Which is why her coaching ability is irrelevant. She is a despicable person. If CDC ever considers her I'll be in his office yelling in less than 3 seconds.
Next man/woman up ! or should I say OUT !.....
- Thread starter MajesticII
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Which is why her coaching ability is irrelevant. She is a despicable person. If CDC ever considers her I'll be in his office yelling in less than 3 seconds.
I wasn't challenging your opinion of KM nor your right to it. I was agreeing with you about Coale.
Geeze! This debacle of a season has really got folks hypersensitive. I don't know why... Hell, me and a few others have been warning the rest of you for several years now. Just sayin...
uhmmm. I didn’t think you were challenging anything. I simply said whenever I hear someone give a nod to KM, I post that video. That’s not hypersensitive, that’s simply responding to a post which is kind of what this is all about I thought.
I wasn't giving KM a nod. I was agreeing with your post regarding Sherri, but simply adding a disclaimer that I didn't exactly feel the same about KM. It's been established that Texas didn't want KM, and I'd be willing to bet the feeling is mutual (at least at this point).uhmmm. I didn’t think you were challenging anything. I simply said whenever I hear someone give a nod to KM, I post that video. That’s not hypersensitive, that’s simply responding to a post which is kind of what this is all about I thought.
I personally don't even waste energy on the topic of a KM/UT union. If there were ever any chance of that becoming a reality (which I doubt), it would have evaporated a couple of NC's ago.
The next coach (if there is to be one) will need to be ready to stare the challenges of having to recruit against the two other WCBB powers in 100 mile radius, and also match coaching abilities with the likes KM and Blair --- and that job could get very well get even tougher when Blair retires if Vic Schaefer comes home to roost.
That said, we had all better hope for a HOME RUN HIRE. My first choice would be Jeff Walz but, like everyone else, I don't always get what I want.
While I appreciate a 62-year old spending their valuable time coming to this message board to gossip about what's happening with me on a different message board, you could have at least come back a few hours later to give a follow-up status update to those here cheering my supposed demise on OB. . .
Don't dodge the question others have asked, @flash34. What EXACTLY do you mean by these comments?
Ah, you liked that, huh?
Well, you might find it ironic that Ketchum took offense to me calling him out for being so hateful and classless when he tweeted about your beloved Mulkey minutes after she was celebrating her national championship last April. He basically stated that if his tweets about Mulkey bothered me, then I must be part of the problem (at Baylor).
I guess that puts you in quite the quandary regarding Ketchum's shots at Mulkey -- either you agree with Ketchum, or you heaven forbid, you agree with me.
I'll add several of his tweets aimed at Mulkey so you can enjoy them here as much as you seemed to enjoy him banning me from his site. He posted each one of them (most of which I had never seen) in our heated discussion on Thursday for everyone to see (again).
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I understand the need to wonder "what if", but it's not worth lamenting as in the real world other coaches DON'T get the chance to coach someone else's recruits (unless it involves a coaching change).
Coale is in her current situation because she either hired the wrong staff members who are not good recruiters, or because she does not work as hard at recruiting the last few years as when she was signing the Paris twins. Not sure anyone here, even those who have developed a disdain for Aston, can argue that Karen has not worked very hard at recruiting from the moment she was hired as Texas' head coach. But, a head coach needs to be the whole package -- great recruiter, great at X's and O's, great at making in-game adjustments, roster management, etc. -- or hire assistant coaches who can help compensate for their own areas of weakness.
No secret @Moooooo that you and I haven't exactly been best friends, but I'm objective enough to say that I do appreciate your input and you post some very knowledgeable stuff.
Now... I am joining hands with you on this particular post because I ALSO would like to hear the reasoning behind the comments by @flash34 .
What exactly are the good "Christian" values that were mentioned, and who is anyone to say? Furthermore WTF does religion have to do with ANYTHING other than a personal experience, let alone being something that defines a great basketball coach?
I'm going to go one step further and say that the remarks hint at being homophobic and, if that's the case, they are grossly inappropriate IMO. Wanna piss some folks off??? Start preaching that homophobia BS. There are not only those who would be directly offended but also indirectly, as not every heterosexual person hates people different from themselves. In fact there's a lot of support out there. Additionally, gay dollars aren't rainbow colored, they're green like everyone else's... just thought I'd throw that in.
Now, having said all this... I'm waiting with @Moooooo (and I'd be willing to bet some others) for an explanation.
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I'm sure she's worked very hard, but there's a huge difference between working hard and working smart.
Landing commitments from highly ranked players looks good on paper and makes a splash in the media. But unless you have the other pieces you mentioned, it's all pretty useless, much like having a nice engine but with no chassis, no wheels, no one to even drive the car.
It's been a tale of two halves, so to speak, for Coach A's tenure at Texas as it pertains to recruiting.
