RIPPA Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 What makes me the most happy is that folks around here are excited about the Paulsen hire insted of being all WE NEED A BIG NAME!!! WHY COULDN'T WE HIRE SHAKA SMART!!!! He also made it a point in his press conference to say how he constantly adpated his scheme at Bucknell to fit his players which was probably the biggest complaint about Paul Hewitt the last 4 years. Of course - speaking of Shaka - it helps the rest of the A-10 that he is leaving :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Good to see the SEC get some better coaches. Cal, Donovan, Pearl, Barnes, Marshall (hopefully) is a very solid group. Mark Fox is underrated IMO. He had his team extremely well prepped to play Kentucky twice this year. Recruiting is important now. LSU is killing it for next year, even if it is to the worst coach in the league. there's a vocal group of Mizzou fans that basically pine for every new SEC coach because they dislike Kim Anderson that much. Nevermind that Kim inherited a team were most of the top 2013/14 guys graduated or left for the NBA, and he had to play around 8 guys for a few games because the others kept getting suspended. Had Frank Haith not bailed before his firing, he could have been fired after this year and Mizzou probably gets a more marquee guy. But Haith fled in mid-April and tied Mizzou's hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Apparently.. Gregg Marshall isn't gonna jump from Wichita State to Alabama. next man up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimbra Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I'm pleased but not really surprised that Marshall is staying. Like I said before he has a great setup and is by far the biggest game in town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 He's getting a salary bump to $3 million per year by staying. If you'd told me 20 years ago that a Valley coach would be getting that much cheddar, I wouldn't know to laugh or cry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimbra Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 He's getting a salary bump to $3 million per year by staying. If you'd told me 20 years ago that a Valley coach would be getting that much cheddar, I wouldn't know to laugh or cry. Dang, I missed that part. That's also what Texas is offering Smart, and getting close to what Bill Self makes, although Self's contract has all kind of back-end stuff going on that bumps him even higher. WSU must be tired of being looked at as a stepping-stone to bigger jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Well, when you've got the Koch brothers backing you, you're pretty much a mid-major in name only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 Bowling Green announced on Thursday that they have fired men’s basketball coach Chris Jans. Jans had his contract terminated after the school investigated “his recent public conduct” and determined that he “failed to meet his obligations” as the coach at BGSU. Assistant coach Mark Downey has been named the interim head coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 "BG fired coach Chris Jans after an incident an off-campus bar involving inappropriate behavior by Jans towards at least one patron" Also, Bobby Knight isn't returning to ESPN next year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Looks like Shaka's going to Texas. I really hope that's not the case. I love the A-10. I love watching VCU play. La Salle is 2-1 against the Rams since they joined the conference. All three games have been really friggin' good. VCU owns Richmond and they've cultivated a really crazy fun program that looks like it matches well with Richmond's oddball nature. (Maybe one of the 40,000 VCU alum on here can elaborate.)I get why he's going and I can't hold it against anyone who wants to make a few million. But it does feel a little soulless. The University of Texas feels like everything that I hate about college athletics. It's like this gigantic corporation in the worst way possible -- complete with a TV deal and etc. Ugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Yeah, confirmed on ESPN today. I am in mourning. As much as I hate the moral void of big college basketball, Shaka deserves some action in the big time before he gets too old. Go Rams! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEAN Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Yeah, confirmed on ESPN today. I am in mourning. As much as I hate the moral void of big college basketball, Shaka deserves some action in the big time before he gets too old. Go Rams! Since it's 24 million of 5 years, I'm wondering if they thought he was a football coach. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Oh lord, do I want to say something about the State of Texas feeling this week that a basketball coach is worth spending money on and HIV & STI prevention is not. I want to, but I like being here. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Interesting little tidbit from Smart's VCU contract Texas must either agree to a home and home with VCU or pay 250K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Great on Shaka for getting generational wealth for his family. I also heard he gets a $10,000/year stipend for his wardrobe, but VCU may have given him that, too.I think aside from the money this is going to be a rough choice for Shaka.1) Trapping teams all over the court is going to be infinitely tougher against Kansas than Duquesne.2) Texas is the biggest athletic university in the world. But with all that money comes a lot of other things. Shaka was the King of VCU and had that job for life. I am going to guess that a huge part of Texas football not doing anything except when they had Vince Young is because there is all sorts of backstage jockeying and sabotaging. One missed NCAA Tournament and/or a few flame-outs and the swords are