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We didn't blow it with Mike Anderson. We just didn't have the power to buck the BOT back then.

Even a willing BOT wasn't going to get Mike Anderson to stay. He saw what CUSA was becoming and knew he could do better. It's no coincidence that he left the year after Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette left. His style of play wasn't going to work for ever either with the type of talent he was able to get to UAB. Once he got to Missouri and Arkansas, he was able to recruit better talent and alter his style of basketball. His nephew, Demarre Carroll, a legitimate NBA player wasn't willing to play for him at UAB.

Disagree. You talk to Mike? Just curious.

Also his style of play is perfect for the type of talent we can get at UAB and I know coaches that will back me up in that.

(11-24-2017 12:05 AM)PTBlazer Wrote:  I'm sorry MB, I don't buy that. Butler, Witchita State, etc. aren't power 5 schools and they don't seem to be on the "wrong side of the equation." Eshan was a hire made by the players and a disinterested AD. And it is showing.

I believe it is much easier to compete at the highest levels of Basketball than Football, and as a student when we were ranked #1 in America I am really disappointed that we continue to accept mediocrity in basketball.

Most of the mid-major schools that are consistently good (Wichita, Gonzaga, VCU, Butler, etc) don't play D-1 football. There's only so much money to go around. In the south and in Alabama specifically, we need to play D-1 football to be relevant but it takes a lot of money. It's also what drives the bus for athletics as a whole nationally.

So the strategic decision is to spend more on football because it's what matters in the south and what matters more in terms of athletic program prestige. But that money has to come from somewhere, which leaves less to invest in basketball.

Luckily the football investment is producing results and I think it will continue to as long as Clark is around. The best way to help basketball in the long-term is to invest in football, get the stadium built, and hope football's success and facility upgrades get us in a better conference at the next realignment.

Also, we are TRYING to invest in basketball by raising funds for a basketball practice facility as we speak, but it's hard to motivate big money to give when the results have been mediocre. Our people/the business community are also probably tapped out from the football giving.

(11-24-2017 11:05 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Even a willing BOT wasn't going to get Mike Anderson to stay. He saw what CUSA was becoming and knew he could do better. It's no coincidence that he left the year after Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette left. His style of play wasn't going to work for ever either with the type of talent he was able to get to UAB. Once he got to Missouri and Arkansas, he was able to recruit better talent and alter his style of basketball. His nephew, Demarre Carroll, a legitimate NBA player wasn't willing to play for him at UAB.

CUSA 2.0 was good enough for Calipari to stay at Memphis several years. He stayed because Memphis paid him well. We'll never know but I would love to have seen Anderson treated like Jerod Haase after he had his one good week. UAB drug out the extension negotiations with Anderson just like they tried to do with Clark. The difference now is that UAB boosters and fans have collectively grown a pair and don't meekly go along with the administration like the previous 20+ years. They make their feelings known through the press or other means. If our boosters had been a strong independent voice for UAB athletics in 2006, we might have been able to keep Mike Anderson in and Neal Callaway out. Better late than never for football but we still badly need a UAB Basketball Foundation.

Watts showed with the Haase raise that UAB has the $ when they want to have it. That's why I say our basketball program is stuck in neutral until he is no longer our president.

(11-24-2017 11:56 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(11-24-2017 11:05 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Even a willing BOT wasn't going to get Mike Anderson to stay. He saw what CUSA was becoming and knew he could do better. It's no coincidence that he left the year after Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette left. His style of play wasn't going to work for ever either with the type of talent he was able to get to UAB. Once he got to Missouri and Arkansas, he was able to recruit better talent and alter his style of basketball. His nephew, Demarre Carroll, a legitimate NBA player wasn't willing to play for him at UAB.

CUSA 2.0 was good enough for Calipari to stay at Memphis several years. He stayed because Memphis paid him well. We'll never know but I would love to have seen Anderson treated like Jerod Haase after he had his one good week. UAB drug out the extension negotiations with Anderson just like they tried to do with Clark. The difference now is that UAB boosters and fans have collectively grown a pair and don't meekly go along with the administration like the previous 20+ years. They make their feelings known through the press or other means. If our boosters had been a strong independent voice for UAB athletics in 2006, we might have been able to keep Mike Anderson in and Neal Callaway out. Better late than never for football but we still badly need a UAB Basketball Foundation.

Watts showed with the Haase raise that UAB has the $ when they want to have it. That's why I say our basketball program is stuck in neutral until he is no longer our president.

Cmon, Haase got the money not because UAB had the money but because Watts had just axed football. He thought that would be a PR boost, showing "hey, look what we can do when we don't have football". He would not have gotten that raise if football was still around.

I agree that basketball is going to need some financial infusion to have a chance at moving ahead. Calipari stayed at Memphis because his program was a national program and not a CUSA program. As he saw that going away, he got out of town. The other schools mentioned in this thread, Wichita State, Gonzaga, VCU, etc pay their coaches as much as any P5 school. We can compete in CUSA at our current pay levels, but that is it as long as we are paying what we are paying.