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David Patrick Enters The Transfer Portal: Off to LSU...

Kadeezy said:
hornetsports.com

DAVID PATRICK RESIGNS TO ACCEPT JOB AT LSU; MICHAEL CZEPIL NAMED INTERIM HEAD COACH - Sacramento State

Sacramento State head men's basketball coach David Patrick has resigned to take the associate head coaching position at LSU.
hornetsports.com hornetsports.com

Let the feeding frenzy for any of our decent players for the next 30 days begin!
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I read Loren Leath leaving as something was "up" --- We should have just named Loren the head coach and let him show pride in doing something at his alma mater
 
Would assume all the Aussies are gone -- the Transfer Portal guys coming in are gone... and we are in the middle of the dead period....

We knew David would be gone for the Olympics this summer... but now we have a truncated period to find players.

We might win 3 games next year
 
I’m assuming we are turning over the whole roster considering we had a recruiting first head coach and our best recruiting assistant who knows all of the AAU talent left as well. Those two guys are the reason they came. We also have no ability to restock this late without taking absolute fliers on guys. While the deadline to enter the portal has gone, waivers do exist for late coaching changes.
 
We should not be surprised based on his track record. He bailed on his last head coaching position after a few years also and he has never stayed at any of his jobs more than a couple of years. Even as an assistant he has not been at a school long enough to see a program or players develop. He was in the running for a couple of other schools two years ago and took the Sac State job when they did not select him. I felt he was never fully committed and was hoping for some quick success that he could leverage to a better job. I think he was over his head when it came to game management and player development and was expecting all season this would be the outcome. Not sure about the timing but it probably would have been better if he left a few months ago. More than ever in the transient world of college basketball Sac State needs a coach willing to connect to the local community who is fully committed to the long term success. Coach Laird was that choice two years ago. Not Patrick.
 
Greenteam said:
We should not be surprised based on his track record. He bailed on his last head coaching position after a few years also and he has never stayed at any of his jobs more than a couple of years. Even as an assistant he has not been at a school long enough to see a program or players develop. He was in the running for a couple of other schools two years ago and took the Sac State job when they did not select him. I felt he was never fully committed and was hoping for some quick success that he could leverage to a better job. I think he was over his head when it came to game management and player development and was expecting all season this would be the outcome. Not sure about the timing but it probably would have been better if he left a few months ago. More than ever in the transient world of college basketball Sac State needs a coach willing to connect to the local community who is fully committed to the long term success. Coach Laird was that choice two years ago. Not Patrick.
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Brandon Laird didn’t even stay at his Alma mater UC Davis after landing there. Immediately jumped to Idaho after one year when he had a “better opportunity”. So much for “committing to long term success (Davis is actually good btw)” and “connecting to local community”.
 
GreenArmySwarm said:
Brandon Laird didn’t even stay at his Alma mater UC Davis after landing there. Immediately jumped to Idaho after one year when he had a “better opportunity”. So much for “committing to long term success (Davis is actually good btw)” and “connecting to local community”.
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My understanding was that Laird was working as a program assistant/ analyst type role at Davis. I don't fault anyone for accepting D1 coaching opportunities to move up from those type of jobs. Not advocating for Laird's hire but I also don't see his move to Idaho as sign of lack of loyalty.
 
I heard Coach Leath was getting a $100k salary bump with his move. No brainer decision IMO, a program like ours can't compete against those salaries at the Power Conferences, it is what it is. I don't agree with the comment of him being the next Head Coach. Coach Leath isn't there yet, but I think he will be at some point in the not so distant future. I think we'll see him as the Head Coach here at some point in the future. He will need to sharpen his coaching abilities so he is more than just a guy with recruiting connections so hopefully at Utah he will garner better experience in the other critical aspects of the D1 game.

