Can UNT win one conference game with Benford as coach?

[UNTFan23]

28 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

That's not entirely true. You might have to get permission, but you can talk to coaches while they are under contract. A search firm may not have the same constraint.

Serious talks don't begin until after the season is done for a team or the NCAA tournament altogether.

[KingDL1]

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

Kind of the pattern emerging is that it matters to basketball fans and doesn't matter to those that aren't into college basketball, which makes sense.

If you really don't care about something, why would you care what happened to it? Human nature. 

Seems a bit over the top, I don't think the sky is falling yet. Good news is basketball can have the quickest turnaround. I think the other good news is there is not a chance in hell Benford is back next season.  The guy sucks. I been giving my buddies at work shit about Mike Canales at Tennessee at QB coach and in my opinion Canales is completely useless in any role and I never saw any good with QB development or recruitment. Point is useless is useless and it catches up with coaches that are sooner or later. I think it caught up Benford a year or two ago, maybe the first month and it drove over him this year.

I look forward to see who Wren picks to replace Benford, it could get exciting, hell I might even make a game. 

[EagleMBA]

3 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

I look forward to see who Wren picks to replace Benford, it could get exciting, hell I might even make a game. 

I have been fortunate enough to witness the magic of some good coaches. As an undergrad at Pan American, we had Sam Williams and won the NAIA national championship one year and runner-up the next. Next up at PA was Abe Lemons and I went back for games when able. Then there was Lon Kruger at PA. North Texas was an adjustment but I grew to enjoy Johnny Jones' work. I think TheWren will make a solid choice and I look forward to next season.

[TheWestie]

9 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

But college hoops is the rare animal that can see huge turnarounds really quickly. It takes one good player and a solid coaching staff to get back to being a winner. It can be done very quickly--at least at other places it has been done quickly. If Baker can get the right guy here and he can use the talent that is here to gel, this thing could be competitive again next year--maybe not top of CUSA solid, but .500 or better in CUSA play is possible.

 

And there lies Benford's biggest failure as a coach. He can't coach 5 guys into a team. It's just been 5 dudes out there in the same uniform.

Immediately upon his arrival we saw a group of players who meshed incredibly well under a different coach begin to look lost and disinterested. The same players who only a few months before had been making no-look passes to each other and selflessly setting each other up for plays began to be ball hogs and taking really dumb, selfish shots when half of the team was wide open. A really visible symptom of his bad coaching was the relentless and constant substitutions, which always served to kill any kind of scoring momentum we would get and the merry-go-round of guys in the lineup kept any group of players from getting comfortable with each other. (He's also been really bad about clock management). 

 

Every college coach, and every NBA coach for that matter, has the task of taking a group of players who don't know each other, some who may have even played against each other before, and getting them to trust and believe in each other and play as a cohesive unit. Benford has not done that. I'll even argue that his shortcomings as a coach are what drove Tony Mitchell to declare for the draft when he did, which was too early. Mitchell was two completely different players under Johnny and under Benford. 

[GMG24]

1 hour ago, TheWestie said:

 

And there lies Benford's biggest failure as a coach. He can't coach 5 guys into a team. It's just been 5 dudes out there in the same uniform.

Immediately upon his arrival we saw a group of players who meshed incredibly well under a different coach begin to look lost and disinterested. The same players who only a few months before had been making no-look passes to each other and selflessly setting each other up for plays began to be ball hogs and taking really dumb, selfish shots when half of the team was wide open. A really visible symptom of his bad coaching was the relentless and constant substitutions, which always served to kill any kind of scoring momentum we would get and the merry-go-round of guys in the lineup kept any group of players from getting comfortable with each other. (He's also been really bad about clock management). 

 

Every college coach, and every NBA coach for that matter, has the task of taking a group of players who don't know each other, some who may have even played against each other before, and getting them to trust and believe in each other and play as a cohesive unit. Benford has not done that. I'll even argue that his shortcomings as a coach are what drove Tony Mitchell to declare for the draft when he did, which was too early. Mitchell was two completely different players under Johnny and under Benford. 

All about Culture. Look no further than Scott Cross at UTA. #takethestairs

[outoftown]

Yes they can win a game. There is almost always one other team out there that wants to play against their coach somewhere down the line. And how to better ptoof the point he needs to go than lose to this version of UNT.

