http://www.chron.com/sports/cougars/arti...393874.php

Daniel House and TaShawn Thomas. I'm pretty surprised. I thought the Sampson hire would rejuvenate that program a bit, but those two guys leaving (especially Thomas) would certainly set them back a bit. I really think though that the lack of fan support is a big reason a lot of guys leave. And even though UH has a lot more students and alums, their basketball attendance sucks too.

(04-10-2014 09:20 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://www.chron.com/sports/cougars/arti...393874.php

Daniel House and TaShawn Thomas. I'm pretty surprised. I thought the Sampson hire would rejuvenate that program a bit, but those two guys leaving (especially Thomas) would certainly set them back a bit. I really think though that the lack of fan support is a big reason a lot of guys leave. And even though UH has a lot more students and alums, their basketball attendance sucks too.

AAU problem. A UH assistant didn't kiss the ring. Such a slimey lot.

When a coach that recruited a player leaves town, I'm not surprised that players transfer.

(04-10-2014 11:22 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  When a coach that recruited a player leaves town, I'm not surprised that players transfer.

That is exactly why college basketball is such a POS, IMHO. You don't (or shouldn't) go to a school based on an assistant coach, but apparently that's college basketball. So, it's hard to care!

(04-10-2014 11:22 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  When a coach that recruited a player leaves town, I'm not surprised that players transfer.

Not all players, but many choose their college because of the coach. Considering how much time they spend with that person and the staff and the effort they are going to put forth for them, that isn't surprising.

There needs to be some reform to the transfer rules. John Calipari's new book apparently lays out some details for reform.

House and Thomas are both Texas kids too (House Sugar Land and Thomas Killeen) so here's a case of Texas kids leaving (probably). Kids are going to leave, regardless of where they are from nowadays.

UH losing Thomas would be akin to Rice losing Kazemi a couple of years ago. I doubt Thomas would be immediately eligible but maybe he comes up with some crazy hardship story (and sorry but I think some of these 'hardships' are completely false) and can play next year for a Baylor or TCU.

I find it odd that Sampson is retaining Alvin Brooks on his staff, and that may be a secondary reason the two are trying to leave. If Brooks is that unpopular, then why would Sampson retain him?

In any case, I don't like hearing this news. I thought that UH might be able to turn it around quickly - ala SMU - but now that seems a little less likely. I really would like to see a resurgence of college basketball in this city, but a lot of that turnaround is going to be on the fans to come out and support their teams. The most impressive thing about SMU's turnaround this year was their crowd support.

(04-11-2014 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The most impressive thing about SMU's turnaround this year was their crowd support.

Did they start drawing when they were still terrible?

Not really but they did double their average attendance this year and started selling out games towards the end of the season. And I bet you had they not, some of their players on this year's team would be leaving.

Combination this year of the opening of the new Moody and the top 25 team. I can tell you that as recently as two years ago they weren't drawing any better than we were.

Without looking it up, I think they averaged over 6,000/game this season once the new building opened.

(04-11-2014 05:27 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  John Calipari's new book apparently lays out some details for reform.

Is it a "pop-up" book ?

(04-11-2014 07:05 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The most impressive thing about SMU's turnaround this year was their crowd support.

Did they start drawing when they were still terrible?

A buddy of mine is an SMU grad, living in Ft Bend county. He claims to have never attended a MBB game while a student. He bought season tickets when the Brown hire was announced and made a number of trips to the big D to watch them play this year. Star power draws whether player or coach.

(04-11-2014 07:25 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Not really but they did double their average attendance this year and started selling out games towards the end of the season. And I bet you had they not, some of their players on this year's team would be leaving.

SMU lost a player to transfer last fall, but maybe that was before attendance picked up.

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.c...-transfer/

(04-11-2014 05:27 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(04-10-2014 11:22 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  When a coach that recruited a player leaves town, I'm not surprised that players transfer.

Not all players, but many choose their college because of the coach. Considering how much time they spend with that person and the staff and the effort they are going to put forth for them, that isn't surprising.

There needs to be some reform to the transfer rules. John Calipari's new book apparently lays out some details for reform.

Well, he wants to keep his recruits in school for more than one year. But, I'm not sure he wants reforms so much that it would prevent him from recruiting Arsalan Kazemi or the like...

(04-11-2014 08:19 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 07:05 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The most impressive thing about SMU's turnaround this year was their crowd support.

Did they start drawing when they were still terrible?

A buddy of mine is an SMU grad, living in Ft Bend county. He claims to have never attended a MBB game while a student. He bought season tickets when the Brown hire was announced and made a number of trips to the big D to watch them play this year. Star power draws whether player or coach.

