2019 Coaching Carousel

[MU82]

I'm not making excuses for them...I don't care if they got fired or not...all I'm asking is...why people think they got fired?? I'm 99% sure it was because they weren't meeting those schools expectations. Right or wrong..they weren't.

Look...My biggest issue with Wojo is his lack of in game adjustments..Can we compromise?? If I'm 100% honest...I'd be more than happy to see Wojo stay(I like his recruiting)...IF he is willing to acknowledge this might be a weakness of his and find a veteran asst Coach to help with X's and O's, in game stuff etc. Sound good??

If he feels he needs such an assistant, I'd be all for it. If he doesn't feel he needs it, that's fine with me, too.

The fact that you think he needs one doesn't move the needle much for me.  And neither you nor I have the power to do anything about any of this, so we cannot make this "deal."

But I do like the spirit of compromise. I know that wasn't easy for you, and I honestly appreciate it.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I'm not making excuses for them...I don't care if they got fired or not...all I'm asking is...why people think they got fired?? I'm 99% sure it was because they weren't meeting those schools expectations. Right or wrong..they weren't.

Look...My biggest issue with Wojo is his lack of in game adjustments..Can we compromise?? If I'm 100% honest...I'd be more than happy to see Wojo stay(I like his recruiting)...IF he is willing to acknowledge this might be a weakness of his and find a veteran asst Coach to help with X's and O's, in game stuff etc. Sound good??

https://gomarquette.com/coaches.aspx?rc=357&path=mbball

[Cheeks]

They never been in NCAA Tournament.

Apologies....they got bid to Big East tournament last year (not all qualify).  You are correct.

[muguru]

https://gomarquette.com/coaches.aspx?rc=357&path=mbball

He's easy to forget about...he doesn't seem to do anything.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Tim Miles...was fired at Nebraska today..In 2017-2018 they were 22-11 and were left out of the NCAA's when many thought they would make it...This year they were 19-17 and had it not been for the inury to Copeland, they make the NCAA's..Nebraska has had only two winning conference records BXII/B10 in the 21st century...why was he fired??

Downward trend. His peak was his 2nd year when he managed an 11 seed with mostly his predecessors' players. He plummeted to a 12-19 season in his 5th year. He managed to rebuild a little bit but the most he could manage was two trips to the NIT. Now they are about to enter a new rebuild cycle. Honestly, he should have been fired after year 3, and if not then certainly at year 5.

Bryce Drew- Got three years at Vandy...made NCAA's his first year there, with a mostly Senior laden class...regressed the next year, and had a disaster of a year this year after losing 1st round NBA pick Darius Garland...3 years...fired. Why was he fired??

Downward trend. He took over a team fresh off an NCAA (though it was Dayton). With Stallings players he managed a 9 seed...his peak. The following season he won 12 games despite being projected as a tourney team preseason. This season he won 9 games including going 0-19 in conference play.

You just gave two example of obvious downward trend, neither of who made a the NCAAs, and comparing them to a guy with an upward trend who just earned a 5 seed in the NCAAs. You are bad at this.

Let's put it this way..Let's say you TAMU own a business...and for a stretch of years from 2008-2014, your business was at levels you hadn't seen in many years..Your product had an identity, more and more people were starting to notice, you were making more $$ than you ever had..You were close to becoming in an elite group of manufacturers...this was all due to a new plant manager you had brought in to replace one that left for a better opportunity...But this plant manager had business booming...then because of some bad publicity(that was never bad nationally only in an isolated local area), you got scared...and you started making life harder and harder for this plant manager, putting restrictions on what he could do etc...only your business was as good as it had ever been..well you were hoping he'd leave because you were worried if your "brand" could withstand a little bad publicity(again only locally).

You got your wish...he left...so you decided to bring in someone more clean cut, but inexperienced to take over your plant manager duties..5 years later, your business hasn't gotten significantly better, certainly nowhere near the levels it had been at under the previous pant manager..No one nationally talks about/raves about your product the way they once did..your product has dipped from those days, the quality isn't as good, and there's no guarantees it will ever be at that level again under this plant manager..he's had 5 years...you now have to ask yourself, how many more years of this can you afford before your business becomes irrelevant and gets passed by other companies that produce better results from the same product?? If you don't act soon..it could all crumble down and you lose it all....so what do you do?? Do you take a chance by firing this plant manager, and "reorganizing" and bring in someone else that almost certainly would produce no worse then the same results, or do you let him stay for another couple years and risk losing your business entirely??

