Attractive job when a bad team draws that attendance.

(03-13-2019 09:09 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Attractive job when a bad team draws that attendance.

not to mention our winning tradition of 13 MAC regular season titles, 6 MAC tournament titles, a Sweet 16 appearance, and an Elite 8 appearance. plus great facilities, beautiful campus, in addition to the strong fan base. i would think a lot of guys would want this position. we need someone who can take us back to the days of winning titles again. i like Saul but i think this is a good thing for the program.

(03-13-2019 09:15 AM)bobcat_backer Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 09:09 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Attractive job when a bad team draws that attendance.

not to mention our winning tradition of 13 MAC regular season titles, 6 MAC tournament titles, a Sweet 16 appearance, and an Elite 8 appearance. plus great facilities, beautiful campus, in addition to the strong fan base. i would think a lot of guys would want this position. we need someone who can take us back to the days of winning titles again. i like Saul but i think this is a good thing for the program.

Clearly ... this is the product of a poorly informed president and very extremely weak athletic director who could not/did not??? stand up for his own hire.

If this was an assistant who did not pan out in five years, maybe. But this is a head coach with a track record, before Ohio and at Ohio. This is very reactive ...

And in the long run here is what's going to happen.

Lots of transfers ...

A coach who wants to 'change the culture' ??? ...

A new AD/president ...

Rinse, repeat.

(03-13-2019 10:09 AM)cleveland Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 09:15 AM)bobcat_backer Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 09:09 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Attractive job when a bad team draws that attendance.

not to mention our winning tradition of 13 MAC regular season titles, 6 MAC tournament titles, a Sweet 16 appearance, and an Elite 8 appearance. plus great facilities, beautiful campus, in addition to the strong fan base. i would think a lot of guys would want this position. we need someone who can take us back to the days of winning titles again. i like Saul but i think this is a good thing for the program.

Clearly ... this is the product of a poorly informed president and very extremely weak athletic director who could not/did not??? stand up for his own hire.

If this was an assistant who did not pan out in five years, maybe. But this is a head coach with a track record, before Ohio and at Ohio. This is very reactive ...

And in the long run here is what's going to happen.

Lots of transfers ...

A coach who wants to 'change the culture' ??? ...

A new AD/president ...

Rinse, repeat.

i couldn't disagree with you more.

I don't think you'll find many people who truly disliked Saul in Ohio's fan base but for many reasons, some of which may have been out of his control, his teams just weren't getting it done in the MAC.

I think he could be a successful coach somewhere but maybe his ceiling is a lower mid-major like he was at North Dakota State.

A little surprised. Couple 20+ win seasons I thought would buy him more time than just 2 seasons barely below .500

He failed to send a team to Cleveland in 3 out of his 5 years. That might be acceptable at some MAC schools who don't care much about basketball, but that's not going to be acceptable at Ohio who is one of the bigger basketball brands in the MAC.

80-71 record in 5 years at Ohio should never be acceptable. Good on OU for canning him. Your fan base deserves better.

Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

(03-13-2019 12:58 PM)Copy Cat Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

So fellow Ohio fans and Mac fans, should WMU fire Steve Hawkins?

(03-13-2019 01:21 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  So fellow Ohio fans and Mac fans, should WMU fire Steve Hawkins?

It’s kind of apples and oranges. First off, you’d have to buy out a year of his contract, which is politically a tougher and tougher sell in times of soaring tuition and high student fees for MAC schools. That’s probably what gave Phillips this past year. Second, with 15 seasons in, Hawk probably has a lot more goodwill built up. At least he went to the tournament twice and the NIT once. The trips weren’t frequent, but at least they happened (unlike at Ohio).

(03-13-2019 01:21 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 12:58 PM)Copy Cat Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

So fellow Ohio fans and Mac fans, should WMU fire Steve Hawkins?

I think there's four coaches that deserve to be on the hot seat this year: Hawkins, Phillips, Murphy, and Whitford with Murphy and Phillips being the most deserving to see the door this year.

I don't think anyone expected anything from WMU unlike the other three teams this year, but I don't know why that should count as something in favor of Hawkins. WMU was a let down in Wilder's senior year and outside of Flowers who is admittedly a good player it doesn't look like they did much to reload to be competitive next year either.

Honestly he reminds me a lot of Reggie Witherspoon. He'll rarely put either the best or the worst team out on the floor in the conference but is that good enough for WMU fans?

(03-13-2019 01:21 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 12:58 PM)Copy Cat Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

So fellow Ohio fans and Mac fans, should WMU fire Steve Hawkins?

And many EMU fans want Murphy's scalp.

I think it is hard to fire him (Murphy has one year remaining on his extended contract) who won 11 and 9 games his last two seasons, including almost advancing to the finals last year.

EMU isn't an attractive job. Unless EMU plans to ramp up its basketball budget, I think they're best to just keep Murphy. He's at least kept them some what relevant in the MAC.

The reason Phillips is so bad is because OU is heavily committed to fielding a competitive basketball team and the fan support is there to support. Phillips, despite being given resources that Murphy only could wish he had, failed to deliver.

(03-13-2019 04:03 PM)kreed5120 Wrote:  EMU isn't an attractive job. Unless EMU plans to ramp up its basketball budget, I think they're best to just keep Murphy. He's at least kept them some what relevant in the MAC.

The reason Phillips is so bad is because OU is heavily committed to fielding a competitive basketball team and the fan support is there to support. Phillips, despite being given resources that Murphy only could wish he had, failed to deliver.

you're absolutely right.

(03-13-2019 01:21 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 12:58 PM)Copy Cat Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

So fellow Ohio fans and Mac fans, should WMU fire Steve Hawkins?

I was thinking he might go on his own terms. Not sure how old he is but he’s been around a long time, had a solid career with nothing more to prove and might just step down since next year doesn’t look a lot better.

(03-13-2019 01:51 PM)GoBullsGo Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 01:21 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 12:58 PM)Copy Cat Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

So fellow Ohio fans and Mac fans, should WMU fire Steve Hawkins?

I think there's four coaches that deserve to be on the hot seat this year: Hawkins, Phillips, Murphy, and Whitford with Murphy and Phillips being the most deserving to see the door this year.

I don't think anyone expected anything from WMU unlike the other three teams this year, but I don't know why that should count as something in favor of Hawkins. WMU was a let down in Wilder's senior year and outside of Flowers who is admittedly a good player it doesn't look like they did much to reload to be competitive next year either.

Honestly he reminds me a lot of Reggie Witherspoon. He'll rarely put either the best or the worst team out on the floor in the conference but is that good enough for WMU fans?

You forgot about Montgomery.

(03-13-2019 12:58 PM)Copy Cat Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

That kind of what I heard. Good guy, but didn't bring in athletes who could compete with the Bulls of the world...

(03-13-2019 01:21 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 12:58 PM)Copy Cat Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t know how you defend the results. He was an exceptional person and brought in high-character kids – many of whom were not ready for Division I, let alone an improving MAC. He was 10 games under .500 in MAC play and was last in the division in his fifth year. And there was no buyout. How anyone can question this is beyond me.

So fellow Ohio fans and Mac fans, should WMU fire Steve Hawkins?

Sounds like Hawkins might retire out.

Do it with class.

Most successful MAC coaches have ties to the conference or Midwest.

Phillips did not fit that mold.