Big 12 football! What coach receives a 8 year coaching tenure with that kind of record. I knew we were bad and that DeChellis does not deserve to remain a head coach, but that statistic is staggering! What would it take for this athletic department to take a clear hard look that 8 years is more than sufficient for any coach to prove themselves. A NIT berth is simply not good enough. That's the equivalent of aspiring for the Motor City Bowl every season in football, and still failing it to get there in most years. Do we need a blunder of Mike Leech proportions for this athletic department to cut the umbilical cord? Time to get rid of DeChellis.
Great work Devon, this has really been a long time coming. I just don't see DeChellis going anywhere though. By some miracle he has almost been given tenure for occasionally upsetting ranked teams and aspiring for NIT berths. I would say he is college basketball's equivalent of Lane Kiffin except without the name recognition and the famous dad. I have stopped purchasing season tickets following 2007 when it was clear the administration could care less about basketball and its' fans. I shall return with my checkbook once they wake up and realize we have hit a glass ceiling and taking 8 years to not reach the NCAA tournament is a failed experiment.
Ed's work with charities (specifically Coaches vs Cancer) can't be understated, but let's not forget he was hired to be our basketball coach whose primary focus is to win games. He simply hasn't done it (29-76) and I don't see it happening if it hasn't happened in 8 seasons. I like Ed as a person, move him to fundraising and have him run charitable organizations on behalf of the school but not at the expense of dragging the basketball team through the mud. We want to compete for Big Ten titles and NCAA berths, not for second to last place and NIT appearances.
Good article. I agree with almost everything. The one thing that absolutely drives me nuts is the free throw shooting. Today's game was a perfect example of how free throws can seal a win for you (as Iowa did). This is without a doubt the worst free throw shooting team I have seen in my life. How does Ed not make this team practice free throws more. I don't care if you have to get every player on the team to make 10 in a row before practice ends. Do something! With the facilities we have, there is not excuse. Ed is a good guy, but I, like most other fans, am sick and tired of being a basement dweller in the Big Ten. After last year, I was excited for this season. I went to the NIT Championship at MSG last spring and it was incredible. It was the 1st time I was excited for Penn State basketball and now we're back to this. We need a change.
I wondered what you guys talked about during basketball season.
Our 1 point loss at Illinois last week? We were 5 of 9 in free throw shooting. That's .556. Let's not forget we lost by 1. We left 4 free points at the line.
This team was 17-23 at the line in yesterday's loss at Iowa. That's 6 points we gave up on the line and we lost by 3.
Where is the discipline here Ed? Is anyone on this team other than Battle capable of performing come crunch time?
Listen, Ed, We love you, just not as our head coach. Step down and let a big name take over. You can run our CVC program.
Yes, there's certainly a lack of talent. Personally I'm not too upset about PSU's record this season. I understand that its not easy to replace Cornley. My concern is that PSU has not recruited a good PF in 4 years. He spent all of his scholarships on guards and that leaves PSU with a gaping hole that won't be filled for a few more years.
Great blog you have here. I like reading sports blogs. You get more from them than the regular news. I can't take regular news anymore.
I have a couple of sports blogs myself. I know you probably haven't come across it because theres definitely over a million of us out there. I'd like to exchange links with you to help spread some traffic around between each other. Let me know if this is possible. Both my links are below my name. Until then, keep up the good work.
Jason
SportsSoundOff.net
SPORTSMONARCH.com
The big difference between Sanderson and DeChellis is that Sanderson can get the best wrestlers in the country.
DeChellis obviously can’t lure any McDonalds all Americans. But what PSU basketball coach is going be able to? I’d say only a really big name analagous to the Sanderson hire. Getting a succesful mid-major coach sounds good on the surface, but he’s still not going to get the blue chip recruit to come to Big Ten cellar dweller Penn State. The only way to get the program there is through a steady climb and I thought last year was two steps forward. This year is obviously one step back. If I was Curley, I wouldn’t fire ED unless I can get Petino or someone of that stature, where recruits are going to want to play for him, wherever he is.
So Ed goes. What big-time coach do you figure is going to take what is, as far as built-in competitive disadvantage, the worst job in the Big Ten? There is no natural recruiting base. There is no real basketball history. Fan interest is negligible. The BJC provides all the atmosphere of a mausoleum. With the possible exception of Nebraska, there is no school in the country where football overshadows hoops to such an extent. The only good players who come here are ones who’ve been overlooked by actual good programs and excel because they’ve got a chip on their shoulders. Blue-chip recruits have always laughed at the thought of coming here, and they always will. None of this is Ed’s fault. You can blame him for the free-throw shooting (I guess…) or take issue with how he develops guys who usually aren’t that talented in the first place, but the idea that there’s some obviously better option out there who a) would be at all interested and b) Penn State would be willing to spend the money on is laughable. We are not that school. We most likely never will be.
