(03-11-2022 03:38 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 03:32 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 12:40 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 10:50 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 10:16 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  I do think JK is 2 for 6 on the big 3 men's hiring decisions:

- Let DB hang on too long, but did make the right call in the end (+0.5)
- Bloomgren is garbage (0)
- Made a good hire in Rhoades (+1)
- Pera is turning out to be OK, but not likely not right in the long run (+0.5)
- Braga was a bad hire (0)
- The OG ending was a debacle (0)

Generally agree with the above.... I'd only score things a bit different.

I'd put the OG handling at a -1 and Bragga as a -1 (or worse). I think Pera was a safe call that has turned out okay... Bloom, on the heels of Bailiff (which was a combination of issues) has been a negative as well. If Bailiff gets a +0.5, Bloom has been a -0.5. Had Bailiff had what we gave Bloomgren, I think he would have done better.... somewhat like what we did after Willis. We starved Willis and then complained that he was only the best coach we'd had (and been able to keep) in decades and since... and then gave those who followed him much more and they did much worse and/or left quickly. I know Joe had nothing to do with that... but its what happened.

For a variety of reasons... from the profile to the money spent to the number of men involved to 'where we are', Football needs to be credible. I could give a pass on both basketball and baseball... if football were credible... but I could also take solace in great basketball OR baseball (preferably both) and excuse football... as long as it wasn't horrible... say 0.500 (meaning 250-750 yoy, not a PEAK of 0.500)... Instead we're 10 years in and still hoping to reach 0.500 in all of them.

I went against scoring negatives for some reason - just didn't feel like it worked with what I was trying to get across.

If we're going negative, I'm with you that the OG "firing" is around a -100.

On the other hand -- OG *had* to be fired or otherwise let go. No one dares mention that.

WRONG. We all mention that. Even Wayne's most ardent supporters recognized it was time to transition. The way JK handled it was anything but a transition; it was a debacle of the highest magnitude. Disgraceful and embarrassing to the university.

My personal viewpoint is that it took two to get to that particular outcome.

A more 'considerate' AD would have pressed harder for an earlier and more diplomatic outcome.

A less headstrong and less 'not really in touch with the reality of the situation' coach would have accepted the previous overtures for a more diplomatic outcome.

(03-11-2022 06:29 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 03:38 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 03:32 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 12:40 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(03-11-2022 10:50 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Generally agree with the above.... I'd only score things a bit different.

I'd put the OG handling at a -1 and Bragga as a -1 (or worse). I think Pera was a safe call that has turned out okay... Bloom, on the heels of Bailiff (which was a combination of issues) has been a negative as well. If Bailiff gets a +0.5, Bloom has been a -0.5. Had Bailiff had what we gave Bloomgren, I think he would have done better.... somewhat like what we did after Willis. We starved Willis and then complained that he was only the best coach we'd had (and been able to keep) in decades and since... and then gave those who followed him much more and they did much worse and/or left quickly. I know Joe had nothing to do with that... but its what happened.

For a variety of reasons... from the profile to the money spent to the number of men involved to 'where we are', Football needs to be credible. I could give a pass on both basketball and baseball... if football were credible... but I could also take solace in great basketball OR baseball (preferably both) and excuse football... as long as it wasn't horrible... say 0.500 (meaning 250-750 yoy, not a PEAK of 0.500)... Instead we're 10 years in and still hoping to reach 0.500 in all of them.

I went against scoring negatives for some reason - just didn't feel like it worked with what I was trying to get across.

If we're going negative, I'm with you that the OG "firing" is around a -100.

On the other hand -- OG *had* to be fired or otherwise let go. No one dares mention that.

WRONG. We all mention that. Even Wayne's most ardent supporters recognized it was time to transition. The way JK handled it was anything but a transition; it was a debacle of the highest magnitude. Disgraceful and embarrassing to the university.

My personal viewpoint is that it took two to get to that particular outcome.

A more 'considerate' AD would have pressed harder for an earlier and more diplomatic outcome.

A less headstrong and less 'not really in touch with the reality of the situation' coach would have accepted the previous overtures for a more diplomatic outcome.

This was on JK and JK alone. Was Wayne going to volunteer to retire? Of course not, and quite honestly, few would in his position. Having said that, Wayne WAS prepared to transition.