going to come out really quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Texas's problem has always been administration. All the money in the world has no value if you don't know what to do with it. For some reason, they've always been content to be the big fish in the ever-shrinking pond that is the Big 12. They tolerated mediocrity from Barnes and Mack Brown for ages longer than any other major program would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 And I would hazard to guess that money and boosters and etc. plays a huge friggin' role in that. Maybe some big donor or whoever undercuts the AD and prevents him from being fired because he's golf buddies with Rick Barnes, or the high school he graduated from has 10 **** football recruits and he has a good relationship with Mack Brown. Factor in that, with UT, there are probably hundreds of these types of guys around, let alone agents and all sorts of folks like that sniffing around. It's really easy to see how a school can become stagnant with hires and fires.Good luck navigating that mine field. Shaka might be able to unearth the new Kevin Durant and gain traction from that. But the first 20-point loss to Kansas or Baylor or etc. will really start the doubters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Yeah, confirmed on ESPN today. I am in mourning. As much as I hate the moral void of big college basketball, Shaka deserves some action in the big time before he gets too old. Go Rams! Since it's 24 million of 5 years, I'm wondering if they thought he was a football coach. "No no, my name isn't Charlie Strong, it's Shaka Smart" "Uh huh Charlie" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 And I would hazard to guess that money and boosters and etc. plays a huge friggin' role in that. Maybe some big donor or whoever undercuts the AD and prevents him from being fired because he's golf buddies with Rick Barnes, or the high school he graduated from has 10 **** football recruits and he has a good relationship with Mack Brown. Factor in that, with UT, there are probably hundreds of these types of guys around, let alone agents and all sorts of folks like that sniffing around. It's really easy to see how a school can become stagnant with hires and fires. Good luck navigating that mine field. Shaka might be able to unearth the new Kevin Durant and gain traction from that. But the first 20-point loss to Kansas or Baylor or etc. will really start the doubters. Well, you're correct that this sort of thing is a factor at Texas. But it's a factor at every big time school, Ohio State, Alabama, the Florida schools, USC, and on and on. Strong, decisive leadership is able to cut through that rigmarole and get stuff done (see the masterful game of chess the late Bama AD Mal Moore played on fat cat boosters, widely regarded as the biggest bunch of meddlers in college football, when he orchestrated the Nick Saban hire). For whatever reason, Texas's leadership has been either incompetent or disinterested for a long time. That may be changing with the new AD they hired a couple years ago. We'll see. A lot of it will fall on Shaka, though. With that big contract, he's been given the euqivalent of a mandate by Texas, and that's a powerful weapon to have in his arsenal. But, again, it's a question of whether he knows how to use it. Being a coach in a revenue sport at a major program requires you to almost be like a statesman as much as a coach. Not everybody has that skill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorceressKnight Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Yeah, confirmed on ESPN today. I am in mourning. As much as I hate the moral void of big college basketball, Shaka deserves some action in the big time before he gets too old. Go Rams! Even if fans of the Rams are in mourning for this news, fans of the Rams are celebrating another big bonus of our rebuilding to respectability- as well as keeping our coach from the New York opening so that the Rams stay a step below us as we keep our chance to overtake the Rams. Atlantic 10 basketball: It's like the CFL for America! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I think the A-10 will be Dayton's until Archie gets called up to a big name school. I know there were rumblings about him and NC State a few years back, I don't think Archie will last at Dayton long enough for Gott to be run out of town though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 God - we might be the most A-10 focused board around. We should start breaking NEWZ~! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 God - we might be the most A-10 focused board around. We should start breaking NEWZ~! If you are looking for Breaking NEWZ~! the hot rumor is that one of the candidates that VCU is looking at to replace Shaka is Bobby Hurley. Yep, THAT Bobby Hurley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 There is no bigger A-10 fan than yours truly. I will be our La Salle correspondent. I will also assume St. Joe's duties but I friggin' hate the Hawks.On the La Salle tip: The Explorers took in BJ Johnson, who is transferring from Syracuse. He wasn't getting a lot of time there. He was a Top 100-level recruit from Lower Merion (the same high school Kobe went to). His dad played for the Explorers in the early 90s on some very good teams. He's a 6'6" shooting guard type. If he puts on some weight and the like, he's going to be an absolute monster in the A-10.La Salle has really done good work in getting players (particularly from Philly) who went to a BCS-level school and wanted to leave for whatever reason. Ramon Galloway (South Carolina) and Tyrone Garland (Va Tech, Southwest Philly Floater) both did that. Our best player last season was Jordan Price, who originally went to Auburn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 Alabama is hiring Avery Johnson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts