HOW TO START OVER

[Drakey]

Drake needs a house cleaning and to start over from scratch. I know nobody has been in as desperate a situation as Drake is in recently, but has anybody here had any experience in how to get a school administration to do what is necessary to try and save a basketball program? Have other Valley level schools been in situations where outside pressure actually caused or contributed to a positive change? Drake has a president who has only been on the job a little over a year. WE are hoping that he has more interest in basketball than his predecessor, bur he seems to support our current AD and coach who are the people that have created this mess.

[ptownbraves]

Drake needs a house cleaning and to start over from scratch. I know nobody has been in as desperate a situation as Drake is in recently, but has anybody here had any experience in how to get a school administration to do what is necessary to try and save a basketball program? Have other Valley level schools been in situations where outside pressure actually caused or contributed to a positive change? Drake has a president who has only been on the job a little over a year. WE are hoping that he has more interest in basketball than his predecessor, bur he seems to support our current AD and coach who are the people that have created this mess.

Absolutely outside pressure plays a part. Look at Bradley over the past decade. There are a lot of eyes on Bradley basketball in Peoria. Fans, media, alumni, board members, school administrators and donors all play a role. Despite having a Sweet 16 team in 2006, Jim Les's teams never finished higher than fourth in the conference, and many people wanted a change. They wanted a consistent winner with tournament potential, not a program that would rack up easy non-conference wins and then have no shot come tournament time outside of winning in STL. That led to Les's firing and the hiring of Geno Ford, where things slid even further. Then after four barnburner years, out went the school president, the AD and the coach. Now we are in year two of the Brian Wardle era. Bradley has never been afraid to blow the whole thing up and start over. To get change, you need to get those making the decisions to not be ok with the status quo.

[shockem]

WSU was a disaster for the entire 90's. While it was only 10 years in hindsight, at the time it looked like there was no end in sight. It started at the top (President) making it a priority and hiring the right AD (Schaus) that will also make hiring the right coach (Turgeon) and getting donors together that can elevate the program facilities. It's a major project that is more than just having a good coach/recruiter. Luck has a lot to do with the coaching hire because when you are so far down, you have to kiss some frogs before you find the right guy. Drake is not gonna be able to shell out $1 million a year for a coach right now, its gonna take an up and comer willing to be part of a major rebuilding effort. Not an easy task, but its doable if all the parts are in place.

[BCPanther]

You're where UNI was in 2001. UNI had had a good 3 year run about 10 years earlier, but an awful coaching transition (forcing Eldon Miller out and hiring Sam Weaver) by an AD in over his head dropped the bottom right out of the program. Here's what UNI did and the model Drake should follow if the program is salvageable.

1- Fire Sandy immediately. You can't worry about any contracts or money owed. You save money by hoping it recharges your base like Rick Hartzell did at UNI. Your hire MUST be a young, possibly under-experienced administrator with as many basketball connections as possible.

2- Fire Giacolletti. Wish him well, thank him for his effort, move on.

3- Your next head coach can't be a young coach that just wants to be a DI head coach. Your next coach has to be someone that wants to be the head coach AT Drake. You go through every single player that played in the Dr Tom/Keno era and see if any of them have had any success as a head coach in D2 or D3. If they're passionate about Drake you can take a chance on a guy that might not quite be ready, just like Greg McDermott was at that point.

4- The AD gets veto power on assistants. You build the staff together to get the right mix of experience and youth. Fun fact Hartzell made Mac bring Ben Jacobson. Mac wanted 3 older guys but Jake's reputation in D2 circles and Hartzell knowledge forced Mac's hand.

5- Engage your student body. Mac practically lived in the residence halls and student union. He used his personality to get students to show up during the first couple ugly years and then students showed up in droves after that.

6- Resources. You give every available dime to the program. UNI was lucky volleyball, track and women's basketball were in pretty good shape and could get by with less for a couple years. Drake is awful in pretty much everything right now so you live with those results continuing for a while.

