Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

[davyd83]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

He was never interviewed.

Hollis went all-in on Anastos. He was the only candidate. He was the only person contacted and considered for the position.

There were reports just before Anastos was announced that Cole would be announced. He must have been somewhere in the process.

 

[owslachief]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

but why would Anastos voluntarily forfeit the money remaining on his contract? Would you quit your job to please others?

I'd more surprised than not if he makes the call on his own. But, if he doesn't want to go through the hell that would be his last two years? He may find it's worth it. That's one thing I'm banking on. To please others, for him, may mean pleasing his family. Who knows. I can tell you that I and thousands of alumni would surely be pleased (and relieved).

Like I said earlier, most likely he's getting fired at the end of the season - if a change is coming at all. It would mean a short transition, but I'm sure we can deal with one tumultuous summer and fall as opposed to two more years of ruin.

 

[aallenpollreisz]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

There were reports just before Anastos was announced that Cole would be announced. He must have been somewhere in the process.

Nope. That story was, literally, all Tim Staudt speculation.

Nobody reached out to Cole. He never got a phone call. IIRC, even Cole confirmed this.

Hollis said it himself that Anastos was the only person considered and interviewed for the position.

 

[bcmsu9196]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

He was never interviewed.

Hollis went all-in on Anastos. He was the only candidate. He was the only person contacted and considered for the position.

If that's true, that's absolutely poor on Hollis' part. There's a lot of qualified candidates with State ties who could/should have been interviewed.

 

[davyd83]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

I'd more surprised than not if he makes the call on his own. But, if he doesn't want to go through the hell that would be his last two years? He may find it's worth it. That's one thing I'm banking on. To please others, for him, may mean pleasing his family. Who knows. I can tell you that I and thousands of alumni would surely be pleased (and relieved).

Like I said earlier, most likely he's getting fired at the end of the season - if a change is coming at all. It would mean a short transition, but I'm sure we can deal with one tumultuous summer and fall as opposed to two more years of ruin.

If he is fired after this year, with two years to go on his contract and the buyout that goes with it, you can all but eliminate hiring any other coach who would have to be bought out of his contract, like Bergeron, whose buyout number this year is at $250,000. You also could hope that Michigan hires Anastos when Red retires, eliminating a good portion, if not all, of the buyout and bringing the two programs closer together on the success scale.

 

[owslachief]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

If he is fired after this year, with two years to go on his contract and the buyout that goes with it, you can all but eliminate hiring any other coach who would have to be bought out of his contract, like Bergeron, whose buyout number this year is at $250,000. You also could hope that Michigan hires Anastos when Red retires, eliminating a good portion, if not all, of the buyout and bringing the two programs closer together on the success scale.

Heh heh - I'm going to assume that last bit was for humor's sake

I need to point out something else I've said, davyd, and this involves weighing the long-term financial pros vs. cons: The financial dam is on the verge of breaking wide open. The drop-off in donor and alumni support, plus season ticket sales, is already pretty significant. Imagine what would happen if the season continues as it is, and nothing gets done in April. So I'm Mark Hollis, and I'm looking at a fork in the road.
1. Keep him. Don't have to pay him (good), Continue to lose revenue - season tickets, donations, concessions, etc. (bad), Risk to survival of program (bad)
2. Fire him. Buy him out (bad), Image isn't tarnished - I gave him his five years (neutral), stop the bleeding (good), jump-start the program (good), increase chance of becoming competitive (good)

But the biggest thing to me is weighing the money lost from support (would be big) vs. any pay-out. I would argue the former is more significant than the latter. Obviously, Hollis is in a lose-lose situation, for the moment, and the only way to get the thing moving again is take action before summer arrives.

Of course, my optimism hinges on the ability to get serious, established candidates that MSU could get without the risk of breaking the bank.

 

[davyd83]

Heh heh - I'm going to assume that last bit was for humor's sake

I need to point out something else I've said, davyd, and this involves weighing the long-term financial pros vs. cons: The financial dam is on the verge of breaking wide open. The drop-off in donor and alumni support, plus season ticket sales, is already pretty significant. Imagine what would happen if the season continues as it is, and nothing gets done in April. So I'm Mark Hollis, and I'm looking at a fork in the road.
1. Keep him. Don't have to pay him (good), Continue to lose revenue - season tickets, donations, concessions, etc. (bad), Risk to survival of program (bad)
2. Fire him. Buy him out (bad), Image isn't tarnished - I gave him his five years (neutral), stop the bleeding (good), jump-start the program (good), increase chance of becoming competitive (good)

But the biggest thing to me is weighing the money lost from support (would be big) vs. any pay-out. I would argue the former is more significant than the latter. Obviously, Hollis is in a lose-lose situation, for the moment, and the only way to get the thing moving again is take action before summer arrives.

