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MGB: Baker talks about why he waited to fire Tony Benford

Brett Vito

By Brett Vito
in Mean Green Basketball

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Harry Grand Master

Harry

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“Generally speaking, mid-season coaching changes – other than making some fans happy – do more harm than good,” Baker said. “Less than five percent of coaching changes are made mid-season. It’s more destructive the constructive. It rarely greatly changes the trajectory of a season.”

DentonLurker Veteran

DentonLurker

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Posted

“Kids don’t respond to interim coaches like they would head coaches. Generally speaking that is the players’ worst academic semester. They are less focused in the weight room and in life. There are going to be more issues with behavior. For all of those reasons, I felt it wasn’t the right thing to do.”

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MeanGreenTexan Grand Master

MeanGreenTexan

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13 minutes ago, DentonLurker said:

“Kids don’t respond to interim coaches like they would head coaches. Generally speaking that is the players’ worst academic semester. They are less focused in the weight room and in life. There are going to be more issues with behavior. For all of those reasons, I felt it wasn’t the right thing to do.”

I saw that.  This carries weight with me.   Almost enough to change my mind.  
If a current assistant coach could serve as the interim, I think they may have responded in a positive way (a-la Chico after Portland St).  If none of the assistants could do that, and were promoted to interim HC, the bottom could have fallen out even more than it did.

Guess we'll never know. 

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GreenMachine Newbie

GreenMachine

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WB knows more about basketball and running an AD than anybody on this board. He has come out with the exact reasons why he didn't fire TB in mid-season.  Nobody can claim he was indecisive or plain didn't do anything about the situation, he absolutely followed his plan. You might not agree with his reasoning but please shut up with the same lame griping that he is sitting around doing nothing. 

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UNTFan23 Community Regular

UNTFan23

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Harry said:

“Generally speaking, mid-season coaching changes – other than making some fans happy – do more harm than good,” Baker said. “Less than five percent of coaching changes are made mid-season. It’s more destructive the constructive. It rarely greatly changes the trajectory of a season.”

Which makes the Ray Harper elevation from assistant to interim to head coach all the more an outlier.

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UNT90 Newbie

UNT90

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Harry said:

“Generally speaking, mid-season coaching changes – other than making some fans happy – do more harm than good,” Baker said. “Less than five percent of coaching changes are made mid-season. It’s more destructive the constructive. It rarely greatly changes the trajectory of a season.”

A gross misunderstanding of the problems at UNT. This gives me very little hope for Baker to make it here, unless he suck perpetual ass like the last guy.

Either way, it looks like AT THIS POINT another in a long line of failed hires and future failure for UNT.

Edited by UNT90
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BTG_Fan1 Newbie

BTG_Fan1

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1 hour ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

I saw that.  This carries weight with me.   Almost enough to change my mind.  
If a current assistant coach could serve as the interim, I think they may have responded in a positive way (a-la Chico after Portland St).  If none of the assistants could do that, and were promoted to interim HC, the bottom could have fallen out even more than it did.

Guess we'll never know. 

Us not turning to an assistant speaks volumes, even if you view the reasons that WB gave as a simple way out or easy answer.

I do agree, we will never know what "could have been" but atleast as of now, we have to hope that WB can bring in the correct guy, just like we did with SL. Time to turn the page.

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UNT90 Newbie

UNT90

Posted
Posted
30 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

Which makes the Ray Harper elevation from assistant to interim to head coach all the more an outlier.

Even if it was the closest set of parallel circumstances to what UNT faced with Benford, right?

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Army of Dad Enthusiast

Army of Dad

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, GreenMachine said:

shit up with the same lame griping

You do know you're on an internet message board right? Lame griping takes many forms and positions here, just like most online communities...

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outoftown Veteran

outoftown

Posted
Posted (edited)

I would like to thank Brett Vito for having followed up on this question.

Whether I like the answer depends on the future. Right now a lot of what he said sounds like the AD version of "coach speak" to me. If he is generally against mid-season changes that is not a disaster. But if he turns out to pair that with being too slow at the trigger even after the season, then that is a problem. I want to believe that he would not have given Benford a fourth , much less a fifth year, had he been here for all his tenure. So far however, I have not seen anything that makes me certain he would have. That said, the n is small so far. Softball -depending on how things go- might be the next test.