I agree 100 per cent with this article. I said last sping the worst thing for PSU basketball was winning the NIT because right away Curley gave Dechiles an extension. What a joke. I was a PSU fan & follower, but no longer interested. Dechiles is a poor coach & a poorer recruiter. The talent on this team is horrible!
Funny that you would look at it this way (but I am not surprised).
It is certainly debatable at best that free throw shooting cost you the Illinois game. Percentages aren't as telling when the number of free throws is low. I looked at the box score and saw that Illinois went to the line a whopping six times and only made four. You outscored them at the line. I guess you could argue that if you shot the same percentage as Illinois did for the game, that it would have at least been tied (but that is the only legitimate argument based on free throws for the Illinois game).
Claiming free throws hurt you in the Iowa game is ridiculous. All you have to do is pull up a boxscore and you would see that free throw shooting between the teams was nearly identical for the game. I don't know too many people that think their team should go 100% from the line (or use it as a basis for saying “We left points at the line” without considering the other team's position). And to suggest that you would have won had you made all of yours and the other team's percentage stayed the same? That is a ridiculous way of determining what cost you the game. That's the old, “If we score more points we would win the game argument”. LOL. Using that logic, you could say that about any facet of the game. Well, if we made more lay-ups and their % stayed the same. If we made more 3s, and their % stayed the same. No joke. Talk about bad reasoning. I could see if you went like 17-30 from the line, but you can't look at things the way you suggest when what you shoot is better than the opponent.
legitimate argument. But I see free throws as uncontested attempts at points. If we aren't going to take advantage of our own free throws, I consider it a bigger crap shoot to count on actual contested layups and jump shots. Sorry, but free throw shooting is simple fundamentals. I see your point, and agree it is insane to expect a perfect record from the line, but it is the one aspect we can control without depending on the other team (to miss defensive assignments, or miss rebounds, etc). If you have been following Penn State basketball, this is not a new problem for us. Horrendous free throw shooting has plagued this team for years.
It can't cost you the game when you shoot better than your opponent (Iowa).
Using your argument, Iowa is thinking, “Well, we could have beaten them comfortably had we just made all of our free throws.” So, you're no closer to explaining why you lost by 3 (when looking at free throws). You can't look at it in a one-sided manner (regardless of whether you control that aspect or not–because after all, Iowa controls their free throws).
Look, the game played out like it did. And although your point is valid, we can't control what the other team does and how they shoot. We can however control and improve on fundamental and simple things like free throws. That would be a great place to start for this team.
Anything else you would like to nit pick about?
This is hardly nitpicking. I have never heard of someone taking this sort of stance in relation to free throws and winning a basketball game (especially since you led in that category). It just doesn't make sense (kind of like using “1981″ as a PSU/Pitt rebuttal, throwing a head-to-head match-up out the window when a team is ranked ahead of you, beat you on your own field, and you finished with the same regular season and conference records, and trying to subtract former Big East members from the conference bowl record).
I get a kick out of the stuff you guys write on here. I'm really just looking to see if the arguments you make are reasonable and logical.
“”Rational Pitt fan” – That must be an oxymoron shouldn't it?” After reading the kind of journalism that goes on around here, it's pretty evident who isn't very rational. LOL.
I'm curious:
Do you get paid to do this?
Any predictions on next year's football team? Right now I am thinking 3 or 4 losses.
Three losses is probable. I think we knock off Iowa, but lose the predictable ones against OSU and Alabama, and drop another one we shouldn't. Maybe Northwestern or Michigan State.
I figured OSU and Alabama were pretty much locks. Maybe you can break the Hawkeye jinx, but I thought that you had them on the road. Does Iowa lose a lot next year?
Wow, I guess there just aren't enough Pitt sites to troll nowadays. Bring something constructive and informative to say or continue to be censored.
They lose 4 offensive linemen, which, as we saw, is more important than anything else on a team. Plus, they had to be the worst 11-win team ever this year.
That's hardly nitpicking.
