The coaching carousel has hit the New York City metro area. Tom Pecora was “relieved of his duties” as head coach today according to a Fordham University press release.
The Rams have a ton of youth on the roster and defeated George Mason in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 tournament before taking VCU down to the wire, but that wasn’t enough to convince Fordham to keep the coach who was 44-106 (29.3%) during his five years at the helm.
In the release Fordham noted Pecora’s 50% retention rate of his players for a program that lost plenty of players to transferring out of the program. Marvin Dominique, who transferred from Fordham to Saint Peter’s, finished his career where he scored 986 points in two seasons as a Peacock after leaving the Rams. Jeff Short left the program after the 2012-13 season and averaged 19.1 ppg this past year at Norfolk State.
The question for Fordham now becomes who wants to take over in the Bronx. Fordham actually ranked fourth in the Atlantic 10 in men’s basketball expenses in 2013, according to data on Basketball State, spending more than $3.6 million, but high academic standards and fits and starts have made it hard for the Rams to compete in the conference. The Rams have had one winning campaign since joining the A-10 from the Patriot League after the 1996-97 season.
Pecora had been extended after the 2011-12 season, when he guided the team to a 10-19 record, until the 2016-17 season. Since then his Rams have won a total of nine Atlantic 10 conference games.
More on this story as it develops…
NYC Buckets Archive 
Fordham more qualified to be in NEC Or macc. Can’t compete in a 10.
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An interesting candidate for the Fordham job would be Andy Toole of RMU. Don’t know about his contractual situation with the Colonials, but he’s a Penn grad, from NJ originally, and should be able to navigate the more stringent academic environment at Fordham. In the long run, think that Fordham’s more appropriate niche is likely the MAAC. They seem to be a bit overmatched in the Atlantic 10, although a new face at the helm might have a shot at getting the Rams finally headed in the right direction. At the time that Tom Pecora was hired off his success at Hofstra, it appeared to be a good move on Fordham’s part. Too bad it didn’t work out for all involved.
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The A10 has been a 20 year disaster for Fordham. Now that Fordham has fired Pecora they must address making a change in conference. Fordham must face reality and change their conference affiliation.
Every year the other A10 schools widen the gap between Fordham’s men’s program and theirs. Fordham has spent a lot of money on its men’s program in a band aid approach. High coaching salary, charter flights, purchasing air time to televise games, etc. But the core issues, substandard practice and training facilities, and a home gym that is woefully inadequate, would take tens of millions to remedy, and in the case of the gym, more than $100MM to build a modern facility to A10 standards. Fordham just doesn’t have the money or the will to compete in the A10. Time to end their A10 delusion.
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Fordham belongs in the MAAC. A few candidates that came to mind:
Bobby Hurley from Buffalo
Jim Engles from NJIT
Dave Paulsen from Bucknell
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