I am not making a judgement as to any but the most recent seasons- Diplomaniac claimed that players were able to put aside their personal differences and play well for G-Rob in the past. I am taking his word for it since I have not seen the Dips for 2 decades.

However, I feel that after watching some games this year it is relatively easy to tell that the players are affected by G-Rob's personality/coaching style. Look at them after they make a mistake, they will often look to the bench to see if they are going to be pulled. Hesitation on open jumpers. Talking back at the coach during games (happened in Western Conn game after a turnover, and it happened during halftime of the Lincoln game seeing as how Leonard did not play the 2nd half against Lincoln after playing well for about 8-10 minutes in the first half). The players are obviously not comfortable playing, and it is greatly affecting their game play.

Diplomaniac, I am never said that players under him did not get better. It is inevitable that if you play basketball every day for four years that you will get better. That being said, there are definitely players on this team who are now playing worse than they did when they got here. I would say that is largely due to the fact that they are playing so timidly under him. I do not want to name names for the players' sake, but if you are a long time follower of the team then it should not be hard to pick them out. And notice that I am saying "playing." I am not saying they are worse players now, just that they are playing worse in large part because of the mind games G-Rob plays with his players.

For somewhat easily observable evidence, look at how some of the players, those who are normally in the rotation, have their minutes fluctuate dramatically from game to game, half to half. Sometimes they start, sometimes they don't. These mind games might work with some players or teams, but this team obviously does not.

While in the past players may have been able to set aside their personal feelings for him, there are many (most) players on this team who are currently not able to do so. I can see why, as being repetitively called out publicly in front of family and friends can where on a player.

After seeing some recent F&M games, I think that I would agree with many of otis' observations and others concerning G-Rob. While I did not witness games from the past 2 decades and so cannot comment on his coaching during that time, I do have some observations from the more recent seasons.

His players are definitely intimidated by him and afraid to do anything that would upset him for fear of being pulled from the game. They will often pass up wide open shots early in the shot clock because they believe they will be pulled if they do take those shots.

G-Rob runs a very structured, predictable, and one might argue predictable, system. I never noticed it before, but I did recently- if you watch the team closely, look at how many shots are created by an individual player. Almost all of their shots are pull up jumpers or low-post moves; almost never is a shot taken off the dribble.

As noted above, his subbing is suspect at times. The most recent example would be against Lincoln, Adam Leonard, who played about 8-10 minutes in the first half and hit two three-pointers against Lincoln's zone, did not see the floor in the second half. Unless Leonard aggravated an injury (which I did not notice at all) it was an asinine move on the coach's part. (This is of course not even mentioning the technical G-Rob got during the W. Conn. game, which F&M lost by 1).

Lastly, I think we can all agree that a good coach will make his players better over the course of their four years at a school. I do not think the G-Rob has done that. I can think of multiple players on the team who are no better now (or are playing even worse) than when they arrived at F&M. That is because the coach does not let them play the way they did when they were successful in high school and because they are so timid for fear of doing something that would get them yelled at or pulled from the game. G-Rob needs to consider coaching a system that fits the players he recruits instead of forcing players into an outdated and now ineffective, predictable system.