Tadball? That's easy.
To me Tadball is a function of three things:
1. A Head Coach that truly does not get the game on a sophisticated enough level to compete in Pac-12 men's basketball. Tad is a gimmicky coach that wants to preach defense and rebounding, and will cite statistics showing when he gets what he wants with his metrics how successful the program can be. However, good coaches don't just coach the 25% of the games where the outcomes align with their preferences. Good coaches understand offensive and defensive schemes well enough to put the players they do have in positions to be successful, not bemoaning what the players they do have, aren't doing. Remember, Tad was just a Greeley prep star that was a nobody in college. This isn't John Stockton whose knowledge of the game allowed him to be successful at every level.
2. A Head Coach that is constantly and consistently throwing his own players under the bus to temper and deflect expectations of his abilities. How many seasons have we seen Tad bemoan "a lack of leadership" amongst his players, or complain about how "this group" is committing too many turnovers and making poor decisions with the ball? In successive seasons we've seen Tad try to diminish expectations, essentially throwing in the towel saying, "I haven't recruited good enough players, I'm not a good enough coach to work with what I do have. The hallmark of a Tad coached team is that he can't work with what he has to make them successful, he needs them to be what he wants. Well so does every other coach in the land. McDonald's All-Americans are scarce. This is a Pac-12 school, and the group of recruits we have access to do not believe Tad can develop their game and help them get better. Josh Scott could have been a veritable superstar under a competent coach.
3. Tad is not a natural leader. I was in Greeley last summer on the UNC campus for some basketball camps and it was amazing how many people had a story about not liking Tad Boyle. It seemed everybody and their brother around the NoCo camp had a husband or a brother that had played with Tad in high school and did not have positive things to say about him as a person. His message works at CU because college sports are tyrannical, and he can play the role of the despot, and he gets smiling new shiny faces at worst every five seasons that haven't heard his tired script before.
4. He's just a decidedly mediocre Pac-12 coach and really hasn't accomplished any different track record than Ricardo Patton. Say what you want about the lack of tradition of men's basketball at CU. Say what you want about the Pac-1 2 being a tough basketball conference. However, at the end of the day no reasonable argument can be made that Tad Boyle is anything but decidedly mediocre as a Pac-12 coach. Through his first seven full seasons at CU Tad Boyle was 149-95 but was only 64-61 in conference play. Successful Pac-12 programs don't rely on non-conference wins to get to the CBI or NIT, or NCAA tourneys. After his first seven full seasons at CU, and Ricardo Patton was starting from a lower floor, he was 121-94 but was only 51-61 in conference play. There is a difference, but Tad coached CU over 244 games those first seven seasons and Ricardo Patton only coached CU over 215. After his first seven years Tad Boyle only had a .610 winning percentage whereas after his first seven years Ricardo Patton had a .562 winning percentage. That's a variance of just .048 between Tad Boyle and Ricardo Patton's winning percentage after seven years. If we just look at conference play after their first seven full seasons, Tad Boyle has a conference winning percentage of just .512, the very definition of mediocre. In comparison Ricardo Patton had a conference winning percentage of .455. The variance between Tad Boyle and Ricardo Patton in conference winning percentage is just .057
(can someone check my maths?)
Ricardo Patton coached four more years for the Buffs and had a winning record and managed a 20 win season. Something that was very rare in Colorado. Additionally, our Buffs hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since 1969 when Ricardo Patton turned the program around and made the Buffs nationally relevant again. Even more impressive was the fact that Patton did that following the train wreck era of Bzdelik's Buffs who only won .383 of their games. Ricardo Patton got the Buffs to the NCAA tournament twice, and the NIT four times at CU.
At Northern Colorado Tad coached four years and managed only ONE season with a winning record. Tad Boyle was just 28-36 in the Big Sky conference play during his time at NoCo. If you hire Tad Boyle for the Ricardo Patton years, and then hire Ricardo Patton for the Tad Boyle years do you expect Ricardo to improve upon what he inherited? I think you reasonably do.
I think its hilarious that a couple of years ago fans were worried that Boyle was going to leave CU to take the Kansas job, or some other higher profile job. At this point can anyone seriously consider Tad Boyle a good college basketball coach? He's been treading water for CU making millions of dollars, and neither has the recruiting aptitude nor the X's and O's scheme acumen to effectively coach at this level. He literally is just a Colorado high school star that flamed out at the college level, and has been handed the golden goose at CU, a program with almost zero expectations. Why? Because Tad Boyle managed to not have a losing season one year out of his four at NoCo! He didn't lose that one time at NoCo, let's give him a lifetime appointment to Coach CU!
What is Tad Ball? Here are his conference final placements in the Pac-12:
5th (tied)
5th (tied)
5th
3rd (tied)
8th (tied)
5th
7th
The Buffs currently sit 6th overall in the Pac-12 for 2017-18 with a mediocre 3-3 conference record.
What is Tad Ball?
Its mediocrity by a coach in over his head, without the chops to develop incoming players, and without the recruiting aptitude to trend the program upward, who quite frankly is just happy to cash his million plus annual salary. Its a stagnant program with a coach that is trying to just survive, not thrive. Tad Boyle gets better player at CU than he did at NoCo, unfortunately, CU doesn't get a better coach.