The AD is paid the big bucks to make the hard decision. He knew the Summer before that Wayne's contract was due to expire after the following baseball season. If his decision was not to extend the contract he owed it not only to Wayne, but to Rice fans and fans of college baseball to announce the coming season would be his last, and to make that announcement well before the season began. Would Wayne have gone quietly? Of course not, but he's the AD, and needed to put on his big boy pants and make the hard decision. Instead, no decision was announced as the season began. Two weeks into the season a group of Wayne supporters and major Rice athletic donors all sent a two-page letter to JK, Leebron and the BOT. The letter recognized the need to transition, but out of respect for Wayne and everything he had done for Rice athletics and the university-- and given that the current baseball season was well underway, the case was made for giving Wayne a one-year extension and allow the transition to occur in smooth and orderly fashion.

Not only did JK then announce, several weeks after the letter was sent, that this current season would be Wayne's last, but he never even bothered to follow-up with any of the letter's signers. Again, all were major donors to both the athletic department and the university.

Disgraceful and embarrassing, and it did not have to be that way.

So, after OG guiding the crash diving program into the abyss, and OG refusing to see the necessity of an actual transition, this is *all* on Karlgaard?

Absolutely Karlgaard could have 'moved sooner' or 'forced the issue'. No doubt.

But in the offset there is a huge amunt of vanity, pride, and stubborn intransigence that actually helped guide the situation to the where it was.

And no, when a change is needed, there is no need to flush a year away with a 'one year' "see you later, guy who refuses to notice how much his program had nose dived into the realm of the real bad".

This isnt a defense of that Karlgaard should have done better -- he absolutely should have. But, to some, there are absolute hallmarks of that overall tango having two butt-headed idiots at either side as opposed to the 'just one' that you espouse.

It would have been awesome to have a 'lets all cheer for OG's work'. That needed quicker action by Karlgaard *and* the ability of OG to have it sink into his head that 'just one more year' isnt a rational and viable outcome is all it would take.

Neither took the best road, and neither took the smart road.

At the end of the day, it sucked that OG didnt get his 'farewell tour' year. It should have been that last year he was around. But, I dont see a whit of value, if when the coach refuses to acknowledge that his best days are well gone, of pissing another year into the bowl. The idea of just digging the hole any deeper seems not so good, even in light of the 'farewell tour' that didnt happen. Again, that farewell tour *should* have been that last contract year --- and that it didnt happen is partially in part on Karlgaard, and partially on part of OG.

In short, Karlgaard should have put on his big boy pants the previous year. And OG should have shucked the illusion that he was anywhere near a net positive to the baseball direction at Rice at that same juncture in time, along with the insistence that it only needed 'one more year' as had been the case there for a good while.

Lack of big boy pants meeting a lack of real world reasoning coupled with a more than real world sense of stubbornness yielded the worst possible outcome. And it took two personalities to generate that really bad outcome.

JK is coming up on his 10-year anniversary as he started n Fall 2013 to replace Ranger Rick who was widely ridiculed on this board as a failure.

In 2013/14 athletic season
Rice Football won C-USA and had 10-wins
Rice Basketball was 7-23 and fired Ben Braun and hired Mike R.
Rice Baseball was 42-20 including 2 out 3 taken from Stanford, other regular season W's against Texas, Houston, TCU, etc, and trip to NCAA tournament

Forget about 60 years ago..Is Rice Athletics in the major sports better today or 10-years ago?

(03-12-2022 12:20 AM)owl40 Wrote:  JK is coming up on his 10-year anniversary as he started n Fall 2013 to replace Ranger Rick who was widely ridiculed on this board as a failure.

In 2013/14 athletic season
Rice Football won C-USA and had 10-wins
Rice Basketball was 7-23 and fired Ben Braun and hired Mike R.
Rice Baseball was 42-20 including 2 out 3 taken from Stanford, other regular season W's against Texas, Houston, TCU, etc, and trip to NCAA tournament

Forget about 60 years ago..Is Rice Athletics in the major sports better today or 10-years ago?

Yes to basketball, no to the football and baseball.

(03-12-2022 12:20 AM)owl40 Wrote:  JK is coming up on his 10-year anniversary as he started n Fall 2013 to replace Ranger Rick who was widely ridiculed on this board as a failure.

In 2013/14 athletic season
Rice Football won C-USA and had 10-wins
Rice Basketball was 7-23 and fired Ben Braun and hired Mike R.
Rice Baseball was 42-20 including 2 out 3 taken from Stanford, other regular season W's against Texas, Houston, TCU, etc, and trip to NCAA tournament

Forget about 60 years ago..Is Rice Athletics in the major sports better today or 10-years ago?