She worked "hard" and "smart" to keep Imani as part of Gail's signed recruiting class.
She hired an inexperienced coach like George Washington to use his recruiting connections in the Houston area to help sign Kelsey Lang (IIRC), and to gain very early verbal commitments from Lashann Higgs and Jordan Hosey; I'm sure that also helped with Brooke McCarty, too. That was "smart" from a recruiting perspective, but maybe not "smart" in hiring an inexperienced coach for Division I.
She was "smart" in offering a package deal in landing Tasha Foman and Ariel Atkins from Duncanville.
She worked "hard" in getting elite players from across the country like Sabrina Ionescu, Megan Walker, and Rickea Jackson to take official visits to Texas. She worked "hard" to make Texas relevant and interesting for those recruits from California, Virginia, and Michigan to even give Texas a look. But, whether you finish second or fifth in a recruiting battle, not finishing first is all that matters.
The 2017 recruiting class of 3 signees which is no longer at Texas was probably her undoing in so many respects. Most knew that Rellah Boothe was not going to be easy to coach, no matter who was in charge; some say we wouldn't have signed Rellah if Megan Walker had signed with Texas instead of UConn. I'm not sure if that is true. Taking Chasity Patterson seemed like a no-brainer since she loved Texas, and Coach A was the first to offer her a scholarship. If not playing her more was why she left Texas, or if there were personal issues that led to her leaving, who knows for certain? Maybe she didn't like playing defense; landing at Kentucky is somewhat revealing since they weren't considered during her high school years. Rellah and Destiny not showing up at Texas in good physical condition was certainly not Coach A's fault; neither were injuries to Destiny. Too bad neither seemed to make the necessary commitment to physical conditioning to match their hoops skills. Unfortunately, all three from the 2017 class had the ability to knock down three-pointers; that's why they were recruited to Texas. Them being gone is the ultimate reason why we have such a hole in our perimeter shooting.
That being said, I'm sure you'll be able to share some more insight on where Karen didn't recruit "hard" enough or "smart" enough for your liking.
Love Walz. Love him. But I don’t think he’s “gettable” but wow that would be amazing.
Yeah I feel the same way... he's a Kentucky boy. I will wish though. LOL
Like it or not, schools like Miss. State, Louisville, South Carolina, etc. won't be outbid by Texas for their head coaches. If any were to leave for Texas, it would be for intangible reasons (like family/spouse, not happy with some aspects of their current job or relationship with their AD, climate, etc.). I doubt Texas is willing to pay any of those coaches $2 million a year, which is what it would take at a minimum as each is earning around $1.5 million a year; Karen is earning $850K after starting at like $450K back when she was hired 8 years ago.
I'm trying hard to remain objective, and not let things become personal based on past disagreements.
I agree with you that the "tone" and "innuendo" in flash's comments are pretty obvious, and they are beyond inappropriate in this day and age. But, some people still have that mindset, as unfortunate as it is to others.
I agree totally. Hypothetically, what are your thoughts on the approach that an AD might take IF we were looking for a new coach and if no big names could be gotten? I'm kind of at a loss here.
Perfect scenario would be for KA to be able to all of a sudden flip the trajectory of the program, but I don't see it. She's been a HELL OF A recruiter, but even that seems to be sliding.
You know, we should each think back to how we reacted on this board when Karen was hired by Plonsky. I didn't agree with the hire based on her inexperience as a head coach, and no proven track record in the post-season. But, for whatever reason, Plonsky did a 180 in her hiring approach compared to when she hired Gail Goeskenkors (who had a resume' that screamed success). Did we ever even hear of any other candidates who were interviewed for the job? When have you ever known Texas to hire a replacement head coach at a lower salary than their predecessor? But, Plonsky hired Karen for like $450k after having paid Gail $1 million a year for 5 years. It could be that Plonsky's boss(es) told her to hire on the cheap in order to recover some of that money spent on Gail and yielded only limited results.
I was eating my words as Karen was gaining recruiting momentum early and often immediately after being hired. On the court, the first year was hard to bear for everyone who loves our program (and that could be endured again next season whether we have a different head coach or not). But, in year two she makes the post-season, and despite a ragged first round win, she makes us all proud in a close loss at Maryland. In year three, she has us in the Sweet 16 after another ragged first round win, but an impressive upset win at Berkeley. In year four, Karen leads us to an Elite 8 appearance. In years five and six, two more Sweet 16 appearances. I would never have predicted that. That run of hers might qualify as first or second best in program history in the last 30 years.