Coach DP moved the bar while he was here. It would have been nice to see him stick around a few more years and attain more success (and rebound from a subpar season), but him bouncing around isn't a surprise given his track record. He proved that quality talent can be brought here regardless of the facilities, and proved more than 1 win can be had at the BSCT. I agree with the comment about the subpar in-game management and player development. It should have been better and clearly DP is just a guy with recruiting connections that he leverages into coaching positions. I was wrong in thinking quality talent alone would allow the Hornet program to be competitive in the upper tier of the BSC. The DP experience proved that it takes more than quality talent to win games, even in a garbage conference like the BSC.

The comment about Laird being the guy is laughable. There is no debate regarding whether the move from the Katz/Laird situation was the right call. Ironically enough, had Katz/Laird not burned bridges on the way out, Laird might have been in consideration during the next hiring opportunity here. Good lesson to be learned.

Coach Czepil will be the guy this season. Let's see how he rounds out his staff and how he handles the roster. He was the associate head coach for the past 2 seasons (and 2 years as Associate HC at UCR during their steady improvement) and now he will have his shot to earn the permanent gig.
 
There is no debating Patrick bailed on the program when he realized success was hard to come by. It is a bad hire if your coach quits on you after two years. Disagree on moving the needle in his two years. 20-42 vs D1 programs and worse in year two, last place in conference, when he had only his own recruits and none of Katz’s former players. Our talent level was subpar. Big Sky talent in general is down with all the best players transferring out the last couple years, but other programs had coaching changes last year, and almost entire roster turnover, and brought in better transfers and finished ahead of the Hornets in Patrick’s second year. Just because he had connections to recruit Australian players does not make him a “great recruiter”, unless those players are talented. Maybe a couple of them will develop in a few years if they stick around. Time will tell. Beatty, the seven footer, looks to have potential at the Big Sky level, but my guess is if has a good year Patrick will try to lure him to LSU or package him to try to get another head coaching job. He may have already promised LSU to get this job. As for Loren I wish him the best and hope he gets the opportunity to develop his coaching skills. His two AAU connections, Gianni Hunt and Brandon Betson, were unfortunately big misses. The program needs a coach willing to connect to the local community and be in it for the long haul. The Big Sky and Big West conferences do not have the donors and NIL money to compete with most other conferences. They are becoming like junior colleges to the bigger programs and will need coaches that can develop players and chemistry quickly and are skilled game managers. Because the players will turn over and have less loyalty and connections with alumni and fans I believe we need a coach that will be here long enough to build a culture and connection. Hopefully if we find that coach we can build back the alumni and fan support. There has been no energy at the Nest the last two seasons.
 
I agree that DP bailed, and it's fair to say he left because he realized it would not be an easy task to make this program competitive in the top tier of the conference, even with the Well move happening.

I disagree about DP moving the bar. DP's recruiting connections allowed him to rectify an awful roster he inherited in his first year (on a limited recruiting window) in the worst facilities in D1, but he failed in following up with an improved season in year 2. Even with the disappointing regular season, this program still got 2 wins in a BSCT (including an upset over the top seed) which is something that has never happened here before.

Not buying the talent level being subpar to what we saw before his arrival. Top to bottom DP's roster was more athletic than anything we saw in the waning years of the Katz/Laird era. The issue was that they did not play well as a team until the last month of the season. The biggest disappointment about DP leaving is not seeing if that would have carried over into next season.

Given the current dynamic of D1 athletics, the expectation of having a coach here for the "long haul" is a thing of the past. If we have a coach here for the long haul, then it means the program is mired in mediocrity. Barring a past connection to this program (alum), it is hard to set that as a realistic expectation. Nothing connects a coach/program to the local community more than winning does so I think the "local ties" angle is overblown. I want a coach that can come in, be successful, and then be poached for a higher profile position in 2-4 years, otherwise it's just more of the same underachievement for this program.
 
SDHornet said:
I agree that DP bailed, and it's fair to say he left because he realized it would not be an easy task to make this program competitive in the top tier of the conference, even with the Well move happening.

I disagree about DP moving the bar. DP's recruiting connections allowed him to rectify an awful roster he inherited in his first year (on a limited recruiting window) in the worst facilities in D1, but he failed in following up with an improved season in year 2. Even with the disappointing regular season, this program still got 2 wins in a BSCT (including an upset over the top seed) which is something that has never happened here before.

