(05-31-2020 05:49 PM)emu79 Wrote: (05-31-2020 04:17 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote: (05-31-2020 09:16 AM)emu79 Wrote: (05-31-2020 09:06 AM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote: (05-30-2020 04:29 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote: My old Ann Arbor News contacts (when they covered EMU) informed me that Milton was a "walking NCAA violation". Apparently Milt had a history at Minnesota before EMU and his tenure at EMU had a foul fragrance as well.
He destroyed the Braun program. Inherited a great team and had a new arena on the way. But he couldn't recruit.
I don't agree, he brought in Adam Hess, Antonio Gates, Ryan Prillman, Calvin Warner and CJ Grantham 1999-2000. Hess averaged almost 10 points as a true frosh and Grantham averaged almost 9 points as a true frosh. Of course after that season, Gates, Warner Hess and Grantham all left under Boone. That year he was 15-13. Next year under Boone we were 3-25. This doesn't mean Barnes was a good person and we should have kept him.
Yes, he brought in some good players in 99-00, but he brought in nothing in 97 and 98. As soon as Boykins and Co were gone the team went south fast. I think they only won about 5 games in the 98-99 season. Barnes' failure to recruit with a red hot team and a new arena launched the program into a rebuild mode that feels like we're still getting out of.
He still won 15 games with 2 true frosh and one sophomore and then we fired him. Our hole was dug by Boone who cost the program scholarships.
As Jerry has been hinting. There were problems in the EMU MBB program during the time of Barnes.
Barnes was let go because of these problems. I think the 'technical' terms was 'not renewed.'
Players around 2000 left because of these problems. I don't want to say more publicly. It is believed that because of these problems they left regardless of the stated reason for leaving.
Boone walked into a very bad situation. What was publicly known and was known by insiders were very different.
Dr. Shelton made two huge mistakes, first doing away with "Hurons" rather than trying to keep it and changing the logo. The second was hiring Barnes.
In those days I knew parents, etc. Believe it or not, one who knew me, called me at home and discussed the problems in the program.
(P.S. I have a signed copy of Sports Illustrated with the article on Boykins. Got it signed in Dec. 1997 (up at Syracuse) by Earl, Derrick, James, Nink, Jon, etc. Some day it belongs in Halle Library or the Convo.