North Texas hires familiar search firm for basketball hire

Wag Tag · March 6, 2017

1 hour ago, wardly said:

Five years ago we were putting 4,000 butts in seats,winning about 20 games a year, 2 NCAA bids, and Benford was pick of the litter. Why does anyone think that our pool of prospects is going to be better now?

5 years at $2.2 to $2.5m! Among a few other things. Same was said about football and AD!

GreenMachine · March 6, 2017

3 hours ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Personally, I will not believe any reports or accept any hires unless they are approved by UNT 90

He is the new team mascot and is traveling to the tournament. Might be a little while before he can approve anything.

wardly · March 7, 2017

We are not paying a basketball coach as much as we are paying Littrell. The numbers don't work at half his income.

GrandGreen · March 7, 2017

You can argue that the job is not as desirable as when Jones left, but it is still an attractive opportunity for a lot of coaches.

NT will have plenty of applicants. No it won't be a "splash" hire. NT has never made that kind of hire. Odds are the new coach will not be anyone that most of NT fans have ever focused on.

When Jones left, he had a team that many thought would be NT break through chance. I didn't see a lot of high profile coaches mentioned at that time.

I believe that the current opportunity will be viewed by many as better than the last opening. The primary reason is that I think NT will be willing to significantly up the compensation package. In addition, it is much easier to follow a disaster and look good. Plus the facilities are better than Jones had. It is apparently popular to complain about the SP. However, with the new center scoreboard and the new practice facility, basketball is in better shape facility wise.

Aquila_Viridis · March 7, 2017

I'm glad they got some outside help. Benford had a lot going for him coming in but early on it was very clear - similar to Dodge in football - that it was not gonna go well. So something important was missed in the evaluation. We cannot afford for that to happen again. But this is a whole new leadership team than the one that made those mistakes. All we can do is hope they get it right. They have a lot at stake to do so.

FirefightnRick · March 7, 2017

9 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

AD's should be able to perform a search without a costly middle man.

I keep tellin y'all...we got money to burn, baby!

Rick

Cerebus · March 7, 2017

Why a public university uses a search firm:

Private entity that can't be FOIA'ed.
Get around any legal or customary implications of speaking to someone currently under contract.

Unless you just have a sure fire from within. Hiring a search firm is standard practice.

UNTFan23 · March 7, 2017

3 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

Why a public university uses a search firm:

Private entity that can't be FOIA'ed.

Get around any legal or customary implications of speaking to someone currently under contract.

Unless you just have a sure fire from within. Hiring a search firm is standard practice.

You tend to have more privacy and fewer "leaks" on who your targets are going after as well.

wardly · March 7, 2017

Plus if it doesn't work out A.D. has someone to point finger at. Look guys, I really hope we make a solid hire and are able to get an existing D1 head coach. The reality is that with the exception of J.J.,in the past 55 years + we have never had a head coach leave us for greener pastures. I am afraid that history might give prospects pause, but money talks.

GrandGreen · March 7, 2017

54 minutes ago, wardly said:

Plus if it doesn't work out A.D. has someone to point finger at. Look guys, I really hope we make a solid hire and are able to get an existing D1 head coach. The reality is that with the exception of J.J.,in the past 55 years + we have never had a head coach leave us for greener pastures. I am afraid that history might give prospects pause, but money talks.

Harry Miller left for greener pastures. Ancient history and he was only at NT for one year.

untjim1995 · March 7, 2017

On 3/6/2017 at 1:40 PM, UNTLifer said:

This is far from a dead-end, career killing job.

Unless you look at our history, then JJ is the only one to escape the executioner of his coaching career after being the head basketball coach here.

UNTFan23 · March 7, 2017

41 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Unless you look at our history, then JJ is the only one to escape the executioner of his coaching career after being the head basketball coach here.

I'm not sure that is an entirely factual statement. I'll bet there have been other coaches well before JJ that moved on to better gigs.

wardly · March 7, 2017

Harry Miller left after one season to move upward as per GrandGreen, although I don't know where he went[Wichita?]. Other than that, only JJ since my freshman year of 1961. Bill Blakely was very successful but I don't know remember the particulars of his departure. In Women's basketball only Karen Ashton comes to mind.

untjim1995 · March 8, 2017

5 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

I'm not sure that is an entirely factual statement. I'll bet there have been other coaches well before JJ that moved on to better gigs.

In the last 40 years, one basketball coach, Johnny Jones, got hired away by a bigger school. And he just got fired. Same with football, except hayden Fry stayed at Iowa for decades longer.

We all want to be blindly loyal fans, but this place is usually a death sentence for a head coach after this, in terms of being a head coach at the same level again. There are exceptions, but this is not a place that others use to springboard into something better in the two main revenue sports. It's almost always been a trap door to career death as a head coach in college at the same level or higher.

UNT90 · March 8, 2017

1 hour ago, untjim1995 said:

In the last 40 years, one basketball coach, Johnny Jones, got hired away by a bigger school. And he just got fired. Same with football, except hayden Fry stayed at Iowa for decades longer.

We all want to be blindly loyal fans, but this place is usually a death sentence for a head coach after this, in terms of being a head coach at the same level again. There are exceptions, but this is not a place that others use to springboard into something better in the two main revenue sports. It's almost always been a trap door to career death as a head coach in college at the same level or higher.

And a trap door to a career death as an AD, I assume...

Texas Stranger · March 8, 2017

1 hour ago, untjim1995 said:

In the last 40 years, one basketball coach, Johnny Jones, got hired away by a bigger school. And he just got fired. Same with football, except hayden Fry stayed at Iowa for decades longer.

Jerry Moore?

wardly · March 11, 2017

Moore batted about 500 in his 2 years following Fry, went to Texas Tech where he got fired, ended up at App. State where he had a wonderful career. Coaching is just a tough way to make a living.

GrandGreen · March 11, 2017

On 3/7/2017 at 1:33 PM, UNTFan23 said:

I'm not sure that is an entirely factual statement. I'll bet there have been other coaches well before JJ that moved on to better gigs.

Football

Fry - Iowa

Moore - Texas Tech

MBB

Jones - LSU

WBB

Cherri Rapp - A&M

Aston - UT

wardly · March 12, 2017

I thought we were referring to men's basketball. Gee, when you throw in Fry,Moore,Aston, and Rapp [who I don't remember] over the past 50 years you are right, we are a stepping stone[off a cliff].