(03-13-2020 01:03 AM)NeptunianEmp Wrote:  

(03-12-2020 08:52 PM)Trod0 Wrote:  Please promote Menzies to HC.

(03-13-2020 12:36 AM)gleadley Wrote:  Majerle's firing honestly probably isn't really news to most of us here, but I've had several interactions where I found myself explaining why this a) isn't surprising and b) isn't the wrong call. As it turns out, a lot of casual Phoenix sports fans are more familiar with Dan as a Suns player than college basketball coach and, therefore, look at his record on paper and assume GCU made a mistake.

I respectfully disagree with those individuals, and look forward to whatever unclever derogatory rhyming name Aggies fans come up for the coach that GCU does hire.

Don't tell me the GCU fans haven't done the same thing to Jans?

I can say with absolute confidence and sincerity tell you that nobody I know uses unclever derogatory rhyming names when speaking of Chris Jans. Most people I know honestly don't speak of him at all. Maybe a joke or two about @$$ grabbing when he was hired, but that's about it.

Sports fandom or not, a constant drivel of nonsense intended to be insulting is not a normal way of a) relating to one another or b) referring to other human beings. But maybe that's just me though.

I don't think Aggie fans would have had a problem with Majerle if it wasn't for his arrogant constant pontificating about "being the next Gonzaga" or "best recruiting class ever" talk and also GCUs borderline communist North Korea propaganda promotions of the school. Majerle, Colangelo and Supreme Leader Mueller thought with all the money and the "best home court advantage in college basketball" that they were going to run all over the WAC and be nationally relevant in no time. Wrong.

(03-13-2020 12:36 AM)gleadley Wrote:  Majerle's firing honestly probably isn't really news to most of us here, but I've had several interactions where I found myself explaining why this a) isn't surprising and b) isn't the wrong call. As it turns out, a lot of casual Phoenix sports fans are more familiar with Dan as a Suns player than college basketball coach and, therefore, look at his record on paper and assume GCU made a mistake.

I respectfully disagree with those individuals, and look forward to whatever unclever derogatory rhyming name Aggies fans come up for the coach that GCU does hire.

I am seeing that on-line:

"Dan put GCU on the map!"
"Dan built a winning program!"
"Dan won so many games, how can you fire him?"

And then when I explain his record was built feasting on Buy games versus the dregs of DI (and lower) I get no response.

(03-13-2020 01:12 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(03-13-2020 12:36 AM)gleadley Wrote:  Majerle's firing honestly probably isn't really news to most of us here, but I've had several interactions where I found myself explaining why this a) isn't surprising and b) isn't the wrong call. As it turns out, a lot of casual Phoenix sports fans are more familiar with Dan as a Suns player than college basketball coach and, therefore, look at his record on paper and assume GCU made a mistake.

I respectfully disagree with those individuals, and look forward to whatever unclever derogatory rhyming name Aggies fans come up for the coach that GCU does hire.

I am seeing that on-line:

"Dan put GCU on the map!"
"Dan built a winning program!"
"Dan won so many games, how can you fire him?"

And then when I explain his record was built feasting on Buy games versus the dregs of DI (and lower) I get no response.

Sounds about right. I am thankful for the foundation Majerle laid at GCU & really feel no need to disparage him (not that you are). He's just not going to be the one who builds the house that stands on the foundation.

I am guessing those are the same kind of people who sent me screenshots of his record from Wikipedia last night, but couldn't point to which of those left hand numbers was the last significant win for the program (probably beating SDSU or NMSU at home in 2016-17).

Their Wikipedia pages also couldn't tell them GCU MBB's last win over a ranked opponent (there are none), last conference regular season championship (there are none), or last conference tournament championship. It's funny... I can find those things for a lot of other GCU athletic teams, but not the crown jewel of MBB.

(03-13-2020 01:41 PM)gleadley Wrote:  

(03-13-2020 01:12 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(03-13-2020 12:36 AM)gleadley Wrote:  Majerle's firing honestly probably isn't really news to most of us here, but I've had several interactions where I found myself explaining why this a) isn't surprising and b) isn't the wrong call. As it turns out, a lot of casual Phoenix sports fans are more familiar with Dan as a Suns player than college basketball coach and, therefore, look at his record on paper and assume GCU made a mistake.

I respectfully disagree with those individuals, and look forward to whatever unclever derogatory rhyming name Aggies fans come up for the coach that GCU does hire.

I am seeing that on-line:

"Dan put GCU on the map!"
"Dan built a winning program!"
"Dan won so many games, how can you fire him?"

And then when I explain his record was built feasting on Buy games versus the dregs of DI (and lower) I get no response.

Sounds about right. I am thankful for the foundation Majerle laid at GCU & really feel no need to disparage him (not that you are). He's just not going to be the one who builds the house that stands on the foundation.

I am guessing those are the same kind of people who sent me screenshots of his record from Wikipedia last night, but couldn't point to which of those left hand numbers was the last significant win for the program (probably beating SDSU or NMSU at home in 2016-17).

