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[BEARZ77]

Lusk makes 440k and if he goes to a sweet16 I'm sure there will be efforts to keep him.

Incorrect. Lusk makes $305,333.

Learn to read, he didn't say his salary was $440,000, he said he makes $440,000. Mo Valley likes to pull things out his butt, but most often finds its his own head.

Oh and uniftw, how's that baseball program. I don't recall MSU having to cut a major sport to be able to afford to build a 5,000 seat junior college arena to play in.

[MoValley John]

???

How much Lusk "makes" outside of his coaching job is irrelevant. The funds he earns, public and private, directly from coaching, is all that matter. Furthermore, when schools release this information. they include every penny, public and private, in the press release. It makes the package look better and puts the institution in a better light. Lusk makes around $305,000 from coaching basketball, not anywhere near $440,000. Read the article, it notes that the assistants got raises that were paid for by private donors.

Lusk does not make $440,000. He doesn't make $425,000. He doesn't make $400,000 or even $350,000. He makes $305,333. Period.

[BEARZ77]

???

How much Lusk "makes" outside of his coaching job is irrelevant. The funds he earns, public and private, directly from coaching, is all that matter. Furthermore, when schools release this information. they include every penny, public and private, in the press release. It makes the package look better and puts the institution in a better light. Lusk makes around $305,000 from coaching basketball, not anywhere near $440,000. Read the article, it notes that the assistants got raises that were paid for by private donors.

Lusk does not make $440,000. He doesn't make $425,000. He doesn't make $400,000 or even $350,000. He makes $305,333. Period.

I love it when in your great zeal to take pot shots at MSU you fail to do your research and prove how uninformed you almost always are. You might want to reference the April 11, 2014 News Leader interview between beat writer Lyndal Scranton and Coach Lusk where Scranton's 3rd question is : " What did the contract extension [ through the 2018-2019 season] & raise [ total compensation will be a bout $450,000] mean to you" ?

[glm38]

Once again, Bears fans are overstating how much they are willing to pay coaches. Lusk just had his contract renegotiated for just over $300,000. MSU fans pull numbers out of their butts that they think sound good, post them and hope the world believes them. In reality, the only people that believe them anymore are their own fans.

http://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/college/msu/2014/04/04/msu-extends-contracts-lusk-harper/7322027/

Why do you have an axe to grind with Bears fans? Why are you still on here? You haven't been on here much all season and you just return at random to take trolling potshots? What a guy.

There are different ways to look at salary. Lusk's base is roughly 305k. But with his TV deal and some other incentives it brings it to the 440k. One is base salary and the other is total income. Big deal.

[glm38]

Wow. Pretty bold predictions. I hope you are wrong about Lusk and Marshall leaving. I know I would hate to start over when we seem to be building something worthwhile. Lusk had proven he can recruit but he still has a lot to prove in other areas of his profession.

It will be interesting to see what Marshall does. In so many ways he has it made at WSU. I'd like to think it's possible for a Valley school to keep an elite coach long term but maybe that's being naive. At some point a destination job like KY or NC will open up. Then we'll see.

Trust me, I'm not happy about my predictions

Seriously, though, how many coaches have stayed at MVC teams for longer than five years? Most people here are expecting every current coach to still be here in five years. Or all but Marshall.

The average lifespan of an MVC coach seems to be under five years to me. Eight years on the high end. Marshall and Jacobson are already on the high end of coaches currently, and in another five years, every other MVC coach would be at the high end as well. So either we're about to go through a golden age of coaching the likes of which the MVC has never seen before ... or we're more likely not. We'll just keep doing what the MVC has done for a while, which is not having 9 coaches with 7+ years in the league.

Missouri State is currently paying Paul Lusk a base salary of $240k a year. WSU pays assistant coaches that much. Lusk will get MoSt to the NCAA tournament and then he'll run off for a better paying job. $240k isn't going to keep him from anyone, which means the only hope MoSt has of keeping him is him not being in demand. Which means you need to not win. And then you'll fire him. So what chance is there that Lusk will still be there in five years? MoSt fans won't be happy with the level of success required to keep him, and won't be able to keep him with the level of success they want.

The same goes for pretty much every non-Marshall coach in the conference. I think Bradley can keep Ford given decent success, because they're already paying him well and can pay him more if the fans respond to success.

Lusk is the one guy I think is absolutely out of here, because he's one of the few guys that I think will be able to win significantly in the next five years. I'm expecting MoSt to have a Sweet 16 in the next five years, and if Lusk goes to the Sweet 16, he gone. Winning coaches that make $250k leave.

