Grant McCasland is New UNT Basketball Coach

southsideguy · March 14, 2017

is it the same ad that had the melt down when unt, middle tenn left for CUSA?

All About UNT · March 14, 2017

53 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

Once again, you are completely misinterpreting the reaction, thinking that people are worried about Mohajir saying something about UNT. THAT'S NOT IT. REPEAT, THAT'S NOT IT.

This is about how he handled the dismount with an employee. Look at the tweet you quoteed. Did McCasland feel the need to take a personal shot or to attempt to discredit Mohajir or ASU in order to make himself feel better?

Mohajir has made some really solid hires and done some great things for ASU. His handling of this coach's departure was not one of his better moments.

Thank you. My point exactly. We all know (or should know anyway) of his many accomplishments at ASU. That doesn't excuse nor nullify making a blunder like he did today with his revelation.

southsideguy · March 14, 2017

the late season fade is a little bit of a worry. don't say he had injuries, we all have those.

MeanMag · March 14, 2017

1 minute ago, southsideguy said:

is it the same ad that had the melt down when unt, middle tenn left for CUSA?

I like having AStateFan around, like Harry, but no one is trying to hire their AD away, and we just had the option to do that too. There is no accounting for taste I guess.

I am perfectly happy to leave him where he is. With the reactions he has to normal things, I could see him being happy to be in Jonesboro as long as their fans are happy to have him.

Green Lantern · March 14, 2017

11 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

I'd say I do agree, that the AD did have a huge blunder when it came to talking down about another school..

I'm also assuming its allowed if it has been made public, but is the AD able to comment about his dad's stroke since its a medical condition?

I'd hope that we wouldn't react the same way, I mean we didn't when we lost Davis, Ek, or LeBanc but that could be because they weren't HCs and they made a noticeable job in terms of competition between UNT and their new school. But to mean, we have to remember and can't be upset if the coach leaves (even if its after 1 year) if they improved the product from when they got it.

Is this the same plane that went to visit the IPF?

Dude, if say Texas State or ULL, were to come in and money whip a first year successful coach away from us in football or ball, this board would be in full meltdown. There's gonna be some justified ASU butt hurt. They'll be fine though. Their AD definitely has a good track record of finding emerging coaching talent.

I'm impressed with this hire. An unexpected un-North Texas like move.

FirefightnRick · March 14, 2017

15 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

I'd hope that we wouldn't react the same way, I mean we didn't when we lost Davis, Ek, or LeBanc but that could be because they weren't HCs ....

We wished JJ and Aston both well after they got hired away.

Rick

BTG_Fan1 · March 14, 2017

1 minute ago, Green Lantern said:

Dude, if say Texas State or ULL, were to come in and money whip a first year successful coach away from us in football or ball, this board would be in full meltdown. There's gonna be some justified ASU butt hurt. They'll be fine though. Their AD definitely has a good track record of finding emerging coaching talent.

I'm impressed with this hire. An unexpected un-North Texas like move.

I would think that yes we would be pissed if we had a coach leave for those schools, but I would think that UNT and ArkState are in a tier above those...

Green Lantern · March 14, 2017

1 minute ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

I would think that yes we would be pissed if we had a coach leave for those schools, but I would think that UNT and ArkState are in a tier above those...

Don't really see a ton of difference. Just picking other regional G-5 universities to illustrate a point. ASU is in our peer group. Losing a coach in this manner for them has to hurt.

Graddean · March 14, 2017

HIPPA applies to the medical community. It would not apply to you or me unless we obtained the information illegally.

Ryan Munthe · March 14, 2017

A-State is lower than UNT in every metric, academically, financially, etc. UNT would never lose coaches like State does, because we have the academic prestige and money backing that State could never have. This is a natural step up from a low-tier G5.

A more accurate analogy would be from UNT to Houston.

TreeFiddy · March 14, 2017

21 minutes ago, Green Lantern said:

Dude, if say Texas State or ULL, were to come in and money whip a first year successful coach away from us in football or ball, this board would be in full meltdown. There's gonna be some justified ASU butt hurt. They'll be fine though. Their AD definitely has a good track record of finding emerging coaching talent.

I'm impressed with this hire. An unexpected un-North Texas like move.

The point that some are trying to make is that after a supposed private conversation between McCasland and Mohajir about McCasland's reasons for leaving, the AD decided to go public with those comments. It's like going public with the content of someone's exit interview, without their permission.

What the AD shared, was not the AD's opinion. I would expect the AD's opinion to be that ASU is superior to UNT in every way. I would expect ASU fans to think the same. I expect most UNT fans to feel the same towards UNT.

As someone mentioned previously, I completely forgot that this was the same dude that blew his stack when WKU and MTSU left the Sunbelt. Totally makes sense that he is just a loose cannon. I guess this type of scorched earth behavior should be expected from him.

Edited March 14, 2017 by TreeFiddy

Ryan Munthe · March 14, 2017

Just now, TreeFiddy said:

The point that some are trying to make is that after a supposed private conversation between McCasland and Mohajir about McCasland's reasons for leaving, the AD decided to go public with those comments. It's like going public with the content of someone's exit interview, without their permission.

What the AD shared, was not the AD's opinion. I would expect the AD's opinion to be that ASU is superior to UNT in every way. I would expect ASU fans to think the same. I expect most UNT fans to feel the same towards UNT.

Instead, what the AD shared, in a public forum, was a private comment from McCasland during what amounts to his exit interview. As someone mentioned previously, I completely forgot that this was the same dude that blew his stack when WKU and MTSU left the Sunbelt. Totally makes sense that he is just a loose cannon. I guess this type of scorched earth behavior should be expected from him.

