Rick Jones is retiring for health reasons.

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/201...cart_river

Who would you suggest?

Right off the top of my head I would suggest David Pierce of Sam Houston State, Frank Andersen of UH, and Mike Taylor of UH. I should point out that Mike Taylor is a friend and I am not in the least objective in his recommendation (but I think he could restore the luster to the once proud program).

(05-23-2014 07:21 PM)13thOwl Wrote:  Rick Jones is retiring for health reasons.

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/201...cart_river

Who would you suggest?

Right off the top of my head I would suggest David Pierce of Sam Houston State, Frank Andersen of UH, and Mike Taylor of UH. I should point out that Mike Taylor is a friend and I am not in the least objective in his recommendation (but I think he could restore the luster to the once proud program).

Hey now! Hands off Frank Anderson!

(05-23-2014 07:50 PM)Mademen Wrote:  

(05-23-2014 07:21 PM)13thOwl Wrote:  Rick Jones is retiring for health reasons.

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/201...cart_river

Who would you suggest?

Right off the top of my head I would suggest David Pierce of Sam Houston State, Frank Andersen of UH, and Mike Taylor of UH. I should point out that Mike Taylor is a friend and I am not in the least objective in his recommendation (but I think he could restore the luster to the once proud program).

Hey now! Hands off Frank Anderson!

He would have Tulane set up as a power in the AAC. And he has been a head coach. Oh yeah, he has lots of post season experience. I don't know what Tulane was paying Jones, but it was reputed to be a boatload.

I'll be interested to see how Tulane handles the search. Jake Gautreau's stint as the interim coach was thought to be an audition of sorts. Obviously, it didn't go well, but there still might be pressure to turn the program over to Jones' preferred successor.

I wonder what type of candidate they will be able to pull in for interviews. You get the idea that they still view themselves as a top-flight program, when in reality, the bloom is off the rose a little bit, IMO. Jones didn't just forget how to coach. Sure, losing key assistants was part of the decline, but that job has also gotten a lot more difficult over the years.

One name to watch for is Mark Kingston of Illinois State. He was an assistant there during their heyday under Jones. ISU has only made one regional in his five completed seasons there, but they are playing for another one today, and their win totals under him have been 25, 32, 36, 33, 39. This year they have 33. In the five years before he arrived, their win totals were 21, 26, 26, 20, 22. They've gone from an MVC also-ran to a contender for the MVC title every year.

(05-24-2014 12:57 PM)jdh008 Wrote:  I'll be interested to see how Tulane handles the search. Jake Gautreau's stint as the interim coach was thought to be an audition of sorts. Obviously, it didn't go well, but there still might be pressure to turn the program over to Jones' preferred successor.

I wonder what type of candidate they will be able to pull in for interviews. You get the idea that they still view themselves as a top-flight program, when in reality, the bloom is off the rose a little bit, IMO. Jones didn't just forget how to coach. Sure, losing key assistants was part of the decline, but that job has also gotten a lot more difficult over the years.

One name to watch for is Mark Kingston of Illinois State. He was an assistant there during their heyday under Jones. ISU has only made one regional in his five completed seasons there, but they are playing for another one today, and their win totals under him have been 25, 32, 36, 33, 39. This year they have 33. In the five years before he arrived, their win totals were 21, 26, 26, 20, 22. They've gone from an MVC also-ran to a contender for the MVC title every year.

Frankly I didn't think Jones forgot how to coach, I think the NCAA changed the rules on transfers. I always believed the Tulane coaches were the hardest workers during the summer leagues recruiting talent away from other programs. When they could no longer do this and the player had to sit a year after transferring, the decline began. Perhaps this is merely circumstantial...

all programs lose assistants, but again the timing of the decline is right. Who knows?

I will watch Kingston.

(05-24-2014 01:05 PM)13thOwl Wrote:  Frankly I didn't think Jones forgot how to coach, I think the NCAA changed the rules on transfers. I always believed the Tulane coaches were the hardest workers during the summer leagues recruiting talent away from other programs. When they could no longer do this and the player had to sit a year after transferring, the decline began. Perhaps this is merely circumstantial...

all programs lose assistants, but again the timing of the decline is right. Who knows?

I will watch Kingston.

I think the transfer rule played a big role as well. No one brought in as many impact DI transfers as Tulane under Jones with the old rules. They continued to bring in quite a few DI transfers with the "new" rules, but program-changing players just weren't transferring anymore.

As far as Kingston goes, I'm willing to bet viewership of the MVC championship on ESPN3 is going to be much higher in the New Orleans area today than it would have been at almost any other time.

