We need to come to reality.
Where were we five years ago?
Average home attendance 15,700.
NCAA Tournament in four of the last five years.
A loaded roster returning.
Arguably a top 5 or 6 conference, certainly the best outside of the traditional power 6.
The ability to pay more than $1 million for the coach.
And who was interested in our job?
Ernie Kent
Mike Dunlap
Reggie
Dave
That's it. No Jay Wrights. No equivalents of Archie Miller or Chris Mack.
Now we have an average home attendance of less than 12,000 (paid, not attending, that's closer to 9,000).
A three-year tourney drought.
A depleted roster
And a one-bid conference.
Oh yeah, let's not forget how we fired a coach in January. The same coach whose team ended nonconference play with an NCAA-worthy resume.
Why did we fire him? Scandal? Nope, because he lost three games in conference by about 2 points each.
Boosters who talk a lot, but act a little.
The ability to pay $400,000 to a coach.
Yes, that's right the athletic department is flat broke and the boosters already renegged on paying Rice's buyout. Plus adding COA to the budget next year puts us in a seven-figure hole.
And a potential coach knows that the AD hiring him won't be the AD by the time he reaches his first conference game.
And don't forget that coaches noticed what Illinois's new AD did the first day on the job. He fired a football coach who had just been hired.
So why would a coach with a future want to commit suicide by coming here?
We do have some things in our favor, that might entice a decent assistant or recently fired coach.
Kruger showed you can win here. And that the fans will come (if there is a marketing department and some winning).
Rice showed that big time recruits will come here.
We have good facilities.
A low cost of living and no income tax with good weather.
A winnable conference.
Enough of a name to still schedule a few top tier opponents.
A city exciting enough to entice an 18-year-old to visit.
But that's really it.
We will have a final pool of a couple of career assistants, a hasbeen from the PAC 12 or NBA, and maybe, if we are lucky, a guy with HC experience at a low level DI school. And that probably won't be Underwood (Frank or Brad.)
Where were we five years ago?
Average home attendance 15,700.
NCAA Tournament in four of the last five years.
A loaded roster returning.
Arguably a top 5 or 6 conference, certainly the best outside of the traditional power 6.
The ability to pay more than $1 million for the coach.
And who was interested in our job?
Ernie Kent
Mike Dunlap
Reggie
Dave
That's it. No Jay Wrights. No equivalents of Archie Miller or Chris Mack.
Now we have an average home attendance of less than 12,000 (paid, not attending, that's closer to 9,000).
A three-year tourney drought.
A depleted roster
And a one-bid conference.
Oh yeah, let's not forget how we fired a coach in January. The same coach whose team ended nonconference play with an NCAA-worthy resume.
Why did we fire him? Scandal? Nope, because he lost three games in conference by about 2 points each.
Boosters who talk a lot, but act a little.
The ability to pay $400,000 to a coach.
Yes, that's right the athletic department is flat broke and the boosters already renegged on paying Rice's buyout. Plus adding COA to the budget next year puts us in a seven-figure hole.
And a potential coach knows that the AD hiring him won't be the AD by the time he reaches his first conference game.
And don't forget that coaches noticed what Illinois's new AD did the first day on the job. He fired a football coach who had just been hired.
So why would a coach with a future want to commit suicide by coming here?
We do have some things in our favor, that might entice a decent assistant or recently fired coach.
Kruger showed you can win here. And that the fans will come (if there is a marketing department and some winning).
Rice showed that big time recruits will come here.
We have good facilities.
A low cost of living and no income tax with good weather.
A winnable conference.
Enough of a name to still schedule a few top tier opponents.
A city exciting enough to entice an 18-year-old to visit.
But that's really it.
We will have a final pool of a couple of career assistants, a hasbeen from the PAC 12 or NBA, and maybe, if we are lucky, a guy with HC experience at a low level DI school. And that probably won't be Underwood (Frank or Brad.)