Their Wikipedia pages also couldn't tell them GCU MBB's last win over a ranked opponent (there are none), last conference regular season championship (there are none), or last conference tournament championship. It's funny... I can find those things for a lot of other GCU athletic teams, but not the crown jewel of MBB.

GCU is ambitious. If your criterion of beating a ranked team was met at a lesser WAC school the most likely result would be losing the coach to another school. The last time we did it (just barely, #25 Air Force by 2 pts, more than 15 years ago) our coach got an immediate offer from Oklahoma as an assistant and was gone at the end of the season.

Rick Pitino at GCU?

(03-14-2020 01:22 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Rick Pitino at GCU?

Yes please. He can recruit better than Dan, but unlike Dan he can really coach and develop the kids. He knows how to draw out the best... not just replace them with new talent.

And if people wonder about the optics of a Christian school hiring a guy with a past... Liberty University (considered the Evangelical Notre Dame) took a chance on Hugh Freeze. They’re playing excellent football and he put them on the map. So long as Rick makes some sort of statement I’d contrition and pledges to use the second chance to teach young men to learn from his mistakes etc. (like Hugh) it would be fine.

WE WANT RICK!!!!

(03-14-2020 01:22 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Rick Pitino at GCU?

That would be good for GCU and the WAC. I don’t know if Pitino would take the job, especially since Menzies was his assistant at Louisville. With a $5.3 million dollar budget, sellout crowds, great facilities and in a top TV market, GCU is not close to where they should be as a basketball school. They have a higher ceiling and they need a coach that can reach it. I am not sure that Menzies is that guy. GCU needs to get this hire right.

Pitino has been talked about for the Iona head coaching gig.

(03-14-2020 12:39 PM)NeptunianEmp Wrote:  Pitino has been talked about for the Iona head coaching gig.

SMC Randy Bennett is/was on campus in the last handful of hours according to twitter.

(03-14-2020 03:46 PM)Lopes87 Wrote:  SMC Randy Bennett is/was on campus in the last handful of hours according to twitter.

That could set off some dominoes falling. In 2015, Bennett said in an interview: “It took a while to build ours up and we had to get our resources and commitments to get to the level that our basketball program was and I think Grand Canyon has the resources and commitments where they need them, and the basketball program just has to follow.”

Bennett signed a ten year deal in 2017. I wonder what the buyout on that deal is? If he left St. Mary's, I wonder if they would go after Rick Croy, who was an assistant at St. Mary's from 2010 through 2013 before taking the CBU job. I wonder if Croy would be interested? CBU long term might actually be the better job.

Bennett would be smart to leave SMC. Has to be rough finishing second all the time to Gonzaga.

(03-14-2020 05:16 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  Bennett would be smart to leave SMC. Has to be rough finishing second all the time to Gonzaga.

How would he feel finishing second to NMSU?

(03-14-2020 08:08 PM)PojoaquePosse Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:16 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  Bennett would be smart to leave SMC. Has to be rough finishing second all the time to Gonzaga.

How would he feel finishing second to NMSU?

NMSU is not Gonzaga. GCU could overtake NMSU at some point. NMSU hasn’t won a NCAA tournament game in 27 years. They’re not some unstoppable force by any means.

(03-14-2020 09:07 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 08:08 PM)PojoaquePosse Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:16 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  Bennett would be smart to leave SMC. Has to be rough finishing second all the time to Gonzaga.

How would he feel finishing second to NMSU?

NMSU is not Gonzaga. GCU could overtake NMSU at some point. NMSU hasn’t won a NCAA tournament game in 27 years. They’re not some unstoppable force by any means.

We dominate the WAC.

(03-14-2020 09:07 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  NMSU is not Gonzaga. GCU could overtake NMSU at some point. NMSU hasn’t won a NCAA tournament game in 27 years. They’re not some unstoppable force by any means.

lmao.

NMSU is not "unstoppable". But at its present strength, they are a borderline top 25-40 program. It has been the WAC that has dragged down NMSU's SOS and pitted NMSU against a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament; a daunting task for most mid-majors. GCU's basketball budget is only half of Gonzaga's budget. So, even with a coach like Randy Bennett, GCU would not be a top 10 program like Gonzaga; and would be hard pressed to overtake NMSU for the WAC title consistently. That's as long as NMSU has a coach of Jans' caliber running the show. In the past, many WAC fans thought NMSU would take a drop in strength after Bhullar left; again after Mullings graduated; again after Siakam left for the pros & Menzies left for UNLV; and, again after Weir took the UNM job. Each time, NMSU's basketball program has proved to be very resilient and in fact getting stronger. If someone wants to take the crown away from NMSU, they will need to elevate their stature; instead of expecting NMSU to drop down. NMSU went 16-0 in the WAC with an injured team. Imagine what NMSU could have been with AJ Harris, Clayton Henry, and Wilfried Likayi all being healthy and on this season's roster.

Remember NMSU got as high as 26th in the polls in 2018 before the UVU, SU road trip.