Greendylan

With all due respect to the criteria, I tend to think that lower conference head coaches who lose in their first tournament games are still potentially in play.

Two Big XII teams eliminated on the first afternoon of the tournament.

What will irk me more than anything in this whole situation is if there isn't even an announcement to explain whatever decision is made and the rationale behind it.

Well, JJ's career was possibly assassinated in the Night of the Long Aggie.

Exactly. The only reason those names come up so often is because we recognize the massive influence that their contributions have made to our athletic programs. Sure, we kvetch about the judgment of the 17 at times, but that's kind of the nature of a fan message board filled with people who have no voice in AD decisions. It helps us lower our blood pressure to yell on here. Having said that, I don't even want to imagine where we'd be without those big donors.

Yes, yes it is--at some schools.

Damn you, WKU! You had to go and beat UAB by more than you beat us, and now you've handed our AD one more excuse to keep Benford's head coaching career on life support for another year.

Sir, we only fire coaches right away after historically bad losses! Benford's consistently below average regular seasons followed by inevitable first round tournament exits have earned him some mulling over by the infallible leadership of . . . Ernie

If this thread is going to get locked, we'll definitely hear something about that in the next 24 hours. If it survives another day, then it probably will remain unlocked for one more year.

Sure, but what happens if Benford finally has enough talent to break through and eek out a modest winning season--somewhere in the ballpark of 17-20 wins? I would be astounded if any prognosticator in the nation predicts much more than that. So, where do we go from there? Do we award a three year contract extension, knowing full well that much of the talent from that roster will be departing and that Benford will have an awfully difficult time replicating that success (assuming he is even able to have one marginally successful year in the first place)? At that point, it will cost the AD far more than $325k, and in essence we'll just be, as others have stated, merely delaying the inevitable. So, I agree that we have a tendency to be frugal--against all common sense at times. But, in this case, wouldn't the financially responsible move be to cut ties sooner before being almost forced to bloat that contract out to multiple years?

Again, I agree with this. When I say that I don't want us to waste talent, I mean that we need to have the right person in place to coach said talent. I think it's been satisfactorily proven at this point that our current coach is NOT the right person.

He's not. My original point was that we wasted all that talent in 2012-2013 by hiring the wrong person. Now, we stand to waste a considerable amount of talent in 2016-2017 by keeping that very same wrong person.

Maybe not, but it's still an impressive looking group on paper, and we absolutely cannot afford to squander more talent--thus the necessity of having the right coach in place. Given our dismal record over the past four years, it's a minor miracle that we have as much talent as we do.

Beginner's luck?

An influx of talented transfers to complement a bevy of key returning contributors does not necessarily support the case for another year of Benford. In fact, I consider this a merciful redo of the 2012-2013 season and an opportunity to get it right this time.

In addition to the points made above, I'll also point out that Benford would still likely be a hot (or at least lukewarm) commodity as an assistant at a power conference program. If he is not retained here, Benford will have some lucrative coaching options--just not as a D1 head coach.

I just made a dirty liar out of you with my up vote.

Wait, who exactly is President Merkin Muffley in this scenario?

Stop giving them bulletin board material. Come on, do some generic coach speak or something. . .

Well, I arrived fashionably late yesterday, so I apologize for missing some of you. But, it was a good time talking to those of you who were still lingering at East Side--and a pretty fun game too. Thanks for the tickets, KRAM!

I suspect there will be a few open scholarships after all the dust settles in the spring.

0 rebounds, assists, or points for the bench thus far. I think I know how this story will end after yet another competitive first half.

I'm not defending our abysmal performance by any means, but I do think that at this point in the season Marshall is pretty good. They started out 0-6 but have really turned it around since, going 8-3, and they've played teams like Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, and Akron. I'm also not seeing the loss to a D2 team that someone mentioned above. Driving home from the game on Thursday, my friend mentioned that Marshall reminded him of last year's UAB team--alluding to the fact that they also had a rough start in non-conference play before evolving into a CUSA power. We will see, I suppose, if Marshall can keep it going against the top tier teams.

Hey now, a lot of excellent bus drivers have come out of US Truck Driving School!

Eh, I'd say maybe 500?