UCLA is banking hard on on the field success, but their football team has underachieved, the Rose Bowl is almost always 40% empty (and they have to hand over a lot of those profits to the Rose Bowl as well), and basketball cannot make up the revenue deficit that an average football team produces.
UCLA is banking hard on on the field success, but their football team has underachieved, the Rose Bowl is almost always 40% empty (and they have to hand over a lot of those profits to the Rose Bowl as well), and basketball cannot make up the revenue deficit that an average football team produces.
I don't like at all what Knowlton has done to basketball, but prioritizing football is the financially prudent decision.
With basketball, Knowlton can either keep gambling on untested coaches (more excitement, but risky) or just use a low-drama placeholder (Fox). If we were routinely finishing in the middle of the Pac then, fine, I understand the low drama approach. But we're in the dregs. What's another Wyking-quality hire going to do now, make us worse? Basketball can turn around quickly due to small team size so why not keep trying?
Right. It's really hard to be "Wyking bad". If there wasn't a thing call "Wyking bad", we'd be talking about something called "Fox bad". Honestly, I assumed whoever replaced Wyking was in the catbird seat. The bar was set so low and there were pieces if you could retain them. Yet, somehow we've only found a way to maintain post-Wyking. Also, money wasn't why we didn't hire Gates. Having an eye for talent was and assessing risk was. Turns out, hiring a mediocre coach and showing you don't really care much about about winning doesn't activate a base nor does it even result in mediocre basketball: It may actually deliver something worse than that.
Legans also doing decently in his first year in Portland.
Agree, Fox's problem isn't just that he's mediocre. He's also bland. There's zero excitement around the team.
With the new transfer rules, I don't think firing coaches sends the same "will my coach even be there for 4 years?" signals to recruits since they can also bail anytime. And coaches can retool quickly through the portal in addition to recruits. A poor recruiter like Fox really is the wrong guy for the moment.
Is Legans a strong candidate w/o the Cal association though? He bailed on us in a fairly spectacular fashion, so I don't think the Cal stuff really should factor at all. It's a bit like targeting Hasse.
Maybe not, but turning around a team in a deep WCC in our backyard isn't anything to sneeze at. Despite his unhappiness at the time, he still identifies as a Golden Bear and says he has fond memories. I think time and experience has given him perspective and I doubt Cal fans will hold his abrupt departure against him if he can win us games. He was my era and I would be ok with reconciliation.
Haase was only with us for a year. During that year his dad died suddenly, Campanelli got fired for being abusive, and he got benched. Can't say I blame him for wanting a change or even hating us forever.
Legans would be more like targeting Herm Edwards (not the best example given his time in ASU but you know what I'm saying).
The odd thing about Haase is that I seem to recall his dad was a UCB graduate and fan. Maybe Jared went to Cal because of his dad and he felt he could choose his own path after he passed. Not judging him, but I think others might do the opposite. I think he just didn’t gel personally with Kidd and the rest of the main guys. You could see him maybe being on the outside of that clique, which I don't think would be a very comfortable spot to be in.
I also just remembered the rumor that Kidd beat up Brendan Graves, which prompted him to transfer to Santa Clara. So the team dynamic might not have been warm and fuzzy depending upon which clique you were a part of.
Exactly. He’s not really a Cal guy after his departure and plenty of Old Blues won’t sign off on him anyhow.
Plus, Legans isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire at Portland…he’s middle of the road, with predominantly the same players he had at Eastern Washington, minus the Groves bros. A few transfers followed him to UP.
I think those who would oppose Legans are those who were Old Blues at the time he played. Those of us from his era are also Old Blues now (and donors) and aren't the same purists.
I would say he has more upside than Fox just by not being Fox. But he could easily fizzle at Portland and at Cal. Just don't know, but we aren't in a position to be asking for experienced coaches with good results.
That’s fair. There’s definitely no Monty or Cuonzo seemingly on the horizon. Legans is gonna have to show more than middling, mid-Major success with the same nucleus of players he inherited from his previous boss, however. And while some may harbor no
ill feelings towards Shantay, plenty I’ve talked to remain creased and are not fans. But you’re right...the Bears don’t have a ton of options, and many don’t have much faith in Knowlton.
