Bob's Not As Poor As Reported

[VObserver]

"Marlin says he can't win more in conference because his program is underfunded,"

Hang on a minute. He said this? When did he say this again?

Every time someone asks him about his lack of success; though to be fair, in general he refers to scheduling issues. But he does hammer the 'huge advantage' that non-FBS schools have. You know, like UTA whose men's hoops budget is about 800K less than ours, or Little Rock, whose budget is about 100K more than ours.

[JustFacts]

1 NCAA tourney team in 7 years. Along with 2 NBA players on the team at the same time. NCAA or bust for 2017-2018 Season

[JustFacts]

BOB MARLIN ERA

2011 ( 14-15 )
2012 ( 16-16 )
2013 ( 13-20 )
2014 ( 23-12 ) NCAA
2015 ( 22-14 )
2016 ( 19-15 )
2017 ( 21-12 )

TOTAL in 7 Years ( 128-104 )

[moorecajun]

85 - 53 in the last 4 years; no matter what anybody thinks (or knows - this is RP) that is trending in the right direction.

[BraveCajun]

Marlin wasn't so good. The SFA coach had one special player that he rode to success. Unlike Bob, he utilized his great player properly and won his conference multiple times, and won games in the NCAA tournament.

Underwood also inherited a team from Danny Kasper that won the conference the previous year. In addition to Kasper winning the conference his last year at SFA, he had five 20+ winning seasons during his last six years at the school. So it would be fair to say that Underwood inherited a much better program than Marlin.

[CajunRebel]

Every time someone asks him about his lack of success; though to be fair, in general he refers to scheduling issues. But he does hammer the 'huge advantage' that non-FBS schools have. You know, like UTA whose men's hoops budget is about 800K less than ours, or Little Rock, whose budget is about 100K more than ours.

All I ask is that you be honest about what is and what isn't said. He didn't say what you claimed he said. Criticize if you want to, but please try to be honest.

I do agree that scheduling issues are killing the RPI of every G5 school in the south, including us.

I also agree that non-FBS schools have an advantage over FBS schools. For those schools basketball is the flagship program and they get more institutional support because of it. I beleive the main reason why SBC basketball has fallen so much in the last 10 years is because of football.

But no, I don't agree that those are excuses to not be successful here at UL.

[CajunAmos]

I think the bigger issue is there is no incentive for P5 schools to play on the road OOC against other conferences. Unless a method is developed to penalize you why would you do it. I agree with Illinois States coach that if you're going to penalize me at tournament time for not playing enough games the P5 conferences who refuse to play me it's a broken system. They need to do like they did in softball. No RPI gains/losses for wins in conference, only OOC. Additionally, you should have a home/road component for games as well.

[VObserver]

All I ask is that you be honest about what is and what isn't said. He didn't say what you claimed he said. Criticize if you want to, but please try to be honest.

I do agree that scheduling issues are killing the RPI of every G5 school in the south, including us.

I also agree that non-FBS schools have an advantage over FBS schools. For those schools basketball is the flagship program and they get more institutional support because of it. I beleive the main reason why SBC basketball has fallen so much in the last 10 years is because of football.

But no, I don't agree that those are excuses to not be successful here at UL.

Some do [Wichita State spends 6+ million dollars per year on men's hoops]. Some don't [Illinois State with FCS football and Little Rock with no football spend about the same as UL on men's hoops]. Some are worse off [UTA underspends UL significantly in men's basketball, and plays no football]. All are much more successful than UL, based on results.

So yes, it is an excuse. Not a reason. SBC basketball has not really fallen, it just has no depth at the top. This year the conference was pretty good in the middle, but only UTA has a really strong team. The next 7 teams were significantly worse than UTA, but pretty solidly top 1/3 of NCAA D 1; stronger than all but the top 3 teams in the West Coast Conference [Gonzaga, St. Mary's, BYU].

If two more teams in the SBC would step up to top 50 RPI status, the conference would be top 7 or 8, even if the balance of the conference's teams were no better than this year. We don't need to schedule Kansas and Kentucky to do that; just schedule non conference like Illinois State did this year.

I am not critical of just Marlin; ALL the coaches in the SBC schedule very badly OOC. They all need to take scheduling lessons from their stick and ball sport coaches. Schedule good, solid mid level programs that are consistent winners which you can predict will win 60% or more of their games, but which you can beat [Texas Southern, for example]. If you schedule a loss, make sure it is someone who will win 70% of their games, and who plays in a power conference. Avoid the schools who do not compete well in lower level conferences[McNeese]. Try to schedule top 3 teams in peer conferences [Middle Tennessee, LaTech@Ruston, Marshall]. It isn't rocket science, but it does take a little work.

[CajunAmos]

When Houston or Texas calls to say they want to play us in baseball, an option would be to say that's great because we want to play you in basketball. Lets make a deal.

[CajunEXPRESS]

When Houston or Texas calls to say they want to play us in baseball, an option would be to say that's great because we want to play you in basketball. Lets make a deal.

There's nothing we can do to leverage Texas. Nothing.

[Hark Mudspeth]

When Houston or Texas calls to say they want to play us in baseball, an option would be to say that's great because we want to play you in basketball. Lets make a deal.

They call Bab...not Maggard, baseball handles their own scheduling...they don't care about the basketball teams schedule or I should say they won't jeopardize their own schedule for basketball and they shouldn't. Texas and Houston want to play our baseball team out of the respect our program has...Marlin should maybe try that approach.

[CajunAmos]

They call Bab...not Maggard, baseball handles their own scheduling...they don't care about the basketball teams schedule or I should say they won't jeopardize their own schedule for basketball and they shouldn't. Texas and Houston want to play our baseball team out of the respect our program has...Marlin should maybe try that approach.

Didn't we do that with Tech?

[Hark Mudspeth]

Didn't we do that with Tech?

No, it was with football and basketball...and please don't ever mention latech and Texas in the same light...I know Texas has fallen a bit but they are still Texas...not latech.

[duggie85]

No, it was with football and basketball...and please don't ever mention latech and Texas in the same light...I know Texas has fallen a bit but they are still Texas...not latech.

I think we went several years without playing LA Technical in any sport until they played us in football.

[Hark Mudspeth]

I think we went several years without playing LA Technical in any sport until they played us in football.

Yes, and it was political with latech as well...little different when you are in the same state and system. We didn't leverage a baseball game into playing them in basketball/football.