TheTastyGreek

I think I've been to one game in one sport since the end of the 2015 football season. We could bring back Eppy and Shanice Stephens and I probably wouldn't notice for months. So, other than my usual advocacy for Zombie Landry, I recuse myself from any potential coaching search committee.

I appreciate you letting my mom off the hook here... But this program is never going anywhere without a culture of true accountability. I slept on it, and... We're putting her in a home. If anyone has a suggestion for a particularly cheap and negligent one, please PM me. I'm doing my part to turn this ship around. Who else is with me?

It's like we spent so many years trying to make everyone a better husband and father, we somehow completely forgot the other side of the equation. #HerToo? The next time I go over to Mom's to drop off laundry or get a grilled cheese, I think we'll need to have a serious heart-to-heart. Because this sort of football disappointment is unsustainable. And if she's the one to blame, we need to get this situation sorted ASAP. Thank you for your courage. Please send your thoughtsnprayers for what's likely to be a very tense and awkward Thanksgiving.

Too much streetball and jackin' up 3's. Gotta git sum pitchin' and hit our free throws.

Florida Florida Iowa Florida Iowa Iowa Florida Iowa?

I think nobody is happy with the results at the podium, but I also think it's important people realize that when you look at the tape, the comments grade out at a very high level. So, there's positives and something for us to build on going in to next week.

I don't blame any fan for waiting until the end of the night to sit down and fully evaluate what they needed to do going forward. I suspect that a lot of people just took an appropriate amount of time to fully review the weather situation, and decided at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday that the time was right to show up at Apogee.

Technically. I'm just hanging in there for the annual prostate exam and to complain about how fat children are these days.

I'm assuming CBL and I will be offered a weekly guest slot where we can whittle, struggle with technology, and complain about how much better podcasts and college basketball used to be when we were young.

I give this podcast my blessing. My one suggestion would be to make sure you have a co-host that's socially acceptable in the #MeToo era. Many a basketball podcast was felled by a pansexual roué who couldn't control his lustful urges and inappropriate comments. Demand respect for yourself as a podcast host, and hopefully your co-host AND your audience will respect you the way you deserve. Ninjaface.

How much yodel music in each episode?

The comparison is, you (rightly) think that Cross was a very good bordering on great coach who deserves a hell of a lot more respect and appreciation for what he did at UTA than this firing demonstrates. Meanwhile, you often seem to give Todd Freaking Dodge more credit for his accomplishments here than you do Johnny Jones. When you live every game with a program, you remember every frustrating loss or bad performance. Especially when you're looking for them. Like that awful loss on the stage at UTA (I was there, too!) or the two last second/last minute heartbreakers that kept us out of the NCAA Tournament in 2011 and 2012. When you follow from a distance, you remember the Memphis and Ohio State wins... But you don't notice when that guy takes his senior-heavy preseason conference favorite squad and loses by 25 to a sub .500 (both then and at the end of the year) Coastal Carolina team. Or when he loses by 20-25 or more to directional Louisianas, Arkansas Jrs., Georgia States, etc. You don't bias yourself to think he can't coach defense or execute a game plan, because you weren't watching when he gave up 104 points and lost by 23 to a winless Montana State team that finished the year 7-23. Your memory tells you that our guy "could never figure out" a team and a coach that he beat 7 out of 10 times and never lost to outside of Denver, but you don't have any memories of the time that Cross's team only managed 35 freaking points in Arlington against Joe Scott and that Denver version of the Princeton scheme. I don't want this to seem personal, because I feel like the only time this point of frustration actually did get a little heated and personal, you were actually super cool about sending me a nice message and making sure we wound up in a friendly place again. And, honestly, you're far from the most unreasonable and inconsistent person on the JJ vs. others evaluation. The comparison comes from seeing you and @untbowler (justifiably) look at this with bafflement and mockery in this thread, calling it a stupid decision. But when we had a coach with a nearly identical track record over a nearly identical period of time, the stuff you guys were saying at the same point in JJ's tenure was WILDLY different than your take on Scott Cross. And when you look at what was said this time last year when people were (foolishly, in my opinion) bringing up the hypothetical of re-hiring JJ here... A depressing number of people, including Bowler (but not you, I don't think... I don't have the stomach to look at old threads from the end of Benford days) talked about JJ's successes here like they were UTA's AD giving Scott Cross his termination papers. It sucks that the track record of a guy who did a lot of great things for us and hasn't been here in 6 years has to constantly get re-litigated. But, to me, it sucks worse when our own fan base mis-remembers or misrepresents what we had. So when that stuff keeps happening (like it did just a week ago), I think it merits pointing out how nearly identical the track record of Cross wound up relative to Jones, especially when a not-insignificant number of our fans here claimed one to be far superior, both 6 years ago and as recently as last year up to today. Anyway... I don't know and probably never will understand why some of our fans have to minimize our accomplishments and diminish the people that led us to them. And I remember, distinctly, how much you used to appreciate the guy (Basketball Jones, and a 30+ minute phone call where we talked through the rumors of SMU firing Doherty and hiring JJ away pre-2011). And it baffles me why in the years since then, you seem to only remember (or, at least, bring up) the most terrible moments and biggest disappointments of his career here. Scott Cross was a damn good coach for UTA, and he did a lot of special things there. It's a shame and an outrage that their administration apparently didn't appreciate him and his achievements. But, if you're comparing Scott's resume to the coach we had here and the criticism he took in his last 2-3 seasons... Either JJ deserves a hell of a lot more respect and appreciation from the people who criticized him then, or UTA's Athletics Director may be righter than either of us want to give him credit for.

