MVC Coaches on the Hot Seat

[Drakey]

There is a difference between dominance and complete ineptitude. No Valley team has had a season without at least two victories this century. The prior coach was fired for underperformance, but he never had a season with less than 7 conference wins.

[bleach]

I sure wouldn't be giving an extension but Drake needs to show more patience with a coach than most places. Ray may need to go but it looks like he has the start of something forming. One more year to find out might be in order but the leash on one win years should be very short.

[shockem]

When the Shockers were bottom of the barrel, they did not have long leashes on their losing coaches:

Mike Cohen - 3 years
Scott Thompson - 4 years
Randy Smithson - 4 years

Those were a painful 11 years of futility, but at least we didn't give up and cut the cord when it was apparent that the coaches weren't trending up.

[UNIFanSince1983]

I sure wouldn't be giving an extension but Drake needs to show more patience with a coach than most places. Ray may need to go but it looks like he has the start of something forming. One more year to find out might be in order but the leash on one win years should be very short.

What exactly is forming?

Sure it might look like a couple of young guys are decent, but the team still can't win games. They will finish behind a Bradley team that has all freshmen. So you could say even the young guys aren't as good as other young guys around the league. Bradley has improved as the season has gone on. Drake has not. There is nothing at Drake that seems to be building. Sure Ray didn't take over a powerhouse, but he also hasn't given them any sort of hope of no longer playing on Drake Day in STL.

[PurpleAcesFootball]

If Marty is still here after the previous 8 years, he sure as hell isn't going anywhere after this year.

You're looking at it too singularly. Evansville is not an easy job and if he posts 3 straight 20+ win seasons and 4 in 5, yes, he'll be able to find something.

If you think the Mule is employable at a D1 outside of UE - I got some ocean front property in Peoria to sell you.

This year can still change my opinion, but I think the talent was at-large worthy. The disappointment was that he scheduled to save his job.

20 win seasons? Check out these SOS numbers and see if you notice a trend?
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/evansville/

I'd say we're stuck with him - as long as we're happy hanging CIT banners with NIT talent.

It's like the football coach that goes 2-6 in conference, but schedules 4 FCS schools so he go 6-6 and head to the Independence or Quick Lane Bowl.

[BirdsEyeView]

If Marty is still here after the previous 8 years, he sure as hell isn't going anywhere after this year.

You're looking at it too singularly. Evansville is not an easy job and if he posts 3 straight 20+ win seasons and 4 in 5, yes, he'll be able to find something.

If you think the Mule is employable at a D1 outside of UE - I got some ocean front property in Peoria to sell you.

This year can still change my opinion, but I think the talent was at-large worthy. The disappointment was that he scheduled to save his job.

20 win seasons? Check out these SOS numbers and see if you notice a trend?
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/evansville/

I'd say we're stuck with him - as long as we're happy hanging CIT banners with NIT talent.

It's like the football coach that goes 2-6 in conference, but schedules 4 FCS schools so he go 6-6 and head to the Independence or Quick Lane Bowl.

Great post.

Elgin has policies in place for nonCon SOS - so they will need to start scheduling up to meet those requirements

[tribecalledquest]

I sure wouldn't be giving an extension but Drake needs to show more patience with a coach than most places. Ray may need to go but it looks like he has the start of something forming. One more year to find out might be in order but the leash on one win years should be very short.

What exactly is forming?

Sure it might look like a couple of young guys are decent, but the team still can't win games. They will finish behind a Bradley team that has all freshmen. So you could say even the young guys aren't as good as other young guys around the league. Bradley has improved as the season has gone on. Drake has not. There is nothing at Drake that seems to be building. Sure Ray didn't take over a powerhouse, but he also hasn't given them any sort of hope of no longer playing on Drake Day in STL.

I like Ray G but this season has been disappointing. Bradley is bad but has clearly gotten better as the season has gone along. Drake has arguably gotten worse--or at least stayed the same.

Timmer, OG, and the Polish center are decent building blocks but I don't see much after that.

I like Abrahamson more than Drake fans but that dude is one of the worst defenders I've ever seen. He tried to guard everyone Bradley had in the game the other night and that player immediately went at him and scored. Antoine Pittman--who isn't a scoring machine--had 16 second half points and 10 in a three minute stretch when Abrahamson was "guarding" him.

[glm38]

Lusk will be fine. Bears have started to show some upward momentum. How long is porter's leash? Can't think that MartY would be fine at most schools after disappointing but who are they going to get.

As far as Lansing isn't his wife the acting AD? I don't see either of them going anywhere.

I disagree regarding Lusk. The Bears may be a little better than expected but not much. Kudos to him for some good young talent. But we are woefully inconsistent. And we seem to start over every couple of years with our players. He is the worst bears coach in our history from a winning percentage standpoint and it isn't even close.

[squirrel]

If Marty is still here after the previous 8 years, he sure as hell isn't going anywhere after this year.

You're looking at it too singularly. Evansville is not an easy job and if he posts 3 straight 20+ win seasons and 4 in 5, yes, he'll be able to find something.

If you think the Mule is employable at a D1 outside of UE - I got some ocean front property in Peoria to sell you.

This year can still change my opinion, but I think the talent was at-large worthy. The disappointment was that he scheduled to save his job.

20 win seasons? Check out these SOS numbers and see if you notice a trend?
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/evansville/

I get it, and I'd be disappointed too if the shoe were on the other foot. Too often the Golden Boy Jimmy couched inexcusable games in the schedule to make up for non-competitive resume losses. I also realize Marty isn't an up-and-comer. But neither was Mark Schmidt at Bonaventure. Some program that just needs someone to restore respectability, would jump at the chance for someone with such a proven track record.

And if you want to mock coaches and scheduling soft, by all means go ahead. But it can help a program move up from the dregs of DI. It works. Southern Miss is just one example of a trainwreck program 10 years ago that won 25+ games 3 straight years. I think in one of Eustachy's first years there they played at least 4 non-DIs...I'm not saying it is a smart or good practice, especially when you have realistic designs on the NCAA, then you absolutely schedule like it. But it works. And it doesn't mean a coach is less qualified because of it. If Marty didn't schedule soft in previous years, you'd probably not be flirting with a 2nd place finish right now.

[Drakey]

I sure wouldn't be giving an extension but Drake needs to show more patience with a coach than most places. Ray may need to go but it looks like he has the start of something forming. One more year to find out might be in order but the leash on one win years should be very short.

What exactly is forming?I like Abrahamson more than Drake fans but that dude is one of the worst defenders I've ever seen. He tried to guard everyone Bradley had in the game the other night and that player immediately went at him and scored. Antoine Pittman--who isn't a scoring machine--had 16 second half points and 10 in a three minute stretch when Abrahamson was "guarding" him.

I sure wish somebody could explain this to our coach. He does not appear to notice that Abrahamson can't guard anybody. Coupled with his horrible offensive statistics, he should rarely see the floor, yet has started every game except one. Nobody here can figure out why.