I can see that WB has organisational talent and he sure is communicating better than RV. But the Wren also needs to hold his coaches accountable, which will mean he has to be a mean man sometimes and so far -from the outside without seeing all the details-  it feels like he wants all coaches to think he is their best friend.

Edited by outoftown
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UNTFan23 Community Regular

UNTFan23

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Posted
11 minutes ago, outoftown said:

I can see that WB has organisational talent and he sure is communicating better than RV. But the Wren also needs to hold his coaches accountable, which will mean he has to be a mean man sometimes and so far -from the outside without seeing all the details-  it feels like he wants all coaches to think he is their best friend.

Would you agree he held Benford accountable for the season he just had?

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RushnStudies Explorer

RushnStudies

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, DentonLurker said:

“Kids don’t respond to interim coaches like they would head coaches. Generally speaking that is the players’ worst academic semester. They are less focused in the weight room and in life. There are going to be more issues with behavior. For all of those reasons, I felt it wasn’t the right thing to do.”

While most of us want UNT sports programs to succeed, the first reason the athletes are at UNT is to go to college. You can't have a student-athlete if the athlete isn't a student. 

A horribly crappy W-L is difficult to stomach, but I find it more difficult to stomach getting a good player who does well and makes this team better, then can't play (or even leaves school) because he didn't make grades.

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BTG_Fan1 Newbie

BTG_Fan1

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

Would you agree he held Benford accountable for the season he just had?

Is TB coming back next year?

If TB isn't back next year then I would say he held him accountable. Unlike RV who gave him a 5th year after 4 years or not winning

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Army of Dad Enthusiast

Army of Dad

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

Would you agree he held Benford accountable for the season he just had?

No, he waited until 40 some odd days were left on a contract. He made the easiest, safest play possible by doing it right after the season ended. That's not holding someone accountable l, that's just tidying up the books on a person's account.

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UNTFan23 Community Regular

UNTFan23

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Posted
1 minute ago, Army of Dad said:

No, he waited until 40 some odd days were left on a contract. He made the easiest, safest play possible by doing it right after the season ended. That's not holding someone accountable l, that's just tidying up the books on a person's account.

I guess we'll agree to disagree on the timetable but Benford was held accountable for his poor record.

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Army of Dad Enthusiast

Army of Dad

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Posted
Just now, UNTFan23 said:

I guess we'll agree to disagree on the timetable but Benford was held accountable for his poor record.

And we will agree to disagree that giving a coach every season included in his contract is holding someone accountable.

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UNTFan23 Community Regular

UNTFan23

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Posted
Just now, Army of Dad said:

And we will agree to disagree that giving a coach every season included in his contract is holding someone accountable.

He should have been fired last season but he wasn't. The person who should have taken care of that is now gone and so we are where we are right now.

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BTG_Fan1 Newbie

BTG_Fan1

Posted
Posted

 

6 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

And we will agree to disagree that giving a coach every season included in his contract is holding someone accountable.

No, Letting TB coach 1 year and then replacing him is what WB did. WB gave him a clean slate and you may not like that, but you would ask for the same thing from a new boss. Firing someone yes could have positive results, but could have negative as well. We couldn't have done much worse in the stats, but off the court this team could have been a lot worse. Leaving the program in a good slate in terms of grades and no off-court problems is a good thing.

WB didn't need any type of chaos when he was trying to evaluate and see where the program has to be fixed. He already had to deal with the football coaches leaving, the new soccer/field complex, IPF, among other things that he has to do.

 

6 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

He should have been fired last season but he wasn't. The person who should have taken care of that is now gone and so we are where we are right now.

100% agreed. It wasn't WB who gave TB the 5th year. Also, by the time WB got here, it was most likely to late to even bring in a new MBB Coach.

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UNT90 Newbie

UNT90

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Posted
9 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

Would you agree he held Benford accountable for the season he just had?

Absolutely not. He allowed him to complete a contract. That isn't "holding him accountable" for one damn thing.

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greenjoe Grand Master

greenjoe

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He did finish the season.  His contract ran through April 30.  He did not complete his contract.  Thereby, was not eligible to receive his "contract completion " bonus. 

GO MEAN GREEN

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