TheTastyGreek

Sorry... I was more focused on the joke, not trying to make any sort of political statement, not really familiar with the new rules being discussed on the other thread. Basically, just wanted to link to that press conference speech that people might recognize him from. I'll rephrase, just PM me if I'm still factually incorrect.

Wondering what this is all about? - READ THIS Pat Kelsey Age: 40 Current job: Head coach at Winthrop Current contract situation: Base salary of $220,000, signed through 2018-19 season. Experience: 4 years as a head coach, all D1 at Winthrop. 7 years as a college assistant at Xavier and Wake Forest. 3 years as an assistant at an Ohio high school. Best year as a head coach: 2015-16. 23-9 overall record, 13-5 in conference. Tied for conference regular season championship, lost a 2nd level tiebreaker to High Point, so no NIT auto-bid. Lost in the Big South conference tournament championship, so no NCAA auto-bid. Worst year as a head coach: 2012-13. 14-17 overall record, 6-10 in conference. What makes him worth considering? Kelsey took over a Winthrop program that may sound very familiar. After a school history of doing nothing to not a whole lot in basketball (zero NCAA or NIT appearances in school history, only one conference championship in 1988), they got a guy (Gregg Marshall) who built them into an actual respectable program, a regular conference contender, and a basketball team on the rise. Then, Marshall left for a different job, and they hired a guy who ran them right back into the ground (Randy Peele). After a few years of self-destruction (including 19 and a 20 loss years in a 5 year tenure with 3 losing seasons), they finally corrected their mistake, fired Peele, and then Kelsey took the 20 loss team he inherited and turned them into a 20 game winner in year two. Whycome would he'd suck real bad? 4 years as a head coach, zero NCAA appearances, zero NIT appearances. BUT, 8-4 in conference tournament games, and he's led Winthrop to the tournament championship game each of the past three years. Additional comments: Might not be keen to work on an open carry a concealed carry campus (though, he says he didn't vote for Obama, so partial credit?). Short, white, scrappy college player who didn't get much game action... Possible "extra coach on the floor" who turned into an actual coach! But, listed at 5'10" as a college player (EDITOR'S NOTE: @UNT90 has not stood up next to him, can't confirm), so may not be tall enough to play quarterback for us. Unable to find any basketball coaching records for Doug Flutie and Drew Brees; can't extrapolate how height may or may not impact his coaching prospects.

Wondering what this is all about? - READ THIS David Richman Age: 37 Current job: Head Coach at North Dakota State Current contract situation: Base salary of $190,000(?), contract duration not clear (please respond with a link if you can find anything) Experience: 2 years as a head coach at D1 North Dakota State, 11 years as an assistant, all at NDSU. Best year as a head coach: 2014-15. 23-10 overall, 12-4 in conference. Regular season and Summit tournament championships. Summit League Coach of the Year. NCAA auto-bid, lost first game to Gonzaga as a 15 seed. Worst year as a head coach: 2015-16. 20-13 overall, 8-8 in conference. Lost Summit tournament championship game to South Dakota State. What makes him worth considering? Two years, two 20 win seasons, one NCAA tournament appearance, one game away in his second year. Whycome would he'd suck real bad? Zero coaching experience (and possibly near-zero life experience) outside the state of North Dakota. NDSU has been transitional or full D1 for 11 years, and they've won 20+ games in six of them. So, even though he's won 20+ games in both of his years as a head coach... That's not unusual for his program, and he didn't build it up as a head coach. Additional comments: Born in North Dakota, graduated from NDSU, only work experience at NDSU, married a woman he met while in school at NDSU. Seems to love North Dakota so much, he may have married it (if man-state polygamy was legal and socially acceptable). Previous NDSU coach didn't leave until offered the job at Ohio paying $550,000 per year for 5 years, and he didn't have anywhere near the ties to North Dakota that Richman does. Collects creepy family portraits drawn by prisoners (direct link to photo here). May have been born without eyebrows, or may have lost his eyebrows in some sort of unpublicized North Dakotan ecological disaster. 4 daughters, names are Mallorie, Brynlie, Kenlie and Ellie. May demand we change our mascot's name to Scrappie.