You want to be the company that was "on top of the world" or close to it, just a few years ago..that's what you want to be again, you have now been passed by companies of the same size and stature, and even some lessor ones, their product is better then yours now. What are you going to do??

Few issues with your poorly constructed analogy:

1. We didn't have a good run from 2008 to 2014. We had a good run from 2008 to 2013. Then the plant manager turned in the worst year in a decade. Not only that, but all signs pointed to another rough year in 14-15 and possibly even a rough 15-16. All because one of the plant manager's employees unexpectedly got a better job and the plant manager wasn't prepared.
2. No one wanted the Plant Manger to leave. The plant manager had the balls to demand a raise after his disastrous 13-14 fiscal year after threatening to leave for other jobs every year since he had been hired so the owner said you can take the other job because we won't give you a raise after that performance.
3. Bad publicity wasn't the plant manager's problem, it was more like violating safety violations, sure maybe you get away with it but if OSHA comes sniffing around, you're boned. Plus other actions that went against the mission of your company.
4. If the plant managers work is what you call "close to elite" you have very small goals. He turned in two really good fiscal years....but by the big competitors standards they were below average to bad years.
5. When the plant manager stormed off, he also took some of his best employees with him, leaving the new plant manager with some old veterans who had never been very good and one young guy who probably should have been working for a non-profit from the start.
6. The new plant manager has made a lot of mistakes, but has slowly revived the business. In fact, in the most recent year he beat the old plant manager's third best year. Hasn't quite gotten them to the level the old plant manager was at, but with the staff he has under him the next year looks very bright. Some guys are set to retire soon, so he'll need to identify new talent to replace them, but if he does that, the old plant will be at the level the old plant manager had it at....and he may even sustain it longer than two years!
7. Actually despite what you said, you have one employee under the plant manager who has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top employees in the nation and he was recruited to your plant by the new plant manager. His face was all over MSNBC and on the cover of trade magazines. He even won some awards! People are talking more about your company that they have in years.

So I guess the question is, do I keep enjoying increased success every year? Or do I throw a temper tantrum because the new guy couldn't clean up the old guy's mess as fast as I wanted him to?

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I'm not making excuses for them...I don't care if they got fired or not...all I'm asking is...why people think they got fired?? I'm 99% sure it was because they weren't meeting those schools expectations. Right or wrong..they weren't.

You would be wrong. Expectations weren't met true, but they were fired because the program was getting worse, trending downward under their care. The other problem with these comparisons is that Wojo has met the school's expectations. You just don't agree with them. Don't worry though. Expectations continue to go up the longer Wojo is here. Just because expectations were low during the rebuild doesn't mean expectations are low from now on.

Look...My biggest issue with Wojo is his lack of in game adjustments..Can we compromise?? If I'm 100% honest...I'd be more than happy to see Wojo stay(I like his recruiting)...IF he is willing to acknowledge this might be a weakness of his and find a veteran asst Coach to help with X's and O's, in game stuff etc. Sound good??

As Dr. B pointed out, that's what Rob Judson was hired for. Wojo doesn't do drastic adjustments like you want, but he does make in game adjustments. That's why we had so many come from behind victories this season. He doesn't throw a whole new defense out there, but he will adjust who is covering who, how the big man is covering the screen, are the guards in an opponents face or are they giving them more space to deny the drive. I don't think the criticism is "he didn't make enough adjustments" I think the criticism is he  often didn't make the right adjustments. He also often adjusted in an obvious way that the other coach could anticipate and exploit. I don't have the numbers to prove it, but I feel like we were especially bad on defense coming out of timeouts. We were great when we were inbounding but when he had to defend after a time out it felt like the opponent almost always got a score.

Drastic adjustments are more fun and easier for fans to spot but they often have devastating consequences. Look what happened when Wojo busted out an aggressive trapping defense that we hadn't used all season against Murray State. We got shredded because we weren't used to running it. But sometimes it can save a game, like the gameplan against Georgetown when Markus got hurt.

[Cheeks]

Hmmm well...you pro Wojo guys haven't asked yourself one important question...Obviously hypothetical...but let's assume MU got a new AD last year...I would bet you(or anyone else) very large sums of $$, he would have fired Wojo at the end of this year...you know why?? Because new AD's always want their own guy. If the sitting Coach is doing well enough, they would leave them alone...but usually a New AD comes in they have a new vision etc. So...if a new AD would have fired him(which I believe he would have)...can't you then make the argument he should be fired?? And perhaps the only reason he hasn't been is because the administration is in love with him?? More specifically, are YOU or any other pro Wojo guy willing to wager a different admin would feel EXACTLY the same?? If you think they would, then I will concede...but I think(and you are smart enough to know this too) it is far more likely then not, a new administration coming in, would fire him...happens every where.

