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Looks like WMU hired Clayton Bates as the next coach. Saw it on twitter as reported by Seth Berry.

Only a two year deal?!?? Wtf! C'mon!

(03-28-2020 08:17 PM)flushtheherd Wrote:  Looks like WMU hired Clayton Bates as the next coach. Saw it on twitter as reported by Seth Berry.

I’m disappointed, but I want Coach Bates to prove me wrong and succeed. I’m glad TK will be with Western a few more years.

(03-28-2020 08:20 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  Only a two year deal?!?? Wtf! C'mon!

Maybe they leveled with him that his salary is pretty "cheap" now, but will give it 2 years and revisit it in 2022, when the economy and education system itself becomes clearer?

I dunno... gotta figure this global crisis is really influencing all this. I doubt the salary and contract term, let alone the hire itself, would've been the same if corona wasn't burning through the world.

Big boys money-makers like UM and MSU are probably immune to this stuff, but the smaller programs like ours have to be nervous.

Hiring freeze at WMU probably also a factor? Bad look to hire a basketball coach for $400,000 when the school is telling employees they have to take unpaid leave.

I feel for you all. ******* it I want MAC basketball to be great again.

Obviously, I'm disappointed my guy didn't get a look, but a big congrats to Coach Bates. I'll enjoy following the Broncos this year (if we ever get back to normalcy). I certainly wish WMU and Coach Bates the best!

GO PIOS!

(03-28-2020 08:56 PM)holybovine Wrote:  I feel for you all. ******* it I want MAC basketball to be great again.

Thank you. But quite honestly and obviously, we've all got bigger things to worry about...

Yawn. I wonder if Hawk is interested in being an assistant.

KB needs to go. Period. She mailed it in and is currently using the Covid thing as the reason.

That would have made sense waited late into the summer. She’s literally just failing at everything right now. Get her out!

I really hope he does well and is successful but this story doesn’t paint a good picture what so ever about the leadership at this university.

The virus impacted the search? Ridiculous. Use video conferencing. It’s 2020, everywhere and everyone in the world utilizes this technology.

Then on top of that the school pretty much admitted in its press release this was a cost cutting measure and acted like this was a positive thing. Beyond bush league.

This is a new low for WMU athletics and the university in general. Piss poor leadership. I feel bad for Clayton that he is being tossed into this dumpster fire. I hope he crushes it and leaves.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket...ted-search

(03-28-2020 11:21 PM)Flashboski Wrote:  I really hope he does well and is successful but this story doesn’t paint a good picture what so ever about the leadership at this university.

The virus impacted the search? Ridiculous. Use video conferencing. It’s 2020, everywhere and everyone in the world utilizes this technology.

Then on top of that the school pretty much admitted in its press release this was a cost cutting measure and acted like this was a positive thing. Beyond bush league.

This is a new low for WMU athletics and the university in general. Piss poor leadership. I feel bad for Clayton that he is being tossed into this dumpster fire. I hope he crushes it and leaves.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket...ted-search

Boom. Exactly.

There is so much going on right now that feels like a university just trying to tread water. This is literally the equivalent of the Lester hire. Easily done and based more on accounting than logic.

Underwhelming hire, but if it is true that the University is on a hiring freeze, then KB had no other choice except for maybe Shane Clipfell.

(03-28-2020 11:31 PM)jubbasubba Wrote:  Underwhelming hire, but if it is true that the University is on a hiring freeze, then KB had no other choice except for maybe Shane Clipfell.

Clipfell is literally one of the best coaches we have... working diligently under all the cost cutting and still graduating great athletes. He’s the Hawk of womens basketball... I just hope he stays.

But

You need to find ways to fund the MBB team... or you need to find a flamboyant coach who can light up alum donors! KB struck lightning in a bottle with PJ and for some reason learned NOTHING from it. PJ was building that program financially as a salesman. It was working!

What the F with these hires of old tire rubber. Get an energetic program growing lighting rod. Oh wait.. that’s too risky. We just landed in last place with a 17 year coach. Am I missing something?

Only explanation this is because of budget cuts and loss of revenue from NCAA tournament. Not to mention university's suspension of external hires during pandemic.

Bates is a "stop-gap" choice.

Either that or administration REALLY doesn't care about men's basketball.

Nevertheless, hope he can get us back into contention in MAC-West in next two years.

My thought is Kathy punted. A 2 year deal gives her replacement room to work. Clayton knows the scene and is loyal to WMU. He’s not going to embarrass us and is respected in the league. I’m very curious to see how he presents in the lead role. He’s getting a chance to be a D1 head, time will show if the fit is right.

