The man has won three championships in 13 years. For some, that isn't enough. I'm not going to tell you how you should feel. I've made my support for Coach Marlin well known.
I am sure he is a great individual and runs a clean program, but outside of conference victories/championships he has not beat anyone of any significance that I recall in 13 years. That is where most of us have a problem with him. He deserves another year or two based on this year only. If he falls back into his past MO, and does not at least make it back to conference championship game, it is way past time to move on.
That is what I was alluding to in the past MO reference, we have seen it B4. If Brown does not do an about face and decide to return next year, I am afraid it will be a long year. Hopefully I am proven wrong, it was nice to be relevant again and be in the tournament. This athletic department needs to make MBB a priority once again, not just lip service.
Jay - I get the 3 championships in 13 years argument. But I think the bigger problem is the other 10 years. If you look at the non-championship years, he's a 0.500 basketball coach (0.536 if anyone wants to yell at me for not being precise). That's not a small sample size, that's 10 years.
I'm not in the "fire Marlin today" camps, but if you can't look at it with the full lens of why people want him gone, you're ignoring a key point.
I don't think I'm ignoring anything. I'm well aware of the criticisms, shoot, this board is full of such.
The question I asked referred to the poster who said he couldn't take us to the next level. I asked for a definition of next level. And, I'm betting I'm going to get many different answers.
Falling off to 5th, 6th and 8th place in league play at times makes it hard to make a run in the conference tourney. Sunbelt is one bid league. Solely going on appearances is not a valid argument in this case. Not being competitive in league play to give a fighting chance in the tourney is in my opinion.
How about the dominance shown by WKU or GaSt? That’s what I consider “the next level”.
Now I get it, you do t have expectations with basketball. But the fans do! 3 post season appearances in 13 years isn’t enough. If you believe that is, then you can leave with Marlin.
This was a program that graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. I don’t care how long ago that was. This program has a history of winning.
Marlin still has never defeated a top 100 team. Ever! So excuse me if your kindred friendship and blind loyalty to the administration has diluted your ability to be objective.
I'm excited to see what Marlin can do in the next 2-3 years. Over the length of his tenure, he's faced a lot of adversity that I can't really speak to (I'm a casual MBB fan). But it seems like he's faced a lot of adversity from locker room personalities, assistant coaches (can't remember the asst coach early on in his tenure), players' parents, losses in his personal life.
It looks like the program is on a stable foundation (regardless of the time it took). What if the program as-is IS set up for future success. What if the 2022 season is where everything finally fell into place. What if Marlin keeps us fighting for a top 3 finish the next three years? What if DaBoot's sweet sixteen prophecy comes true? I think we not only owe it to CBM for the season he had, but to ourselves to see if the program is set up for consistent success here on out. How cool would that story be for us to stick with a head coach for this long and be rewarded for it in an era where coaches come and go as often as the band plays cornbread during a football game.
I am hopeful for our programs' consistent success moving forward.
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