Of course, my optimism hinges on the ability to get serious, established candidates that MSU could get without the risk of breaking the bank.

That part was definitely for chuckles. There are no simple (or inexpensive) . An up and coming assistant may be the most viable option. And having Ron Mason as the point man in the search process is a must. (Including Tom Izzo in the sales pitch might be a good idea too) Ron has a tremendous amount of respect in the college hockey community. Hollis, given the treatment of Comley around his "resignation," and the ascension of Anastos, does not inspire a great deal of confidence.

 

[Decatur Spartan]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

That part was definitely for chuckles. There are no simple (or inexpensive) . An up and coming assistant may be the most viable option. And having Ron Mason as the point man in the search process is a must. (Including Tom Izzo in the sales pitch might be a good idea too) Ron has a tremendous amount of respect in the college hockey community. Hollis, given the treatment of Comley around his "resignation," and the ascension of Anastos, does not inspire a great deal of confidence.

Thank you for that Davy. I agree on all but the Izzo connection. Two reasons: 1- I don't think he is that keen on Hockey. The University, yes. But not so much on Hockey. He see's it as competition against BB as they run concurrently. I do know he didn't care for Rick Comley that much. They were both at NMU in the early 1980's and maybe there was some friction between them at that time that never was resolved. 2- Time. IF a Coaching search starts, Coach Izzo will be preparing for, if not in, the BB NCAA tourney. That would leave no time at all. Now if the candidate wasn't found, or selected until late April or May, that time thing may change. My thoughts.
I did get a chuckle over the Red/UM idea!

 

[MaizeRage]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

Hollis, given the treatment of Comley around his "resignation," and the ascension of Anastos, does not inspire a great deal of confidence.

Let's not act like Comley got a raw deal. Anastos' failure at MSU was not being able to dig that program out of the tremendous hole Comley put it in.

 

[streaker]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

Heh heh - I'm going to assume that last bit was for humor's sake

Troll bait goes bad sitting in the bucket.

 

[Decatur Spartan]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

This is false, MSU at NMU was the second weekend of the 2002-03 regul

http://www.uscho.com/scoreboard/michigan-state/mens-hockey/2002-2003/

My apologies.

 

[John J. MacInnes]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

The obvious solution that's coming is that the department keeps Anastos as a fund raiser, something like WMU did with Jim Culhane or Notre Dame did with Dave Poulin. Since the renovations at Munn are still not to the level that the program is convinced they need (new locker rooms, concourse improvements, plaza entry, etc.) they need a point person to spearhead the effort. Anastos is well connected and organized, and we know he's a great marketer - he's just not cut out to be the head coach.

So put him in a position where he can help the program, avoid the big payout to remove him, and get a coaching staff that can recruit and win games. That sounds like the best possible solution in what is quickly becoming an untenable situation.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

The obvious solution that's coming is that the department keeps Anastos as a fund raiser, something like WMU did with Jim Culhane or Notre Dame did with Dave Poulin. Since the renovations at Munn are still not to the level that the program is convinced they need (new locker rooms, concourse improvements, plaza entry, etc.) they need a point person to spearhead the effort. Anastos is well connected and organized, and we know he's a great marketer - he's just not cut out to be the head coach.

So put him in a position where he can help the program, avoid the big payout to remove him, and get a coaching staff that can recruit and win games. That sounds like the best possible solution in what is quickly becoming an untenable situation.

Aside from an early ability to occasionally score some goals (something that has pretty much disappeared over the last 13 games) this MSU season is beginning to resemble Poulin's last season more and more. Notre Dame closed Poulin's last campaign with a 19 game winless streak (0-17-2) and scored just 27 goals over that time frame. MSU has scored just 21 goals during the last 13 games, going 1-12 in the process.

State fans who want a change are going to be in an untenable position over the season's final 6 weeks of the season. You want to root for your boys to win games, but should there be some improvement over the final 1/3 of the season, Anastos may buy himself more time behind the bench. So do you root for the bottom to finish falling out and the team to basically quit on the coaching staff, much like it did for Poulin and Notre Dame in 2005 making his departure an absolute necessity? Sometimes you gotta amputate a limb to save the rest of the body. I say bite the bullet and hope that the December win against Wisconsin was the final one of the 2015-16 season. My guess is that will get the coaching change this team really does need.

 

[aallenpollreisz]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

The obvious solution that's coming is that the department keeps Anastos as a fund raiser, something like WMU did with Jim Culhane or Notre Dame did with Dave Poulin. Since the renovations at Munn are still not to the level that the program is convinced they need (new locker rooms, concourse improvements, plaza entry, etc.) they need a point person to spearhead the effort. Anastos is well connected and organized, and we know he's a great marketer - he's just not cut out to be the head coach.