They also lost to UL-Monroe 4 times in the last 3 years, and haven't make the NCAA tournament in a decade. Couldn't even make it out of the SBC Tournament Semis two out of those last three years. Don't get me wrong, I think Cross is a very good coach, and this is maybe the stupidest coach firing in my recent memory. Just an example of how one team's mediocre coach can be damn near indistinguishable from a neighbor's great one that was STUPIDly fired. On a very related note... Danny Kaspar just finished his 5th season at Texas State. Exactly 14 games under .500 overall, only one winning season. Now, I know that a GOOD coach would never post a record like that, or need a 6th year to turn around a Sun Belt school... But, here we are. Not sure what to do with this reality we find ourselves in.

Bunch of low-expectation-having apologists around here. #WhyNotUTArlington? #It'sAllWhateverColorUTAisAndItsAllGood

This is what I'm talking about. Young people, talking with their emojis, out all night dancing the Charleston and eating their laundry detergent. This is the sort of influence we want on our team? Is it any wonder we just saw a night filled with streetball, jackin'-up-3's, and poor defense? We better git sum pitchin' and fast, or this whole freaking society is doomed.

That was a thought I had, too. For context, this would be almost an exact equivalent to us, instead of losing Johnny Jones to LSU, firing him that same offseason. CROSS: 12 years at UTA 1 NCAA appearance 2 Regular season conference championships 5 20+ win seasons 3 Losing seasons 2 Seasons below .500 in-conference 2 Losses in Conference Tournament finals (one game away from NCAAs) JONES: 11 years at UNT 2 NCAA appearances 1 Regular season conference championship 5 20+ win seasons 2 Losing seasons 3 Seasons below .500 in-conference 2 Losses in Conference Tournament finals (one game away from NCAAs)

They specifically mentioned running "a program that operates with honor and integrity". So, probably not anything that's an NCAA violation. He just re-upped an extension in 2016, and they're buying out at least two years of that deal. So, can't be a financial move, because unless someone is going to pay to coach there, they'll be spending more money for the next two years than if they'd just kept him through the end of the current deal. Either there's an internal problem, or a non-program ethical issue. The fact that EVERYONE is out from that coaching staff makes me think it's likelier to be an internal problem... But the same AD that just fired Cross re-upped him to at least two extensions that I can remember. So, how is it a power struggle or a boss/subordinate fight? And if it is a Petrino/Eustachy/etc. type non-sports personal issue... Why fire all of the assistants from a team that's had 3 straight 20 win seasons and almost made the NCAA Tournament this year? Wouldn't you want at least some continuity in that situation? Very, very weird. Curious to see what really happened here.

Dude is travelling his ass off. Walking all over the court, didn't bounce the camera once. This is the on-court influence we want for the team on the day of a tournament final game? Fundamentals, man.

Thoughts and prayers.

Meh... Talk to me after you keep the bit going for a month.

