TheTastyGreek

At this point, I think worrying about Bower is like worrying about a Y2K global meltdown. Seems like the danger has passed.

From a post by Bird of Paradise on the SBC board today: Keep some money in the bank to pay the man in March and April when the other schools start sniffing around again.

RPI calculations can be very confusing. But for anyone wondering how even a modest uptick in opponent quality can drastically impact overall RPI for the conference and individual teams... A WKU fan posted a very illuminating chart on the Arkansas State forum. There are three elements of a team's RPI score: Your win/loss record, the win/loss record of your opponents, and the win/loss record of your opponents' opponents. When the league as a whole plays just a slightly better overall caliber of opponents (not WINS more, just plays better opponents with the same results), the cumulative impact can be tremendous. So, what if every team in the SBC played opponents with an average of one more win over the course of the year than the teams they played? Meaning (for example), UNO and UALR still go 6-22, but their opponents have an average of one more win? Last year's Sun Belt, without anyone winning any more OOC games at all, would jump up from 21st to 17th in conference RPI. As a model, the chart that WKUYG posted isn't perfect... Right off the top, every "extra" opponent win would have to come from somewhere, and that isn't factored in to the RPI of the rest of the NCAA. But as a general and simple illustration of the power of slightly improved schedule across the entire conference, it's brilliant and easy to understand even for a very casual fan with a very limited interest in RPI calculations. What would it have meant for North Texas specifically? Our team RPI would have jumped from 104th to 80th. That would have given us a higher RPI than Morgan State, Ohio, UC-Santa Barbara, and Montana, tournament teams that finished with better a RPI than us in reality. We would have separated further from Houston, this time by 30 places instead of just 6. Montana and Ohio were 14 seeds, and Houston was a 13 seed. With a higher RPI and a much improved conference RPI, it's very likely that we would have jumped up to a 14 seed, regional priority be damned. Nobody has to win any more than they otherwise would/did. Just by playing opponents with the smallest possible incremental improvement of win/loss record, the collective impact would have lifted the conference tremendously. A major initiative like the 150 rule could be HUGE in improving things for SBC schools with quality basketball teams. Big hat tip to WKUYG for the chart.

I guess they found the "submit your resume" open thread here on GMG. Where's Primo on that list?

1) June Jones, because of his Hawaii position, recruited nationally. He's done the same since coming to SMU. If Jeff Bower had a history of bringing in people from all over the country, awesome. But we are not a nationally recognized football school, and he is not a name that rings in the ears of 17-18 year old kids (all of whom were still in 6th or 7th grade the last time he finished a season with fewer than 5 losses). He is not going to be the North Texas version of June Jones. He doesn't have the national connections, he doesn't have the name recognition that Jones did (because of his BCS appearance and his tenure as an NFL coach), and he won't be able to recruit anywhere near what Jones has done. 2) If we're hoping for new assistants to get Bower back on his 90's track... Why don't we get a guy (like Leavitt or Fran) who can do it himself, and get those super assistants to support THEM? 3) Not true. You get a lot of .500 or worse records. Like 2007 and 2002, for example. 4) From an article I linked to earlier: 5) The reason he was in Hattiesburg so long was that, according to a lot of the articles written in the wake of his firing, nobody else tried to hire him away after the turn of the millennium. If we're counting on him doing BETTER once we take him OUT of the situation where he was a former player, former assistant, and a local hero... I don't think we're making a very smart bet. He couldn't cut it there anymore. Take away the unique advantages he had there, and he's going to do better? When he's spent the past 3 years fishing and living the retired life? Everyone has an opinion, but I don't agree with the opinion that he'd get better here. 6) This is a guy who, with the exception of one year (2003), didn't get out of C-USA play with less than 3 or 4 losses in this decade. After the 90's ended, he was mediocre in his own league. Do that in the Sun Belt (if he even could... Again, I have serious doubts about his effectiveness away from USM because of the roots he had there) and you'll never break .500. There are already two post-millennial Boweresque performers in the Sun Belt: Steve Roberts and Rickey Bustle. They'll both probably get fired after this season ends. You can call it a wash. I'll consider it proof that during the 2000s, the guy coached teams that were mediocre at their conference level, then limped to 7 win records by scoring annual wins against 1-AAs and Sun Belt schools. If he's coaching AT a Sun Belt school and he loses 3 conference games per year... Where are the games going to come from to even get us to 7 wins? You can't play more than one 1-AA team per year and count it towards eligibility. 7) Franchione has won at 8 different spots, 6 in his first year and 2 in his second. Bower spent the 2000s in a downward suck spiral and his own alma mater fired him despite his deceptively adequate record. Franchione spent much of his career working in Texas and the west, and his name and track record in building TCU and coaching at A&M gave him the recruiting connections we would need to get the ship righted. Bower hasn't coached in Texas in 25 years, hasn't coached west of the Mississippi River in 20. The only time he coached and recruited in the state of Texas was a brief period that ended in 1986, and back then he had the assistance of SMU booster payoffs helping to lure in players. Franchione has spent the past 3 years pursuing other head coaching opportunities. Bower has spent the past 3 years pursuing fish. Anything anyone can say in support of Bower is something that Southern Mississippi knew of and heard about from everyone who supported him. And, even though he was an alum and a local hero, they fired him anyway. Maybe we know better than the people who educated him and then employed him for 24 years. Maybe, somehow, they got it wrong. But I don't think they did.

