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Post by proctorp on Feb 4, 2019 19:58:26 GMT -6
Most of us were reasonably happy after the Toledo game. Most of us also knew the wheels would come off at some point because they do every year. And they did, just earlier than we expected. But they were going to come off sooner or later, injuries or not. A good coach extracts everything the players they have available have. Whitford hasn’t done that at any point other than the middle of last year. And then it went away. None of his starters were hurt until a couple games ago. And we still couldn’t win but two Mac games with all our starters, 4 of which are some level of all Mac team quality. A truly good bench/game coach would prepare his team better, alter the style of play to best suit the hand he has, have them scrapping for everything, and playing as fundamentally sound as possible knowing they needed to reduce beating themselves because they know they can’t afford slop. Yet all we have is slop and no discernible adjustments to how we do things. Yeah, we fought hard in the Kent game but still made far to many mistakes to win. Year 6 is no longer on the job training. You either have it down by now or you’ll never have it. Whitford has had time and enough talent on his teams to prove something. At this point it looks like the team that won two games and should have won a 3rd in the whateveritwas post season tourney was his best team. (But not his most talented). And even that team collapsed at the end of the season and played its way out of a top two or 3 seed. And then lost at home to a horrible Miami team in the Mac play in game. See a theme here? But we had high hopes by then and it just didn’t come to fruition. 6 years in whit is what he is, regardless of whatever excuses are thrown out there. It’s not going to vary much from that year to year.
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Post by lmills72 on Feb 4, 2019 20:03:13 GMT -6
All I can tell you about the AD is she does has some spit and fire to her. She is engaged at games.. She is actually at every game and makes her presence known. She takes notes she gives evil stares. Now can she do anything other than that I have no clue It will be interesting to see what she can do. Sometimes there are issues that cannot be overcome, but I think people who are truly effective in her job find a way to make the important things happen. Truthfully, among the challenges she faces, I'm not sure where Whitford should rank. However, any reasonable person would assume he's moving up the list.
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Post by CallingBS on Feb 4, 2019 21:55:03 GMT -6
Not ALWAYS a bidding war. Yes.
Smart leadership can do more with less. I am not at all sure our leadership is smart enough to beat the other MAC programs paying less though.
We had plenty of good applicants and plenty turned us down when they found out what we were willing to pay them. And when they considered what they had to work with. Our hiring has made mistakes. Arguably we made our biggest by not upgrading when we decided for very poor reasons Hunsaker had to be fired. The problem there was that we did get a good cheap coach and our leadership decided that was the way to go when they hired the next one. And the next. And the next. Instead of upgrading.
It is a very average comp package at best. The other factors are a plus. But with all that rainbow you are selling, there is also the fact we have every B10 program and others competing for the good Indiana talent. At least 1/2 MAC programs are in the same or better recruiting footprints.
I am pleased you didn't try to sell our tradition which is ancient history to recruits.
The best programs in terms of recent success also have good recruiting potential, oddly enough do not hire on the cheap. You want to sell vision and Worthen Arena. That's not easy.
We have a new President and AD. Both appear to be upgrades over their predecessors. We won't know if they are better at attracting, evaluating and WINNING better coaching talent until we jettison this loser strategy of yours to stay the course because we can't possibly do better. I'm not selling any rainbows. We aren't Duke or even Butler but we're not NIU or Eastern or some of the other schools in our league who play in cracker boxes in the middle of no where either. For the right hire, this is a tremendous opportunity. And our recruiting challenges are no worse than any other MAC school. You claim, "plenty turned us down when they found out what we were willing to pay them. And when they considered what they had to work with." Were you on the last two search committees? I wasn't aware of that? If so, I stand corrected. I've been part of many recruiting and hiring decisions in my career for positions that have been very competitive. Dollars are always important but so are many other factors, especially for young talent on the climb. Great hires happen because of great leadership. Again, same as recruiting. Accepting mediocre results is a hallmark of mediocrity. You can quote me on that if you like. I agree with everything you said except this President being an upgrade. Meh.
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Post by sweep on Feb 5, 2019 7:29:51 GMT -6
Yeah right, that's why you gravitated into teaching college. Objectively, that is where experts after all are quite often found.
Yeah right..................
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Post by bsu1 on Feb 5, 2019 7:45:11 GMT -6
Most of us were reasonably happy after the Toledo game. Most of us also knew the wheels would come off at some point because they do every ye. I thought this would be the year the wheels wouldn't fall off. I'm an optimist by nature but reality set in.
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Post by realitycheck on Feb 5, 2019 7:55:10 GMT -6
I have always said we need to pay more to attract and secure a quality coach. That means that the administration needs to take a risk that a better/best candidate will attract more fans. We used to average over 6,000 fans versus the 3250 we get now. Increase tickets $2, increase attendance by 2000/game, pay $1million. If we don’t take a chance, we will never reach our potential. I have argued this point on this board for more than a decade! Our administration has never had the Ball State to take the challenge. They spent all the millions to build a great house and tried to go on the cheap for a coach every since Ray. You get what you pay for. I feel Whit has improved recruitment and has had better results versus other recent coaches. But, as I have said before, we should expect one MAC title every four year, a few repeats, and always be in the hunt for a MAC title. It could happen, but the Adminustration needs to grow a set! The flaw in this plan is a basic supply and demand issue. There is no demand and a more than ample supply so an increase in price will not achieve your goal. We will not sell 2000 more tickets. Plus fans will come back when we win not hire a million dollar maybe coach.
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