Not buying the talent level being subpar to what we saw before his arrival. Top to bottom DP's roster was more athletic than anything we saw in the waning years of the Katz/Laird era. The issue was that they did not play well as a team until the last month of the season. The biggest disappointment about DP leaving is not seeing if that would have carried over into next season.

Given the current dynamic of D1 athletics, the expectation of having a coach here for the "long haul" is a thing of the past. If we have a coach here for the long haul, then it means the program is mired in mediocrity. Barring a past connection to this program (alum), it is hard to set that as a realistic expectation. Nothing connects a coach/program to the local community more than winning does so I think the "local ties" angle is overblown. I want a coach that can come in, be successful, and then be poached for a higher profile position in 2-4 years, otherwise it's just more of the same underachievement for this program.
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100%.

All these people coming out to knock on DP, but the fact of the matter is, Sac State got the closest to the NCAA tournament in 2 years under DP than the Katz/Laird ever did in over a decade. And the NCAAT is the ultimate goal of every mid major program.

And let’s be real here. Even if DP had 20+ wins seasons the last 2 year, if LSU came calling with an AHC job, he still would have left. I don’t think people understand the difference in money the two roles are. That’s literally a top of the line gig in a P5 conference. And not just any P5, the freaking SEC. And he left not for some low analyst job, that’s the Associated Head Coach position. The guy that’s next in line. The fact that LSU was willing to give him that slot even with two losing seasons at SAC should tell you what an asset he is, whether you like him or not.

Time to move on a focus on 24-25. Like SD said, if SAC is even remotely successful, we’ll be having this discussion every few years.
 
It is great that there is even three or four of us with enough interest to banter about the program. Again don’t agree with the talent level. DP’s first year, two out of his best three players, were Katz recruits. As for athleticism we were one of the least athletic squads in the conference the last two years. We played at a snail pace year one because our fifth year center could not guard five feet from the basket. We had very poor on ball defense. Partly because we could not coach the players to be better defenders. We fouled way too much. We basically had no effective point guard both years unless we played Chappel at that position year one, but DP chose to play him off the ball and the other guards were a walking turnover. We had no player that defenses had to fear. DP had the benefit of the portal and fifth year players that the prior coaches did not so he had a much bigger player pool to choose from. He chose to go real young year two, presumably because he saw potential in those recruits, but then he chose to walk away from them. To say he moved the bar is like saying Jody Spears moved the bar. He had a winning season with Sperbeck’s recruits and then went backwards from there. You can’t move the bar finishing worse in year two and last place in a weak conference. To counter another statement, in recent history we were much closer to winning the tournament championship when COVID canceled it with Patton, Esposito, Fowler, Izayah, and Fitzpatrick. Covid really screwed the trajectory of the program. You can disagree, but I think we do need to find a coach willing to stay and build a winning program in this new environment rather than one looking at this job as a stepping stone. Might be easier said than done, but I am hopeful we can. I also think the landscape of college sports is going to look much different in five years. The lawsuit that the NCAA has settled is going to have the power conferences paying their athletes $20 million a year. Not sure how that is going to play out as I am guessing attorneys will now sue to make sure the woman athletes and athletes in the non-revenue generating sports get a share. I could see many schools cutting some sports and others dropping a level. Don’t begrudge the kids getting paid, but it is all the others looking for a pay day that causes problems. Betting things get worse. Let’s just hope they get better some day.
 
My feeling is that Katz was doing a great job of finding skilled guys who were being overlooked by bigger programs due to size or athleticism. He was doing the best possible job with the tools he was given. When you brought in DP and expected him to do a better job with the same tools. It may have been a bit unrealistic to expect that.

This same debate has been going on at ISU for years. If your cart doesn't have wheels, it really matters little what horse you put in front of it. Sacramento is a great city and has the potential to support a growing university like Sac St. Things can be so much better. It will take leadership and hard work, but it certainly can be done.
 