If that were the case, the money would have been raised by now. Or, at the very least, we would have had some sort of update -- any sort of update, good, bad or indifferent -- a while ago. MSU has been trying to get the needed funds for the "front door" for years. The project, apparently, is either stalled or dead.

I don't think the project is even listed on the Spartan Fund website anymore. I know they removed the status bar at the bottom of the page a while ago.

IIRC, the AD is trying to raise $25 million. A bad coach for an increasingly irrelevant team that will approach 30 losses this season won't help that pursuit, regardless of his connection to high-dollar donors.

 

[Pirateasaur]

Aside from an early ability to occasionally score some goals (something that has pretty much disappeared over the last 13 games) this MSU season is beginning to resemble Poulin's last season more and more. Notre Dame closed Poulin's last campaign with a 19 game winless streak (0-17-2) and scored just 27 goals over that time frame. MSU has scored just 21 goals during the last 13 games, going 1-12 in the process.

State fans who want a change are going to be in an untenable position over the season's final 6 weeks of the season. You want to root for your boys to win games, but should there be some improvement over the final 1/3 of the season, Anastos may buy himself more time behind the bench. So do you root for the bottom to finish falling out and the team to basically quit on the coaching staff, much like it did for Poulin and Notre Dame in 2005 making his departure an absolute necessity? Sometimes you gotta amputate a limb to save the rest of the body. I say bite the bullet and hope that the December win against Wisconsin was the final one of the 2015-16 season. My guess is that will get the coaching change this team really does need.

I have a hard time imagining what it would take for me to actually root against MSU hockey. It hasn't happened yet and won't happen this season. Maybe it helps that I fully believe this will be Anastos' final year and that this team is not capable of a spectacular turnaround. I can tell you that I have reached a state where I am pretty emotionally dead when it comes to losing. It just does not give me pause anymore. I was really hoping for that win against Minny on Saturday and when we blew another 3rd period lead it just caused me to roll my eyes a bit and move on.

Anyway, I would hate for the players and coaches to endure the disgrace of a season that is winless from here on out.

It's also fun to crap in the Cheerios of teams that are actually competing for something.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

I'm pretty much in the root against camp at this point. I want us to beat Michigan, but even then the blowouts against them put more pressure on Anastos from the non-hockey diehards than a 15-5 series against Minnesota or PSU would have.

This would've been much better last year when the league was definitely a one bid league (looks like we could get up to 3) but I think the best troll job would be to finish the year on a 1-25 streak or whatever it would be, then win the tournament in St Paul and knock out PSU or Minnesota from the NCAAs.

 

[Decatur Spartan]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

Aside from an early ability to occasionally score some goals (something that has pretty much disappeared over the last 13 games) this MSU season is beginning to resemble Poulin's last season more and more. Notre Dame closed Poulin's last campaign with a 19 game winless streak (0-17-2) and scored just 27 goals over that time frame. MSU has scored just 21 goals during the last 13 games, going 1-12 in the process.

State fans who want a change are going to be in an untenable position over the season's final 6 weeks of the season. You want to root for your boys to win games, but should there be some improvement over the final 1/3 of the season, Anastos may buy himself more time behind the bench. So do you root for the bottom to finish falling out and the team to basically quit on the coaching staff, much like it did for Poulin and Notre Dame in 2005 making his departure an absolute necessity? Sometimes you gotta amputate a limb to save the rest of the body. I say bite the bullet and hope that the December win against Wisconsin was the final one of the 2015-16 season. My guess is that will get the coaching change this team really does need.

Yes. Thank you. My thoughts exactly. It is very difficult with wanting to see the Boys succeed, yet wanting tCHHCoMSU to leave. Saturday's game was rough, holding a 1 goal lead at the start of the third, and watching it evaporate slowly into defeat. One wants to cheer them on, but knowing that any small success may let him keep his job........tough.

 

[Dirty Dream No. 2]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

Not only is he a terrible coach but TA is also one of the worst dressed coaches in D-1. His all-black ensemble Sunday was straight out of 2002. Get with the program, Tom. You make $300k+.

 

[aallenpollreisz]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

Not only is he a terrible coach but TA is also one of the worst dressed coaches in D-1. His all-black ensemble Sunday was straight out of 2002. Get with the program, Tom. You make $300k+.

Here's a good thing about Anastos: He brought the classic script jerseys out of Nike-driven euthanasia. He knows something about style.

Frankly, I thought his all-black getup didn't look all that bad. That said, I'm also wearing a flannel shirt at work today that should have been thrown out 15 years ago.

 

[sm2pk]

Re: Tom Anastos, it's time to resign

I do give Anastos credit for opening the door to every person out there with very little or no coaching experience that they too can possibly end up taking over the head coaching job of a major college hockey program. Thanks Tom from all the guys with next to nothing in coaching experience .