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2014-15 Season Assessment and Overall Program Assessment

V

VikThunder

Active member
Looking for everyone's assessment of this season and naturally an assessment of the overall Program.
I will hold off on my assessment but will note that Coach Geving has completed his sixth season and his record is 84–98 (.462) overall and 47–59 (.443) in the conference. I believe this is the least successful record of any PSU head coach since 1996.
 
Geving is a prodigee of Ken Bone. He is a work in progress (how long?). He is a good recruiter of talent although the talent he tends to recruit are shorter, physically underdeveloped player personnel. They play their hearts out but are not as fit to the game physically as are the majority of their opponents. If they win, they most likely had to have over-achieved, This is both heart-wrenching and nerve-racking. it seems a minor miracle rather than something sustainable, except in the cases when they play teams also not well off, very much like themselves.

Having said that, I very much like Bamba (the warrior), Braxton and others. I liked the 3-point shooting displays at the end of the regular season. It was fun! But I don't like how Brandon Cataldo was neglected in his development (wasted, in my opinion), how our centers are always comparatively too short. I think someone of Geving's recruiting ability should be able to score some amazing combinations of talent with height (here or abroad). His saying that he'd rather have a 6-5 player with certain attributes than a set of 6-9 players shows he does not (or is constrained from not) thinking like a winner. Or one who is driven to that goal.

If he told us what his intentions are (e.g. "I plan to keep building this program up from where it is, my goal is to have the great talent types now (Bamba & Braxton) combined with an equally talented front court and post players"), then we could observe apply a metric to his progress and render congratulations when due. But if he is hiding out in obscurity with just enough wins to not raise too many heckles in the mindset of NW semi-retirement, then he needs to be replaced. I think the Pavilion will help him recruit, but Tim Walshism needs to be ousted at every turn. Now he's Cal Poly's problem.

I don't understand how a country clod like Geving merits a wonderful wife that he has in Anastasia. I hope he gets out of her way when it comes to raising their two boys. There is a kind of mediocrity to which he is subject that he needs to recognize and overcome. He needs to learn how to think. He needs to overcome his fuzziness, muddiness and complacency. He should get down on his knees and be wondrously grateful for the good things he has and try to become worthy of them, to improve himself, to improve his recruiting and his gamesmanship. He needs to escape his mindset of emotional logic and do the work to enter into that of true logic. He needs to understand Truth Tables, for example.

Is he here simply because of Portland State budget constraints? Is this really the best, on balance, that a university like Portland State can actually do? The Pavilion should be a game-changer. Retain him for the sake of his wife and children.
 
I think the program is in serious trouble, first all he appears to be to emotional and has no consistency in his leadership. Development appears to a non issue. You develop a program from recruiting freshmen and having passion & patience in there development. PSU is the quick fix school. With the exception of a few great transfers he usually recruit JC headaches that are egotistical hired guns. Kids like Cataldo he has no patience or time to develop, there push to the side year after year with the next incoming 6,5" JC recruit. This year several transfers walk off with mysterious season ending injuries.......rumored to be unhappy, could be nothing or this summer could be interesting.
 
I read the word in a previous post that I think sums up Geving, and that is consistency. Or lack thereof in my opinion. Consistency comes from the top, and it doesn't appear to be trickling down to the team. Just look at this year. Highs of wins on the road at USC, Weber, and EWU, but lows of getting ran out of the gym against Portland, and looking pretty lackluster against NAU, Montana, and Sac State at home.

While we did have quite a few injuries this year, I think that a team with this much talent (I know, it's a bit cliché to say how talented we are since year after year it's "look at PSU over there with all that talent, but they just can't seem to put it together on the football field or basketball court") this team had. I remember talking to another longtime season ticket holder after the SIU game and him saying that we were noticeably more athletic this year, and I totally agreed. Not sure if it was that rotations were still being tinkered with and there was just more effort, but this team seemed to change from what I saw early on. Perhaps it was the injuries, locker room stuff, kids not buying in to Geving's philosophy, or a combination, but I had higher hopes for us this year based on what I saw early on.

With regards to the state of the program in general, this year sort of epitomizes my view of how things are going. Some highs, some lows, pretty much mediocre. We're not great and we don't suck. Mediocre.

Mediocrity is not a good thing for this program right now. With the Viking Pavilion project officially moving forward and dates being set for shovels hitting the ground, we need a buzz around this program. Can Geving provide this buzz? I'm not so certain. The last time I checked, the only thing that is mediocre and creates a buzz is a twelve pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon. That's not to say that he can't be the one to get things done here, but from what I've seen, he's going to need to surprise me.

That being said, that's just my opinion on the state of the program, not my view of Geving as a person. He's a heck of a nice guy, and seems like a good character guy and great family man.
 
In the last four years: three winning seasons, two semi-final and one quarter final berth. If not for a couple of injuries (White early and especially Tucker in the late season), this team was peaking at the right time and probably would have made a run in the conf tournament. Enough said.