I think, if the way we do policing in this country means that you can be completely innocent, have nothing to do with anything that led a police officer to your door, open immediately calmly and peacefully, put your hands up when instructed, and STILL be fatally shot within less than 10 seconds... Maybe we've taken a wrong turn on how we do policing. Maybe.

I'd rather lose the New Orleans Bowl than finish with 9 wins, get cute waiting on a bowl contract, and be left home without even an opportunity at that 10th win. And both beat the hell out of what we've dealt with most years, where we're not playing anywhere and not eligible anyway.

Bob Arum is probably the only guy satisfied at that fight. His Rigo voodoo doll finally worked. Thank goodness for Salido v Roman. Wife had her company Christmas party... I avoided the internets and I just finished catching up on everything off the DVR. Smith's ear was prettier than Rigondeaux in this one. Once he lost that point and realized he couldn't clutch and duck his way through yet another fight, he just gave it up. I don't blame him, but why "dare to be great", jump up two classes, and then just pack it in like that? Salido... I don't even care that he lost. You could book that guy to fight Superman, you could book that guy to fight one of those inflatable nylon tube men. I'd watch it, and odds are it'd be one of the 5 most entertaining fights of the year. He's a dirty, brutal old man. I have no idea how that guy has any living brain cells left. But as long as he's willing to torture himself and others, I will watch every single chance I get. I think if anyone ever deserved the retirement he announced after this fight, it's Orlando Salido. But, if he ever changes his mind... I'm tuning in. AND I JUST SAW THAT JAMES DEGALE LOST??!?!?? Holy crap, that seemed like such a walkover joke of a matchup, I didn't even bother to watch it for free (I think Showtime streamed it on YouTube?). Unbelievable that a guy with DeGale's history and talent, and who fought that fight against Badou Jack earlier this year (feels like 3 years ago with all the fights in the meantime) would get roughed up and beaten by a guy that's lost to every recognizable name he's ever faced before, including a 1st round KO against Anthony Dirrell. Seriously, unbelievable. I guess I have to find it when it gets posted online. Rigo quits, Francisco Vargas punches a guy's ear in half, Salido retires, and DeGale loses to a freaking nobody. What a crazy day for boxing.

He introduced me to gumbo and bacon-wrapped bacon. It's really just repaying an old debt.

I did something similar for the 2009-10 basketball season. That's the year we made the NCAA's with Tramiel and Odufuwa, and I went to 24 of our 33 games. Left side of the frame is all the regular season stubs, middle is the schedule poster, right side is the postseason stubs under the DRC sports section front page from the SBC Tournament Championship final when we beat Troy and clinched the NCAA berth. It's a little over 3 feet wide, and it's been hanging in our house for 7 years now. I thought about getting it professionally done, but a custom framing job is skilled work, and you'll pay a premium for it. For what I wanted, I took a chance (luckily, had two of everything in case I screwed it up or didn't like it) and wound up very happy with it. Happy enough that I've done something similar for 3 other keepsakes that are decorating my house since then, each a little more complicated than the last. My suggestion, unless this is something like a degree or a bridal portrait that you absolutely feel is worth the money for a custom frame... Go to Michael's, find a 2'x3' frame (or whatever, depending on what you want to lay in there) that you should be able to find for $40 or cheaper, especially this time of the year. Something like this: http://www.michaels.com/black-hampton-home-collection-frame-studio-decor/M10382886.html?dwvar_M10382886_color=Black Get a piece of posterboard (you can use fabric, but it's more likely to slip or come loose over time) in the color you want, presumably kelly or hunter green, and cut it to fit the backing piece of the frame. If you're a little off... No problem, because it's inset and you won't see the edges of the backing since they're beyond the visible interior edge of the frame. Use double-stick tape to position everything where you want it, and you should be all good. With Photobucket down, I don't have an example to show you... If you want to see how it turned out for me, I can text you some photos. PM me your number to make sure I still have it right, and I'll show you what you can do on your own for $25-40 or less. A custom job is going to be a lot more, so if price is an issue (or not worthwhile enough to justify the cost), you can probably do it yourself. I'm not handy or crafty at all, and I've made it work nicely several times now. Even if you're anxious about it, if you're still in or near Lewisville, you can just bring everything over to our house and I'll help you out with it.