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This isn't working. I haven't seen this type of dysfunction in all my years of following WMU Basketball (16 years) Why are so many players transferring? That's a sign of leadership at the top. I was willing to give Bates a shot, but he's gotta go. How are we going to win if everyone keeps transferring?? This program has ZERO stability. Fire Bates and his 220,000 salary. (Which is also a disgrace)

Go Broncos.

Have you literally seen anything happening around all of college sports right now? This is far from a “just us” issue.


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If transfers is the criteria, MSU needs a new HC too.

Very Far from WMU change. All new methods of recruiting in 2021 with zero in person recruiting.
1400+ names in transfer portal.
Coach Bates & staff have “signed” three very good transfer players so far and still recruiting.

(04-22-2021 06:28 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  This isn't working. I haven't seen this type of dysfunction in all my years of following WMU Basketball (16 years) Why are so many players transferring? That's a sign of leadership at the top. I was willing to give Bates a shot, but he's gotta go. How are we going to win if everyone keeps transferring?? This program has ZERO stability. Fire Bates and his 220,000 salary. (Which is also a disgrace)

Go Broncos.

This is a horrible post. If the Broncos need to fire Bates because of all the transfers then just about every head coach in America needs to be fired. There are like 1500 kids in the transfer portal. This is not a WMU problem!!

(04-22-2021 09:16 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  

(04-22-2021 06:28 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  This isn't working. I haven't seen this type of dysfunction in all my years of following WMU Basketball (16 years) Why are so many players transferring? That's a sign of leadership at the top. I was willing to give Bates a shot, but he's gotta go. How are we going to win if everyone keeps transferring?? This program has ZERO stability. Fire Bates and his 220,000 salary. (Which is also a disgrace)

Go Broncos.

This is a horrible post. If the Broncos need to fire Bates because of all the transfers then just about every head coach in America needs to be fired. There are like 1500 kids in the transfer portal. This is not a WMU problem!!

True. We shouldn't focus on the transfers, recruits, players coming back or anything of the like.

The record should be the only indicator of whether things are going well or not.

(04-22-2021 10:34 PM)MidwayIcer Wrote:  

(04-22-2021 09:16 PM)WMUPorter Wrote:  

(04-22-2021 06:28 PM)WMU2013 Wrote:  This isn't working. I haven't seen this type of dysfunction in all my years of following WMU Basketball (16 years) Why are so many players transferring? That's a sign of leadership at the top. I was willing to give Bates a shot, but he's gotta go. How are we going to win if everyone keeps transferring?? This program has ZERO stability. Fire Bates and his 220,000 salary. (Which is also a disgrace)

Go Broncos.

This is a horrible post. If the Broncos need to fire Bates because of all the transfers then just about every head coach in America needs to be fired. There are like 1500 kids in the transfer portal. This is not a WMU problem!!

True. We shouldn't focus on the transfers, recruits, players coming back or anything of the like.

The record should be the only indicator of whether things are going well or not.

Good point.

The record is not good. The blowout losses are embarrassing. What happens when we go 5-16 again? I will be right in the end.

If the pandemic made hiring impossible at the time (which is flimsy anyway), then Bates should have been interim for a year. I'll never understand the process that was used to hire him (not to mention the long-term commitment). It should have been Kathy's last act as AD.

I won't even address the starter of the thread because it's obvious they're either completely ignorant or just pushing their agenda and it's BS for this to even be a topic.

Holy Bovine, you don't know jack about it. And your post proves it. Long term commitment? In what fantasy?
Really.

Again, they were picked to finish 12th by the coaches. They finished 9th. They experienced accountability for the first time in a long time. They got better. They got hit by the Virus or effected by it 4-5x and weren't able to get as many wins as they would've otherwise or get any consistency in practice time. They didn't win enough and weren't good enough. The roster got overhauled and improved dramatically (despite the negative recruiting re: the severe lack of a long term commitment) and he'll get his chance to prove if there's a bright future (for him as a HC) this year.

I truly hope Clayton kills it. Like super kills it.
Have a great season everyone.
I'll be rooting for the Broncos to have success. Hopefully you and the people in charge feel the same.
Peace

There are nutty people on this board, and the first poster of this is one of them. I was one of the biggest WMU alumni calling for Hawkins to go because of the staleness and sameness year after year. Plus his recruiting had gone down to the depths of taking players not able to play even Mid Am basketball. Last year I saw a team that gave more in spirit than we had seen in quite a few years. Sure, some have transferred, but look at who we have brought in. It seems like we have given out $1.00 and got $10.00 back. While they may be nice kids, the players from Canada, Florida, and others were just not D1 players. I hated to see the transfer from California leave, but we received another big guy from Valpariso. Don't know what the situation is there.
The current head coach has shown a total loyalty to WMU for years, but even more so has shown that he is able to change what has been done. Logical thinking would be that he should be given time to recruit his own players and see how they fare in the MAC and beyond. Salary??? That may be the dumbest posted thing I have ever seen. Take a look at the salaries basketball coaches are making at other schools. It's not high school any more, where your salary is determined by a union group, it is college, where the salaries and benefits are negotiated by the coach and (if he/she has one) an agent.
Give Mr. Bates a decent chance to prove himself. Support him 100% and give him time

65
That is your best post in the history of this forum!

The transfer portal has shredded the recruiting process and commitment of the players to the schools they originally signed with.

The portal, in my opinion, has diluted the college game and the dedication of players to a school and to a coach.

(04-22-2021 11:20 PM)holybovine Wrote:  If the pandemic made hiring impossible at the time (which is flimsy anyway), then Bates should have been interim for a year. I'll never understand the process that was used to hire him (not to mention the long-term commitment). It should have been Kathy's last act as AD.

I agree Bates should've just been interim, plus it's frustrating seeing Central & Eastern make on paper good hires.

But I won't judge Bates for another couple years.

An “Interim Coach” label is a HUGE negative when recruiting.

Any college coach deserves at least 4 years to prove himself worthy IMO.

Like I suggested earlier, I think we just focus on the record. Nobody here wants the team to lose.

Some of us disagree on the means to get there, but I've heard worse or similar regarding other programs, no reason for the ad hominem attacks on the OP.

I saw improvement on both ends of the floor from this team this year, if that doesn't turn into wins soon then it'll be obvious what the solution should be future wise.

Replacing a coach after one pandemic season that everyone knew that the program was in need of serious rebuilding is insanity. Throw in the new transfer rules *and* the free year for Covid and you may as well give him a few years both to see if he can turn it around and to see how the transfer rules work for MAC teams going forward after a couple years.

Lets all be nice on here & watch the personal attacks.

ps. you want NDSU in the MAC? ?

North Dakota St is too far outside the MAC's footprint for traveling budget purposes. It'd be neat if a Big North type conference w/ NDSU/Idaho/Montana/etc. ever went FBS.

That being said, if there was a major re-alignment, it'd be fun to split the MAC into a an East & West where you have a few of the traditional MAC teams in the East, & North Dakota St, Northern Iowa, etc. in the West.

I personally would rather see the MAC go to the East-coast if a major re-alignment occurred, where Connecticut, UMASS, Delaware etc. came on.

Given we had UMass and UCF in the MAC at one point, the conference was in the past fine with geographical disparity. But especially now in the post-COVID world and tighter strings on future budgets, I imagine any new MAC member will be closer nearby. And UCF was likely always viewed as a temporary marriage of convenience.