Haha. What I am saying is constructive and informative (and reasonable and logical), but you apparently don't recognize that. And no, you wouldn't “happily oblige” if something informative were said (so don't act like you would permit the comments to remain). You'd have to delete them to avoid looking silly (as evidenced by deleting the last one). The stuff I write is certainly no more destructive than the stuff you post.
I guess I should just create a Pitt blog and post the reasoning you use in football and basketball on it and see where it goes and allow for comments. I'll let you know.
I can think of a few who were worse, but they still managed to beat you guys and do well against the Big Ten (did kind of have a magical run early on this year).
Losing linemen will hurt. I just wonder if their defense will stay strong.
Well, I'm just saying, they're an 11-win team who squeaked by (beat by less than 3) Northern Iowa (two blocked FGs at the end of regulation!!!), Arkansas State, Michigan State, and Michigan. They had 2 wins by a margin of 10 or more: Indiana and Minnesota. They were lucky.
let's not forget that epic fourth quarter rally against Indiana. It was a very talented Iowa team that relied on many fourth quarter rallies.
You guys crack me up. Maybe Charlie will delete this comment because it is informative. LOL.
Where do you get this stuff that they had “2 wins by a margin of 10 or more: Indiana and Minnesota?”
I am coming up with 7. That is much different than 2. If you meant “by greater than 10″, I'm still getting twice the number you did–four. And if you meant “Big Ten teams by greater than 10″, I am still getting three. Funny how you “forgot” they beat you by more than 10. LOL.
Iowa State, 35-3 (32 points).
Arizona, 27-17 (10 points).
PSU, 21-10 (11 points).
Wisconsin, 20-10 (10 points).
Indiana, 42-24 (18 points).
Minnesota, 12-0 (12 points).
Georgia Tech, 24-14 (10 points).
And they didn't squeak by Arkansas State according to your definition of “less than 3″. The final was 24-21, but maybe I am just “nitpicking” (as Charlie would say) on that one.
Besides all of the misinformation on Iowa, it sounds like you are calling the 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes lucky. Maybe they are the worst national championship team in history. I believe they had 7 games decided by 7 points or less. Regardless, winning the close ones does count for something.
I know you don't believe me, but I read most of these articles just to see if they make sense. LOL.
As long as you have some informative arguments to make like the one you just did, I couldn't care less what you say. But like you have noticed by now, I have no problem hitting the delete button otherwise.
Meant to say by more than 10, completely forgot they beat us by 11, and Iowa State, too. My bad on that. But they weren't remotely dominant against us–trailed going into the 4th, right? Look, some say it's better to be lucky than good, but I think a team that's really elite doesn't let lesser teams linger around. That 2002 OSU team beat a #10 Wazzou by 18. Iowa had one really high quality win, maybe two, and came within inches of blowing a bunch of easy ones. Sure, they pulled em out, but style points count.
Look, you can fire Ed DeChellis and replace him with some hot shot coach having success at a mid-major school, but he still has to recruit to perennial Big Ten cellar dweller Penn State. You'll just keep re-cycling, Parkhill, Dunn and DeChellis.
Unless you go the Cael Sanderson route and lure away a big name coach, who blue chip recruits will follow wherever he goes, things will not change. But the difference is it was easy for Sanderson to bolt Iowa State wrestling and come to PSU. It's not that easy in basketball. How you gonna get Pitino or someone like that to come here?
The prudent thing here is to build the program with steady growth. I thought we saw that last year, but this year is not the end of the world. The losses have been really close and the matches competitive despite playing inexperienced freshmen and some maxed out juniors. The key obviously is recruiting and development. I think they busted with Jones, Brooks and Jackson who have not developed. Brooks was a 4 star prospect rated higher than Battle even.
So you either give ED more time to grow things or grab that mid-major coach and try and pick up where ED leaves off and hopefully not have to start from scratch. Either way it's the same thing.
If the school does make a change, I agree that it must be with a coach with a stellar resume and name brand. That will only happen with the money offered, and I would be surprised if Penn State will have problems raising money should it be for a big name coach. Ed DeChellis has been given more than sufficient time, now in the 8th year of this experiment, to develop talent that is his. He simply does not have the name or resume from his last coaching job to overcome the lack of tradition and history that plagues our basketball program.
It is just time to try something new. Being perennially at the bottom of the Big Ten regardless of how much improvement we have made since the Jerry Dunn era is pointless if it doesn't translate into wins.
That OSU team let plenty of easy teams hang around. Sure, they won that one game by 18 at home. It kind of fits your definition of not being remotely dominant, though. They trailed 7-6 at the half.
Is the basketball team going to win any league games this year?