Report: Wichita State has contacted Mountain West

[AndShock]

What has UNI done the every other school has not done other than lucking into hiring a couple of good coaches? I think other schools have tried just as hard or harder to have success but have screwed up or had bad luck. It amazes me that UNI fans think that their success is because of some greater commitment or desire to win. What exactly has UNI done that other schools could emulate to create Basketball success?

Congrats to WSU and UNI for hitting home runs on their basketball hires, then thinking that translates to them caring or trying harder.

Jacobson, when hired, was only for $159K!!! Here is an article about it: http://www.thegazette.com/2010/03/24/no ... n-jacobson

So, it's not like they went out and said "we are willing to pay $1 million to the best coach available". No, they got lucky and NOW are willing to pay him more for it as they see how it helps the economical side of UNI sports.

But, yes you guys all care way more than us minions at the other 8 schools. WE ARE NOT WORTHY

Difference has been UNI and WSU, once success was gained, pushed to keep moving forward. Found donors to pay coaches. Upped program funding. Upped SOS. Challenged themselves to get better at all times. Yes, a decade ago Jake was hired at 159. He's now at a million.

Evansville, Illinois State, SIU, Drake, Bradley, etc... have all shown that they aren't willing to pay to maintain success. They aren't willing to push themselves as hard as WSU or UNI.

Drake wasn't willing to pay Keno and he bolted. Evansville (likely) has the lowest pay in the league. Bradley pays well but can't find a coach worth a damn so they end up over paying.

I found a thread on DrakeNation just now from March 2010, quoting that same number for Jake's pay and it had numerous posters saying he was gone with any kind of post season bid that year. Well, UNI made the S16 and raised over a half million dollars between the Kansas win and the Tuesday after to sign Jake to a new deal. UNI has a top 25 team in 2014 and rather than risking losing Jake what does UNI do? Find another, roughly, half million dollars to pay him to keep him.

This has been beaten to death on here before in an effort to "Bring UNI down" to your level. Yes, until 2004 UNI was horrid. No question. Since 2004 they have the most conference tournament titles, most NCAA appearances, haven't been a PIG team (longest streak in the conference), and have become a house hold name paying their coach a million dollars.

Meanwhile, what has Bradley or SIU done since their 2006 S16? How did they parlay that success? What did they do to drive forward? What has Evasnville done to build off of last years team, the best team? There is still talk about if they have the right coach in place and he's been there nearly a decade.

Keep bringing up salaries and records from 10-20 years ago. UNI has done more for the Valley in the last decade than anyone except Creighton and WSU....and even then UNI has more S16s than Creighton did.

Agreed, except I don't think you can include Bradley as a drain on the MVC. What were they supposed to do differently after their Sweet 16, give Jim Les a million dollars? I think we all know that was a fluke for him and he wasn't going to continually take them to NCAA tournaments, let alone Sweet 16s. They hired Geno which was obviously a miss but they paid him more than 5 Valley schools pay their coaches combined. You can say "oh they shouldn't pay someone unproven that much" but there was a time when people were laughing their asses off for Gregg getting $1 million without an NCAA tournament.

[uniftw]

Agreed, except I don't think you can include Bradley as a drain on the MVC. What were they supposed to do differently after their Sweet 16, give Jim Les a million dollars? I think we all know that was a fluke for him and he wasn't going to continually take them to NCAA tournaments, let alone Sweet 16s. They hired Geno which was obviously a miss but they paid him more than 5 Valley schools pay their coaches combined. You can say "oh they shouldn't pay someone unproven that much" but there was a time when people were laughing their asses off for Gregg getting $1 million without an NCAA tournament.

Understood, and I even threw a small caveat in there for Bradley in that they are clearly willing but haven't hit home yet.

Who knows, maybe if Greg McDermott doesn't come back to UNI we still looking at UNI as the whipping boy of the conference. It's possible. Entirely possible...maybe likely. However, UNI did find the staff to grow the program AND rather than letting them leave and using the excuse of "Well, we don't have the donors and this and that" UNI found donors to privately fund every penny of Jake's contract.

[unipanther99]

I think one thing UNI and WSU have done that could be replicated throughout the MVC is schedule smartly.

I think we're seeing some good signs from schools who haven't traditionally put together smart out of conference schedules. I hope that trend continues.

[Cdizzle]

The fact that Marty Simmons is still the coach at Evansville should probably preclude any fans of said school from participating in this pity-party.

THAT, is not trying.

Since WSU hired Jim Schaus and he hired Turgeon for the 200-2001 season, WSU has finished in 1st or 2nd 10 out of 16 years, including 7 consecutive times currently. There were two exceptionally terrible years, both in the first year of a new coach, each of whom went on to have significant success both within and outside the league.

That is getting to be a pretty long 'cycle.'

There is significant correlation between university and community investment and on-court success. It definitely can take some 'luck' to get the ball rolling, usually with an exceptional hire. But to keep that ball rolling, or to keep trying to find the winning formula takes university and community investment. Not all the schools in this league are invested in finding success.