After coming back from the major APR mess that Bone left the Viks with (recall no post season, fewer scholarships, practices, etc), he has done an outstanding job of recruiting players to a "commuter" school under tough circumstances:
- aging facilities incl a high school gym (three cheers for the new Pavilion...which should have been done by now...see lacking admin support below)
- pathetic fan support (Montana averages over 3000/game, Weber over 8000)
- limited administrative support (how many times has the President been to a game...does he even give a rip about athletics? other coaches had a diff't admin environment to work under which has a tremendous impact on a program; Wievel started as Geving took the reins)
- probably the smallest budget in the league

Hats off to Geving and his staff for having the success that they have had over the stretch he has been in control. Now that there are twelve teams in the league, all of the above elements make it even harder. Geving and staff are doing a yeoman's job given what they have to work with and they have done it the right way. Yes, he has had some growing pains along the way, but I stand strong behind Geving and hope he is given the chance to continue building the Viking program for years to come.

ps - yes, I know wievel struck the grant with oshu to get the final $'s for the pavilion...a president who made sports a priority would have gotten the $'s years ago. I hope Rountree can make things happen in this environment before he gets burnt out due to limited support and moves on like the others.
 
I don't buy the commuter school excuse. Can you say UCLA, amongst others. The other comments are on point. The pres shows up for about 5 to 10 games a year if you include the women. :clap:
 
Good point, Gofer, but I'm not sure I'd buy UCLA as a commuter school. Try one of the Cal State schools.
 
Gee! When I did some graduate work at UCLA in the early 70's it was considered a commuter school. The Kingston Trio even noted it was a commuter school with the comment that it was a five year undergraduate school. noting it took four years of classes and a year finding a place to park. :lol:
 
LOL UCLA has always taken a beating in the California rankings world. And parking's of course a pain in the neck. I don't have the admissions figures handy, but I'd bet there are quite a few out-of-LA students enrolled now. Commuter schools or not, UCLA has been chasing Berkeley since it was set up, just as we've been chasing UO.
 
davema said:
In the last four years: three winning seasons, two semi-final and one quarter final berth. If not for a couple of injuries (White early and especially Tucker in the late season), this team was peaking at the right time and probably would have made a run in the conf tournament. Enough said.

After coming back from the major APR mess that Bone left the Viks with (recall no post season, fewer scholarships, practices, etc), he has done an outstanding job of recruiting players to a "commuter" school under tough circumstances:
- aging facilities incl a high school gym (three cheers for the new Pavilion...which should have been done by now...see lacking admin support below)
- pathetic fan support (Montana averages over 3000/game, Weber over 8000)
- limited administrative support (how many times has the President been to a game...does he even give a rip about athletics? other coaches had a diff't admin environment to work under which has a tremendous impact on a program; Wievel started as Geving took the reins)
- probably the smallest budget in the league

Hats off to Geving and his staff for having the success that they have had over the stretch he has been in control. Now that there are twelve teams in the league, all of the above elements make it even harder. Geving and staff are doing a yeoman's job given what they have to work with and they have done it the right way. Yes, he has had some growing pains along the way, but I stand strong behind Geving and hope he is given the chance to continue building the Viking program for years to come.

ps - yes, I know wievel struck the grant with oshu to get the final $'s for the pavilion...a president who made sports a priority would have gotten the $'s years ago. I hope Rountree can make things happen in this environment before he gets burnt out due to limited support and moves on like the others.
Click to expand...

"After coming back from the major APR mess that Bone left the Viks with."

Reminder that Geving was the Assistant Head Coach for Bone. He is just as responsible as Bone for the mess that Bone left and has half the success. Honestly, I'd rather have Bone than Geving.
 
The head coach, Bone, is responsible for the teams APR, period. They all work for the Head Coach, including Geving (no matter what his title is). Bone got the job done with a raft of players who didn't go to class...and got out just in time. Geving is doing it the right way. Kudos Geving.
 
Look like my assessment of the program on March 16th is coming true. Good kids Sweeney & Braxton good luck. Don't be surprised if 1 or 2 more might also exit. You must be fair & respect these kids today, if they can't trust you they will leave.
 
The question is whether the group that is leaving is any larger number than virtually any other program in the NCAA. This might be one too many? Eh?

Arguably, the time to make the change is when the new building is almost done. However, Geving's last contract was supposed to run out after 2013-14 and I can't seem to find how it was extended, for how long, etc. Of course, further back here, there's the CSNNW article with the author campaigning for a long-term extension because Geving rescued the APR issue.

http://www.csnnw.com/blog/crawfords-court/tyler-geving-deserves-long-term-deal-portland-state" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So he might have the media on his side, the administration has eaten a year and three weeks worth of coaching contract in the last 12 months, and attendance isn't going up at Stott with a new pavilion on the horizon. We know what the script is.
 
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