In Whom Do We Trust Now?

Since at least 2008, it's been our custom to repeat 'In Shaver We Trust' when assessing the fortunes of the William & Mary hoops program. Now, we have no idea where to place that trust. Certainly not in neophyte athletic director Samantha Huge, whose firing of Shaver without seeming regard to the obvious consequences has likely doomed the Tribe program to the cellar of the mediocre CAA for at least the next several years.

To recap the state of affairs, Shaver was fired after W&M lost to Delaware in the first round of the 2019 CAA Tournament, despite the fact that his team had just become the only current CAA member to win 10 or more league games in six consecutive seasons, and with little regard for the fact that the team he had returning next year would've been a favorite to win the league. Since the firing, which was nearly unanimously panned by the hoops intelligencia, four prospective starters on next year's squad have entered the NCAA's transfer portal - seniors Justin Pierce and Matt Milon are considering leaving as graduate transfers, and freshmen Chase Audige and L.J. Owens are willing to sit out a year to transfer.

Pre-enactment of Samantha Huge making it rain

Rumors abound that Huge is willing to significantly raise the bar on salary to attract a name coach to Williamsburg. On Twitter, @CoachingChanges (I have no idea who runs it, but they consistently seem to get things right - they had Shaver on the hot seat last year and I got pissed about it, but they sure knew more than I did) suggested yesterday that W&M would pay as much as $700k/year for the job. That's more than double Shaver's package. Other rumors have the budget even higher, on the hunch that there's a deep-pocketed donor willing to drop the cash.

While I think it's a good thing that W&M will invest more into the program, I can't for the life of me figure out who would take the job right now. Or perhaps, who would take the job for the right reasons. A talented young guy like UMBC's Ryan Odom or a LeMoyne's Patrick Beilein would have to know that they'd be taking on total rebuild at a school with serious academic demands and constraints - even modest success is at least three years away. A retread like John Thompson III, who worked with Huge at Georgetown, would want serious money, and would view the job as a career rehabilitation opportunity. And why would someone in that scenario (assuming we're not talking absurd cash) take the W&M job given the high likelihood of failure.

Nathan Knight's senior season is gonna be...whew, man

In all likelihood, we're going to wind up overpaying for a middling assistant with a modest profile, probably repped by Parker Executive Search, a firm that specializes in athletic executive recruiting, in a you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours transaction designed to help Huge land her next job. My greatest fear, other than the obvious reality that we'll be fucking terrible on the court for the next five years, is that we're looking at Rick Boyages v2.0.

Man, I hope I'm wrong. But that would be really unusual. This, as we've said ad nauseum, will likely do down as a Huge mistake.