Wondering what this is all about? - READ THIS Andy Toole Age: 35 Current job: Head coach at Robert Morris Current contract situation: Base salary of ~$210,000, signed through 2019-20 season. Experience: 6 years as a head coach, all D1 at Robert Morris. 4 years as an assistant, 3 of them at Robert Morris. Best year as a head coach: Two contenders: 2012-13. 24-11 overall, 14-4 in conference. Regular season conference championship, NIT auto-bid, upset John Calipari and Kentucky in NIT 1st round. 2014-15. 20-15 overall, 12-6 in conference. NEC tournament championship, NCAA auto-bid. Won their play-in game against North Florida. Worst year as a head coach: 2015-16. 10-22 overall, 8-10 in conference. One and done in the NEC tournament. What makes him worth considering? Two NIT wins, both as an 8 seed upsetting a 1. NCAA play-in game win. 5 winning seasons in 6 years, three legit postseason bids (2 NIT, 1 NCAA), plus a CIT quarterfinals run. 2014 NEC Coach of the Year. Whycome would he'd suck real bad? Took over a team with three straight 20 win seasons and two straight NCAA berths, went 18-14. Complete collapse this year... First 20+ loss season for Robert Morris since 2001, only the 4th in D1 school history. Struggled mightily with his team this year. Says this past season drove him insane. Additional comments: Born on September 11th. May be a secret Muslim sleeper agent. Looks like a 12 year old... Could get carded at R-rated movies. His own son doesn't want to see him succeed. We don't seem to fit his 2014 criteria for a next-step job and he already turned down Fordham in the A-10 a year ago, a school that paid their head coach over $600,000 back in 2010.

Wondering what this is all about? - READ THIS Jon Coffman Age: 42 Current job: Head coach at IPFW (Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne) Current contract situation: $120,000 base salary, signed through 2018-19 season Experience: 2 years as a head coach, both at IPFW, both D1. 16 years as an assistant at various schools. Best year as a head coach: 2015-16. 24-10 record, regular season conference championship, NIT auto-bid (1st round loss to San Diego State), Summit League Coach of the Year. Worst year as a head coach: 2014-15. 16-15 overall record, 9-7 in conference. 1st round loss in the CIT against Evansville. What makes him worth considering? IPFW has been D1 for 15 years, Coffman led them to their first conference championship. Two years, two winning seasons at a school that only has 3 others at the D1 level. Whycome would he'd suck real bad? Took over a 25-11 team, went 16-15. Only two years of HC experience. HC and assistant experience nowhere near our region (Virginia, Florida, Carolinas, Indiana) Additional comments: He looks like Seth Littrell had a baby with Ben Folds. Not sure if that's a pro or a con.

At the risk of stealing @CMJ's usual opening line... It's been 1222 days since Alabama-Huntsville. More importantly, It's been a week, we've had at least 3 or 4 "no comment" articles from Vito. That's very telling to me. A year ago, Fly said this: If Benford were coming back, someone would have sheepishly given us the Things Need To Change fake hardass interview with Vito (or Sidway, or whoever) already. Back in 2009, even Dodge got the confirmed return just 4 days after that shitshow of a season ended. I really think that this is finally, wonderfully, blissfully going to end. We might just be playing men's basketball again next year. If Benford were sticking around, someone would have taken off his blindfold, put out his last cigarette, and dismissed the firing squad already. But they haven't. And I think it's because, with spring break on one hand and the financial situation given McCarney's earlier buyout on the other, we're just getting everything dotted and crossed to make the firing official. This is going to end, and I think it probably gets quietly released this Friday, buried in the news by NCAA tournament weekend. I think I might just update the recruiting forum.

I got my "JJ wasn't really very good" threads confused. I thought this post: Was in this thread. Deep did post in this thread, too, but I got all the "JJ was an underwhelming guy" posts from the past few days smashed together. Apologies, but the point still stands across threads.

