Over the last few weeks, the recruiting prowess of Stansbury has started to sink in.

Transfer Malik Newman from MSST, the #1 guard from last year, and the best available transfer. We are in his final two with NC State. He visited here two weeks ago, and sources say it's almost a done deal for him to come to WKU.

Next are two players from Louisiana, who we are in the final two with LSU. After what happened at LSU last year, crystal ball predictions are indicating they BOTH will land at WKU. First is 5-Star 7ft center Mitchell Robinson, the #1 center in the class, and #14 overall. WKU recently hired his godfather Shammond Williams as an assistant, which is likely a big reason we are a favorite, along with the fact that Robinsons father played under Stansbury.

Second is 4-Star Galen Alexander, the #15 SG available and #66 player nationally. As mentioned above, it's between us and LSU, with crystal ball predictions indicating he will likely come to Western.

If all of this plays out like it should, WKU will have one of the best Mid-Major recruiting classes of all time, with Final Four talent in 2017. The Stansbury effect is real. Watch out CUSA.

WKU fans are the new UTEP fans.

It shows what a coach with contacts can do...

I does not mean a thing since its been 45 years since our last final 4.

But before Stanz came along WKU was not even in the discussion
for this type of talent.

(06-20-2016 10:36 AM)SigNuTopper Wrote:  If all of this plays out like it should, WKU will have one of the best Mid-Major recruiting classes of all time, with Final Four talent in 2017. The Stansbury effect is real. Watch out CUSA.

Even if you sign all those players, that seems a bit of a stretch.

The guy can recruit! And he appears to cover his tracks well.

These signings would be absurd. I can't even wrap my head around how big it would be to get one let alone all 3 of these players.

I would beyond happy if we just signed 1 of these guys.... Love the now we are UTEP fans comment...We have sat back and read multiple threads about everyone of their signings over the years, and we cannot mention we are in the running for a few of this guys? Let us have some excitement, the other guy was the most non exciting HC ever at WKU, now we have a real recruiter who is exciting the fan base...At least let us enjoy even being mentioned for some of these guys, helps out the conference too if we can sign a guy here or there rated this high....

Stans even if he strikes out on all 3 at least has WKU's name in the recruiting circles and that will help us big time in the long run, this guy is a magician and a salesman....No telling what he can do...Now WKU fans just need to hold up the other end and show up for this guy to build something special..

(06-20-2016 11:23 AM)CincyDave Wrote:  These signings would be absurd. I can't even wrap my head around how big it would be to get one let alone all 3 of these players.

Exactly what I was thinking! This is very impressive to be in the running for these guys.

Signing all three would definitely be at large bid talent at the very least.

This would be amazing for WKU and the conference if all 3 end up there.

The rest of CUSA better step it up big time if this happens. I hope it does, as it will show the rest of the conference that it is indeed possible.

(06-20-2016 12:07 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  I would beyond happy if we just signed 1 of these guys.... Love the now we are UTEP fans comment...We have sat back and read multiple threads about everyone of their signings over the years, and we cannot mention we are in the running for a few of this guys? Let us have some excitement, the other guy was the most non exciting HC ever at WKU, now we have a real recruiter who is exciting the fan base...At least let us enjoy even being mentioned for some of these guys, helps out the conference too if we can sign a guy here or there rated this high....

Settle down it was a joke. This conference needs all the basketball help it can get.

Thing I think people are glossing over is that we are the FAVORITE for all three of these guys. ALL THREE.

If we land all three, or even two, I see no way we retain Stansbury very long. A lot (most) of P5 schools can't even recruit at that level.

(06-20-2016 01:06 PM)SigNuTopper Wrote:  Thing I think people are glossing over is that we are the FAVORITE for all three of these guys. ALL THREE.

If we land all three, or even two, I see no way we retain Stansbury very long. A lot (most) of P5 schools can't even recruit at that level.

never know. Look how long Wichita State, Butler, and VCU held onto their coaches.