How about rephrasing the question to “as we enter the AAC, are we confident that JK can field a football team that is competitive with SMU, Tulsa, Tulane and Navy, men’s basketball team that is competitive with Tulsa, Tulane and SMU, and baseball team that is competitive with Tulane”?

The entire discussion on OG above suggests to me cutting ties with JK in the next year while thanking him for what he has accomplished (we are in the AAC, which is a triumph) but going in a different AD direction so our football does not result in Rice being left behind in the next G5 realignment.

(03-12-2022 08:32 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(03-12-2022 12:20 AM)owl40 Wrote:  JK is coming up on his 10-year anniversary as he started n Fall 2013 to replace Ranger Rick who was widely ridiculed on this board as a failure.

In 2013/14 athletic season
Rice Football won C-USA and had 10-wins
Rice Basketball was 7-23 and fired Ben Braun and hired Mike R.
Rice Baseball was 42-20 including 2 out 3 taken from Stanford, other regular season W's against Texas, Houston, TCU, etc, and trip to NCAA tournament

Forget about 60 years ago..Is Rice Athletics in the major sports better today or 10-years ago?

How about rephrasing the question to “as we enter the AAC, are we confident that JK can field a football team that is competitive with SMU, Tulsa, Tulane and Navy, men’s basketball team that is competitive with Tulsa, Tulane and SMU, and baseball team that is competitive with Tulane”?

The entire discussion on OG above suggests to me cutting ties with JK in the next year while thanking him for what he has accomplished (we are in the AAC, which is a triumph) but going in a different AD direction so our football does not result in Rice being left behind in the next G5 realignment.

I have zero issues with moving in a different direction as AD.

One of the two true marquee sports is amongst probably the five worst programs in the nation on a yearly basis, and firmly entrenched there on time averaged basis with his hire.

Basketball is a 'meh'. With 15 wins it is the bright shiny gemstone of the marquee sports. I am surprised with 15 wins -- but it is a credit to Pera to build back from 3 nearly complete 'wipedowns' of the roster.

Baseball is in a terrible place, mainly on his replacement choice actually making the last few years of OG's tenure look palatable (which is hard to do.)

On the women's side of the ledger, he has done well. He re-signed Langley, but at the end of the day Langley was going to to to greener pastures no matter what.

On the 'Olympic sports', again he has done well -- as evidenced by Rice's standings in the Director's Cup.

But the very hard fail in baseball and the even harder fail in football have led me to 'we need a new AD'.

To be honest, imo, Rice missed sports extinction this last realignment by the width of a piece of paper. There will not be a next time of 'would you believe that close'. Either Rice makes it as a true viable sports candidate (like Tulane, or such) or it is a permanent pass to the wasteland.

(03-12-2022 09:07 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(03-12-2022 08:32 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(03-12-2022 12:20 AM)owl40 Wrote:  JK is coming up on his 10-year anniversary as he started n Fall 2013 to replace Ranger Rick who was widely ridiculed on this board as a failure.

In 2013/14 athletic season
Rice Football won C-USA and had 10-wins
Rice Basketball was 7-23 and fired Ben Braun and hired Mike R.
Rice Baseball was 42-20 including 2 out 3 taken from Stanford, other regular season W's against Texas, Houston, TCU, etc, and trip to NCAA tournament

Forget about 60 years ago..Is Rice Athletics in the major sports better today or 10-years ago?

How about rephrasing the question to “as we enter the AAC, are we confident that JK can field a football team that is competitive with SMU, Tulsa, Tulane and Navy, men’s basketball team that is competitive with Tulsa, Tulane and SMU, and baseball team that is competitive with Tulane”?

The entire discussion on OG above suggests to me cutting ties with JK in the next year while thanking him for what he has accomplished (we are in the AAC, which is a triumph) but going in a different AD direction so our football does not result in Rice being left behind in the next G5 realignment.

I have zero issues with moving in a different direction as AD.

One of the two true marquee sports is amongst probably the five worst programs in the nation on a yearly basis, and firmly entrenched there on time averaged basis with his hire.

Basketball is a 'meh'. With 15 wins it is the bright shiny gemstone of the marquee sports. I am surprised with 15 wins -- but it is a credit to Pera to build back from 3 nearly complete 'wipedowns' of the roster.