Except that there is no basis to the reality that A-State is a better job. Agree with everything else.

BTG_Fan1 · March 14, 2017

7 minutes ago, Green Lantern said:

Don't really see a ton of difference. Just picking other regional G-5 universities to illustrate a point. ASU is in our peer group. Losing a coach in this manner for them has to hurt.

I do get the point, but I'm sure I'm slightly bias in terms of how i view ULL and TXST compared to UNT... to me I just don't feel like they are on the same level is all.

4 minutes ago, Graddean said:

HIPPA applies to the medical community. It would not apply to you or me unless we obtained the information illegally.

I figured it didn't really matter in this event, but had no idea. I thought people had brought it up with RV and why he left is all.

Green Lantern · March 14, 2017

5 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

The point that some are trying to make is that after a supposed private conversation between McCasland and Mohajir about McCasland's reasons for leaving, the AD decided to go public with those comments. It's like going public with the content of someone's exit interview, without their permission.

What the AD shared, was not the AD's opinion. I would expect the AD's opinion to be that ASU is superior to UNT in every way. I would expect ASU fans to think the same. I expect most UNT fans to feel the same towards UNT.

As someone mentioned previously, I completely forgot that this was the same dude that blew his stack when WKU and MTSU left the Sunbelt. Totally makes sense that he is just a loose cannon. I guess this type of scorched earth behavior should be expected from him.

Yeah, that make sense. In rereading the comments, I can see where posters with a gripe about taking a personal swipe and offering the parting comment to the media on the way out by the ASU AD have a legit beef.

BTG_Fan1 · March 14, 2017

3 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

Except that there is no basis to the reality that A-State is a better job. Agree with everything else.

I think UNT has the ability to better than A-State, but it hasn't been of late in terms of sports performance. UNT has a lot to offer, but the recent history has not been good at UNT.

6 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

The point that some are trying to make is that after a supposed private conversation between McCasland and Mohajir about McCasland's reasons for leaving, the AD decided to go public with those comments. It's like going public with the content of someone's exit interview, without their permission.

I do agree that it was most likely a private convo, and something that GM didn't want released if true... Makes no sense for him to trash UNT before he is even introduced to UNT. Also, wonder if this is way of trying to trying to keep recruits from following GM to UNT.

Ryan Munthe · March 14, 2017

5 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

I think UNT has the ability to better than A-State, but it hasn't been of late in terms of sports performance. UNT has a lot to offer, but the recent history has not been good at UNT.

I do agree that it was most likely a private convo, and something that GM didn't want released if true... Makes no sense for him to trash UNT before he is even introduced to UNT. Also, wonder if this is way of trying to trying to keep recruits from following GM to UNT.

It's not about performance it's about ceiling. A-State is at their ceiling.

Marty · March 14, 2017

Welcome aboard Coach Mac!

All About UNT · March 14, 2017

12 minutes ago, Marty said:

Welcome aboard Coach Mac!

Nope. Not a thing. Gotta pick another name

TIgreen01 · March 14, 2017

Good grief. Stop it with all the measuring stick line of argument. They lost a promising coach after being on the job a single year. Their AD has done a tremendous job for their program, more so in regards to football, where I'd easily rank them our superior currently and going back to approx 2004. If they are at their ceiling, I'd trade that for all the drudge we've been crawling through for the past 5-10 years.

BTG_Fan1 · March 14, 2017

10 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

It's not about performance it's about ceiling. A-State is at their ceiling.

I do agree that they are at their ceiling, and that is why i view them at a equal level as UNT with UNT being down for the recent history...

Hopefully in a year or 2 when we win consistently, then we can be par with the likes of LAT, MTSU, WKU, heck even Tulsa or UH.

outoftown · March 14, 2017

Wow, I don't have time to visit for half a day and this drops!

First from just the sports side, this looks about as solid a hire as there could have been. Ticks all the boxes: D1 head coach, even with just a year. Plenty of HC quality experience at the lower levels. Been to the NCAAs as a P5 assistant. No ties to any violations, seems to be able to recruit and coach.

I am happy this went so fast, and with the benefit of hindsight, it sure looks like WB had been doing his homework all along on the basketball front.

Now if I had to find flies in the ointment there would be two and they are related: It seems we are paying a big sum (obviously nobody has details yet). Now this hire is about as safe a Bball hire as UNT has made in a long time, but that is still a risk and the question that comes with it is whether shelling out quite that much was necessary, or if it might have been possible to do it cheaper if -as was suggested, WB was not friends with the new coaches agent. Let us hope we at least got really good buyout clauses into this (cheap for us, expensive for him). That said there is of course also the chance that without a good connection to the agent, this might not be doable at all.

But overall,this sure looks like a great hire, much better than Tb at the time, where RV had come out saying he wouldn't hire someone without HC experience ...and then went with Benford. Moreover, just the signal that the school (and probably the boosters) are willing to get this serious, is a huge sign in the right direction by itself.

Edited March 14, 2017 by outoftown

TheTastyGreek · March 14, 2017

5 minutes ago, All About UNT said:

Nope. Not a thing

He has a national championship ring.

outoftown · March 14, 2017

1 minute ago, TheTastyGreek said:

He has a national championship ring.

Yeah, but he was the HC for that.

Harry · March 14, 2017

28 minutes ago, Aquila_Viridis said:

I was encouraged when they got that WBB guy from Charlotte some years ago. Still, there is reason for optimism now. Glad to see this didn't drag on.

The difference between this hire and Coach Pete is age. We were a retirement nest egg for Pete. Mac stung us as well. Coaching has become a younger man's profession. Ark state to their credit has a simple model in hiring young up and coming coaches. It appears we are following suit.