If Stansbury does big things, the money will be there. Not only in the form of NCAA credits, but also in the form of him having a favorable contract that pays him a lot of the ticket revenue. A big year or two from him and your attendance will explode, which in turn will boost his salary.

True. One guy on the WKU forums did some math, and Stans would make about 1.2mil if we average over 6,000, and about 1.5mil if we sellout for a season.

(06-20-2016 01:06 PM)SigNuTopper Wrote:  Thing I think people are glossing over is that we are the FAVORITE for all three of these guys. ALL THREE.

If we land all three, or even two, I see no way we retain Stansbury very long. A lot (most) of P5 schools can't even recruit at that level.

I hope he gets all 3. However, you don't have to worry about him leaving until he wins a lot of games with those guys. If that happens, and he should get hired away, the WKU fans will have had a lot of fun leading up to that point.

One thing in WKU's favor, should Stansbury strike gold while at WKU, is that he's already 57. If he has big success in 2-4 years, he'll be in his sixties by then. He's a Kentucky native and may decide to finish out his career here. A guy in his sixties is less likely to be as attractive to a major P5 program. OK...wishful thinking but it's worth thinking about.

This would be huge as it would elevate the rest of the conference imo.

Dont know who did the math but it's not close to being correct. Western sold $825.000 in tickets last year and Stansbury gets 50% of every ticket sold after $800,000

You can't just look at last years attendance numbers and go from there. While Attendance was in the 4,000 range a lot more SEASON tickets were bought and paid for...that is included in the $825,000. So my guess there were 750 to 1000 season tickets that were not used in that 4,000 number.

Lets go by the least of the two...brings the total up to 4750 and Diddle's listed Capacity of 7,326 which leaves 2576 that can buy a ticket. These will be mostly GA tickets and I will give them a value of $15 each (way over valued for most)

$38,640 a game * 17 = $656,880 x 50% means Stansbury would make a additional $328,440 a year with a sold out Diddle for all 17 games

But really it wouldn't be that much because if Diddle were to be sold out each night student attendance would need to be in the 1500 range minimal and more likely 2,000. Right now on average 500 max. So that 2576 number would go down to 1576 ....

Stansbury would pocket around $200,000 for the year on a sold out Diddle Arena and in my opinion that would be on the high side.

As for all 3 of these recruits I would be surprised if Western doesn't get the Go Son of our newest asst coach. As far as the other two...it would be like Clem Haskins is recruiting for Western again if he landed two or all three.

Some of these younger fans don't remember when Clem landed a top 20 player along with a top 50 transfer and two top 75-100 players.

As for the excitement of F4...fans get happy when they see any of our schools in the talk for top talent but even with those players....

Stansbury had just as good talent on a few of his teams and didn't sniff the sweet 16.

But on paper Western would have to be considered as a team that could make a deep deep run if we land those 3 players..JJ will be a Sr and Willie will be a Jr and have another year under his belt. Without those 3 highly ranked recruits...

Western will have the best returning frontcourt in the conference for 2017. If everyone stays. But if Stansbury gets picked off for a high paying job, next season...

it will take years to rebuild the Western program

I don't see any of those 3 sticking around for another coach and on top of that I don't see JJ playing for Western his Sr year (he will have his degree) playing for a new coach. If Willie has his degree he most likely will use the GT rule also.

So for Western's sake I hope Stansbury wins but he's here for at least two seasons.

If Western ever paid a coach anywhere close to what VCU, Butler or Wichita St paid their coach...it would hurt the sports program at Western. ALL SPORTS. Western does not have a extra million to 1.5 million laying around and if it comes from donations. Those donations will not be there when it comes time to pony up for a football coach. At least I don't think the deep pockets will double dip.