I respect your opinion and you could be right. I do think MSU will try to find the funds for the right coach. We offered Zo a reported 900k before he jumped to TN. It obviously didn't keep him but it might be enough to keep a good coach. The problem with Lusk is he just hasn't proven anything yet other than that he's a pretty good recruiter. At this point he doesn't warrant being paid anywhere close to that.

[rlh04d]

I respect your opinion and you could be right. I do think MSU will try to find the funds for the right coach. We offered Zo a reported 900k before he jumped to TN. It obviously didn't keep him but it might be enough to keep a good coach. The problem with Lusk is he just hasn't proven anything yet other than that he's a pretty good recruiter. At this point he doesn't warrant being paid anywhere close to that.

We're thinking five years down the line, remember? Of course Lusk hasn't proven anything yet.

I'm predicting a five year period. And my prediction is that Lusk is going to price himself out of MSU's ballpark. It's entirely possible that MSU can pay him enough to keep him. It's entirely possible that Lusk is not going to do well enough over the next five years to be worth a big job.

But as for the "problem" with Lusk, you lost Cuonzo Martin to Tennessee for ~$1.3 million (at least at one point; I'm not sure how much they initially paid him) when he had four years of coaching experience. What exactly did Martin prove in four years that you don't think Lusk could prove in five-to-seven? Lusk came into the job more experienced than Martin did. I'm predicting more success for Lusk than Martin had.

It's just a prediction. But I think if Lusk does have significant success over the next few years, and I think it's very possible, than the ~$900k MSU could bump him to won't be enough to keep him. The $1.3 million Tennessee paid Martin wasn't even a good salary. That was ranked 10th out of the SEC. $1 million is pretty much bottom of the barrel for a coach in any of the top conferences, and $1 million is pretty much MSU's ceiling.

I hope Lusk wins at a high level and goes the Marshall route of sticking around despite better jobs elsewhere. And maybe he is. But I don't think MSU has the money to keep him. I think nearly every coach in the MVC is one Sweet 16 run away from a new job.

[rlh04d]

Lusk makes 440k and if he goes to a sweet16 I'm sure there will be efforts to keep him.

If Lusk makes $440k, then every other coach of a male team at Missouri State combines to make $327k. Your baseball, football, soccer, and so on teams make that little?

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/

Hopefully he does make that much. That'll at least mean you only have to worry about the top 7/8 conferences taking him rather than a MAC school poaching him.

I'm sure there will be efforts to keep him. Missouri State can't pay enough to keep a hot coach and everyone here knows it. Your arena is averaging something around 55% capacity, you're spending considerable money already on football, and so on. MSU is not in WSU's position to compete for a quality coach.

Any coach in the MVC with a considerable level of success will immediately be in the $1 million + territory should they be lured away from the MVC. No school in the MVC, outside of WSU and Bradley, can afford to pay more than $1 million.

Anyone here expecting their coach to still be here in five years is expecting a run of success coupled with a coach that isn't out for immediate progression and willing to take less money, and those coaches are in a significant minority (Jacobson is likely one, and Marshall for now). Or they're expecting their teams to go along at a level of mediocrity in perpetuity that will keep them from being in demand or being fired (See: Simmons). More than likely, coaches will have success and move up, or fail and be replaced.

I think there's a better chance of no current coaches still being in the MVC in five years than 10.

[saluki762]

No school in the MVC, outside of WSU and Bradley, can afford to pay more than $1 million.

They won't, but Loyola could pay a coach more than any other school in the MVC.

[BCPanther]

Oh and uniftw, how's that baseball program. I don't recall MSU having to cut a major sport to be able to afford to build a 5,000 seat junior college arena to play in.

We never had a shot to be competitive in baseball and decided to stop pissing money away on it. Geography says we chose wrestling and we only finished undefeated and ranked in the top 10 in that. Its a niche sport, just like college baseball.

We also didn't have an ego maniac hotel mogul who loved to have his name on things build us an arena. Ours at least has had locker rooms from the beginning and is full when we draw the same number of fans. Nothing like putting 4000 people in an 11000 seat building. Great atmosphere.

Just keep dumping money into football facilities and don't worry about the product on the field. You didn't fire TA because you didn't have the extra 108k to pay him off...

[Cdizzle]

"Yaaay we're awesome cause we actually fill our small arena, sometimes!"