On the Tark board. I’m as guilty as anyone spending my time on the football board. But geez we’re into Oct and there’s barely any discussion. Football has sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Wonder if CKK prefers it this way?
Crickets
- Thread starter unlove
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Like I said last year I'll say it again. Can't wait for next year.
You’ll have the typical yes men/hype guys talking up everyone as the real deal and UNLV breaking through this year, etc, etc, etc. It’ll be the same guys as always “stud” and “can’t miss”, I really think they’re nothing but hype guys looking for recognition when things do go right. Unfortunately for all of us, they’re usually close to 180 degrees wrong and it exposes them as fraudsters. Of course, maybe, just maybe there will be that one fluke year where they are the only ones calling it good and we fluke into it, and then they can go with the I told you so, hoping it erases the last 10 years of being anything but close to right.
It’ll be the same ballpark as we’ve been. We all know Dedan is Dedan. He IS a stud, we’ve seen it with our own two eyes. Let’s just hope for no injury or we are looking at closer to 500 than 650.
I am not here to spread sunshine if it is cloudy. But you return the teams best player, and one of the best 2 thru 4 (Boone bros also in top 4). And a key piece coming off acl.
Not a total rebuild. Do I see a for sure conference title? No also.
UNLV just has to tread water for a couple of years. With SDSU, Boise and USU gone, UNLV is virtually guaranteed a top 3 spot in conference every single year with UNM and UNR. Fresno and CSU are two programs that pop up every 5 years or so to make an impact in conference and they’re gone.
Now if we can escape those pesky 40 point losses to AFA, UNLV basketball will be back on the map.
Sigh.
The future is bright.
Now if we can escape those pesky 40 point losses to AFA, UNLV basketball will be back on the map.
Sigh.
The future is bright.
I hope we don’t schedule Southern and LMU again because we can’t hang with them at home. The home court advantage is as strong as ever.
If the conference mates shake out as we think it will, I don’t think OOC will matter much. I don’t think you can complement conference regular season success with a strong OOC enough to make an at large possibility difference.
I think it’ll be a one bid conference. The conference championship winner.
I mean, if you go with a top 10 type of OOC and can have moderate success, yeah, I can see it perhaps.
You just aren’t going to improve your overall resume much with conference wins …. Because the conference will be weak.
Unless we add Fran Tarkenton State.
Yeah, yeah, I’m being fatalistic …. I guess I was being fatalistic when I said we were in the fast track to irrelevance when we hired Menzies, too. Bad hires that force the adoption of a slow growth mentality will eventually kill a program.
I can't believe the WCC can offer their remaining teams much $$ without Gonzaga being in the mix. Additionally they are looking at being a one bid league. Perhaps we could add two of them ( Non football). St. Mary's and USF could boost the MWC to a two bid league and give teams an extra chance. Or combine the Conferences for a 16 team basketball league and an 8 team football league.
Actually, not the worst idea I’ve heard. Oh, I know, I know, Jesuit colleges, etc, etc, etc. But hypocrisy would shine through, money is thicker than religion.
That's what I was thinking too. I think Dedan is fairly well known already, but maybe that's just a regional bias. I think UNLV is going to need both of those guys to step up big this season if we're going to finish in the top 3 in conference.
This is why Grand Canyon should be a priority for basketball only, and football in the future. 120K students (25K on campus) can't all be wrong. The school has money to burn and that is why they have beat SDSU last year and went to the NCAA playoffs!
UNLV will need more than Whaley and DJ to be breakout players to save Kevin, who should have already been fired by now!
Fixed it for you. I like the guy, but he definitely did not have the experience necessary to get the job. Clearly it was due to LK helping.
Either Kruger fast forward his experience this next season, or I am sure the AD will show him the door at the end of the season!
Depends.
If you want to divert a ton of money to football and make that 1a and 1b… you need an inexpensive basketball head coach … and with us heading towards a one sometimes two bid conference … shouldn’t have to pay much … we paid cheap for football when we tried to make basketball more relevant, now the script can be flipped.
Aren’t a lot of fans left that will be screaming for results. The ones that did, left and it’s not like they’re feeling a huge sense of loss.
I feel we need to go all in on football and hope it pans out because basketball isn't going to get us where we want to be. Not anymore.
Is there a (post Kruger) world where we can actually be good at both sports simultaneously!? That should be the goal. It starts with a new coach and end to the “slow build” let’s just get by with 20 wins mentality.
Let’s look at it objectively. If Gonzaga can be a top program in bball, UNLV can definitely be there. It’s all about finding a good coach and rebuilding a program with NIL support. The NIL support can be there with the right coach.
It should ALWAYS be the goal but it’s never been.
Money? Where the interest lies?
I hated Hamrick, but he was very football oriented. We had some success in basketball (later Kruger years, the first two while Hamrick was here were poor, then Livengood took over … he was pretty balanced but more basketball because that’s where we excelled … and we did a little bit in hoop, no, I don’t think it was cause/effect with AD success…. But Hamrick didn’t do well (Sanford) with football, but it’s definitely where his heart and mind were).
From a heart standpoint, fans want basketball really good, don’t care about football. From a financial standpoint, we need football good.