Always?  Nope.  That is categorically untrue.  Sometimes, yes.  Always...nope.  What you are also forgetting is the AD answers to the President of the university and any firing has to be approved by the Pres.  So a new AD might have grand plans to put his/her fingerprints on a program, but they need buy off to the top.

I would bet my house and everything I own in the scenario you presented that a new AD absolutely would not have fired him.  Finishing 2nd, making the tournament and with what is coming back next year, there is no way that would happen and the new AD would need to be worried he/she doesn't get run out by the Pres.  You just don't make that move. 

[muguru]

Always?  Nope.  That is categorically untrue.  Sometimes, yes.  Always...nope.  What you are also forgetting is the AD answers to the President of the university and any firing has to be approved by the Pres.  So a new AD might have grand plans to put his/her fingerprints on a program, but they need buy off to the top.

I would bet my house and everything I own in the scenario you presented that a new AD absolutely would not have fired him.  Finishing 2nd, making the tournament and with what is coming back next year, there is no way that would happen and the new AD would need to be worried he/she doesn't get run out by the Pres.  You just don't make that move.

The sports landscape, pro and college is littered thru the years of successful Coaches losing their job because a new Gm/AD takes over and wants their own guy..someone they know and trust. So to say "you just dont make that move" ..except many have through the years..and those GM's/AD's keep their jobs too.

[Eldon]

Bold prediction right here:

-Shaka out at Texas (soon)
-Bazz takes the job once VTech gets bounced

Texas wants to move before TAMU does.  Bazz starts a bidding war and eventually takes the Texas job, ultimately becoming one of the highest paid coaches in college BBall.  Book it.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Downward trend. His peak was his 2nd year when he managed an 11 seed with mostly his predecessors' players. He plummeted to a 12-19 season in his 5th year. He managed to rebuild a little bit but the most he could manage was two trips to the NIT. Now they are about to enter a new rebuild cycle. Honestly, he should have been fired after year 3, and if not then certainly at year 5.
 

Downward trend. He took over a team fresh off an NCAA (though it was Dayton). With Stallings players he managed a 9 seed...his peak. The following season he won 12 games despite being projected as a tourney team preseason. This season he won 9 games including going 0-19 in conference play.

You just gave two example of obvious downward trend, neither of who made a the NCAAs, and comparing them to a guy with an upward trend who just earned a 5 seed in the NCAAs. You are bad at this.

Few issues with your poorly constructed analogy:

1. We didn't have a good run from 2008 to 2014. We had a good run from 2008 to 2013. Then the plant manager turned in the worst year in a decade. Not only that, but all signs pointed to another rough year in 14-15 and possibly even a rough 15-16. All because one of the plant manager's employees unexpectedly got a better job and the plant manager wasn't prepared.
2. No one wanted the Plant Manger to leave. The plant manager had the balls to demand a raise after his disastrous 13-14 fiscal year after threatening to leave for other jobs every year since he had been hired so the owner said you can take the other job because we won't give you a raise after that performance.
3. Bad publicity wasn't the plant manager's problem, it was more like violating safety violations, sure maybe you get away with it but if OSHA comes sniffing around, you're boned. Plus other actions that went against the mission of your company.
4. If the plant managers work is what you call "close to elite" you have very small goals. He turned in two really good fiscal years....but by the big competitors standards they were below average to bad years.
5. When the plant manager stormed off, he also took some of his best employees with him, leaving the new plant manager with some old veterans who had never been very good and one young guy who probably should have been working for a non-profit from the start.
6. The new plant manager has made a lot of mistakes, but has slowly revived the business. In fact, in the most recent year he beat the old plant manager's third best year. Hasn't quite gotten them to the level the old plant manager was at, but with the staff he has under him the next year looks very bright. Some guys are set to retire soon, so he'll need to identify new talent to replace them, but if he does that, the old plant will be at the level the old plant manager had it at....and he may even sustain it longer than two years!
7. Actually despite what you said, you have one employee under the plant manager who has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top employees in the nation and he was recruited to your plant by the new plant manager. His face was all over MSNBC and on the cover of trade magazines. He even won some awards! People are talking more about your company that they have in years.

So I guess the question is, do I keep enjoying increased success every year? Or do I throw a temper tantrum because the new guy couldn't clean up the old guy's mess as fast as I wanted him to?

