Greendylan

The hiring woes at North Texas are one of a kind.

I'm not saying North Texas and JJ are necessarily the best fit for one another this time around, but I'm a little confused by the assumption that we will do better with an unknown. Sure, it's possible--just like it's possible that football recruiting services completely misrated CUSA classes and ours is actually the best. Consider our history of hiring head coaches in the major sports and think about what percentage of them performed better than JJ when he was here. We are just as likely (if not more) to hire another Benford as we are to end up with someone better than JJ.

So . . . I guess we're just going to sit back and see how far this thing can fall at this point?

Agreed, but what about a head coach of an NIT team? In some ways I think a mid-major head coach who places his team in the NIT based on regular season performance might be a safer bet than the guy with the flashier success of an NCAA tournament appearance and/or win. Perhaps this hypothetical coach also won't garner as much attention for higher paying gigs. I would even take a serious look at a head coach who can pull off a string of wins in the CBI or CIT.

Good read--honest and fair critique.

Since we are down 3 at the half, that projects as a 23 point loss by the end.

At the expense of my emotional and psychological health, I will be there today.

For the record, I doubt JJ will end up back here. But, if for some reason he wanted to return, we would be wise to give the idea some serious thought. He is a known commodity in terms of being a good fit for our university and has shown that he can successfully navigate the mid-major conference tournament route. Any search for a new coach is a total crap shoot, which could produce absolutely anything. We would love to all reassure ourselves that Wren Baker is the right man for the job and will be better at hiring than his predecessor, but we simply don't know for sure until we see some evidence. That's not to say I don't have faith in him. I do. However, "faith" is all it is until we see results. At one time we would have been considered a pretty damn good job (at least among non-power conference teams) for an up and coming coach. But, the reality now is that prospective new coaches will merely view us as another bad team with an RPI in the 300s. Unless we are able to demonstrate a serious commitment to basketball from our AD and/or offer a massive salary, we won't have any more draw than any other job openings at schools finishing up their own disastrous seasons.

Yes, firing him now would be (mostly) symbolic, but that is a symbol this fanbase desperately needs to see. How many times in recent years was a North Texas coach/AD employee fired too soon? I can think of MAYBE one or two highly arguable examples but then way more catastrophic examples of keeping someone far too long where lasting damage occurred. Maybe it's time to change how we do things? Also, it might not ENTIRELY be symbolic, as there are examples of interim coaches producing a little bump in the level of play. What do we have to lose? With Benford we have zero shot of making noise in the CUSA tournament and almost certainly won't even get there. With an interim, maybe 0% jumps to 5%. Who knows? I'm obviously just making up numbers here, but it would at least inspire a tiny modicum of hope that could, in turn, boost attendance. Right now our seniors are just sort of limping to a lonely, depressing end of their careers in front of almost no one at the Super Pit. Speaking of limping, that's another reason to pull the plug on Benford. I have no reason to believe that he did anything unethical with his handling of Combs's injury, but what about the player's perspective? Combs very well may have been rushing to return and pushing himself too hard because he felt immense pressure to save his coach's career. At this point, Benford and all of his players are either feeling complete desperation or complete apathy. Either way, it is a dangerous situation and unfair to all parties involved. Rip off the damn Band-Aid already before someone gets hurt.

I had been going to games up until a couple weeks ago, but it's gotten to a point where it is just too painful to watch our talented players floundering out there with really no leadership. I would LOVE for any little excuse, such as an interim coach, to feel like we could actually show up with a game plan that could be successful. Right now, I really think it is hurting all parties involved (Benford included) for this disaster to slowly drag out when his players know he is a dead man walking.

If McCarney had been allowed to finish out the year after the Portland State embarrassment, we would have been viewed, by the end of the season, as one of the worst teams of all time and would have owned so many dubious records that it would have poisoned our program for years to come. No respectable up and coming coach, like Littrell, would have touched us.

Having our players continue to practice/play under such unstable conditions would be a complete waste of their time and talents. They all know what's coming, so why delay the inevitable? Rip off the damn Band-Aid already.

It's almost like we don't have a head coach capable of making the proper halftime adjustments. Explain to me again the downside of ending this debacle immediately?

That is correct. There is absolutely no reason for Benford to coach another game at The Super Pit.

I doubt that many of us expect an interim coach to come in and salvage the season, as that's not usually how these things go (2012 WKU being a notable exception), but don't we owe it to our players to at least try? Or--fine--let's hypothetically write this season off as a loss. Here's why we still need to pull the plug ASAP: 1. This has been an unmitigated failure for 4+ years. This was previously an arguable point--one that originally surfaced after Alabama-Huntsville--but after gifted an oddly long amount of time to respond to said argument, he has shown nothing. There is no longer a debate; it's over. If we can unquestionably identify failure, then why tacitly endorse its ability to bury our program a little deeper each day? If a homeowner detected deadly mold in his basement and was told that it's actually been festering for years, would he say, "Eh, after four years, what's a couple more months?" 2. Mid-season firings are symbolic. They establish standards for a program and make a public statement to assure fans, recruits, donors, and the basketball world at large that what has been happening lately is not in fact an indication of where that team exists and should be perceived in the pecking order of college basketball. If we wait until after the season to make a change, it sends the wan message of "OK, sure, the contract's up. I suppose we won't renew him." In other words, business as usual. 3. Can we PLEASE not allow another Portland State-esque embarrassment? If we don't make a move soon, this is where we're headed--and we're seeing signs of it already. Benford and his players must know at this point that they, despite their best efforts, are not in the midst of a dream season that will save his head coaching career and warrant an extension. I don't mean to psychoanalyze the players, but I imagine they're alternating between feelings of desperation and apathy, as they absolutely know what's coming. I'm sure they feel for the guy and are mired in all sorts of guilt over not being able to save his job. Hell, Vito even wrote back at the beginning of the season about the pressure on Combs. This is teetering on disaster, and I just don't see the point of waiting until some record-setting loss eviscerates what little pride is left in the program. Don't we want this to seem like a halfway decent job for potential new coaches?

Can we? Will we?

If only he moved at the speed of the #FakeTonyBenford

First, what kind of collar are we talking about? Traditional, prong, choke? Or what if there is no collar and we're employing some sort of harness, perhaps an Easy Lead or Gentle Leader? There are so many questions to answer before we can even begin to know if the collar will prod, pinch, or constrict around our troubled recruits' necks! Of course, someone could question why we're treating players like dogs or sexual submissives in the first place. Damn, we have a lot to discuss this offseason!

It was more of a charge than what Reese did at the end of the San Diego game, yet both critical calls went against us. Shouldn't home court advantage come into play when a call truly could go either way? I mean, maybe not officially, but basketball just usually works that way. In all honesty, I sometimes wonder if refs simply don't respect Benford.

Mathematically speaking, you would think that at some point one of those 50/50 calls at the end of a game would go our way. Never does.

6-12 I hope I'm wrong.

RV's in the house. 502 at least now.

I'm not doubting you or asking you to reveal your sources. (A lot of us have been hearing rumors of Ernie's affinity for Benford for years.) But, what could Ernie possibly be getting out of his undying Benford support at this point? I ask this while tentatively believing that we will have a winning season of some sort this year but that Benford will still not do enough to atone for the failures of the past four years.

I'm sure we'll get a couple decent home wins in conference at some point, but the road games are the real question.

SHSU began the half on a 15-0 run. Even if we were playing Villanova, that would be beyond horrible basketball.