Rick said

fauowls44 said

That's true, but this is slightly more complicated given the years and money left.

Posted On: Mar 10th 2017, 12:02 PM #367670

Same monetary risk at the time, what am I missing?

Posted On: Mar 10th 2017, 12:06 PM #367671

I just meant Partridge had 1 year left…Curry has 3 years left.

Still, money was just about the same…

On a side note:

Patridge is on someone else's dime now - we're off the hook.

So we saved about $800k, and should reinvest it in righting the runaway train in The Burrow.

Rick said

Still, money was just about the same…

on a side note:

Patridge is on someone else's dime now - we're off the hook.

So we saved about $800k, and should reinvest it in righting the runaway train in The Burrow.

Posted On: Mar 10th 2017, 4:06 PM #367673

Didn't we spend the savings on $1mill a year for Kiffin?

Spent said

Didn't we spend the savings on $1mill a year for Kiffin?

Posted On: Mar 10th 2017, 4:48 PM #367674

I'm sorry was Patridge hired at Pitt before we hired Kiffin?

Stick to arguing with OC.

 

Conference USA commissioner Judy MacLeod assesses status of basketball tournament, strength of league | AL.com

CUSA Commish Judy McCleod "We've got to get our programs near the bottom to really improve because I think it drags everybody else down," she said. 

So now we've got the conference commissioner calling us out for being terrible which is why we are and will be a 1 bid league until we help the conference get better …your move Chun.

Tried to find some current CUSA head coaching salaries to compare and kept getting old or incomplete lists but it looks like the good coaches in our conference are making 500-600K with UAB paying $1M (really?) to theirs, topping the list.

But okay. Let's talk hypotheticals.

Even if we pay a new basketball coach a 2-3X what we pay Curry, would that solve our problems?

Or would we be better off focusing on building a new arena, hoping that would help us attract better talent?

Obviously you'd prefer to do both but that unfortunately seems beyond our reach.

There are 3 things IMO that help to build college basketball programs, and they are all intertwined. Keep in mind, I am not advocating we do any of this because I am not the guy who will be donating the millions of dollars it takes to do.

1. Facilities
2. Budget (Investment in program)
3. Coaches & Staff pay

We are at or near the bottom in these categories for our conference, so I am not sure why everyone thinks we should be somewhere else in the rankings of results.

We can change coaches like we change our underwear if we want. We have been doing that since we went to D1 (I believe it was in 1994).  We have had similar results every coach.  Can we find that magic coach out there that can win? Yeah, but he won't build a program without these other pieces.

I hope we keep Curry and begin to slowly work on the building blocks.

I love the Burrow as a building. It holds great memories for me. I graduated in there.  But it is NOT a D1 basketball facility.  By my definition, it is a D2 facility and I define a D2 facility as one that has a concrete wall 20 feet behind the basket.  The new academic center will become a piece of the building blocks for all sports when completed and will be a huge step for all sports including basketball.

Our overall budget for the basketball program ranks near the bottom of CUSA; in the mid-range of the Sunbelt, and near the top of the Atlantic Sun.  I did the research on this a couple of years ago and am not going to update it because we have not suddenly surpassed everyone while everyone else stayed stagnant, so you get the idea.

Coaches and staff pay has inched up but I would say we probably rank middle to low in the CUSA.  

We rank in results very near where we rank in investments.  There is no easy quick fix solution because it takes money.  The reality is that we need football to win, soon.

Here are some of the arenas in our conference: UAB, Middle TN, Western KY.  You can quickly see the difference from ours.

Go Owls!

I agree with a lot of this, but you also have to have the right coach in place to build to the point where you can realistically improve your facilities.  If we are going to keep winning 9-10 games a year and drawing 900 fans a game, there is no need to invest more in the facility.  There is no reason that with the right coach, this team can't somehow field a competitive team. I'm not saying we will ever be a powerhouse in CUSA with our resources, but how about getting to the point where they aren't being blown out by the top teams in the conference or blowing late leads to the bottom teams of it?

I don't know what the answer is exactly.  It's kind of a chicken/egg situation in terms of winning and facilities…but I just don't think that the current staff is part of the solution.  I just haven't seen any improvement from year to year.  Now it seems like they are going to be giving him another year.  If so, I hope it works out…I just think we'll be in the same spot a year from now and probably looking for a new coach.  

I just look around at a lot of other programs with less tan we have and they are 20+ wins.

But they have actual plays they run rather than organized playground schemes with pass offs at the top of the key and the occasional ball screen around it.

Rick said

I just look around at a lot of other programs with less tan we have and they are 20+ wins.

But they have actual plays they run rather than organized playground schemes with pass offs at the top of the key and the occasional ball screen around it.

Posted On: Mar 14th 2017, 9:46 AM #367739

They also have coaches that have experience, you know, running a college program.  Look at USF.  They just hired their 3rd coach in 5 years and they have MUCH better facilities than we do.  So it's not just coaches or facilities.  It takes both, but you have to start somewhere.  Right now, it seems FAU has neither in place….and changing coaches is a whole lot cheaper than building an arena.