I can't blame Aston for taking the Texas job which she was offered by Plonsky; it was her dream job, and she was willing to take the low salary offered knowing that she would have the opportunity to prove herself. To say she didn't earn her last couple of raises based on her job performance would be completely false. And, despite the last 2 seasons of uneven and disappointing play, she's the one who made Texas relevant again nationally. It's extremely unfortunate that she couldn't maintain her own success; but, it happened to Barnes, Mack, and Augie (even though two of those were able to win national championships at Texas). Why it happened to Karen remains a mystery to me as she has always been a hard worker and a fighter; someone suggested a while back that perhaps her priorities in life have changed, and new family situations have bumped family ahead of her job; who can judge her for that? My biggest disappointment with Karen has been in her hiring of assistant coaches (none of who ever had MORE coaching experience than she did). Folks here seemed to love the hires of Carey and Jackson because they were former players at Texas who Aston helped bring to Texas, and helped coach them as players at Texas); I wasn't one of them. No "new" ideas or concepts as all basically came from the Conradt way of doing things.
So, this lack of a contract extension is not common at Texas. Could be that Karen and CDC had agreed prior to the season that an extension wasn't in the cards. Maybe it was Karen's preference; maybe she is burned out. Maybe she no longer has the drive to be in the coaching profession. Maybe CDC told her to coach this season and then decide if she has the desire to remain the head coach at Texas. Or, maybe CDC is taking the same approach he did with Connie Clark and already decided that that program needs to go in a different direction next season.
I was eating my words as Karen was gaining recruiting momentum early and often immediately after being hired. On the court, the first year was hard to bear for everyone who loves our program (and that could be endured again next season whether we have a different head coach or not). But, in year two she makes the post-season, and despite a ragged first round win, she makes us all proud in a close loss at Maryland. In year three, she has us in the Sweet 16 after another ragged first round win, but an impressive upset win at Berkeley. In year four, Karen leads us to an Elite 8 appearance. In years five and six, two more Sweet 16 appearances. I would never have predicted that. That run of hers might qualify as first or second best in program history in the last 30 years.
I can't blame Aston for taking the Texas job which she was offered by Plonsky; it was her dream job, and she was willing to take the low salary offered knowing that she would have the opportunity to prove herself. To say she didn't earn her last couple of raises based on her job performance would be completely false. And, despite the last 2 seasons of uneven and disappointing play, she's the one who made Texas relevant again nationally. It's extremely unfortunate that she couldn't maintain her own success; but, it happened to Barnes, Mack, and Augie (even though two of those were able to win national championships at Texas). Why it happened to Karen remains a mystery to me as she has always been a hard worker and a fighter; someone suggested a while back that perhaps her priorities in life have changed, and new family situations have bumped family ahead of her job; who can judge her for that? My biggest disappointment with Karen has been in her hiring of assistant coaches (none of who ever had MORE coaching experience than she did). Folks here seemed to love the hires of Carey and Jackson because they were former players at Texas who Aston helped bring to Texas, and helped coach them as players at Texas); I wasn't one of them. No "new" ideas or concepts as all basically came from the Conradt way of doing things.
So, this lack of a contract extension is not common at Texas. Could be that Karen and CDC had agreed prior to the season that an extension wasn't in the cards. Maybe it was Karen's preference; maybe she is burned out. Maybe she no longer has the drive to be in the coaching profession. Maybe CDC told her to coach this season and then decide if she has the desire to remain the head coach at Texas. Or, maybe CDC is taking the same approach he did with Connie Clark and already decided that that program needs to go in a different direction next season.
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I have thought about starting a thread on the topic of recruiting that would have included the issue of "hard" vs "smart." I do think Aston learned something the past couple years about choosing the players to whom she should make scholarship offers. When Aston talks about the staff changing how they evaluate recruits, I do not think Aston is exclusively blowing smoke. (Not saying NO smoke is being blown.)
I was one of KA’s biggest critics that first year. I was pissed that we had hired a “relative nobody” and had done so with a salary that affirmed we had taken a huge step backwards. And then Karen had me eating crow and I made the switch. I became a big fan of hers.
I liked/loved the Jamie Carey hire. But the Tiffany Jackson hire was almost a deal-breaker for me. Having followed the program closely during the Miss Jackson reign of terror, I was very dissatisfied with that hire. IMO - Drama and Jackson go together like peanut butter and jelly. I won’t go into detail about how I feel about Jackson, but I will say I had connections to some of her fellow players. Her returning to the program was a huge mistake. Glad she didn’t last long.
I cannot explain Karen’s current drop off in success. She had the program going in all the right directions. Losing an entire top tier recruiting class along with a few other high profile recruits was a huge red flag. Watching Joyner stall in her development was another.
BUT this last game against Iowa was the last straw for me. A coach who somehow lets a team that ill-prepared show up on their home floor and then can’t correct it during the 40 mins of play is a coach who has either lost control or given up... or both. Our senior class this year - especially with Higgs returning - was considered by many to be among the very best in the nation. There is just no excuse for what I saw on Wednesday. Collier with a double double shooting 50% on the bench for ten minutes with 2 fouls while Holmes was on the court shooting 10%. Just no excuse...