This was really an excellent post.

[tower912]

Bold prediction right here:

-Shaka out at Texas (soon)
-Bazz takes the job once VTech gets bounced

Texas wants to move before TAMU does.  Bazz starts a bidding war and eventually takes the Texas job, ultimately becoming one of the highest paid coaches in college BBall.  Book it.

I can see that.    It will be fun to watch. 

[Pakuni]

Bold prediction right here:

-Shaka out at Texas (soon)
-Bazz takes the job once VTech gets bounced

Texas wants to move before TAMU does.  Bazz starts a bidding war and eventually takes the Texas job, ultimately becoming one of the highest paid coaches in college BBall.  Book it.

Firing Shaka now would cost Texas nearly $13 million..That athletic department is rich, but are they rich enough to spend that and then get into a bidding war with A&M, for a sport that ranks a distant second, and maybe even third, in terms of importance?

[Bocephys]

Firing Shaka now would cost Texas nearly $13 million..That athletic department is rich, but are they rich enough to spend that and then get into a bidding war with A&M, for a sport that ranks a distant second, and maybe even third, in terms of importance?

Yes, they are absolutely rich enough, but also unlikely to spend that wealth on basketball.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

The whole Shaka thing is interesting. He had that magical run to the Final Four in his second year, but hasn't won the regular season conference championship during his entire career and hasn't gotten to the Sweet 16 again.  He has won two conference tournament championships however.

Really I think he and Wojo would have had similar results at MU.  In the long run, we may have dodged a bullet there.

If UT decides to move on, they might look at Chris Beard too. 

[JWags85]

The whole Shaka thing is interesting. He had that magical run to the Final Four in his second year, but hasn't won the regular season conference championship during his entire career and hasn't gotten to the Sweet 16 again.  He has won two conference tournament championships however.

Really I think he and Wojo would have had similar results at MU.  In the long run, we may have dodged a bullet there.

If UT decides to move on, they might look at Chris Beard too.

Chris Beard would be fascinating if they pursued him.  UT undergrad who worked under Tom Penders.  But spent a decade at Texas Tech under the Knights and openly called it his dream job before he ever got courted.  He's built something really nice there, but Texas is Texas.

[Marcus92]

Texas gets a lot of attention because of football. The basketball program has been very good, Top 25 even. The Longhorns have made 26 NCAA appearances in the past 31 seasons -- including 7 trips to the Sweet 16, 4 Elite Eights and a Final Four.

But with just that one Final Four in the past 70 years and no national titles, I think of Texas as perpetual underachievers. Kansas has dominated the Big 12 forever. I'm not sure Texas even belongs among the top 5 programs in the conference right now.

[MUDPT]

According to Goodman, TJ O to UNLV.

[KampusFoods]

According to Goodman, TJ O to UNLV.

Like this hire, and like the move for TJO. With Daum leaving SDSU this year, great time for him to take a step up.

He was going to be on my wish list if Wojo got the boot in the next few years. Curious to see how he does in Vegas since he's had most of his recruiting success in the Midwest.

[Uncle Rico]

Like this hire, and like the move for TJO. With Daum leaving SDSU this year, great time for him to take a step up.

He was going to be on my wish list if Wojo got the boot in the next few years. Curious to see how he does in Vegas since he's had most of his recruiting success in the Midwest.

He spent a year at Washington.  Believe he was there the year they got Fultz, FWIW.  Hope he kills it at UNLV

[LAZER]

Yes, they are absolutely rich enough, but also unlikely to spend that wealth on basketball.

Seems like Buzz is a better fit at A&M than UT.

[pbiflyer]

Seems like Buzz is a better fit at A&M than UT.

Yep, he and Jumbo Fisher are birds of a feather.

[Pakuni]

@GoodmanHoops: Alabama has hired Nate Oats.

[MUBurrow]

@GoodmanHoops: Alabama has hired Nate Oats.

Reports say the buyout from the extension he signed two weeks ago at $750,000. Kinda wonder if the real point of that extension was a parting gift to Buffalo by way of whichever school he would end up leaving for.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I know you gotta strike when the iron's hot, but Alabama seems to be the place where coaching careers get killed off.  Anthony Grant was the high flying mid-major coach when he went there and it didn't go so well.

[NickelDimer]

I know you gotta strike when the iron's hot, but Alabama seems to be the place where coaching careers get killed off.  Anthony Grant was the high flying mid-major coach when he went there and it didn't go so well.

Yeah it would’ve been nice to see Nate hold out for a better situation