Baseball is in a terrible place, mainly on his replacement choice actually making the last few years of OG's tenure look palatable (which is hard to do.)

On the women's side of the ledger, he has done well. He re-signed Langley, but at the end of the day Langley was going to to to greener pastures no matter what.

On the 'Olympic sports', again he has done well -- as evidenced by Rice's standings in the Director's Cup.

But the very hard fail in baseball and the even harder fail in football have led me to 'we need a new AD'.

To be honest, imo, Rice missed sports extinction this last realignment by the width of a piece of paper. There will not be a next time of 'would you believe that close'. Either Rice makes it as a true viable sports candidate (like Tulane, or such) or it is a permanent pass to the wasteland.

Dont be surprised you see defections from the AAC if the new schools don't pull their weight.

Frankly getting into the AAC was pretty much a just a lucky course of events, far from a battle uphill ala TCU. And it is not dissimilar to Conference USA when Rice joined it. At that time, you felt pretty good just like when Rice joined the big WAC. As in this isn't great, but hey this should work. (Remember the commercials with Hat bragging about all the great locations, didn't he wear a grass skirt?).

Now, yeah this is better. But the optimism has just been beat down. And that is readily apparent from the massive decline of postings on this board.

(03-12-2022 09:07 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  But the very hard fail in baseball and the even harder fail in football have led me to 'we need a new AD'.

JK started out by alienating the head coaches of both baseball and football (and most of their major supporters) virtually from day 1 of his administration. Their relationships were pretty much tolerant but adversarial for the remainder of both coaches' terms at Rice, and records clearly reflected that. When you are not on the same page as two of your chief lieutenants, and through your choice not theirs, that is not a smart move for any AD, and Rice has paid the price ever since.

Back to basketball...the season continues in the CBI. Congrats and good luck to the team!

Interesting watching Montana State play for an automatic bid. Back in 2016-17, which was Rhoades's third year, there was a much anticipated (on a scale of mid-major basketball) matchup between Rice and Montana State because it featured sophomore Marcus Evans versus sophomore Tyler Hall. They had been two of the best freshman scorers the past year (21 ppg for Evans, 19 ppg for Hall) and one could plausibly see both as NBA players (I think Hall ended up sniffing the NBA...Evans is playing in the UK and had his career largely derailed because of injury). But they were also representative of larger hopes in both programs. Montana State went 11-7 in conference that year (after going 13-20 combined in the two years before) and Rice also went 11-7 in conference. In the end, neither team was able to take the next step. Rice because Rhoades left, Montana State because Brian Fish just couldn't get over the hump. Fast forward to 18-19, Montana State hires Danny Sprinkle. He finishes 5th in conference his first year, 4th the second year, and 1st in his third year (26-7, 16-4), which is this year.

No real purpose to this brief look into the past, just something that sprung to mind seeing Montana State playing for an automatic bid. Also made me remember just how freaking electric Marcus Evans was.

(03-12-2022 08:38 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Interesting watching Montana State play for an automatic bid. Back in 2016-17, which was Rhoades's third year, there was a much anticipated (on a scale of mid-major basketball) matchup between Rice and Montana State because it featured sophomore Marcus Evans versus sophomore Tyler Hall. They had been two of the best freshman scorers the past year (21 ppg for Evans, 19 ppg for Hall) and one could plausibly see both as NBA players (I think Hall ended up sniffing the NBA...Evans is playing in the UK and had his career largely derailed because of injury). But they were also representative of larger hopes in both programs. Montana State went 11-7 in conference that year (after going 13-20 combined in the two years before) and Rice also went 11-7 in conference. In the end, neither team was able to take the next step. Rice because Rhoades left, Montana State because Brian Fish just couldn't get over the hump. Fast forward to 18-19, Montana State hires Danny Sprinkle. He finishes 5th in conference his first year, 4th the second year, and 1st in his third year (26-7, 16-4), which is this year.

No real purpose to this brief look into the past, just something that sprung to mind seeing Montana State playing for an automatic bid. Also made me remember just how freaking electric Marcus Evans was.

BTW, Trey Murphy scored a career-high 32 points last night for New Orleans on 7-12 from deep.

And Montana State is dancing. Shoutout to Harald Frey.

I don't want to get too deep into the Wayne situation, but I think it fair to note that we are still seeking to return to his WORST year. I see some saying that he ran us into the ditch, but he also took us to the winners circle, and the guy who followed him would still be LOOKING FOR the ditch. Our new coach has promise, but is clearly suffering at least as much as a result of Bragga than of Wayne.