The next big thing is, who replaces Kathy?

I'm going to do my best to avoid the Basketball section till the season starts again. I get the feeling it's just going to be all negative here till we rake up some wins. (Crazy how football & basketball sections are consistently Negative Nellies but you can't say one negative thing about hockey in the Hockey section)


My thoughts: I understand completely if university put a freeze on external hires. Longer you go w/out a coach, worse that is. I'd much have preferred Bates over a P5 assistant, except for a couple WMU alumni. Bronco Basketball was generally good, not great, under Hawkins. If Bates can rebuild us to at least what a typical year was for Hawkins, I will have considered this a good hire. Remember: we're last in the MAC. Let's judge him the first couple years on can we climb out of the cellar, then we can complain we're not winning the MAC. I think it's possible the Marietta coach would've been in over his head; Bates won't be. Ultimately, I want to wait & see how Bates does.

Hello all,
Coach Hawkins wife here. I know it may not be the right thing to get on a message board and express my feelings but I just feel compelled to share some information with all of the very passionate and loyal Bronco basketball fans. I may get criticized for doing such but I thought it was best to put my name out there instead of doing anonymously. I was very entrenched in many aspects of Bronco Basketball the past 12 years.

First of all, thank you all for caring about the team. With that said, I know not all of you were fans of my husband and that’s okay. I understand that. It comes with with the business.

First, to defend the past two years, what I would like to share is some information that I feel has been overlooked. It’s not a secret the team really struggled the past few years but there are reasons. Not excuses but reasons. Mainly, there was an incredible bout of just plain bad luck. A season can be very fragile! 3 years ago, they won 10 games in a row and went from last place to first place in the west. Had Reggie Jones and Bryce Moore not transferred (which is a huge problem in college basketball now and WMU is below the national average in transfers) they would have had 5 seniors this year with Jared, Adida, Reggie, Bryce and Brandon. Last year they had 3 players that never played a minute due to injuries. That’s 1/4 of the team. The past two years could have looked a lot different as they no longer are a young, inexperienced team but more of a veteran team and those are the teams that thrive in the MAC. All of those things were out of anyones control. 3 years ago at the end of the year had they beat CMU they become the 3 seed and go right to Cleveland, instead Brandon Johnson goes down with an injury, Mike Flowers isn’t there because his mother passed away, Seth is playing on an injured ankle and Josh Davis with an injured wrist and they lose the game and don’t advance to Cleveland. This year, Squeaky goes down with a season ending injury and again they lose another veteran, starting player and already are ranked 299 out of 335 in experience. They were young, only 2 seniors. It all was just a string of very bad luck and series of unforeseeable events. Unfortunately, it cost the team a lot of possible wins. Next years team will be a veteran team and has a real shot at being great. Unfortunately, we won’t be around to see it.

I know that 2 MAC wins, 2 tournament appearances and 8 West titles in 17 years doesn’t impress many on this board but I would venture a guess that EMU, CMU, NIU, Ball State and Toledo don’t feel this way. I know the team did their very best and fought hard. I’m sorry that wasn’t good enough for some. Hopefully someone new can come in and do better.

As far as my husband goes, it has been a very tough time. For anyone that wished he would get fired, I remind you that there is a pandemic, a recession and the sports world is shut down and we have a 7, 8 and 14 year old to support. Please have a heart. Steve loves his players and I feel bad for so many of his past players that called WMU their second home because of Steve.

Lastly, as for Clayton getting the job, all I can say is that Steve has been cut a lot throughout his career and this is the deepest one of all. Steve was a very loyal Bronco and gave almost half his life to WMU basketball. Clayton and his wife are wonderful people and we wish them the very best. Clayton is very deserving of a head coaching job but this was handled extremely poorly for many reasons. It was said publicly there needed to be a change in leadership, well Steve has a great relationship with past and present players and hired the next head coach 3 times and half the current coaching staff who will be retained so I don’t think leadership was actually the issue. It was about wins and losses and yes there were more losses as of recent than wins but as stated above there were reasons and the facts are that Steve was the second winningest coach in WMU history after Buck Read and the 4th winningest coach in MAC history. That should count for something. His total wins exceed his losses.
Thank you all for everything the past 20 years! I hope they made you proud.

Kelly, very well-said. You and Steve are a classy couple deserving nothing but the best. I coached at the high school level for 27 years and have a small clue what you guys are going through. Those of us that are alums wish you nothing but the best!

I was overall very happy with Hawk as coach. I'm gonna give Bates the benefit of the doubt for now. Y'all are being Friday night quarterbacks saying it's a loss before the game's even played!