Coaching Candidates

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

One question remains....if he is so good, why so many stops along the way? Something strange about that...either he has some issues and has to move on, or worse yet, he is yet another job hopper who will be out of here at the first opportunity. Neither is good.

[BBF]

'hawk, don't kid yourself, no matter who we hire the chances are good that he'll leave in three or four years, either because he can, or because he's fired. That's the new normal. Short attention span theater.

The one lesson that I think everyone will take from our recent history is that we aren't going to handcuff ourselves with a big contract again. But there's a flip side to going with lowball contracts: it puts a mid-major program like ours in a terrible position to retain a coach we don't want to lose.

[MU/Panther]

Well, Tennessee and Cal was with Cuonzo Martin.

[CoachC]

I like Webster. Met him a few times, and seems like a great guy. And he was on campus within the last 20 years. But for the life of me, I have no idea why he would want to commit career suicide and step into this mess at Milwaukee. You guys might have reservations about him but he can definitely do better.

[Buppie05]

Most successful coaches will leave for greener pastures at 98% of programs. What we want is someone who is willing to stick around until one of the big boys come calling, and I'm not sure that is Webster (just based on his track record) . It's not a murderers row of candidates, but I can't blame a guy like Scott Nagy for not being interested, even in the best of situations, in Milwaukee. Why leave unless its for 4x the salary and a much bigger program? Build your program until the biggest of the big come calling. Guys like Frank Lickliter committed career suicide by leaving too early for a marginally bigger paycheck and bigger program (IMO), so build a winner until you get the call.

I wish we had someone with Milwaukee ties who was willing to grow with us. Maybe if Mark Pancratz didn't get out of coaching? But that candidate isn't out there, so hopefully we find someone determined to build a winner and move on when the time is right.

[dylanrocks]

What track record? Well, I guess he is 1-15.

[Buppie05]

What track record? Well, I guess he is 1-15.

He does have that Marquette win to silence the haters with.

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

I guess until the University decides to take basketball seriously, this is what we will experience.

What will forever baffle me is how University Administrators can be so ignorant about the impact of athletics on their school. Either they are all egg heads who cannot fathom that sports is more popular in the general public than, say, a great debate team, or they do know but still don't care because prioritizing athletics in any way will make them persona non grata at the cocktail parties populated buy the Ivory Tower Elites.

Nothing publicizes a school more than winning in sports. Would Duke be a household name without basketball? An even better and more relevant example is Gonzaga.

Yet we still get stuck with Chancellors (with the lone exception of Zimpher, oh how I miss her) who think that the public at large has great interest in things like new academic programs and such, and look down their noses at athletics.

Sometimes I wish I would have gone to a school that took sports seriously so I wouldn't live with the constant frustration of a program doomed to mediocrity.

[MayorCK]

You know what is fair game? Why has he had so many different jobs? That's an incredibly unstable resume you just rattled off. 8 schools? Maybe that's not many if you're 60, but the guy is 44. I realize he went to Cal from Tennessee with Cuonzo, but what about all the other hopping around? It should be a red flag to anyone who has ever had to hire someone.

Addendum: I did not see Hawk's post at the top of this page when I posted this. He essentially said the same thing.

[Jimmy Lemke]

Addendum: I did not see Hawk's post at the top of this page when I posted this. He essentially said the same thing.

These are minor details.