Would you let Marty finish the season?

[Khan4Cats]

I disagree with this. Coach Jans is still unproven, regardless of how good you or I might THINK he is.

Jumping to conclusions about a coach early on in their tenure, regardless of who they are or where they came from, is a mistake. I don't think you should hire any head coach until they've shown the ability to win in year four.

The ability to coach a team to a good record is only part of the job. Ultimately, Coach Jans is currently winning with someone else's players. Obviously we know he's a good recruiter, and I expect Jans to be doing very well at BG in year four, but still ... prove it first.

Proving your worth as head coach of a basketball program takes longer than one season. Recruiting hasn't even entered into the equation yet at that point.

I love Coach Jans, and hope he coaches BG to a point where he becomes the obvious successor to Marshall, but I'd be scared if Marshall left this year and Jans replaced him. Jans just isn't proven yet. No one is after one single season.

Keno Davis

Chris Lowery

eh, he was given a big contract extension but didn't jump to a new program like Keno.

[BCPanther]

Steve Merfeld

[Cdizzle]

I don't really buy the comparison of Jans to Lowery, Davis, or Merfeld. I think Jans has a more complete pedigree. He has experience as an Associate HC at a top program, proven recruiting prowess, and experience running a program, both at the JUCO and now D1. I don't think any of the others listed can check more than 2 of those 3 boxes. That said, if someone isn't sold on Jans, that's fine. I just think they'll look kindof silly when they try to come up with a list of better candidates at the same price point.

Having said that, regardless of how much you think it had to do with the inherited program, Lowery, Davis and Merfeld all coached their teams to the NCAA tournament before flaming out. If you claim "well, those rosters were set up for them"...Great!! Guess what Evansville has been saying for years? "We have this great roster of talent." Simmons has proven he can't win big with this lineup, but most of us see a fair amount of talent. Bring in someone else and see if you get lucky.

At the end of the day, if I was picking one coach in the entire country to be the coach of my team....I'd ask Jim Schaus and go with whatever answer he gave me.

[shocktheheart]

I don't really buy the comparison of Jans to Lowery, Davis, or Merfeld. I think Jans has a more complete pedigree. He has experience as an Associate HC at a top program, proven recruiting prowess, and experience running a program, both at the JUCO and now D1. I don't think any of the others listed can check more than 2 of those 3 boxes. That said, if someone isn't sold on Jans, that's fine. I just think they'll look kindof silly when they try to come up with a list of better candidates at the same price point.

Having said that, regardless of how much you think it had to do with the inherited program, Lowery, Davis and Merfeld all coached their teams to the NCAA tournament before flaming out. If you claim "well, those rosters were set up for them"...Great!! Guess what Evansville has been saying for years? "We have this great roster of talent." Simmons has proven he can't win big with this lineup, but most of us see a fair amount of talent. Bring in someone else and see if you get lucky.

At the end of the day, if I was picking one coach in the entire country to be the coach of my team....I'd ask Jim Schaus and go with whatever answer he gave me.

I was kidding with Lowery...just throwing him out there because he ran SIU into the ground after that crazy extension and they couldn't afford to fire him.

[rlh04d]

I don't really buy the comparison of Jans to Lowery, Davis, or Merfeld. I think Jans has a more complete pedigree. He has experience as an Associate HC at a top program, proven recruiting prowess, and experience running a program, both at the JUCO and now D1. I don't think any of the others listed can check more than 2 of those 3 boxes. That said, if someone isn't sold on Jans, that's fine. I just think they'll look kindof silly when they try to come up with a list of better candidates at the same price point.

Having said that, regardless of how much you think it had to do with the inherited program, Lowery, Davis and Merfeld all coached their teams to the NCAA tournament before flaming out. If you claim "well, those rosters were set up for them"...Great!! Guess what Evansville has been saying for years? "We have this great roster of talent." Simmons has proven he can't win big with this lineup, but most of us see a fair amount of talent. Bring in someone else and see if you get lucky.

At the end of the day, if I was picking one coach in the entire country to be the coach of my team....I'd ask Jim Schaus and go with whatever answer he gave me.

The problem is that head coaching is at LEAST two-fold: the ability to get the talent on campus, and the ability to win with the talent you have. Ultimately the difference between Davis and Simmons isn't that big. Davis can win with talent and Simmons can bring in talent, but regardless, by year four neither is winning at a high level.

