I just read Oral Robert and pubes in the same sentence!
This is not a new argument (and it’s not really an argument, more of an observation), but how many mid-majors with FBS football programs have had consistent NCAA tournament appearances and/or success in the last 15 years? With apologies to Sack and not counting the AAC as mid-major, I can think of SDSU, NMSU, BYU, and gulp Ohio. This is not an excuse for Jack (or our department in general), as we have exactly 1 NCAA tournament appearance and zero wins this millennium, and that’s unacceptable for any school. I’m just wondering how much impact the expense of fielding a (so-so) FBS program has on the success of our basketball program. I’m in no way saying we should drop football. Just wondering aloud. On the other hand, football brings in more money than the rest of our sports combined, so I dunno. I’m just sick of losing.
Interesting discussion. As pointed out, until the last 10-15 years Miami has a very viable mid-major program, and through the years we’re able to recruit great athletes , both from suburbs and major cities. Unfortunately, the program was allowed to decline and we lost one of the key strengths of our program, a great schedule! Our descent into irrelevance cost us the XU, UD, and UC home and away series. I have long argued that losing such has done irreparable damage to our ability to recruit the best players…it’s appear from the other offers our recruits are getting that we no longer have Randy Ayers type players gracing our playing floor.
What’s to be done? I think it’s a pretty big hill to get anywhere close to what we once had but with a good Coach and upgraded facilities, there is no reason we can’t compete and win a conference like the MAC, and get into some post season tourneys that matter such as the NCAA and the NIT. Don’t care about the rest of the “made up” post season plays.
Nescacdad brings up some good points on factors making it difficult for us, but I still see opportunity for us to at least get back to being relevant in the MAC.
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It is a really interesting discussion. I admire the general civility of it as well as clearly, everyone is passionate about our sporting success and the answers can be complicated.
It sparked a dialogue, drew out a litany of failures on the part of our ICA department, and exposed a number of blind spots regarding the possibilities of success for our basketball programs going forward.
Millett’s shortcomings and our shallow pockets to do anything about it are only part of our challenge. Firing the current coach and hiring another is the standard knee jerk reaction but the past two times we’ve done it it didn’t move the needle. The fact that we are now the fourth and arguably the fifth, sixth or even seventh place team in terms of popularity within our own media market is not at all beneficial.
But the post also triggered an expression of intense commitment to basketball at Miami. Unfortunately, what it didn’t trigger was a meaningful solution for escaping mediocrity. We are lost in the woods. It’s closing in on nightfall and I’m afraid the other local programs have eaten our breadcrumbs.
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Additionally…we’ve done pretty well with the “inner City kid” IMO…which is great…but have also gone away from the “farm boy that can shoot.”
Listen there’s way too much thought here, Miami’s failures are this:
- Zero Administrative support,
- Millett Hall (see #1),
- Two poor coaching hires (see #1 and #2) - What’s John Cooper done? Same will be said for Jack* (it was not Miami) - it’s hard to attract a good coach, Whitford (Ball State) did not even want the gig,
- Negative recruitment against Miami…due to 1, 2 and 3
That’s it…add in the surrounding former RIVALS (X, UD, UC to a lesser extent, NKU, WSU) all got better…and on the recruitment trail…it’s simple “why to go to Miami…we care about basketball.”
OU is more rural, but has a better Arena, admin that likes bball (don’t give me Hockey, it likely is or was a break even $$$ sport), and has better coaching hires…way better coaching hires.
They are good…BG is better than us and then the urban argument (UT, Akron, UB etc…there is some merit).
*- Both of these guys have the same style…sit on the bench and stare…hope for a trey and think that we are Seattle Sonics, news flash - we are not!
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I also wonder how much of this is due to holding onto Coles as long as we did out of respect for him. I was a huge CC fan, and his first year as HC was when I really started following Miami basketball (I was 12). Through most of his tenure we made 3 NCAA and 2 NIT appearances, went to the Sweet 16, and even when we didn’t, we usually fielded top 4 or 5 MAC teams and threatened to make a postseason tournament. We not only played a tough schedule, but we also had some big names come to Millett (Tennessee, Temple, Purdue, Michigan, Xavier), and did well against them. We were pretty bad his last few years, and recruiting suffered. We’ve never really recovered
Coles as great as he was simply contributed to the lack of admin support (not Chuck’s fault)…he coached for love of Miami and the admin was like, we don’t have to do anything Wally gave him a Caddy…he’s happy with pay and playing at all his dream arenas.
So yes… it did, but you see that it’s been hard to attract a qualified replacement either way…so letting CC do what he wanted was the right move overall.
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The answers are complex but a dialogue is the start. Put another way, at least people care enough to comment as when the care is gone, it’s pretty clearly over.
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Good post. I used to see Downtown Freddie Brown in the elevator in my building - Columbia Tower - but I never saw him in a red snd white uniform on the floor at Millett. Lol
I hadn’t factored in NKU in my interest ranking I had included WSU, TOSU and UK. NKU might make us the eighth most popular. Ouch!
LOL…meant Golden State…but let’s keep Sonics, Downtown Freddie Brown!
Makes me think of my Dad, nice…watching NBA as a little kid.
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If Coles had retired a few years earlier he probably would have been replaced by Henderson, right? Given that Henderson was apparently basically running things anyways the last couple seasons, I’m not sure how much different that alternate universe would be. I suppose he would be helped by being able to hire another assistant and being able to take ownership of the program rather than being seen as a filler for an absentee coach, but does that really change us from a 9-21 (5-11) team into a good team?
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Agree, Yellow. Rekindling the passionate leadership shown in the past by the Nickskins among the Miami brethren would jumpstart the process.
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Yep. He became a VP for Community Relations at BOA after hoops. Nice fellow.
Would Jermaine have been next in line? They sure didn’t seem to have any interest in hiring him after Coles retired.
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Athens and OU is one very close example
This is what Miami should do:
Grade the parking lot east of Millett (looks like it needs work anyway).
Construct inflatable gym/dome…put some stands in there for 2,000 (maybe even less)…play in the “Dome”…renovate Millett…probably the most publicity Miami BBALL would get in years…not sure if NCAA/MAC would allow but would be sweet.
Then deconstruct dome…make new lot…of course cost analysis would have to be done, but there you go!
I can’t speak to the mindset of anyone in the administration at the time, but I would guess that they’d be a lot more likely to keep it in house after three straight seasons in either the NCAAs or NIT than they were after three straight losing seasons.
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They are indeed rural and without much in the way of NIL money. But they have a real basketball arena. And they don’t have three or four highly competitive mid-major teams - X, UC, UD and WSU/NKU smack dab in the middle of their media market and recruiting footprint.
You keep bringing up NIL deals… Why?
If you had thought critically about this, you’d know that players are making money via social media accounts, selling IG and twitter posts. The world is smaller now. If a company based in NYC feels a player on Clemson will benefit their bottom line, they are able to reach out to them and strike a deal with a fantastic new invention called electronic mail (e-mail for short).
By your logic, that one needs to be near a major city for an NIL deal, then Northwestern and Rutgers would dominate the Big 10 given their proximity to the two biggest cities this side of the Mississippi.
Anyway, I’d be curious to see some real evidence as to how NIL deals have impacted mid-major schools. As time goes on, I think companies will see less and less value investing in student-athletes.
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Your post brought up discussion. Great. Same story, different year with this discussion. Nothing will change, because the Miami administration doesn’t want it to change.
Doesn’t change the fact that you actually suggested dropping basketball for women’s hockey.