Meanwhile....Back At 90 Feet of Heat II Fieldhouse..

[Mean Green Matt]

So NT clinches the 12 seed with a win over UTSA Saturday or a Rice loss vs. UTEP. If NT loses, and Rice wins, the teams will be tied. The season series was split. Both teams beat FIU. In this scenario, the other rice wins would be UTSA and UTEP, and the other NT wins would be FAU and Marshall. The best win out of this group would be Rice over UTSA, making them the 12 seed and eliminating NT.

[BillySee58]

Loss to UTSA ends the women's season at 5-24. No conference tourney for us this year.

[UNT90]

So, a worse record than Stephens ever had...

[CMJ]

So, a worse record than Stephens ever had...

[Mean Green Matt]

Shanice was let go after essentially the same 3-year performance. Will be interesting. If we do replace her, my pick is Jalie Mitchell, the assistant from Texas. She is an alum, and one of the best players we've ever had. She's had a few years to learn under Karen Aston as well. It's a bit of a risk because she has no head coaching experience, but with the program in it's current state, it's probably time to take a risk.

[FirefightnRick]

..."Since being introduced as the seventh coach in North Texas women's basketball history on April 16, 2012, Petersen has changed the perception of NT women's hoops into that of a contender.".....source, MeanGreenSports.com

Rick

.

8 losses by 20 or more. 3 of those by 30 or more.

I would compare that to Stephen's three seasons in '08, '09, and '10 but they don't seem to be available by mobile device at the moment?

Rick

Edited March 8, 2015 by FirefightnRick

[greenminer]

Time for some new blood.

[TheWestie]

Time for some new blood.

Gotta stop the bleeding before you start putting more blood in.

[Mean Green Matt]

So, a worse record than Stephens ever had...

I actually think Stephens finished her last season 5-25 since every team qualified for the conference tourney and that team played an extra game. I'm just going off memory so I could be wrong.

[oldguystudent]

It's too bad. I really thought the guy was going to be a solid hire.

[97and03]

It's too bad. I really thought the guy was going to be a solid hire.

The experienced head coach thing that everyone seems to want, right?

[Army of Dad]

The experienced head coach thing that everyone seems to want, right?

Because the career assistant thing is working out so well?

[untbowler]

The experienced head coach thing that everyone seems to want, right?

many saw Peterson for what he was, a ACC coach on his way out the door and he chose to walk away versus being thrown out on his ass. He had very few good seasons at WFU and this was a buddy hire to help him out. Would have been nice to get Matt Daniels or someone that was on the way up for once and not someone that was on their way into the sunset.

[BillySee58]

The experienced head coach thing that everyone seems to want, right?

Because the career assistant thing is working out so well?

Here's the thing, hiring an "experienced head coach" at UNT is usually not a good idea. If a head coach is having success at another D1 then North Texas is probably not the step up they're looking for. So if we get an experienced head coach then that's probably because they were fired or weren't retained by their last school.

Tony Benford has not been a good hire, but it's not because he was a career assistant. He just wasn't a good hire. Brad Underwood was a career assistant and he's been a home-run hire for SFA. Todd Dodge was not a good hire, but it's not because he was a high school coach. He just wasn't ready to be a D1 head coach.

The answer to getting a good coach to come to UNT is not getting a guy who has "X" amount of years as a head coach, or "X" amount of experience at a school from a certain conference. It's about having an AD who is good at evaluating candidates and how well they will translate to coaching at the D1 and CUSA level.

[Mean Green Matt]

Petersen was just about a career .500 coach when he was hired with something like a 30-year sample size. It wasn't necessarily a spectacular hire to begin with. Did I think it would be this bad? Not in a million years.

[untbowler]

Here's the thing, hiring an "experienced head coach" at UNT is usually not a good idea. If a head coach is having success at another D1 then North Texas is probably not the step up they're looking for. So if we get an experienced head coach then that's probably because they were fired or weren't retained by their last school.

Tony Benford has not been a good hire, but it's not because he was a career assistant. He just wasn't a good hire. Brad Underwood was a career assistant and he's been a home-run hire for SFA. Todd Dodge was not a good hire, but it's not because he was a high school coach. He just wasn't ready to be a D1 head coach.