Edited January 26, 2017 by outoftown

[UNT90]

2 hours ago, outoftown said:

Yes they can win a game. There is almost always one other team out there that wants to play against their coach somewhere down the line. And how to better ptoof the point he needs to go than lose to this version of UNT.

Now that's an interesting theory. 

The one problem I see is the UNT players wanting to prove the same point against that team, and wanting to prove it more. Much more.

[Army of Dad]

2 hours ago, outoftown said:

Yes they can win a game. There is almost always one other team out there that wants to play against their coach somewhere down the line. And how to better ptoof the point he needs to go than lose to this version of UNT.

 

27 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

Now that's an interesting theory. 

The one problem I see is the UNT players wanting to prove the same point against that team, and wanting to prove it more. Much more.

This sounds very familiar

[southsideguy]

When does our AD make the announcement we are extending or not extending Benford contract.  He is still here after a 0 for January so anything is possible.  I guess he does not look into the stands and see the lack of fans at the PIT.

[UNTFan23]

35 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

When does our AD make the announcement we are extending or not extending Benford contract.  He is still here after a 0 for January so anything is possible.  I guess he does not look into the stands and see the lack of fans at the PIT.

You don't announce during a season that you're not extending a coach. If he was going to be extended (which all signs point to him NOT) Wren might do it during the regular season.

[Army of Dad]

1 hour ago, southsideguy said:

When does our AD make the announcement we are extending or not extending Benford contract.  He is still here after a 0 for January so anything is possible.  I guess he does not look into the stands and see the lack of fans at the PIT.

I didn't see WB at the last game, though Mosley was there. 

I'd like to think WB knows there's a problem and that problem isn't limited to just how well this guy can coach. There's a major issue with how much of a passionate fanbase is left.

I'd like to think he gets both of those things, but he has unfortunately not given any indication that he has realized either one. 

Edited January 31, 2017 by Army of Dad

[outoftown]

2 hours ago, Army of Dad said:

I didn't see WB at the last game, though Mosley was there. 

I'd like to think WB knows there's a problem and that problem isn't limited to just how well this guy can coach. There's a major issue with how much of a passionate fanbase is left.

I'd like to think he gets both of those things, but he has unfortunately not given any indication that he has realized either one. 

I hope that I am wrong on this, it is a bit early to tell. But so far it feels to me like WB works hard, is extremely personable and is good at taking and executing decisions whenever he has a clean slate. However, it somehow does not feel to me yet as if he has the stomach to really ruin somebodies week and be the bad guy when the situation requires it. This is obviously more of an intuition of mine than me actually knowing this, how could I. Its just... and correct me if I am wrong...seems like - other than RV - everybody in the AD is still there etc. Taking action to fire Benford instead of riding it out would be such a decision. For the moment this is more of an uneasy feeling than me actually knowing anything. But I got to say, taking some rare decisions where you are not the nice guy is part of being a good AD, and I hope that feeling is wrong.

Edited January 31, 2017 by outoftown

[GrandGreen]

You know it is interesting that NT couldn't schedule games the first year Benford was here.   Not many teams wanted any part of the team Jones left to Benford.   Now, NT for the most part doesn't want to play any team with a pulse in the OC schedule.  

NT now has 9 games left in the season, 4 away and 5 in Denton.   Even a Benford coached beat up team should win at least one, but I would not bet any money on it.  

[UNT90]

2 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

You know it is interesting that NT couldn't schedule games the first year Benford was here.   Not many teams wanted any part of the team Jones left to Benford.   Now, NT for the most part doesn't want to play any team with a pulse in the OC schedule.  

NT now has 9 games left in the season, 4 away and 5 in Denton.   Even a Benford coached beat up team should win at least one, but I would not bet any money on it.  

Really hard to see a winnable game on paper. 0-18 is a distinct possibility.

[EagleMBA]

33 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

Really hard to see a winnable game on paper. 0-18 is a distinct possibility.

Mama said, even a blind squirrel sometimes finds an acorn!

[UNT90]

4 minutes ago, EagleMBA said:

Mama said, even a blind squirrel sometimes finds an acorn!

I mean, it's REALLY hard to do. 

Which brings up the question: 

Would going 0-18 be Benford's greatest accomplishment at UNT?

[UNTLifer]

Yes, they could win a bunch...not with Benford at the helm.