More to my way of thinking...
If Wayne's worst year was his replacement's best (and thus far, it has essentially been) then why run off a legend and lose all the good will that he built?? That's just ignorance and hubris... I'd much rather be replacing a legend who had fallen off in his last few years who was still a great ambassador for the program than to have him want nothing to do with us and the 'house that HE built'. If he wanted to run this car off a cliff (and we all know that wasn't his intention) then I think he earned the right to do so. I think he wanted just a few more years. Dance with who brung ya... OF COURSE you want to make sure we have serious talks about a change being necessary, that's fine... and pressure him if you must behind closed doors...

But whom is the winner here? JK or Wayne? I know it was his 'job', but in what universe does JK or any AD who hasn't won a NC in any sport get to tell someone who has... who is just ONE YEAR removed from winning the conference for the 20+th time in a row... that 'he has a better idea'?? And is so convinced of it that he's going to give away that legacy?

From my perspective, the biggest reason to get rid of JK (if that is what is going to happen... not saying it must) would be to get Wayne back involved in Rice baseball... Not day to day, but as an ambassador. Do for Rice what he's INSTEAD doing for #1 UT. THINK ABOUT THAT for a minute.

Consider this. 2019, UT baseball is 27-27. Rice has fired WG. 2022, Same coach at UT is ranked #1 and Wayne is an advisor for him. Rice meanwhile is struggling.... and we just hired one of Wayne's family connections to replace him.

MAY CERTAINLY be coincidence, but I'm thinking 'not'.

(03-12-2022 12:20 AM)owl40 Wrote:  JK is coming up on his 10-year anniversary as he started n Fall 2013 to replace Ranger Rick who was widely ridiculed on this board as a failure.

In 2013/14 athletic season
Rice Football won C-USA and had 10-wins
Rice Basketball was 7-23 and fired Ben Braun and hired Mike R.
Rice Baseball was 42-20 including 2 out 3 taken from Stanford, other regular season W's against Texas, Houston, TCU, etc, and trip to NCAA tournament

Forget about 60 years ago..Is Rice Athletics in the major sports better today or 10-years ago?

This is a good point. Facilities have certainly improved, but were already improving when he came in, DESPITE Ranger Rick.

(03-12-2022 10:17 AM)Texasowl Wrote:  Dont be surprised you see defections from the AAC if the new schools don't pull their weight.

This. Expect the 'haves' of the new Sun Belt, CUSA and AAC and the 'being left outs' of p5 to quickly be in touch.

Then it was wrong for UT to basically force Augie out? The parallels and reasons of Augie leaving are similar. He managed to force UT into an extra year before being replaced. The big difference is who was selected to replace him.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/...250040.php

(03-15-2022 09:44 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Then it was wrong for UT to basically force Augie out? The parallels and reasons of Augie leaving are similar. He managed to force UT into an extra year before being replaced. The big difference is who was selected to replace him.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/...250040.php

The two aren't comparable.

When you compare what Wayne did for baseball to what any other Rice baseball coach did, or any other coach of any other sport at Rice since perhaps the 1950's... vs what Augie did vs what other UT baseball coaches, and coaches of any other sport at UT... Wayne is SINGULARLY different. He is the ONLY coach at Rice to win more than a relatively small number of conference championships and the ONLY National Championship... whereas UT won something like 20 under Augie's predecessor... and another dozen by the guy before him... and a dozen or more in football etc etc etc.

I mean seriously... we're talking about Wayne 'running baseball into a ditch' and yet we're seeing 0.500 against mostly poor competition as a 'banner year' in basketball and 5-6 in football with wins only over teams ranked in the bottom quintile would be 'on the right track'. Baseball before Wayne would have seen 0.500 as a solid year as well.


yes... ANOTHER difference is 'who was selected to replace him', which only compounds the problem.

If you're going to fire a legend who doesn't want to leave, you better be damn sure you can hire a better replacement. And no, I don't buy that Braga couldn't win with what Wayne left him... and neither does anyone else, even JK, since he fired Braga even before all of his recruits arrived.

At the very least as some have said, Wayne deserved a 'farewell tour'. In addition, based on the number of his assistants that were now successful head coaches elsewhere, including #1 UT... (Vs JK with best I know, ZERO experience in evaluating baseball coaches) he should have had a TON of input on his successor... even to the point of allowing him to hand pick them.

