If we can agree that 95% of the fanbase is fed up with the way this team has looked the past couple of years and everybody points to one person in particular as to why this is (wink, wink), then it may be beneficial to let him go now only to at the very least bring a sigh of relief to many that something is going to be done sooner rather than later and maybe bring a few people to the games.
Here are some interesting stats:
Coach Hall was at UL from 02-03 thru 06-07:
02-03 8-19 (overall) 3-11 (conference)
03-04 13-15 7-8
04-05 22-9 10-5 (1st in West Div.)
05-06 18-10 8-7 (2nd in West Div.)
06-07 22-9 14-4 (1st in West Div. - NCAA Tourn.)
Coach Hall left for Cincinnati and Coach Rogers took over:
07-08 8-22 (overall) 4-14 (conference)
08-09 3-27 0-18
09-10 2-7 (to date) with losses to Lamar, Southern, NC A&T and Southeastern (twice), Idaho & Baylor
And, the play on the court is horrific. Need I say more?
That was a team that was going to NCAAs no matter who was coaching it. A decent coach would have that team as at least an 8 seed in the tourney. They finally figured out how to kind of coach themselves by the end of the season. Lee's coaching ability showed early in their 40 point or so blow out at Kansas. That team almost beat Louisville because their talent on the court was that good and lots of veteran leadership.
The next year, with still decent talent, Lee drove that team into the ground (after he proclaimed sweet 16 at minimum at start of season).
Why perhaps the worst coach in NCAA history? Can you think of another that single handedly took a proud program and reversed all its winning tradition and set it back indefinitely (maybe for a decade or more in the future), all while trying to figure out how to be a head coach, with first going after high schoolers, then switching to transfers, then back to high schoolers, with some of the best of the recruits being run out of town by said coach.
Sure, there may be 10 coaches in history that are worse, but I think Lee ranks right up there with the worst college head coaches of all time. Of course, UL keeping him as head coach for so many years helps him make such dubious history.
Man...reading this made me really sad actually. It wasn't that long ago at all that we were good and the excitement around the program was huge, then in the 05-06 season that all changed, and we haven't had even a single iota of excitement surrounding the program since. I knew it was bad when I haven't even felt the will or want to go to a single game this year. Heck, I've only watched one game and it was the FAU game and I happened to be flipping through the channels when I saw it. Sheesh, baseball season can not get here fast enough.
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