OmahaDog wrote:Don't really understand why it can't, despite 50 years of evidence that indicates that, indeed, the men's basketball program is out of its depth.
It's fairly easy to explain how Drake's downward spiral began in 1971, and continued. Once you've been down as long as Drake has, it's really hard to climb out, especially when you're placing academic restrictions that your opponents aren't. And you continue to hire athletic directors with NO basketball experience.
Bulldogs had a chance to stop the downward spiral in 2008 when replacing Keno after that one magical season. Yep, it was probably a fluke, but it still happened. For the first time since 1971, Drake was hiring a coach coming off a very successful season.
Tom Davis was the special adviser to the AD. He had a recommendation. The AD declined his recommendation, and instead hired a much lower profile assistant from an average Pac-10 school. A guy who had applied for, and been turned down by, lower profile schools than Drake. A guy coming from a system that was completely opposite the system these kids were recruited to. After 5 Thursday night finishes, Phelps was fired. His teams were talented, but poorly coached. So, then Drake hires (at double the salary) a coach who ran his previous program into the ground. Giacoletti's coaching and recruiting philosophies were right out of the 1960's. He did ok the first year with Phelps' players. Since then, the worst 3 year stretch in the less than good history of Drake basketball. Three straight 20+ loss seasons with less than 10 wins.
Now, the program is so far down, the pool of candidates to choose from is certainly going to be far less in quality and quantity than it was 9 years ago.