MVC games are tough because they aren't "bus games". You've gotta fly to get to most of them (and many C-USA schools). We've done a good job of getting series with C-USA teams that are within driving distance and keeping travel expenses as low as possible. We generally have 2 non-D1 games per year. If I had my wishes in replacing those, I'd add another Southland opponent (or a bus trip C-USA school, if we can get them to keep scheduling us) and one flight to a perennially lower tier (but still roughly 150 RPI range) MVC or WAC school like Idaho or Wyoming.

Nobody. In two weeks, we get an exhibition and a game against Henderson State. After that, things really start to get fun.

I would make a joke about Phillip K. Dick, but the board would automatically censor it.

No "illusion"... The guy has already said on the PonyFans forum that he posts here as HoopManX. You guys really need to calm down about this.

Boom, I'm roasted.

Anybody who could recruit talent to White Dacha would tear it up with the new stadium as a resource.

I don't read commie books. He'd hire JACK RYAN.

You'll want a large if you wear an American medium. Done deal. I'll buy it for you as a gift. From each according to his ethnicity, to each according to his fandom. Also, I think you may be getting mixed up. Unless you've been holding out on us with info, the last discussion of Tramiel was his summer league stint with the Mavs. We've talked about Sturns and his pro experience in Japan lately... Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

Randy Butler says you can never be too sure.

And if he works hard, keeps improving... Someday he can go play for my people. I would definitely buy an Eric Tramiel Panathinaikos jersey. DEFINITELY. International shipping and everything.

You should come watch a basketball game this year. I'll bring baklava. I'll buy you a Scrappy Burger. It's fun times for the whole family.

Nothing changed in 15 years. The example I used was from 18 years ago. I'm getting old.

I was able to see Art Briles get introduced to the Baylor fans at their men's basketball game against Washington State. I'm hoping that we'll be able to introduce ours to the North Texas faithful either at the November 23rd (Rice) or 30th (UTA) home games.

When I was a kid, I didn't play much in the way of organized team sports. I was a tournament kickboxer. Training and practice consisted of a 30+ year old man (or his wife, or their advanced adult students) punching and kicking me in the chest, head, and face. That's what allowed me to get good enough to be successful when other 12-14 year olds would take their turns trying to punch and kick me in the chest, head, and face for fabulous prizes and awards. That's how it worked, and there wasn't anything wrong with it. My parents would sit there as spectators and watch bigger and stronger adults beat on me for hours. But if either of the instructors that ran that program would ever have put their hands around my neck or slapped me, especially outside the ring or off the mats where training and competition actually took place, that would have crossed a line. Even when someone's literal responsibility as your coach is to hit you, it crosses a line of propriety to do what Leavitt was accused of doing. I still want him as our coach. But if he did what a lot of people say he did, then he did something wrong. It isn't the sort of mistake that should define the man for the rest of his life, but it was a serious mistake. We're not trying to fill a job opening for Saint. We're looking to replace a head football coach. This guy would be a great option for us. But we don't need to rationalize away what allegedly happened to justify hiring him.

It was just under 6,800. Of that, I'd say about 4500-4800 were there to support North Texas.

Baylor is a rough comparison because they've got the Big 12 advantage. I don't think there's a state school I'd want to pattern ourselves after as a means of comparison. If I had to pick a program to model ourselves after, it would be Utah State or Nevada. And as far as recruiting goes, our class so far is on par with any of their results over the past 4-5 years.

Guys don't generally verbal before early signing and then not sign an LOI. I think we have one guy who hasn't taken the ACT (though that info may be out of date), but there's no other reason to expect we won't have all five signatures on November 10th.

This is dumb. Very dumb. SMU has gotten good recruits at the same positions we have. Both schools have gotten quality players that fit their systems. We got Forrest Robinson, they got Cannen Cunningham. We got Jordan Williams, they got Jalen Jones. We got Norris and Jones, they got Ryan Manuel. At this point, I don't think either school would trade their class for the others. Everyone has plenty to be happy about.

I don't think Williams is ever going to play post. He looks like a straight 3 to me. If we go with a 1 in 4 out configuration somewhere down the line, like what WKU does or what SMU is apparently planning on doing, he could conceivably guard a post from another team... But he looks very skinny and I don't ever see him banging around in the paint as a regular part of his game. If we can't get the transfers at midyear, I'd rather we go with someone who won't have to sit out a full season. I don't want to see us take a straight rebuilding year, and with so many freshmen coming in I don't know if we can afford to have two (or even one) guys sitting out for an entire season. Also, totally agree with 03 about how nice it would have been for McGhee to spend a developmental year on our roster. Even if the guy wasn't quite ready to play at this level yet, it would have been nice to either redshirt him or break him in like what we saw JJ do with Alzee last season.

This year, I hope they lose once and win out on the rest of the season. Good for our RPI. Don't see it happening, though. This could be a TERRIBLE season for them.