Agreed -- it was really the Brown hire that kickstarted interest in the program, plus they finished the Moody renovation (which helped with recruiting), and just had a lot of buzz starting in April 2012. SMU has always wanted to be a big sports school, and has put a lot of money into the facilities and coaches to try to get there. They also were smart in building right size facilities for both football, and the basketball remodel, that gives them the chance to sell out and have solid attendance. We've got that with Tudor, and now with Rhoades, hopefully people will return to their seats before we get results, and we can just keep building momentum as the results come along too.

SMU is going to have an exciting team to watch next year given they got the #5 recruit in the entire nation. I think they had something like 10 sell outs this year including the NIT games, and will continue to build on that if they keep having this sort of success.

I can hardly wait for Rhoades and his staff to get us moving in the same direction.

(04-11-2014 09:09 AM)I45owl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 05:27 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(04-10-2014 11:22 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  When a coach that recruited a player leaves town, I'm not surprised that players transfer.

Not all players, but many choose their college because of the coach. Considering how much time they spend with that person and the staff and the effort they are going to put forth for them, that isn't surprising.

There needs to be some reform to the transfer rules. John Calipari's new book apparently lays out some details for reform.

Well, he wants to keep his recruits in school for more than one year. But, I'm not sure he wants reforms so much that it would prevent him from recruiting Arsalan Kazemi or the like...

I am pretty sure he believes that if a coach leaves for another school, the players should be able to leave and be eligible right away.

(04-11-2014 08:19 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 07:05 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The most impressive thing about SMU's turnaround this year was their crowd support.

Did they start drawing when they were still terrible?

A buddy of mine is an SMU grad, living in Ft Bend county. He claims to have never attended a MBB game while a student. He bought season tickets when the Brown hire was announced and made a number of trips to the big D to watch them play this year. Star power draws whether player or coach.

Well, we won't be buying season tickets to the Owls, but I can tell you the wife and I are going to make a better effort to be out at games now that the cloud of Braun has been lifted. That cloud shouldn't have been an excuse not to go, but we used it. Now, we and many others don't have that crutch. If we want this thing to go in the right direction, the Owl alumni and fans in Houston need to come out and support this thing from the ground up.

(04-11-2014 09:20 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 08:19 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 07:05 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The most impressive thing about SMU's turnaround this year was their crowd support.

Did they start drawing when they were still terrible?

A buddy of mine is an SMU grad, living in Ft Bend county. He claims to have never attended a MBB game while a student. He bought season tickets when the Brown hire was announced and made a number of trips to the big D to watch them play this year. Star power draws whether player or coach.

Well, we won't be buying season tickets to the Owls, but I can tell you the wife and I are going to make a better effort to be out at games now that the cloud of Braun has been lifted. That cloud shouldn't have been an excuse not to go, but we used it. Now, we and many others don't have that crutch. If we want this thing to go in the right direction, the Owl alumni and fans in Houston need to come out and support this thing from the ground up.

Agreed. It's probably going to be a long 1-2 years for the new coaching staff to get the players in that can run their system. I'm not going to expect much in terms of winning percentage initially.

I'm pretty sure that we'll have the hardest working team/coaching staff around and that will make them easy to cheer for.

(04-11-2014 08:19 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 07:05 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  The most impressive thing about SMU's turnaround this year was their crowd support.

Did they start drawing when they were still terrible?

A buddy of mine is an SMU grad, living in Ft Bend county. He claims to have never attended a MBB game while a student. He bought season tickets when the Brown hire was announced and made a number of trips to the big D to watch them play this year. Star power draws whether player or coach.

A certain comment of H.L. Mencken (sometimes attributed to Henry Ford) comes to mind.

(04-10-2014 11:55 PM)RiceDad Wrote:  

(04-10-2014 11:22 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  When a coach that recruited a player leaves town, I'm not surprised that players transfer.

That is exactly why college basketball is such a POS, IMHO. You don't (or shouldn't) go to a school based on an assistant coach, but apparently that's college basketball. So, it's hard to care!

A lot of colleges coaches now have almost a cult-like following, by both players and fans. It's rarely the school among many top-line other than it just happens to be the place the cult leader hangs his whistle. 10-20 years from now, we'll be kissing college athletics "the-way-it-used-to-be" bye-bye as the NBA and NFL decide to take all those $$ that the big-time FB and BB colleges are getting and set up some serious minor leagues in the cities that don't have NFL/NBA teams.

(04-11-2014 09:18 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 09:09 AM)I45owl Wrote:  Well, he wants to keep his recruits in school for more than one year. But, I'm not sure he wants reforms so much that it would prevent him from recruiting Arsalan Kazemi or the like...

I am pretty sure he believes that if a coach leaves for another school, the players should be able to leave and be eligible right away.

Wow. That would be a huge boon to coaching salaries. Imagine Texas hiring the UConn coach tomorrow and announcing that their starting lineup were transferring to Texas with him... think that may sweeten the pot to get Texas boosters to buy a championship for $10 million?