I liked/loved the Jamie Carey hire. But the Tiffany Jackson hire was almost a deal-breaker for me. Having followed the program closely during the Miss Jackson reign of terror, I was very dissatisfied with that hire. IMO - Drama and Jackson go together like peanut butter and jelly. I won’t go into detail about how I feel about Jackson, but I will say I had connections to some of her fellow players. Her returning to the program was a huge mistake. Glad she didn’t last long.
I cannot explain Karen’s current drop off in success. She had the program going in all the right directions. Losing an entire top tier recruiting class along with a few other high profile recruits was a huge red flag. Watching Joyner stall in her development was another.
BUT this last game against Iowa was the last straw for me. A coach who somehow lets a team that ill-prepared show up on their home floor and then can’t correct it during the 40 mins of play is a coach who has either lost control or given up... or both. Our senior class this year - especially with Higgs returning - was considered by many to be among the very best in the nation. There is just no excuse for what I saw on Wednesday. Collier with a double double shooting 50% on the bench for ten minutes with 2 fouls while Holmes was on the court shooting 10%. Just no excuse...
The experience of the assistant coaching hires doesn’t bother me its the fact she failed to improve as a coach individually, especially on the offensive side of the floor or brought in an assistant that specialized in that area is what bothers me. I guess she believes in the saying of “ If I’m going to get fired, I’m going to get fired doing my way”.
Who did you expect her to learn from (on the job) if not from her assistant coaches? To me, it was ego and stubbornness that led her to hiring coaches and staff members with which she had a former relationship, but a huge lack of job experience; kind of like what Tom Herman did hiring his friends, only to have to fire them after 3 seasons, including his offensive and defensive coordinators.
Other than Travis Mays, she has NEVER hired anyone at Texas who had more years coaching experience (at any level) than she did. Until Noonan's hire a few months ago, who of her hires brought in new ideas and concepts for her to learn from?
Remember when Dawn Staley hired Melanie Balcomb as an offensive consultant at South Carolina? I kept hoping something similar would would be forced on Karen from our AD; it wasn't.
Jacob Johnson
2,500+ Posts
Yeah I don't thinks she is going anywhere anytime soon. Although I would love to see her at Texas she has said that she is in love with south carolina and after what she has built there and the amount of support they get every game it would be very hard to convince her to leave unless we pay her double of what she is making.
What I’m saying is that she could’ve gone out and learned on her own. I remember one year when Rick Barnes, who’s also not a very good offensive coach went out and visited Jerry Sloan to try to learn his flex offense. He learned it and ran it the next year, and although he wasn’t anywhere near as successful running it as Sloan was at least he actually tried to improve and get better as a coach. I agree with you that for Karen it’s ego and stubbornness.
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Speaking of Dawn Staley... her teammates on the USA team - Lisa Lesley, Tina Thompson, Cash, Bird, Bolton, Edwards etc... what are they all up to? How has Tina done since leaving? Does Lisa Lesley have any coaching experience? I know I could google it, but I’m feeling lazy.
As much as I hate to compliment Mulkey for anything, her hires of Leon Barmore, and several others with much more coaching experience than she had was brilliant for someone with zero or limited head coaching experience. It was in complete contrast to what Aston did in building her staff, and not just once. And, the thing is, Aston worked under Mulkey for a few years at Baylor after she left Conradt's staff; while she luckily didn't pick up a lot (or any) of Mulkey's flaws, she also didn't pick up some of the more important traits.
Jacob Johnson
2,500+ Posts
My top 5 coaching replacements
1. Dawn Staley(South Carolina)
2. Jeff Walz(Louisville)
3. Wes Moore(Nc State)
4. Brenda Frese(Maryland)
5. Matthew Mitchell(kentucky)
Honorable mention: Doug Bruno(Depaul)
1. Dawn Staley(South Carolina)
2. Jeff Walz(Louisville)
3. Wes Moore(Nc State)
4. Brenda Frese(Maryland)
5. Matthew Mitchell(kentucky)
Honorable mention: Doug Bruno(Depaul)
If I had to bet on who our next head will be (assuming we are in the market for one in a month):
Adia Barnes (Arizona)
Cori Close (UCLA)
Quentin Hillsman (Syracuse)
That's based mainly on them doing well in having Top 10-15 programs and being elite recruiters, and that they are attainable financially, IMO. Still, each has ties to their current schools, so who knows if they are truly attainable simply for huge pay increases?
Adia Barnes (Arizona)
Cori Close (UCLA)
Quentin Hillsman (Syracuse)
That's based mainly on them doing well in having Top 10-15 programs and being elite recruiters, and that they are attainable financially, IMO. Still, each has ties to their current schools, so who knows if they are truly attainable simply for huge pay increases?
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