This was supposed to be one of our best teams. We had more shooters than we ever had. Of course James got hurt, but after twelve seasons we should have built up enough depth to take care of injuries, since everyone has them

The curse of Chris lives on. He gives Steve a year extention after all those bad seasons. And now it seems as though the paying fans might have to live with another of his bad decisions.

Chasse needs to encourage Steve to resign, with a payout to honor his contract, whatever it is. I don't think it would be fair to fire him at this point, but he could be persuaded to resign with dignity now so the fans can see that long needed changes are taking place. Otherwise, we lose more fans, and you guys who have decided to sit it out this year won't come back. On the surface, the decision seems easy. I'm sure the only holdup is the money needed to make this happen. It's just a bad situation all around.

(01-25-2015 10:37 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  This was supposed to be one of our best teams. We had more shooters than we ever had. Of course James got hurt, but after twelve seasons we should have built up enough depth to take care of injuries, since everyone has them

The curse of Chris lives on. He gives Steve a year extention after all those bad seasons. And now it seems as though the paying fans might have to live with another of his bad decisions.

Chasse needs to encourage Steve to resign, with a payout to honor his contract, whatever it is. I don't think it would be fair to fire him at this point, but he could be persuaded to resign with dignity now so the fans can see that long needed changes are taking place. Otherwise, we lose more fans, and you guys who have decided to sit it out this year won't come back. On the surface, the decision seems easy. I'm sure the only holdup is the money needed to make this happen. It's just a bad situation all around.

So who thought we had our best team in years? Dummies like me and you (no offense to you). Most sites had us finishing 6th, which of course is better than we will finish. But most fans generally tend to overestimate their teams. Evening when we were up yesterday, I never felt comfortable because UTA simply looked bigger, more talented, and more athletic than we did.

Maybe this is our best team ever. But maybe the other teams are just better.

Ask UCA. We could be 0-17. If an exodus of players, follows Steve's firing, that's how bad it could get. Remember Sidney's 4 win season- and I don't recall any players transferring when he was hired. Just what often happens the first year after a coaching change at our level.

I still think we will have some talent coming back due to the players already having redshirted or being upper classmen. So if we were to hire the right coach, and he could bring in a few Jucos, we may be okay. I really thought Pennell was an excellent hire at UCA, and he may well turn out to be. But, it is a major rebuild.

I'm willing to take the risk of going 0fer next season with a new coach. If conque is really serious about rebranding our program then it will have to start with a new men's coach otherwise we just putting lipstick on a pig.

(01-25-2015 10:55 AM)mjs Wrote:  So who thought we had our best team in years? Dummies like me and you (no offense to you). Most sites had us finishing 6th, which of course is better than we will finish. But most fans generally tend to overestimate their teams. Evening when we were up yesterday, I never felt comfortable because UTA simply looked bigger, more talented, and more athletic than we did.

It would be wise to never overestimate Shields' teams. In fact I never overestimate Foley's teams. As well coached as Foley's teams are, it all boils down to how well 18-21 kids perform, and how good the opposition is. If he's got all the parts, Foley's girls are going to be good, if not, they'll probably be average. I don't think any of you can recall me predicting records of either team before the season starts, or how good some recruit is going to be before I see them play a few times. Learned long ago to not listen to what our coaches say about any recruits. I've never seen a coach say that one of his recruits is not very good. In fact I shudder when I read where one of our recruits averaged three or four points per game as a Juco. Might as well say, "he not very good."

That said, I haven't seen our guys play but three times this year, and I like most of you, thought that they'd be pretty good too. I know we've got more good shooters than I've ever seen on any of Shields teams. Haven't seen them enough to give good reasons why they aren't any better than they'd shown, but my guess would be that we've been out recruited as usual. And some of it could be coaching. Just looking at box scores, I'd also guess that Josh isn't getting enough minutes. That is coaching. Several of these games could have been won if we'd hit one or two more baskets, and he's the best we've got, but he can't score sitting on his ass.

I met the new AD in the lobby with all the fans. It was noisy, band playing etc. shook hands and wished him well. If given a decent free rein, I have no doubt he will bring about a big change quite soon. As mjs once pointed out, he knows the situation. He knows UALR sports does not have built-in civic pride and loyalty in Central Arkansas and I'm sure he wants to change that. Another thought I have maybe misguided is that resentment of Trojan Sports by razorback supporters has diminished somewhat. At least we can hope so. My personal wish is that plans and promotions etc will be directed toward the young. Would love to see both end zones filled with excited students, fulltime, parttime, on-line whatever having a good time. End of sermon.

