Why don't we invest in coaching?

[CajunRebel]

oldman, I know you don't favor Jessie, but I feel that the university should become more competitive when hiring coaches. If you find someone that brings you success, you should fight to keep him at your school. Thats my gripe.

As for your gripe about not winning any postseason games, that's realy alot to ask out of a team from the Sun Belt. Keep in mind that only the top 32 teams win postseason games. Yes, it would be nice to be a top 32 team, but it is almost impossible in the conference we are in. And it would take time to build that kind of a team. But it's tough to build on past success when you have to constantly rebuild because you can't keep your coaches here.

As for the schedule, I don't know exactly why we can't get good teams in the Cajundome, but I do know these things:
1. We are a mid-major, and no major schools will dare play us at home because it's too risky. This is a problem that all mid-majors have.
2. Even if one would agree to it, we can't afford to bring these schools in because they cost too much money.

[RaginFan2]

"As for the schedule, I don't know exactly why we can't get good teams in the Cajundome, but I do know these things:
1. We are a mid-major, and no major schools will dare play us at home because it's too risky. This is a problem that all mid-majors have.
2. Even if one would agree to it, we can't afford to bring these schools in because they cost too much money."

CR, I don't know if you recall, but we have hosted teams from the "majors" such as the SEC (Miss. St.), Big 10 (Ohio St.), Big 12 (Texas Tech), PAC 10 (Washington St.), A-10 (UMass) in the not-so-distant past (1990s-2000s). I realize that the past few years have been pretty lean as far as as quality, "name" OOC home opponents. And I agree that we need to get more of them back on the schedule. I just get the feeling that the admin. is not too comfortable with Jesse and is not going all out with funding due to 1) football concerns and 2) not enough support (ie, attendance) for the basketball program.

Personally, I am in a bit of a quandry. I thought (and still think) that Jesse handles himself very well and generally represents the university very well. But I sense some things are not quite right. I just can't put my finger on it. Some aspects of the BB program just don't seem to be going well. Is it lack of discipline, as many have said? Or recruiting many (certainly not all) academically-poor students; maybe lack of quality on-court coaching? I don't know. Jesse has been pretty successful overall. It is hard to fault him there. Oh, sure, I like to win all of the games, but I was impressed with the way he handled the team this year, when things could have really gone sour quickly at the beginning.

Jesse really hasn't done anything that I am aware of to warrant being fired. I think that kind of talk is ridiculous. Yet there is kind of a haze hanging over the program. I think in part it may be, as some have indicated, that he hasn't really gotten hands-on in the community to promote his program enough. Certainly, the academic situation with a few of the players seems to pop up every year, and that is a problem. Also the fact that each of the past few years, after the season he seems to be trolling for a new job. Plus, he doesn't seem to recruit particularly well in-state (young Mr. Gray notwithstanding).

I just don't quite know what to make of all this, but it does leave me a bit uneasy about the state of the program. It seems we are the verge of breaking out into becoming a top program any season now ... or of cratering into a mess. I would like to either see us lock Jesse up with a good contract and make him happy to be here for a long time (with a few caveats), or let him move on and hire the best coach available for our program. One way or the other, this needs to be resolved. Soon!

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[Oldman]

i will leave you guys the way you are, because you simply don't understand/have most of the facts, but i can tell you this, we have won in post season tournment (ncaa) before,and being a "mid-major," as you say, should/never win you say, WOW, what was these guys doing winning this past year, somebody had better tell them, they cannot do that. it's time you guys stop making excuses for this guy, but you got him, you keep him.....and oh! i think we beat OKLA! maybe, but hey! who am i to talk. scheduling, things are not what they appear to be trust me, it ain't so. but i can tell you this.....things are gonna change!

[1stTake]

oldman unlike the goofballs that don't follow sports closely, you are a man of wisdom and insight.

[bigearl]

All Hail the OLD MAN!!

[CajunRebel]

RaginFan, I pretty much agree with everything you said. And yes, it is possible to get big names in the Cajundome. But it isn’t easy, as other mid-majors have attested to. From what I understand, these big name schools are beginning to charge more and more money to travel. I believe the normal asking price is somewhere around 50,000, although I could be wrong. Now the last time we had a really big school in the Dome was MSU. I don't know if you went to that game, but our attendance was very poor. Maybe a little over 3,000. The truth is that there is little interest in our Basketball team at the beginning of the season, and when we do bring in big names it costs us big.

I also see your point about this "haze" over the program. I think this is because Jessie doesn't get the support he wants from the university, and also because Jessie has a hard time keeping players eligible, which the university obviously dislikes. And as I said in another post, fans become uneasy when half the players on the team become ineligible. So there is an uneasiness between the coach, university, and fans.



As for oldman, for the past 30 years, we have had exactly one NCAA tourney win. It takes time to build winning programs, especially in our conference/financial situation. Yes, I would love for us to win games in the tourney every year but im not going to expect that out of a coach right away. What I do expect is that my coach causes my team to show a good level of improvement year after year. I feel that Jessie has done that.

You say things like "things are not what they appear," but you don't explain it. Yeah, that will convince me!

I’m not making excuses for Jessie, I'm being realistic.

When you say things like I just "don't understand" the facts because I disagree with you it really gets on my nerves. If my facts aren't straight then feel free to correct them. If you disagree with my opinion, then explain to me where you think I’m wrong.

But if you are just going to say things like "you simply don’t understand," then explain yourself in 2 sarcastic run-on sentences then I will respectfully ask you to shut up.