[DUBulldog]

Great post, BCPanther. Step #1 is most important, and needs to happen sooner rather than later.

If they are going to make a coaching change, they can't let the current AD make the hire. She has had two chances, and completely whiffed on both. It takes many months to get a new AD in place. If they don't start the process now, there will be no AD in place to make the next hire, or the current AD will get to make the next hire. Or Giacoletti will be back next season.

Out of all those options, only one is acceptable to the few Drake fans that are left.

[Drakey]

Agree with everything BCPanther had to say. The real problem is how do you get the president, or whoever does those things, to take action? It seems like the only thing that ever gets their attention is money. I don't know if Drake has any big donors who have any real interest in the program. Did UNI have such a person or group of persons? I feel like Drakes primary donors at this time are just a bunch of corporations like HY-Vee who don't have any interest but just donate money to everybody as a matter of policy.

[BCPanther]

Agree with everything BCPanther had to say. The real problem is how do you get the president, or whoever does those things, to take action? It seems like the only thing that ever gets their attention is money. I don't know if Drake has any big donors who have any real interest in the program. Did UNI have such a person or group of persons? I feel like Drakes primary donors at this time are just a bunch of corporations like HY-Vee who don't have any interest but just donate money to everybody as a matter of policy.

At the time, UNI had a president that believed that athletics and performing arts were vital to the university's mission in outreach to the community. He believed that the best thing for the campus was to showcase it to the community.

There was heavy pressure from the Miller and Deery families as well to get the wheels turning. You just need to identify that one family that loves your university and wants it to be viewed positively.

The other elephant in the room for you guys is the damn track meet. You can't dedicate the resources to it that you do for it to get two or three hours of TV time each year. The other thing that makes no sense as an outsider is that you put all that money into track and field but are not anything resembling competitive at a league or national level. You can't build an athletic department on one weekend a year.

It's a tipping point for Drake, IMO, this hire signals whether they have any interest in competing or if it's time to give in and start talking with the Summit League about a soft landing.

[DUBulldog]

Agree with everything BCPanther had to say. The real problem is how do you get the president, or whoever does those things, to take action? It seems like the only thing that ever gets their attention is money. I don't know if Drake has any big donors who have any real interest in the program. Did UNI have such a person or group of persons? I feel like Drakes primary donors at this time are just a bunch of corporations like HY-Vee who don't have any interest but just donate money to everybody as a matter of policy.

At the time, UNI had a president that believed that athletics and performing arts were vital to the university's mission in outreach to the community. He believed that the best thing for the campus was to showcase it to the community.

There was heavy pressure from the Miller and Deery families as well to get the wheels turning. You just need to identify that one family that loves your university and wants it to be viewed positively.

The other elephant in the room for you guys is the damn track meet. You can't dedicate the resources to it that you do for it to get two or three hours of TV time each year. The other thing that makes no sense as an outsider is that you put all that money into track and field but are not anything resembling competitive at a league or national level. You can't build an athletic department on one weekend a year.

It's a tipping point for Drake, IMO, this hire signals whether they have any interest in competing or if it's time to give in and start talking with the Summit League about a soft landing.

I think the Drake Relays is not as much of a deterrent to a successful overall athletic program as it used to be, now that there is a separate position for the Relays Director. Prior to that, all of Drake's ADs were track and field people who had no idea how to run a football or basketball program. That's probably the main reason Drake no longer has scholarship football. It's definitely the reason for some very poor basketball coaching hires over the years.

Drake needs to bring in an AD with a basketball background, if the AD job opens up.

[unipanther99]

Rick Hartzell could be your answer. It's not a long term solution, but if you want to bring in a guy who can make a handful of really good hires before stepping aside, he's your guy.

[Drakey]

But why did Hartzel ever leave UNI? I never understood that decision. So he could referee basketball games? He did a great job at UNI. Maybe he would take it as a short term project. WAs he a UNI alum?