(01-25-2015 07:45 PM)DollarBill Wrote:  I met the new AD in the lobby with all the fans. It was noisy, band playing etc. shook hands and wished him well. If given a decent free rein, I have no doubt he will bring about a big change quite soon. As mjs once pointed out, he knows the situation. He knows UALR sports does not have built-in civic pride and loyalty in Central Arkansas and I'm sure he wants to change that. Another thought I have maybe misguided is that resentment of Trojan Sports by razorback supporters has diminished somewhat. At least we can hope so. My personal wish is that plans and promotions etc will be directed toward the young. Would love to see both end zones filled with excited students, fulltime, parttime, on-line whatever having a good time. End of sermon.

No doubt you're right about this Gene. There is nothing to fear at all from the Trojans. There was a couple of years that quite a few basketball fans, and some hog fans that had seen both play, thought that the Trojans could have beaten the hogs. Hell, the only thing hog fans might have to worry about losing to the Trojans in now would be women's basketball, volleyball, and maybe bass fishing(if those guys haven't graduated). I'm sure most hog fans think we're a joke, except maybe in women's basketball and volleyball. And, really we are pretty much.

(01-25-2015 07:45 PM)DollarBill Wrote:  I met the new AD in the lobby with all the fans. It was noisy, band playing etc. shook hands and wished him well. If given a decent free rein, I have no doubt he will bring about a big change quite soon. As mjs once pointed out, he knows the situation. He knows UALR sports does not have built-in civic pride and loyalty in Central Arkansas and I'm sure he wants to change that. Another thought I have maybe misguided is that resentment of Trojan Sports by razorback supporters has diminished somewhat. At least we can hope so. My personal wish is that plans and promotions etc will be directed toward the young. Would love to see both end zones filled with excited students, fulltime, parttime, on-line whatever having a good time. End of sermon.

Yep, that will happen when we aren't any good. Nothing to worry about then. Wait until the men's program is rolling, and an instate player is "considering" going to UALR over the hogs. Then you will see some anger and resentment. Like LRTrojan likes to say "We need to stay in our 'place'".

(01-25-2015 02:45 PM)mjs Wrote:  Ask UCA. We could be 0-17. If an exodus of players, follows Steve's firing, that's how bad it could get. Remember Sidney's 4 win season- and I don't recall any players transferring when he was hired. Just what often happens the first year after a coaching change at our level.

I still think we will have some talent coming back due to the players already having redshirted or being upper classmen. So if we were to hire the right coach, and he could bring in a few Jucos, we may be okay. I really thought Pennell was an excellent hire at UCA, and he may well turn out to be. But, it is a major rebuild.

What makes you think that there would be a mass exodus? Didn't happen when Sidney was hired, and didn't happen when Sidney left(Porter won 18 games with that same bunch). By the way, how many left when Kestenbaum was fired and Newell came in? I have no idea since I never saw Kestenbaum's team play, and I don't remember Newell going 0-fer his first year. Must be the strategy of the Shields fan club, try to scare the hell out of what few fans that are left, by telling them that if Shields gets fired, all the players will leave and we'll lose all our games next year.

(01-25-2015 08:44 PM)LRTrojan Wrote:  

(01-25-2015 02:45 PM)mjs Wrote:  Ask UCA. We could be 0-17. If an exodus of players, follows Steve's firing, that's how bad it could get. Remember Sidney's 4 win season- and I don't recall any players transferring when he was hired. Just what often happens the first year after a coaching change at our level.

I still think we will have some talent coming back due to the players already having redshirted or being upper classmen. So if we were to hire the right coach, and he could bring in a few Jucos, we may be okay. I really thought Pennell was an excellent hire at UCA, and he may well turn out to be. But, it is a major rebuild.

What makes you think that there would be a mass exodus? Didn't happen when Sidney was hired, and didn't happen when Sidney left(Porter won 18 games with that same bunch). By the way, how many left when Kestenbaum was fired and Newell came in? I have no idea since I never saw Kestenbaum's team play, and I don't remember Newell going 0-fer his first year. Must be the strategy of the Shields fan club, try to scare the hell out of what few fans that are left, by telling them that if Shields gets fired, all the players will leave and we'll lose all our games next year.

A bunch were run off. Newell kept Daron Hodges and Myron Jackson. Maybe some others I can't recall off-hand. He brought in a bunch of Jucos that really jelled his second year.

No one, I can recall, left when Sidney resigned. That was because we had an internal hire. Kids usually stay if an assistant, especially if he recruited them, is hired when the head coach leaves. Inside thinks most will leave. I don't think that many will because we have several kids who have redshirted and several seniors. Most of those have little option, other than staying, unless they want to go down to DII. A new coach will almost surely run some guys off. I never like that, but that's a dirty part of the business which is unavoidable in today's "win at all costs" and "win immediately" society.

We have three underclassmen and three seniors. The rest are all juniors. If they don't drop to d2, which they could, they will likely have no place to go and stay.