But it would be nice to have those problems...winning big

(06-20-2016 02:20 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Dont know who did the math but it's not close to being correct. Western sold $825.000 in tickets last year and Stansbury gets 50% of every ticket sold after $800,000

You can't just look at last years attendance numbers and go from there. While Attendance was in the 4,000 range a lot more SEASON tickets were bought and paid for...that is included in the $825,000. So my guess there were 750 to 1000 season tickets that were not used in that 4,000 number.

Lets go by the least of the two...brings the total up to 4750 and Diddle's listed Capacity of 7,326 which leaves 2576 that can buy a ticket. These will be mostly GA tickets and I will give them a value of $15 each (way over valued for most)

$38,640 a game * 17 = $656,880 x 50% means Stansbury would make a additional $328,440 a year with a sold out Diddle for all 17 games

But really it wouldn't be that much because if Diddle were to be sold out each night student attendance would need to be in the 1500 range minimal and more likely 2,000. Right now on average 500 max. So that 2576 number would go down to 1576 ....

Stansbury would pocket around $200,000 for the year on a sold out Diddle Arena and in my opinion that would be on the high side.

As for all 3 of these recruits I would be surprised if Western doesn't get the Go Son of our newest asst coach. As far as the other two...it would be like Clem Haskins is recruiting for Western again if he landed two or all three.

Some of these younger fans don't remember when Clem landed a top 20 player along with a top 50 transfer and two top 75-100 players.

As for the excitement of F4...fans get happy when they see any of our schools in the talk for top talent but even with those players....

Stansbury had just as good talent on a few of his teams and didn't sniff the sweet 16.

But on paper Western would have to be considered as a team that could make a deep deep run if we land those 3 players..JJ will be a Sr and Willie will be a Jr and have another year under his belt. Without those 3 highly ranked recruits...

Western will have the best returning frontcourt in the conference for 2017. If everyone stays. But if Stansbury gets picked off for a high paying job, next season...

it will take years to rebuild the Western program

I don't see any of those 3 sticking around for another coach and on top of that I don't see JJ playing for Western his Sr year (he will have his degree) playing for a new coach. If Willie has his degree he most likely will use the GT rule also.

So for Western's sake I hope Stansbury wins but he's here for at least two seasons.

If Western ever paid a coach anywhere close to what VCU, Butler or Wichita St paid their coach...it would hurt the sports program at Western. ALL SPORTS. Western does not have a extra million to 1.5 million laying around and if it comes from donations. Those donations will not be there when it comes time to pony up for a football coach. At least I don't think the deep pockets will double dip.

But it would be nice to have those problems...winning big

If you rack up tons of NCAA credits though, you can definitely leverage that into high coaching salaries. The great thing about NCAA credits is that they're paid out in 6 year increments, so if a school is really committed to keeping their coaches, they can give him virtually all of the NCAA credit value as additional salary to keep him around. If you play 3 games in the tournament, that's like $700,000 of extra money you can add to your coaches contract per year for 6 years.

It doesn't have to hurt other sports if your AD is disciplined in the way that money is used and doesn't go throwing it around to other programs and since it is paid in increments, it should alleviate short sighted decisions.

VCU wasn't exactly rolling in money before Shaka and his consistent success in the NCAA tournament. Maybe they were in a better financial spot than WKU since they really only had to focus on one revenue sport, but they were a CAA program with CAA donations.

VCU is not spending 8 million a year on football .

VCU does have a 31 million dollar budget to work with and I doubt they are losing state funds like Western has over the last 4 or 5 years...6 million just for 2017

Also let me ask a question...

what happens once the coach that is making 1.5 to 2 million a year starts to lose? You can bet the farm that if a coach has the power to get that type of money from a 'Western' they also will have the power to get a great buyout in their contract. First contract is the only time a school is mostly in control. Second one the winning coach has the upper hand. It's taken SIU almost 10 years to dig out from under a contract the school couldn't afford to buyout.

Stansbury is a great recruiter but so far in his career it's not lead to NCAA runs...or should I say RUN. Not one. Could happen but I sure wouldn't bet the health of your Sports Programs on it.