[Cdizzle]

Agreed, except I don't think you can include Bradley as a drain on the MVC. What were they supposed to do differently after their Sweet 16, give Jim Les a million dollars? I think we all know that was a fluke for him and he wasn't going to continually take them to NCAA tournaments, let alone Sweet 16s. They hired Geno which was obviously a miss but they paid him more than 5 Valley schools pay their coaches combined. You can say "oh they shouldn't pay someone unproven that much" but there was a time when people were laughing their asses off for Gregg getting $1 million without an NCAA tournament.

Understood, and I even threw a small caveat in there for Bradley in that they are clearly willing but haven't hit home yet.

Who knows, maybe if Greg McDermott doesn't come back to UNI we still looking at UNI as the whipping boy of the conference. It's possible. Entirely possible...maybe likely. However, UNI did find the staff to grow the program AND rather than letting them leave and using the excuse of "Well, we don't have the donors and this and that" UNI found donors to privately fund every penny of Jake's contract.

That, and they dropped baseball.

But maybe that was the right move. WSU recently dropped baseball as well.

[Drakey]

I don't think anybody questions that WSU has a different level of commitment. That was obvious even when they were not good. I maintain that UNI's success is more a matter of luck. They hired an assistant. As it turns out he is a great coach, but they had no way of knowing that when they hired him. If he had been horrible they would have been in the position everybody else is in of trying to find a coach who can turn a loser into a winner. They did do a good job of keeping him once he had success, butane again that is a factor of having a smart or more competent AD. I'm sure everybody would prefer to have a good AD.

[glm38]

I agree with the previous poster that while WSU and UNI have both been the class of the Valley WSU is on a different level in terms of fan support, money, etc from even UNI.

UNI is to be commended for hiring and retaining Jacobsen but there was undoubtedly some luck involved there. I do think there are multiple other (not all but several) Valley schools that if they were to hire a coach of Jake's caliber would pay him similarly well. MSU is one of those. 7 years ago when we had Cuonzo Martin and it looked like he was on the way up (after winning the Valley) - MSU did put together a really substantial contract. It was close to 1 million per year if I remember right. Pretty good for a relatively new head coach that hadn't even made the NCAA's yet. But unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep him. He simply had his eye on moving to a power conference.

I'm not suggesting that the MSU athletics dept is anywhere close to as competent as UNI's. The school itself is in good shape but it sometimes seems as if the last few years the athletic dept is run by the 3 stooges. I'm just saying that if we were fortunate to land a coach similar to Jacobsen that we would pay to keep him.

[havoc]

I'm just saying that if we were fortunate to land a coach similar to Jacobsen that we would pay to keep him.

Cuonzo Martin?

[LanceShock]

I'm just saying that if we were fortunate to land a coach similar to Jacobsen that we would pay to keep him.

Cuonzo Martin?

If Tennessee had preferred Marshall, he might have taken the job and this discussion right now would be very different. Keeping a coach is a delicate balancing act for any Valley school. Don't commit early enough or with enough resources and a coach like Cuonzo Martin leaves. Commit too heavily and you have a coach that is a boat anchor for your program like Lowery was for SIU. WSU has kept Marshall because of a combination of being willing to commit to him and not having the right job come up at the right time for him.

When Martin left for Tennessee, all he had won was a Valley title with some of his key players being guys he didn't recruit. Even if MSU had the resources to counter Tennessee, it would have been quite a gamble on their part based solely on his results to date. Lowery already had more success than that when SIU committed to him and that worked out poorly for SIU and the entire Valley.

Complaining about MSU for not being able to keep Martin isn't fair. I wonder how much Martin leaving played into MSU giving Lusk that extension a while back that hasn't worked out very well for the Bears.

Success like what UNI and WSU have had are part making good hires that work out well. But it is also committing to a coach to get him to stay.

[glm38]

I'm just saying that if we were fortunate to land a coach similar to Jacobsen that we would pay to keep him.

Cuonzo Martin?

If Tennessee had preferred Marshall, he might have taken the job and this discussion right now would be very different. Keeping a coach is a delicate balancing act for any Valley school. Don't commit early enough or with enough resources and a coach like Cuonzo Martin leaves. Commit too heavily and you have a coach that is a boat anchor for your program like Lowery was for SIU. WSU has kept Marshall because of a combination of being willing to commit to him and not having the right job come up at the right time for him.

When Martin left for Tennessee, all he had won was a Valley title with some of his key players being guys he didn't recruit. Even if MSU had the resources to counter Tennessee, it would have been quite a gamble on their part based solely on his results to date. Lowery already had more success than that when SIU committed to him and that worked out poorly for SIU and the entire Valley.

Complaining about MSU for not being able to keep Martin isn't fair. I wonder how much Martin leaving played into MSU giving Lusk that extension a while back that hasn't worked out very well for the Bears.

Success like what UNI and WSU have had are part making good hires that work out well. But it is also committing to a coach to get him to stay.

Exactly. It's not like msu didn't make a good effort to keep Martin. We did. Some would argue it was done too late? But IMO it wouldn't have mattered. We offered around 1 million per. Tennessee offered over 2 million if I remember right. No one in the valley except WSU could have matched that.