Nice…I think this makes sense for new perspective and potential big time shift in recruiting.
I don’t know…this is a bummer to see if we are dividing alum…in particular from bball alumni…but I have to question this…
Ron is upset now? Was he tweeting about the Cooper/Owens debacles? I mean Miami has been throwing away $$$ for 10 years then…
Coach Steele has the most win % of any bball coach that’s been associated with Miami since Sendek/Coles…
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Oh baby.
I don’t think you can let alumni run the coach search process, but I do think sayler missed an opportunity to create buy in and build bridges that are clearly missing with basketball alumni here by not even talking with any of them.
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This is a bad look for Harper. Reminds me of the UC alumni who were mad after they hired Wes Miller.
Anyone know if he has supported the bball program financially over the years? If he hasn’t, I don’t know what his issue is
Per tweets above in the thread, Harper was already mad because we hired Jack Owens instead of him five years ago. Query how much he’s supporting the program financially if that’s the case.
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He was moderately involved with program when Coles was coach and Jermaine assistant
Chet Mason speaking out against it is far worse for us
If we could get Millet redo going and could get some energy back there…and if Steele is successful it will really make Akron games and hopefully some renewed Xavier games (one can hope) fun!
Assuming Groce is not leaving Akron soon.
Did the father in law really give us money? I doubt it but perhaps there are expectations that they will like the family did at XU.
Also, agree that Chet bad-mouthing Miami in high school hoops circles is not helpful at all.
Wes Miller was a finalist for the UNC job and had the blessing of Roy Williams for the UC job. Build up UNCG into an NCAA tournament team and NIT semifinalist. Also came with a 2005 National Championship ring playing for UNC.
The UC program he took over had more transfers than players returning. UC wanted Terry Nelson or someone from Hugs WVU staff to return to the old days.
Wes Miller proved at a lower level he can build and succeed. He’ll be fine.
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Didn’t he spend two seasons as an assistant coach in the NBA before being fired? And his biggest pitch for his candidacy for the Miami job was he would bring his son?
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Yeah, Ron has blown a fuse for sure - not the way to handle this in my opinion.
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It would be interesting if the AD gave any former or current athlete of a program a chance to vote on new coaches or other important program related decisions. Maybe it would work like this: every year you went to school equals one vote. Ie, if you transfer out after freshman year, your vote isn’t worth as much as someone who stayed longer. You could prolly set it up in a simple survey monkey style experience. Maybe the top vote getter of that would automatically go on the AD’s list as a strongly recommended candidate.
Or you just make a few phone calls, make the guys feel important and heard, listen to them if they have good insight, humor them if they don’t, then make the decision you feel is right.
As I said, you cant let alumni (athletes or not) run the hiring process. But you also can do more than what David seemed to do in this case to make important people (again athletes or not) feel like part of the university.
There’s a reason the most famous athletes we have (Ben, Wally, Ron) basically have zero relationship with the department. Maybe they are unreasonable and ego driven, but I get the sense we haven’t really tried to get them involved.
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The field in the DISC bears Ben’s name. We didn’t put it on there for free and it certainly tells me he has a relationship.
Exactly - Ben contributed $1 mil for that naming of the DISC field. He is quite tied in with Martin and the football program - so are Harbaugh and McVay plus many others.
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Also, my understanding is that Wally feels like he has been kept in contact consistently by the program in different ways in recent years. We honored him at a game just about 3 years ago and Damon contacted him frequently as the alumni connector on the staff. My guess is that Ron is upset and threw other names out there to add heft to his argument. He is mad - ok, whatever, but for anyone to claim that Wally and Embry have been left out by the athletic dept recently is just not true.
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Yeah Ben probably doesn’t belong on that list. He was for awhile but I agree recent years seems more tied in. Point still stands with basketball alumni and donors. Sometimes just making some calls goes a long way to making people feel heard and valued. Big part of being an AD is managing stakeholders whether they be wealthy alumni or former athletes.
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Wally was just in town a couple years ago…
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