I think this is the season where you could realistically get rid of Marty and hope to get lucky ... but ultimately Evansville is far more likely to end up with a failure who plummets UE to the bottom of the Valley than they are to luck into another high level program builder at that salary level. If they get a Davis-type coach, they could win next year and lose for the four years afterwards. I think Marty's a crap coach, but man ... at least you know what you're going to get with him. And ultimately it's not bad. It's just not good.

Coach Jans is one of the few people I'd consider passing over the "wait until year four" suggestion, and you're right, associate HC and his JUCO coaching experience are positives. Still, he's a gamble at this stage for a high level program. Regardless of anything else, he still isn't a proven program builder. Granted, there aren't a ton of those around.

[Cdizzle]

Perhaps the question then is less about money, and more about expectations.

Assuming a budgetary restriction of say $350k

If I told you that you could have a coach that was guaranteed of finishing between 3-7th in the Valley every single year for 25 years would you take it?

Or would you gamble that you might have a lot of REALLY crappy seasons but a CHANCE at a league championship and an NCAA tournament appearance sometime in a 25 year period?

Also, I think this might be a good time to point out that, believe it or not, we are probably over-selling Simmons. In his 7 previous seasons, the average seed in the conference tournament for Evansville has been 6.9. The average league record is 6.9-11.1. They have averaged finishing 8.3 games back of the conference champion. Once getting to the Valley tournament, they are 2-7, with both wins being followed by absolute blow-outs the next day.

[rlh04d]

Perhaps the question then is less about money, and more about expectations.

Assuming a budgetary restriction of say $350k

If I told you that you could have a coach that was guaranteed of finishing between 3-7th in the Valley every single year for 25 years would you take it?

Or would you gamble that you might have a lot of REALLY crappy seasons but a CHANCE at a league championship and an NCAA tournament appearance sometime in a 25 year period?

Oh, I'd fire him in a heartbeat, personally. But from a WSU fan perspective, I'd rather have Marty than have Evansville take a crazy gamble and plummet to a 300+ RPI. I don't think he's a good coach, but I also think he's only been above a 200 RPI twice, and never higher than 250, right? Granted my motivation is different from theirs >=)

I feel bad for Evansville looking around at what coaches are legitimately available in that price range. Even Stephen F. Austin pays $400k to Underwood. It's borderline impossible to find a proven coach at that range who isn't a lifer at their current school, completely outside of their geographical area, or 60+. Or hanging around hoping Duke's going to tap him as Coach K's successor (Amaker). I wonder what Hoffman makes at Mercer ... although his current contract runs through 2021, so that's likely off the table. Louisiana Tech pays White over $600k.

Here's some guys I'd look at: Brett Reed (Lehigh, ~$250), Anthony Evans (FIU, $225k through 2018), Dave Paulsen (Bucknell, $167k in 2011, extension since then runs through 2018), Reggie Witherspoon (Ast. @Alabama, formerly Buffalo, probably peanuts while he lets Buffalo keep paying him), Will Brown (Albany, ~$250k through 2018), Randy Rahe (Weber St, $175k + 100k annual bonus).

Randy Rahe would be a good name at Evansville. He's had great success at Weber St. (64%, two NCAA appearances in seven years, dominated the Big Sky), isn't tied to the university for life, is from Iowa (close enough), relatively young (54), and makes $275k a year. Offer him $350k with good incentives and a roster that has Mock and DJ next year and maybe they could get him. If not him, Witherspoon is probably chomping at the bit to get back into a HC job.

That same list probably applies for Bradley, SIU, and MoSt as well.

[UE-grad]

I wouldn't mind if the UE women's coach, Oties Epps, was offered the chance.
He's been hit hard by the injury bug at UE, but he runs a high energy offense and defense and has been successful getting his teams to over achieve. He's had some success on the recruiting trail and has an engaging personality.

[rlh04d]

I wouldn't mind if the UE women's coach, Oties Epps, was offered the chance.
He's been hit hard by the injury bug at UE, but he runs a high energy offense and defense and has been successful getting his teams to over achieve. He's had some success on the recruiting trail and has an engaging personality.

And that's the kind of thinking that terrifies me when people talk about firing Simmons.

Let's ditch the guy with a consistent decent RPI for the guy with four consecutive losing seasons coaching women's basketball for probably something around $60k.

[Wufan]

I wouldn't mind if the UE women's coach, Oties Epps, was offered the chance.
He's been hit hard by the injury bug at UE, but he runs a high energy offense and defense and has been successful getting his teams to over achieve. He's had some success on the recruiting trail and has an engaging personality.

There is a reason that women's coaches don't make the transition to the men's games.