The answer to getting a good coach to come to UNT is not getting a guy who has "X" amount of years as a head coach, or "X" amount of experience at a school from a certain conference. It's about having an AD who is good at evaluating candidates and how well they will translate to coaching at the D1 and CUSA level.

Bingo, that's why I say keep Peterson, because there is no well in hell with RV's hiring record I want him making another major sports hire

[FirefightnRick]

its time to start considering coaches who are experienced but at a lower level and hungry to move up.

Rick

[Mean Green Matt]

its time to start considering coaches who are experienced but at a lower level and hungry to move up.

Rick

I would like to see Jalie Mitchell given the chance to coach her alma mater. A young head coach isn't always bad.

[Green P1]

Could we can Peterson and reassign Benny to girl ball?

[UNT90]

Could we can Peterson and reassign Benny to girl ball?

For this idea, you should be promote to AD.

Seriously.

[eulessismore]

It's too bad. I really thought the guy was going to be a solid hire.

Well, me too. Time (again) to realize how wrong I can be. And, didn't Smatresk have something to do with a successful hire in the MBB program at UNLV? I mean, having RV as AD can't serve as our only excuse for not recognizing abject failure and trying something. If nothing else, the "competitive" part of his official bio should be removed.

[BillySee58]

its time to start considering coaches who are experienced but at a lower level and hungry to move up.

Rick

Maybe, maybe not. Again, it's just about what kind of coach you hire, but who you hire. I wouldn't mind hiring a career assistant again if this career assistant was a great basketball mind and good recruiter. I also wouldn't mind hiring a Head Coach like Scott Cross either. Just as we've seen many different types of hires be bad ones (career assistant, HC somewhere else, high school coach), there are many different types of hires that can end up good.

A good AD can make a good hire, especially if we keep the criteria setting to a minimum.

[FirefightnRick]

Coaches we could have had while they were within our price range at lower levels that we didn't take advantage of at the time.

Football: Willie Fritz had a lot of success at Sam Houston, goes to Georgia Southern and wins conference and gets them bowl eligible their first year and nearly beat, or I should say, should have beaten Georgia Tech on the road.

Football: Hudspeth, was a huge success at Div II Northern Iowa in '07 and '08. Has done great at ULL since.

Danny Kaspar though not real young would have been hungry to coach and do well at his alma mater. Did well at Stephen F. (Yes Courtland...SFA is also D1 but is in a lower perceived conference),...Is the 16th winningest active D1 coach with an overall record of 465-193. Went 246-141 at SFA, winning 20 plus games in 5 of his last 6 years there. Wanted our job but never got an interview from us. Question remains whether or not he'll turn around a horrible Texas State program in only his second season so far?

Donna Capps took UTA to two post season trips to the NCAA while recruiting to one of, if not THE most pathetic D1 facilities in the nation. (Yes Courtland, I know UTA is D1 but the Southland...),... It was supposedly down to Stephens and her to replace Slinker but we hired 94 feet of Tepid instead.

Matt Daniel, coached Central Arkansas thru transition from D2 to D1, led them to 2 WNIT's and 3 20-plus win seasons in the four years he was there. He wanted our job really bad. His name somehow turned up in the paper as someone we were considering despite the fact that he never got a formal interview before we hired Peterson. In his third year at Marshall has them above .500 ball at 16-13, where they went 7-7 on the road this year.

I'm sure there are others, and of course there are no guarantees either. I would just like for us to go after some youth and hunger from a lower level out there, who would see NT as an opportunity rather than a retirement, and who we can possibly afford to hire AND fire if need be.

Rick

Edited March 9, 2015 by FirefightnRick

[oldguystudent]

The assumptions on every hypothetical woulda/shoulda/coulda missed a coach in the past scenarios seem to be that what offer tendered, if any, would be readily accepted by the candidate. I don't know either way, but I do imagine it's not so simple as to put a list of names on the wall, point to one, and say "That guy!" Harbaugh comes to mind on this.

[GreenMachine]

The assumptions on every hypothetical woulda/shoulda/coulda missed a coach in the past scenarios seem to be that what offer tendered, if any, would be readily accepted by the candidate. I don't know either way, but I do imagine it's not so simple as to put a list of names on the wall, point to one, and say "That guy!" Harbaugh comes to mind on this.

Correct, but from what I gather, you can't get told no if you don't even bothering asking.