But sooooooo much time has passed now with UNLV being a subpar basketball program and football has sprung fast and hard, no slow growth there …. So if you have to pick one now … especially with the conference stirrings … logic says focus efforts on football and let basketball continue to tread water at its current pace. We survived past dozen years in that manner … continue that and focus on football.
Kruger may or may not be able to improve the program, but I am not going to hold the defeatist attitude that he will continue to move forward, even if the past evidence has been slow growth. Prior to the 21 wins this last season, you would need to go back to 20212-2013 to have a better season which was the second season under coach Rich 25-10. Coch Kruger had a 0.563 winning percentage his first season, a 0.594 winning percentage his second season, and a 0.618 winning percentage his third season. Kruger has a 59% winning percentage and has slowly improved each year, while Rice has a 64% winning percentage and went in a downward track each year. You would need to go back to Krugers' dad to find a better percentage. While I am from the old school fans, and not happy with his percentage, I will wait to see what happens this year before my final judgement, and before going back out on the road to find a new coach.
I have no doubt that Kruger will need to show improvement or he will be gone just like Arroyo, and I am also sure that the AD and school President have let him know what goals must be met for him to stay next year, but I will wait until the team has at least played one game before calling the season dead. If they team can't show improvement, and I would base the standard on making the tournament, then the AD will take care of what needs to be done. While football is now King at UNLV, it doesn't change the fact that UNLV basketball is still important to UNLV in regards to ticket sales and being able to balance the budget in the future.
Percentage isn’t the best way to look at things. Some coaches schedule tough, some moderate, some easy. And conference always fluctuates with difficulty.
The fans react to … whatever it is …. And that’s the best way to feel the pulse of the program. It takes everything into consideration, including outside influences, which the program/university has nothing to do with, but it’s something they have to contend with.
Attendance, atmosphere, passion … not completely perfect, but the best barometer of where the program is. If fans aren’t showing up, if fans aren’t talking, if the home atmosphere is stagnant air …. As a program, you’re flailing.
Basketball is closer to Hauck era football (in terms of excitement) than it was to even Spoonhour. True, better players under Spoon, closer to the Tark era so you have hangers on …. But it doesn’t change where we are at now.
We need to take a gamble on a HC. Either a will Wade ( yes im beating a dead horse) or a lower school HC that's gets the most of his players and can recruit at a good talent for his level of play. BTW it will be interesting to see how Doug Gottlieb does. If he kills it at GB that will another missed opportunity.
Not saying that he is playing a decent schedule, or that the percentage makes a difference, just saying all the coaches have more or less sucked since his dad, who many didn't want to stay around at the time, and we either need to give him the entire season to improve, or the AD should have removed him at the beginning of the season. I see picking one program or the other to put all the money into, in this case football, is a defeatist attitude that I do not believe will be the direction the AD takes the basketball program in at the end of the season.
I believe that the President and AD have told Kruger that he either needs to make the NCAA tournament or he will likely be gone just like Arroyo was gone. I think they will put the same effort into moving basketball forward as football has been provided over the last two seasons. The fact that Grand Canyon became Div 1 in basketball in 2013 and eligible for post season in 2017, and then made the tournament in 2021-2024 says a lot about the need to either win immediately or replace Kruger at the end of the season, but not to keep basketball as a second class program.
As a side note, they need to bring Grand Canyon into the conference for basketball and all other sports which would meet the NCAA requirement as a full time member even without a football program.
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It is a defeatist attitude. But they’ve given fans zero to hold onto.
Face it, in terms of (basketball) excitement, attendance, achievement, we are at our lowest continual stretch and still surviving as an athletic department. They don’t HAVE to commit to basketball. They don’t HAVE to pump money into it. If they don’t, who is going to complain? There are very few left. From a nostalgic/historic standpoint, it’s terrible to think about but the past isn’t recent history, it’s ancient history, but most of those from the past are no longer there, no longer interested. It’s a new day, the new history is we aren’t anything but a mediocre program with little fanfare and low expectations. We can meet those demands easily, it’s bare bone minimums.
The crossing of the fingers and allowing for potential “slow growth” to materialize has led to a slow death.
They’ll pop up now and again and grab that 13 seed like most other schools in our conference have done from time to time. And if UNLV wants that to be good enough, it will be good enough.
Soon we will be a one/two bid conference. I don’t see a reason to pump in 2.5M per year for that opportunity. A lot of money for a bad schedule and 3 days in March. The money is better allocated into football. It’s hot, that’s the right time to strike it.
I’d give a two year extension at the same salary for hoops and divert all monies to football.
I have saved alot of money not taking days off to watch this mediocre basketball the last several years. I work swing and on tips. So thats the only positive thing i seens in MBB the last 5 plus years. That and DJ signing with us. I heard his brother might be following in his footsteps. Dont quote me, but a reliable source. \
The powerhouse of the big west died 32 years ago.. never will I forget the big west chants..!!
Days before first tip and this UNLV MBB board is…. Crickets
Not complaining necessarily, just pointing out how things have changed. I feel it myself. Days will go by when I haven’t checked in. When I do there’s typically nothing new. If this board is any barometer, CKK better take heed.
Not complaining necessarily, just pointing out how things have changed. I feel it myself. Days will go by when I haven’t checked in. When I do there’s typically nothing new. If this board is any barometer, CKK better take heed.
Either Kruger will come out of the gate with a winning team and attitude, or this will quickly turn into a dead coach walking season!
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