It was always Gates. That’s gonna be the one that got away. Theo was another possibility, but alas...Wyking.
Feels like the Theo thing could be mended given none of the main actors are here any longer, and he is on the board of the Big C Society. But he hasn't really done anything of note coaching wise of late. I can't even tell if he's working for any organization presently. A lot can happen between now and when Knowlton is finally ready to turn the page on Fox. Monty and Cuonzo weren't really thought to be on the market until we got aggressive. But there aren't likely to be any obvious fits next year; Knowlton has not demonstrated an eye for coaching talent; and he is certainly not aggressive.
I think we differ on the premise. My point is that we can either afford 1) an unknown coach or 2) a known bad coach. With Fox we are doing (2). I'm just saying we should try (1) over and over again and I don't much care who it is. Legans' main draw is that he's not Fox, not likely expensive, and would probably take the job. There are lots of options just like him, though, and I'd be happy to try any of them. Heck, even known program-ruining coach Wyking Jones brings a small unknown element of the new rules (but we should absolutely not hire him).
The university has already decided we're not trying to be competitive in basketball so I'm fine with us rolling the dice on randos every 3 years. Maybe we'll get lucky. With players having so many transfer rights, 3 years is probably a reasonable expectation for them as well.
EWU is a tiny campus (think between Clark Kerr and Mills) in Cheney WA, a tiny town. It's a bedroom community to Spokane, which in itself is an insular small town in all the wrong ways.
FYI - That is slightly out of date. HI now plays on campus because the Aloha Bowl facility is not safe. I live in HI. Believe me that nothing on the mainland matches the poor administration of everything in HI. We would be even more corrupt if we weren't so incompetent. Also, FL plays home games on campus but one game every year is neutral site in Jacksonville (new NFL facility where old Gator Bowl used to be). I used to live in JAX. I don't think there is any regular trip to see a game that is a worse drive than that 75 miles from Gainesville once a year (cue Big Trouble - "I'm a Gator fan and I'm callin'.)
UCLA is banking hard on on the field success, but their football team has underachieved, the Rose Bowl is almost always 40% empty (and they have to hand over a lot of those profits to the Rose Bowl as well), and basketball cannot make up the revenue deficit that an average football team produces.
I don't like at all what Knowlton has done to basketball, but prioritizing football is the financially prudent decision.
With basketball, Knowlton can either keep gambling on untested coaches (more excitement, but risky) or just use a low-drama placeholder (Fox). If we were routinely finishing in the middle of the Pac then, fine, I understand the low drama approach. But we're in the dregs. What's another Wyking-quality hire going to do now, make us worse? Basketball can turn around quickly due to small team size so why not keep trying?
Right. It's really hard to be "Wyking bad". If there wasn't a thing call "Wyking bad", we'd be talking about something called "Fox bad". Honestly, I assumed whoever replaced Wyking was in the catbird seat. The bar was set so low and there were pieces if you could retain them. Yet, somehow we've only found a way to maintain post-Wyking. Also, money wasn't why we didn't hire Gates. Having an eye for talent was and assessing risk was. Turns out, hiring a mediocre coach and showing you don't really care much about about winning doesn't activate a base nor does it even result in mediocre basketball: It may actually deliver something worse than that.
Legans also doing decently in his first year in Portland.
Agree, Fox's problem isn't just that he's mediocre. He's also bland. There's zero excitement around the team.
With the new transfer rules, I don't think firing coaches sends the same "will my coach even be there for 4 years?" signals to recruits since they can also bail anytime. And coaches can retool quickly through the portal in addition to recruits. A poor recruiter like Fox really is the wrong guy for the moment.
Is Legans a strong candidate w/o the Cal association though? He bailed on us in a fairly spectacular fashion, so I don't think the Cal stuff really should factor at all. It's a bit like targeting Hasse.
Maybe not, but turning around a team in a deep WCC in our backyard isn't anything to sneeze at. Despite his unhappiness at the time, he still identifies as a Golden Bear and says he has fond memories. I think time and experience has given him perspective and I doubt Cal fans will hold his abrupt departure against him if he can win us games. He was my era and I would be ok with reconciliation.
Haase was only with us for a year. During that year his dad died suddenly, Campanelli got fired for being abusive, and he got benched. Can't say I blame him for wanting a change or even hating us forever.
