- Nice evening for an outdoors event in SF. My guess on attendance is 50ish, including staff.
- Made a point of acknowledging the former players in attendance, including John Paye (obvious) Toi Cook, Jono Tunney and a guy from the '74 team whose name escaped me.
- Emceed by Ashley Adamson from P-12 network who noted her pending unemployment. Did a good job, and the department might want to consider her for a SID role. Would be an upgrade (as would any sentient being.)
- Bernard opened and made the obligatory jokes about it being a slow spring. Made several comments about how Lifetime Cardinal is coming together and will be a meaningful and potent tool. Few details given. Also spun the move to the ACC as exciting but for added travel and that all of our coaches were insistent in wanting to play against the best competition. Usual and empty performance from him. All rainbows and unicorns...yes times are changing but we're Stanford.
- Taylor was very blunt about showing up last year and barely having the resources to field a team. Noted that he was very pleasantly surprised about how the team never quit and worked hard to get better. Excited about how the '24 class came together and thinks '25 will be better. He said he thinks we are a couple of classes away from being a consistent ACC title contender.
- He described his coaching philosophy as being analogous to that of parent, and I think that is a more understandable definition of "love" than the punchline many here have taken it to mean. In his view, he's responsible for 110 guys, sees it as important to support and nurture them but at the same time, set high expectations and hold them to account when expectations aren't met. Praise when merited and discipline when needed. Smith and Kate echoed similar philosophies.
- Much to Squeri's likely dismay, when Taylor was asked about team leaders, he immediately and singularly called out Tristan Sinclair. Very complimentary of his attitude, work ethic, grit and team ethos. I think the fact that he did not bail last year or this year is important to TT.
- Smith is very plain-spoken and self-deprecating in a good ol' boy coaching kind of manner. He was philosophical about inheriting only 6 guys and knows what needs to get done. Called out his staff as having 54 NCAA tournament games under their belts, whereas he only has four. Very complimentary of Rev.
- Kate talked a bit about how the team reacted to Tara's leaving, the challenge of following a legend and the (her) expectation that the team continue to be elite. Says this is her dream job and noted that all of the assistants immediately said they were all in. Noted that Tara was grooming Brooke and Lepalo to be captains, and they're jumping into the role.
- All the coaches intimated that establishing a winning and fun culture is paramount to stemming the portal outflow. Taylor noted the massive and lingering effects of the Covid classes and seemed relieved to have those people on the way out.
- All the coaches were very excited and positive about what LC was doing. Given the audience, one would expect that, and athletics development staff were in the crowd. Few details given, but the pledge was that we will do what we need to do to be competitive while also promoting the 40-year decision and importance of academics and personal standards. On the face of it, it seems that there is some concern that giving to Buck/Cardinal and the department may suffer because of money going to LC. Muir was very adamant that we need to do both.
- Don't expect radical changes in the inbound portal. University policy prevents taking anyone with more than 90 credits (so usually only frosh/soph) and that there is no back door. (i was tempted to ask about the side door for sailing but didn't.) That said, Kate teased some transfer news to come.
- I spoke to a former athlete who now works in athletics development. Pretty much acknowledged what we know. Stanford was asleep at the wheel with all of the changes going on, and it was the collapse of the P-12 that finally jolted everyone. Called out Condi and one other woman (can't remember the name) as marshaling the troops and forcing the powers that be to essentially shit or get off the pot with respect to athletics. Noted that Condi's gravitas opened a lot of doors and got people's attention. He cited the support and interest of the interim president, and by omission, implied that MTL was, well, MTL. Thinks new president is appropriately engaged and supportive.
- Expect a lot of outreach to fund LC. It's not lost on them that, so far, LC is the domain of large donors. They want to create a marketing initiative that brings in small donors in a crowd-funding sense to aggregate and bundle donations.
- Development guy indicated that no one has any real clue how the lack of rules settles out or how policies and procedures will evolve. Still an open question of collectives determine who benefits and how much they get and what input the coaches have. Clear that football, MBB and WBB will take the lion's share of the money but there are plans to support other programs because there is an expectation to maintain pre-eminence...and address potential fairness/title IX issues.
- Development guy also noted that he had heard that the number for Maxime was $1mm. I laughed at that. Smith did note that Maxime is glad to be back, loves Stanford and is excited to get back to work. Smith said something to the effect that whoever got Maxime to enter the portal needs to get his head examined, or something to that effect.
A few comments from last night's SF coaching swing
- Thread starter angryinjun
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