Instead, we selected someone so far off the path as to be almost intentionally insulting.

And as a reminder, since OG left, Rice baseball is 54-88 (0.380). In his last three years we were 97-86 (0.524). Were we in decline at the end of Wayne's era? Yes. But the decline has been steeper since he left.

(03-15-2022 10:47 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(03-15-2022 09:44 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Then it was wrong for UT to basically force Augie out? The parallels and reasons of Augie leaving are similar. He managed to force UT into an extra year before being replaced. The big difference is who was selected to replace him.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/...250040.php

The two aren't comparable.

When you compare what Wayne did for baseball to what any other Rice baseball coach did, or any other coach of any other sport at Rice since perhaps the 1950's... vs what Augie did vs what other UT baseball coaches, and coaches of any other sport at UT... Wayne is SINGULARLY different. He is the ONLY coach at Rice to win more than a relatively small number of conference championships and the ONLY National Championship... whereas UT won something like 20 under Augie's predecessor... and another dozen by the guy before him... and a dozen or more in football etc etc etc.

I mean seriously... we're talking about Wayne 'running baseball into a ditch' and yet we're seeing 0.500 against mostly poor competition as a 'banner year' in basketball and 5-6 in football with wins only over teams ranked in the bottom quintile would be 'on the right track'. Baseball before Wayne would have seen 0.500 as a solid year as well.


yes... ANOTHER difference is 'who was selected to replace him', which only compounds the problem.

If you're going to fire a legend who doesn't want to leave, you better be damn sure you can hire a better replacement. And no, I don't buy that Braga couldn't win with what Wayne left him... and neither does anyone else, even JK, since he fired Braga even before all of his recruits arrived.

At the very least as some have said, Wayne deserved a 'farewell tour'. In addition, based on the number of his assistants that were now successful head coaches elsewhere, including #1 UT... (Vs JK with best I know, ZERO experience in evaluating baseball coaches) he should have had a TON of input on his successor... even to the point of allowing him to hand pick them.

Instead, we selected someone so far off the path as to be almost intentionally insulting.

(03-15-2022 11:26 AM)picrig Wrote:  And as a reminder, since OG left, Rice baseball is 54-88 (0.380). In his last three years we were 97-86 (0.524). Were we in decline at the end of Wayne's era? Yes. But the decline has been steeper since he left.

(03-15-2022 10:47 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(03-15-2022 09:44 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Then it was wrong for UT to basically force Augie out? The parallels and reasons of Augie leaving are similar. He managed to force UT into an extra year before being replaced. The big difference is who was selected to replace him.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/...250040.php

The two aren't comparable.

When you compare what Wayne did for baseball to what any other Rice baseball coach did, or any other coach of any other sport at Rice since perhaps the 1950's... vs what Augie did vs what other UT baseball coaches, and coaches of any other sport at UT... Wayne is SINGULARLY different. He is the ONLY coach at Rice to win more than a relatively small number of conference championships and the ONLY National Championship... whereas UT won something like 20 under Augie's predecessor... and another dozen by the guy before him... and a dozen or more in football etc etc etc.

I mean seriously... we're talking about Wayne 'running baseball into a ditch' and yet we're seeing 0.500 against mostly poor competition as a 'banner year' in basketball and 5-6 in football with wins only over teams ranked in the bottom quintile would be 'on the right track'. Baseball before Wayne would have seen 0.500 as a solid year as well.


yes... ANOTHER difference is 'who was selected to replace him', which only compounds the problem.

If you're going to fire a legend who doesn't want to leave, you better be damn sure you can hire a better replacement. And no, I don't buy that Braga couldn't win with what Wayne left him... and neither does anyone else, even JK, since he fired Braga even before all of his recruits arrived.

At the very least as some have said, Wayne deserved a 'farewell tour'. In addition, based on the number of his assistants that were now successful head coaches elsewhere, including #1 UT... (Vs JK with best I know, ZERO experience in evaluating baseball coaches) he should have had a TON of input on his successor... even to the point of allowing him to hand pick them.

Instead, we selected someone so far off the path as to be almost intentionally insulting.

The only college baseball coach who compares with Wayne with regards to building a program from the ground up and sustaining the level of excellence for 20+ years is Augie at Cal St.-Fullerton...but Augie had absolutely no academic restrictions in his recruiting, which made his job considerably easier.