Legans would be more like targeting Herm Edwards (not the best example given his time in ASU but you know what I'm saying).
The odd thing about Haase is that I seem to recall his dad was a UCB graduate and fan. Maybe Jared went to Cal because of his dad and he felt he could choose his own path after he passed. Not judging him, but I think others might do the opposite. I think he just didn’t gel personally with Kidd and the rest of the main guys. You could see him maybe being on the outside of that clique, which I don't think would be a very comfortable spot to be in.
I also just remembered the rumor that Kidd beat up Brendan Graves, which prompted him to transfer to Santa Clara. So the team dynamic might not have been warm and fuzzy depending upon which clique you were a part of.
Exactly. He’s not really a Cal guy after his departure and plenty of Old Blues won’t sign off on him anyhow.
Plus, Legans isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire at Portland…he’s middle of the road, with predominantly the same players he had at Eastern Washington, minus the Groves bros. A few transfers followed him to UP.
Pass.
I think those who would oppose Legans are those who were Old Blues at the time he played. Those of us from his era are also Old Blues now (and donors) and aren't the same purists.
I would say he has more upside than Fox just by not being Fox. But he could easily fizzle at Portland and at Cal. Just don't know, but we aren't in a position to be asking for experienced coaches with good results.
That’s fair. There’s definitely no Monty or Cuonzo seemingly on the horizon. Legans is gonna have to show more than middling, mid-Major success with the same nucleus of players he inherited from his previous boss, however. And while some may harbor no
ill feelings towards Shantay, plenty I’ve talked to remain creased and are not fans. But you’re right...the Bears don’t have a ton of options, and many don’t have much faith in Knowlton.
It was always Gates. That’s gonna be the one that got away. Theo was another possibility, but alas...Wyking.
After all the scores are in their boxes
And the Bears have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Furdies dressed in red
And the wind whispers, "Dennis"
I see what you did there.
Feels like the Theo thing could be mended given none of the main actors are here any longer, and he is on the board of the Big C Society. But he hasn't really done anything of note coaching wise of late. I can't even tell if he's working for any organization presently. A lot can happen between now and when Knowlton is finally ready to turn the page on Fox. Monty and Cuonzo weren't really thought to be on the market until we got aggressive. But there aren't likely to be any obvious fits next year; Knowlton has not demonstrated an eye for coaching talent; and he is certainly not aggressive.
Speaking of obvious fits, Willard took the Maryland job.
Cue Shaheen Holloway to Seton Hall the moment St Peter’s is eliminated.
I think we differ on the premise. My point is that we can either afford 1) an unknown coach or 2) a known bad coach. With Fox we are doing (2). I'm just saying we should try (1) over and over again and I don't much care who it is. Legans' main draw is that he's not Fox, not likely expensive, and would probably take the job. There are lots of options just like him, though, and I'd be happy to try any of them. Heck, even known program-ruining coach Wyking Jones brings a small unknown element of the new rules (but we should absolutely not hire him).
The university has already decided we're not trying to be competitive in basketball so I'm fine with us rolling the dice on randos every 3 years. Maybe we'll get lucky. With players having so many transfer rights, 3 years is probably a reasonable expectation for them as well.
EWU is a tiny campus (think between Clark Kerr and Mills) in Cheney WA, a tiny town. It's a bedroom community to Spokane, which in itself is an insular small town in all the wrong ways.
All you have to do is google. It literally took 10 seconds to find an answer.
https://herosports.com/teams-playing-home-games-off-campus-aiai/
FYI - That is slightly out of date. HI now plays on campus because the Aloha Bowl facility is not safe. I live in HI. Believe me that nothing on the mainland matches the poor administration of everything in HI. We would be even more corrupt if we weren't so incompetent. Also, FL plays home games on campus but one game every year is neutral site in Jacksonville (new NFL facility where old Gator Bowl used to be). I used to live in JAX. I don't think there is any regular trip to see a game that is a worse drive than that 75 miles from Gainesville once a year (cue Big Trouble - "I'm a Gator fan and I'm callin'.)
No thank you
With LA traffic every LA mile gets a multiplier, though public transportation options do exist now (which don't apply to tailgating).
Might be some small schools that use this setup but can't think of any in the big conferences.