He is basically saying we are a FB school nowā¦
The way money is spent across all of the sports I donāt see any funds moving from basketball to football. If that were the case we would still suck in softball, etcā¦ To move the needle you want to excel in both revenue sports.
The App model of going all in on a single sport can work, but that has not been mikes approach as we have worked to retain coaches in softball, baseball, soccer.
I can see Mike perhaps not paying max money for a basketball coach, but i donāt see him not paying a fair market rate for an AAC school.
Based on my understanding the ADs approach is to make as many sports revenue neutral as possible. So by investing a bit more and winning it comes closer to winning and generating the funds they need independent of regular AD sources. Which theoretically frees up more money for football. Not sure if I really agree with that approach though.
The core of our fanbase is basketball. If we canāt afford to pay a top 3 coaching salary in conference, thatās a failure of leadership. The money is out there. The problem is how terrible the stewardship of other peopleās money has been and the failure to acknowledge that.
Sell a vision and commit to excellence. Unfortunately gold standard is just a catchphrase here.
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If we were to sacrifice basketball for football, that might do it for me when you throw in realignment and NIL. I want to have hope and be competitive in football. In basketball I want to have a shot at the tournament every year. We donāt have to make it every year, but I want to think we can and more importantly I want non-fans to think we could too.
5 Likes
Personally I think Fearne is a good coach.
He seems to be firm in his style , pull the right strings and has the respect of his players, all while not landing in the ideal situation with rhe roster and a jump up in conferences
Be sure and check the bath water before you throw it out (ie Steve Wilkes)
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The Wilkes comparison is a good one and itās been nagging me as I watch the season unfold. Iām still waiting to see how it turns out.
Donāt forget the Odom overlook. I wonāt.
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I donāt really know that I have a metric on what he needs to do. Heās been pretty good so far but thereās a lot of basketball left. Thereās also things to look at it beyond this season, like recruiting, retaining players, working the portal etc. What are his strengths there? When I listen to his post-game interviews I feel like he knows what heās talking about, itās not a lot of coach speak fluff or rah rah stuff.
I would really prefer we stay away from taking another chance on an assistant coach and get someone with head coach experience. I wanted that in football as well.
2 Likes
The difficult part is how do you judge Fearne based on the circumstances surrounding this year. They are already performing above what most expected, which is a positive coaching sign.
Then how does anyone judge his ability to recruit to his system. Right now no one is going commit or even take a serious look, so you canāt really know how successful he could be.
I also wouldnāt classify Fearne as someone without head coaching experience.either though based on his coaching career in Australia.
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He won pro titles in Australia so coaching experience is checked off.
I dont even know how recruiting works anymore with the portal and NIL. You can pretty much replace a whole team in the offseason now and not blink an eye.
If you keep him get him a Brewster type recruiter for the portal and support him financially fir what the AAC presents.
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Whoa, Whoa, pump the brakesā¦ did we win a game we were not supposed to or something? Did we beat Duke or Davidson and I missed it? Does he deserve to interview in the off season for the job? at this point I would say so. But we have seen this movie before. Our best wins so far are over a Hat and a Black Bear and we are talking possible extension? Letās open up the search and see what is out there and go through the proper process. IMHO
Yeah the movie before has our interim coach now the HC at VCU.
We are saying āifā on Fearne and not a lot of faith in our administration on revenue sports hires.
Fearne was handed a āmessā and has pulled together a respectable team. Everyone pretty much agrees he can coach. Hill Canāt wait until the end of the season to make a decision. If he has a run in the conf tournament others will be coming after him.
I think Hill needs to make a call halfway through conf season.
As TSD said, get him some recruiting support and go for it.
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If we are two games over. 500 and he wins two conference tourney games I donāt think people will be beating his door down. Iāve seen nothing to indicate there will be suitors lined up.
clt says we should hire a recruiter with great expertise in landing juco talent even before NIL and portal
fearnes knows ball
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I think heās coached pretty well, just think we should hire the absolute best candidate we can.
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Absolutely no reason to sign him to anything until after the season is over. We didnāt kick the can to the spring just to hire him perm. Letās see his body of work at the end of the season and let him go through the process with other candidates. The only thing he absolutely deserves if the season goes fairly well is consideration in the process. Barring an NCAA appearance he shouldnt be handed anything. If he wins 20
Games and gets us to conf tournament final and we lose - then the decision gets more complicated. If Mike hires him before the season is over thatās an issue.
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I think Hill should know what kind of coach he has by the end of January.
I would really like to see some stability in the program.
Coach was handed a fāed program and has to motivate kids to play and buy in all while holding the āinterimā title.
Pretty amazing for him to have any success at all.
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I think we will know what kind of coach he is, what we wonāt know is how that compares with other interested parties. We need to see what the rest of the field looks like and see how he coaches in March.
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