NIL means more than the coach. This isnt the old days where you needed a coach that could sell a vision and recruit. Now itâs just do you have the money to buy a roster that can compete first and foremost.
When I sat next to Bobby at the Memphis game and asked him what the challenge was he just said talent. âWe donât have enough of it.â
If you are still emotionally invested in basketball - you have to find a way to buy better players, then hope the ones you paid donât get hurt.
I think Fearne can coach. Not sure you he has the NIL bank he needs to compete in AAC nor am I sure he has the talent assessment correct on who he needs to buy.
Once paying players directly happens - its probably a better plan to table any halton improvements, delay redoing lockerroms, etc and just move as much money to paying players as possible. It doesnât really matter what the AD budget is or what the basketball budget it is - its what is your NIL budget. Try to win and hope that does what has never happened here - and that is winning helps drive more financial support.
I suppose if Igor has impressive SEC and NCAA tournaments he can dramatically improve his stock over whatâs been a so-so performance down the stretch. Of course, missing a game tying layup at the buzzer like he did in the recent loss vs Ole Miss not the way to wow the scouts.
All I am going to say is that there were more intriguing canidates out there that I wish we would have explored, if we keep Fearne, we need to hire a general manager of shuffle the assistants in order to get people in place that can build a competitive roster
A chunk of that talent was before this all blew up to where we are now. And a chunk of that was with Ron who we all agree was shit.
I am not saying coaching doesnt matter. What I am saying is where things are now if you canât buy the right talent the rest doesnât matter and you have to be able to just reload every single year. That isnât going to happen at our level.
Keep Fearne or dump him - either way the NIL bank has to be big enough to get the talent needed at the AAC level.
While thatâs no fun for anyone to hear or read, itâs the reality going forward. For basketball to bring in talent, theyâre going need as much NIL money as possible and once we start paying players directly, we need to be able to pay a lot. Things are never going back to the âold way.â Due to all of that, itâs hard for me as a fan to make an informed opinion on Fearne.
Fearne is not the problem but heâs not the solution either. He was given the job and doing the best he can but he does not have college experience other than working under Sanchez. Hopes were his âinternationalâ experience would bring in talent.
We are losing more talent than gaining.
We havenât been able to bring in good talent since CUSA1
The good news is IF you can find some pockets you can turn things around quick now. What Steph is doing for Davidson is going to make them very competitive at their level. The bad news is fans like me that have been around for 30 years no matter what buying tickets and donating are walking away. If you donât win and maybe even if you do win you have lost the older fans who were here winning or losing and traded it for fans not caring or donating unless you win.
Eh, I wouldnât go that far. Major wasnât a stellar coach but had talent. Dorn, Woods, Izunda played in the ACC and Lester might have been better than them.