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That is a very good way of putting it.
Since Monday there have been a flurry of questions concerning Rhode Island and me. I can tell you that I have no intentions on making any moves. The only move I want to discuss is one that takes us up the standings.
We still have basketball games to play here at George Washington and right now we are trying to make a run at postseason. As for Rhode Island, well I am thinking about them, but only because we play them on Wednesday. The Rams are the first of six remaining opponents on our schedule.
In this profession it has often been said that there are two kinds of coaches -- Those who are going to be fired and those who are going to move on to other schools. Nobody wants to be a part of that first group and that includes the current staff at URI.
I was a little disturbed that my name was linked to the job before any official word was released from the Rhode Island athletic department. Jerry DeGregorio is a good guy and so are the other members of his staff.
George Blaney is a good friend of mine and Tom Garrick is like a son to me. The events of the last 48 hours have been difficult enough for them to deal with without the added rumors and speculation.
Somebody asked me if it was flattering to be mentioned as a candidate. My response was pretty simple -- No, not at my age it isn?t and definitely not at the expense of others.
Taking a cue from my guy at the top, I don?t think IBM would let the Executive deal with clients if he was headed to the competition. Well, in my case we are trying to work on our recruiting class for next season. We already have a nice foundation and we are one good-solid class away from something special here.
It?s two-fold. I am concentrating on the remainder of this season, while at the same time looking for a few more building blocks for next season.
We have two big road games this week. After URI we head to Dayton, before returning home where we will play three of our final four games. We are a game behind St. Bonaventure and just slightly ahead of LaSalle and Fordham so each of the final six games are crucial.
Our 92-66 win over Duquesne was a good win because we had just been bombed by Temple, 91-58, three days earlier. We did not have Val Brown for that contest, but the way Temple was shooting I don?t think it would have made much difference.
Despite our 4-6 mark we are capable of winning the Atlantic 10 tournament. In our three games against the top three in the league we played very well.
We played St. Joseph?s right down to the wire and we had a big halftime lead at UMass. Unfortunately we let both games get away from us. Both of our meetings with Xavier also resulted in losses, but we also took them down to the final moments. In our first meeting they went to the free throw line 50 times, as compared to our eight trips. But we only lost by two.
There are no moral victories and there is no column for losses by two points or less, but while we did not come away with wins in those games we did come away knowing we can play with them.
Our defense has kept us in games all season long. It is our offense that has been very erratic. If we can find a way to be a little more consistent there is no reason to think that we cannot be crowned tournament champions.
I would go as far as to say that I am happy with where we are, but I am very happy as the head coach at George Washington. I coach here.