I still think the thing I chose to use to define the Patrick era is the simple fact that we played better at the Big Sky Tournament than we did the entire year because we were without our “best player”
 
Not sure what to think about his coaching if his team plays better without their best player. It was nice to get those two wins but we tried our best to give away the game to Idaho, and Eastern Washington for the second year in a row just imploded. I think they had players ready for the season to end so they could jump in the portal and go after some NIL money. That is one of the current problems with college basketball and football. Players and coaches should have to wait until all teams finish their season before the portal opens and before coaches can leave. Some bowl teams in football only had one quarterback left by the time they played in their bowl game as all the others had transferred.
And Oldrunner I could not agree more about Katz. If the two different school Presidents and athletic directors were able to come thru on the much promised event center, with Katz’s coaching skills, it would have been a game changer. I don’t have much confidence in the makeshift Well making a difference, if they indeed play the games their next season. Without a proper event center it is going to be difficult to be consistently good without a committed, skilled coach. If the coach comes in with one foot out the door thinking this is a stepping stone to a bigger job it will be very difficult to have success.
 
Greenteam said:
If the coach comes in with one foot out the door thinking this is a stepping stone to a bigger job it will be very difficult to have success.
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Who in their right mind doesn't start a job with the goal of being promoted either through higher pay or higher responsibility? The days of chivalric honor, prestige and loyalty are looong gone. Look at Leath as an example.

Hornet basketball is not a DI gig, it is one rung above intramurals. Admin is even admitting it is IM as they are going to play in the IM facility.

Fact is the entire athletic department is DI in name only. The admin has invested $0 to provide any team a DI facility to compete within. Sorry, not sorry.
 
Greenteam, we'll just have to agree to disagree on a lot of these points but you're revisionist history is appalling. Laird had access to the portal (Chappell came via portal), he and his staff just whiffed on a lot of players and had a lot of dead weight (injuries) that never saw the floor. DP's first year isn't as successful without McRae and Mawein (2nd and 3rd in ppg that season) who were brought in via the portal (among others). This past season the Hornets were atop the BSC in a lot of rebounding categories. You don't grab that many boards without having the athleticism and wherewithal to get into position to grab the board...and if it wasn't athleticism then tip your cap to the coaching staff for coaching the players to be solid rebounders.

Your football analogy is off base as well and has no relevance to this discussion. Hate DP all you want but he and his staff managed to get this program the furthest it's ever been in the BSCT so give credit where credit is due.

No arguments on the China virus impacted BSCT in '20, ironically enough that team would have faced a top seeded EWU squad much like the one DP and his squad upset in Boise.

Agree with you of the changing landscape due to these NCAA settlements and schools being allowed to pay players. It's going to be a few years until things get sorted out and I hope there are new subdivisions in D1 that split schools that pay players from those that don't. I also hope schools can split football from the Olympic sports which would cause another upheaval in conference realignment. Wild times ahead.
 
oldrunner said:
My feeling is that Katz was doing a great job of finding skilled guys who were being overlooked by bigger programs due to size or athleticism. He was doing the best possible job with the tools he was given. When you brought in DP and expected him to do a better job with the same tools. It may have been a bit unrealistic to expect that.

This same debate has been going on at ISU for years. If your cart doesn't have wheels, it really matters little what horse you put in front of it. Sacramento is a great city and has the potential to support a growing university like Sac St. Things can be so much better. It will take leadership and hard work, but it certainly can be done.
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Katz is well respected here and did a tremendous job getting this program some respectability. In game coaching was pretty solid, but his rosters were always missing a piece or two (with the exception of the '14-15 season). Unfortunately, he burned a lot of bridges on the way out the door. It was disappointing to see.

I always felt that Katz would have had this program competitive in the upper tier of the BSC if the admin had delivered on the student approved events center. That said, we are supposed to be moving into a better facility starting next season (The Well) which won't address all our needs but should be a considerable improvement from the Nest.
 
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