The only thing I know about anything is that if someone did it here, and it happened when I wasn't 20 years old... It wasn't worth a shit. And any other jackwad could come in and do even better, even if none has in 5 or 10 or 30 years. That's just the way it is. - - - - - - - - - Serious request: I would like @DeepGreen or @FirefightnRick, who have mythologized Danny Kaspar (who I think is a good coach!) and complained about him not getting hired here, to explain to me why Kaspar is objectively such a good coach and JJ is an overrated underachiever. Please explain to me why JJ is a lousy coach because he only made two NCAA tournaments in 11 years here, but Kaspar is a good coach because he made one in 13 years at SFA. Please explain to me how JJ sucks for stuffing his schedule with lower conference teams and his records are hollow, while Kaspar is a good coach... Even though when you take away his non D1 wins, five of his seven 20 win seasons disappear. Please explain to me why JJ is an underachiever for taking six years to make the postseason, when Kaspar didn't even make the NIT until year eight at SFA. Please explain to me why JJ sucked against the Sun Belt, even though Kaspar plays an objectively diminished Sun Belt schedule and has as many sub .500 seasons in conference through three years as JJ had in his entire 11 year run. Kaspar is a good coach. JJ is a good coach. Both have their flaws, both have their limitations, but I don't see how the case for one being an underachiever or a "low bar" doesn't completely invalidate any possible praise for the other. And at least two guys in this thread have talked up the successes of Kaspar (who is good! he's good! not saying he's not good!) while shitting on the achievements of Jones. - - - - - - - - It baffles and disappoints me that four years after the guy is gone, there still exists this need to denigrate what he achieved here. I'm not saying he's the greatest coach in NCAA history, but he's pretty damn good, way better than the average bear, and what he did here was something very, very special. At this point, my only hope is that I see something else like it again at least once more before I die of old age. He took a program that had lost 20+ games again and again and again, and he won. Right away. And then he took us to the NCAA tournament, which had only happened once before in school history. Sure, we won our conference tournament to do it... But only one time out of the 30-odd chances to do that before and get there automatically worked out for us. And then, 3 years later, he did it with only one (one-legged) guy left over from the first time. It didn't matter if we only had 6 guys even marginally healthy, it didn't matter if we had to start a freaking white walk-on for half the season, it didn't matter if two of the best three players on the team didn't make their grades. For five straight years, we had a fun, fun run. And that sixth year was pretty damn fun, too. We went to the tournament twice, we were five seconds away a 3rd time, and we were 58 seconds away a 4th time. We hit six numbers out of seven on our lottery ticket, and we had a jackpot that our leadership immediately squandered after he was gone. Johnny Jones wasn't a billion dollar Powerball winning ticket, but that doesn't mean what he was here isn't a small miracle on its own. You don't have to love the guy, though I don't know why anyone doesn't. But what he did here was special. Anyone who won't let themselves appreciate it for what it was should probably resign themselves to a lifetime of sports disappointment, because what we had, coming from where we were, playing in the league we were stuck in... It's amazing. Flat out amazing. And when you look around the college basketball landscape... Chances are much, much higher that we'll never get back there again than they are of ever consistently doing more.

I don't think it's an issue. I know a lot of people are getting anxious that we might decide not to fire Benford. But, consider the alternative possibility... What if we decide to NOT not fire Benford? Then, Benford would be fired! Wouldn't that be great? It could happen!

According to their Convention & Visitors Bureau, the #1 thing to do in Murfreesboro is "your own cousin". So... Have fun with that, I guess?

Thank you, Billy. Buy yo' momma a house.

CUSA is the 22nd ranked conference in terms of RPI this year. That's 5 slots behind the Sun Belt this season, and closer to the SWAC than the AAC in terms of raw numbers. CUSA 2015-16: Composite RPI of .4734 SBC 2011-12: Composite RPI of .4831 For some reason, I'm having SERIOUS problems with replying to posts today... Here are the links for 2016: http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_conf_Men.html and for 2012: http://www.realtimerpi.com/2011-2012/rpi_conf_Men.html ...and, for the record, IPS can eat a rooster. Not loving the board software at the moment.

I don't think so. I would have put it at less than 10% before today... That sort of loss is the type where the right angry donor with the right wallet could potentially raise hell and fund a buyout, though... So, call it 15-20%.

I would consent to give Ken McDonald a lifetime contract and the keys to my car if it meant Benford were fired tomorrow. Actually... Make that next Friday. That way, I don't have to buy anyone else a sandwich.

Hey, while you're here... Give me a WKU perspective. Assume (I know it's horrifying, but try) that you guys hired someone like Benford instead of Harper. How do the Hilltoppers handle that situation?

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20160310-denton-isd-elaborates-on-walsh-punishment.ece Yesterday, they took away his campus athletic coordinator role (but didn't cut his pay at all), because of a DWI before Christmas. He still works there, he's still coaching there, he's still banking over $100k per year there. He just doesn't have the title/role "campus athletic coordinator".

The situation has been addressed.

Rae Carruth doesn't get out until 2018, so we can afford to gamble now. Plus, Carruth will be 44 years old, and I think he'd be out of eligibility. Probably best to look elsewhere beyond the killer WR ranks, honestly.

I said March 18th way back in July, and listed the reasoning for it. If Benford is still here on the 21st of March, then we have a problem. Until then, I'm no more or less worried today than I was yesterday, or than I will be on Monday of next week.

...and Ray Harper is still potentially coaching to save his own job.

At our level, if you insist on a guy with experience, 99.9% of the time, you're getting a guy with warts, a very low ceiling, current time away from the game, or a combination.

Six entries (including the date I guessed prior to the start of this season).

Keith Wooden spent some time in jail on similar issues. That guy was awesome, and a good representative of our school. I'll give Frazier the benefit of the doubt until there's a good reason not to. And SMU potentially breaking the rules on his behalf (with or without his knowledge) isn't reason enough, in my opinion. Good luck, Keith. I hope we decide to re-start the basketball program in time for you to play here. Stay out of jail.

Vito, you Mean Green hating pessimist... If we win Saturday and storm through the NCAA tournament, we'd only finish with 19 losses. Benford is packing a baker's dozen in his suit bag, Brett. Get on board, or GIIIIIIIIT OUT!