(05-24-2014 01:58 PM)jdh008 Wrote:  

(05-24-2014 01:05 PM)13thOwl Wrote:  Frankly I didn't think Jones forgot how to coach, I think the NCAA changed the rules on transfers. I always believed the Tulane coaches were the hardest workers during the summer leagues recruiting talent away from other programs. When they could no longer do this and the player had to sit a year after transferring, the decline began. Perhaps this is merely circumstantial...

all programs lose assistants, but again the timing of the decline is right. Who knows?

I will watch Kingston.

I think the transfer rule played a big role as well. No one brought in as many impact DI transfers as Tulane under Jones with the old rules. They continued to bring in quite a few DI transfers with the "new" rules, but program-changing players just weren't transferring anymore.

As far as Kingston goes, I'm willing to bet viewership of the MVC championship on ESPN3 is going to be much higher in the New Orleans area today than it would have been at almost any other time.

I believe it is also being shown on some Fox networks. It will be shown on delay on FSSW later tonight, I believe.

I've told this story before I recall one of Rice's first trips to Tulane after Jones was named the coach there. We had Jose Cruz Jr. for either his freshmen or sophomore season and Jones in half-jest (but half-serious mode too I believe) came over to the Rice bench during warm-ups and asked Chieto if he wanted to transfer to Tulane. I just thought it was very inappropriate even if it was a joke.

(05-24-2014 04:44 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I've told this story before I recall one of Rice's first trips to Tulane after Jones was named the coach there. We had Jose Cruz Jr. for either his freshmen or sophomore season and Jones in half-jest (but half-serious mode too I believe) came over to the Rice bench during warm-ups and asked Chieto if he wanted to transfer to Tulane. I just thought it was very inappropriate even if it was a joke.

I've heard stories like that about him as well. Was it Jones or Jim Schlossnagle that tried to recruit Brian Friday to transfer during the summer after the '05 season? I know it was one of the two but I forget which.

(05-24-2014 10:19 PM)jdh008 Wrote:  I've heard stories like that about him as well. Was it Jones or Jim Schlossnagle that tried to recruit Brian Friday to transfer during the summer after the '05 season? I know it was one of the two but I forget which.

Schlossnagle. TCU was off the Rice schedule for years afterwards.

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/201...d_bas.html

This Times-Picayune story from yesterday suggests Rice assistant Chris Rupp could be on a potential list for candidates.

(05-28-2014 06:49 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/201...d_bas.html

This Times-Picayune story from yesterday suggests Rice assistant Chris Rupp could be on a potential list for candidates.

[cue Maxwell Smart] Only missed it by, that much [end Max]

(05-28-2014 06:49 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/201...d_bas.html

This Times-Picayune story from yesterday suggests Rice assistant Chris Rupp could be on a potential list for candidates.

I believe Chris is head coach at Deer Park. Donnie Elliot is his pitching coach.

Looks like Tulane got Pierce to interview.

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/spo...ates-david

(06-07-2014 12:04 PM)13thOwl Wrote:  Looks like Tulane got Pierce to interview.

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/spo...ates-david

There's some interesting discussion on this topic going on over at YOGWF. The word is that Pierce is interested and basic parameters for a deal have been laid out, but Pierce wants, in writing some sort of guarantee that the administration will fully support the baseball program. I'm speculating here, but I'm assuming he's looking for the administration to help find ways to offer extra financial aid to recruits and things of that nature.

They've also interviewed Saint Louis U. head coach Darin Hendrickson and he's not a bad back-up candidate, in my opinion. What he's done there since 2008 is almost miraculous and even though Tulane historically is a much, much better baseball program than SLU, there are a lot of similarities between the two schools. He would come into that job with a pretty good idea of what it is going to take to win there.

In a way, we did.

Here's the newspaper article on Pierce's intro to the Tulane community ...

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/201...avi_3.html

Interesting quotes ... " He assured Dickson that he wasn't taking the Tulane job to tread water while waiting for Wayne Graham at Rice to retire. Pierce served nine years as a Rice assistant and was the Owls pitching coach from 2006-11."

"He said look I'm not coming here as a drive-by we talked about it and and then we came to an agreement once we decided this was the direction to go that that had to be an essential part. You're coming to restore and rebuild us back to prominence."

I guess SHSU will not be on our schedule as much in the future, or at least not a game to be as concerned about as in recent past. And would expect Tulane on our early season weekend schedule.

(06-13-2014 07:50 AM)jhruzek Wrote:  I guess SHSU will not be on our schedule as much in the future, or at least not a game to be as concerned about as in recent past. And would expect Tulane on our early season weekend schedule.

??? SHS was on our schedule as a mid-week home and home long before Coach Pierce was hired...and they were pretty good back then, as well.