pretty sad situation no one has posted. How the heck can you extended this guy tho?
Bill Haisten: For TU’s Frank Haith, a tough season and contract uncertainty
Eleven months ago, the Tulsa World reported that Frank Haith and the University of Tulsa were on the brink of a contract extension for the Golden Hurricane basketball coach.
It seemed that a reworked deal might be finalized by mid-summer.
Summer came and went.
So did the fall, and so did December and January.
Haith now is beyond the midway mark of the 2018-19 season – his fifth at TU – and he acknowledges that the extension still has not been processed.
When hired in 2014, Haith was given a six-year contract. It was believed that his starting pay amounted to $1.3 million a year. Sources indicate that his current salary is $1.6 million – a total that more than doubles what any previous Hurricane basketball coach received.
Haith’s contract is scheduled to expire in July 2020.
“I feel confident that something will work out,” he said last week. He also indicated that he has no idea when it might happen.
TU’s money and attendance issues are well known. In August, athletic director Derrick Gragg told the Tulsa World that he, Haith and football coach Philip Montgomery accepted pay cuts to help the athletic department. Those cuts apply for the entirety of the 2018-19 fiscal year.
It is believed that Haith’s give-back was $300,000 – the amount of a retention bonus that he was to have gotten this year.
At a time when big money apparently isn’t generated in fund-raising, and when the university as a whole faces myriad challenges, Gragg and TU leadership figures might be hesitant to extend big-dollar contracts.
Then again, TU’s leadership figures were the ones who positioned Haith and football coach Philip Montgomery at unprecedented pay levels.
The combined compensation of Haith and Montgomery nearly triples the combined pay of their predecessors (Danny Manning and Bill Blankenship).
Perhaps TU is attempting to decide whether it can afford Haith at $1.6 million – or even if TU can afford to remain a member of the American Athletic Conference.
At TU, $1.6 million has a much greater effect on the budget than Lincoln Riley’s $6 million has on the OU budget.
Because TU’s alumni and fan bases are so small, the university should establish an unbreakable salary cap. No TU football coach would be paid more than $1 million and no TU basketball coach would make more than $750,000, and yet the university is at about $3 million with its current obligation to Haith and Montgomery.
For having moved from West Virginia of the Big 12 to Houston of the AAC, Dana Holgorsen reportedly is getting about $4 million a year to coach the Cougar football program.
The Holgorsen deal should be of no concern to TU. There shouldn’t be a compulsion to play money ball with other AAC schools. TU doesn’t have money-ball resources.
For the sake of the basketball program, TU should make a decision on Haith. If there isn’t an extension before July, he would enter 2019-20 in the final year of his contract. It wouldn’t be a good look in recruiting.
In the Golden Hurricane locker room, minutes after TU defeated Memphis 95-79 on Wednesday at the Reynolds Center, Haith addressed his situation.
“We’re in the season now,” he said. “We’re doing what we’re doing. I’m not worried about it. I don’t know where (the university is) at. We’ll see.
“I like it here. My wife likes it here. I want my daughter to graduate from high school here. She’s a ninth-grader.”
With Saturday’s 79-68 loss at Wichita State, Haith’s Hurricane dropped to 13-10 overall and 3-7 in the AAC. His five-season records: 90-62 overall, 49-33 in conference play.
Against a vulnerable Shocker team that entered with records of 9-11 overall and 2-6 in the conference, Tulsa led 60-52 with 11 minutes left to play. After that, Wichita State outscored the Hurricane 27-8.
TU finished with 10 missed free throws, 18 turnovers and its 12th loss in the last 13 meetings with Wichita State.
The summary of Tulsa radio play-by-play voice Bruce Howard: “An absolute collapse. ... A game in which Tulsa had firm control, and they let it slip away.”
The Hurricane now is 1-6 in true road games. The only victory was recorded at Oral Roberts.
“What kind of intestinal fortitude do you have?” Howard said to the Hurricane radio audience on Saturday. “Tulsa (still hasn’t) proven it on the road.”
In 1994-2003, TU made eight NCAA Tournament appearances. There were Sweet Sixteen runs in 1994 and 1995, and in 2000 the Bill Self-coached Hurricane advanced to the Elite Eight.
In 13 of the last 15 seasons, Tulsa was not an NCAA Tournament participant.
This season, the American Athletic Conference schedule-makers put the screws to TU. The Hurricane league schedule was front-loaded with a mine field that included two meetings with Houston, two with Cincinnati and a trip to UCF. Entering the weekend, those teams were a combined 55-8 overall and 21-4 in conference play.
The rest of the schedule provides for TU the opportunity to stack wins and take momentum into the AAC Tournament, but it’s not likely that the Hurricane could secure an NCAA Tournament at-large berth.
Before the Wichita State loss, the Hurricane was 90th in the NCAA’s NET national rankings.
During a Jan. 16 conversation with the Tulsa World, Gragg was asked about TU’s current financial state.
“We’re really focusing on fund-raising,” he replied. “Right now, we’re working on (hiring a new) major gift officer and doing some new things with the Golden Hurricane Club.”
A new major gift officer. This is a huge hire for Gragg and the university. It’s as significant as a head-coaching hire.
As the title would imply, the major gift officer for the athletic department is responsible for securing significant donations not just from established supporters, but from new sources. From newly developed relationships.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of developing new fund-raising relationships.
Since Gragg became the athletic director in 2013, Tulsa has had three major gift officers. The next one would be the fourth one to have worked with Gragg, and it’s critically important not only to hire the right person but to keep that person for an extended period.
The first goal is to elevate TU back to a status at which it can pay the bills without asking its athletic director and coaches to take pay cuts.
Soon, American Athletic Conference officials will begin negotiations on a new contract with television partners. That arrangement would take effect with the start of the 2020 football season, and there is the potential for a healthy increase in annual TV money for Tulsa and other conference schools.
That would help, of course, but TU has to help itself by playing better basketball, playing better football, selling more tickets and persuading more Tulsa business leaders and citizens to get involved on a donation basis.
The 53-year-old Haith is responsible for the “better basketball” part of that equation. This season, he has one player (DaQuan Jeffries) who could flourish in the Big 12 or another league. Otherwise, for the most part, TU has a Conference USA-level roster.
Haith has to recruit better, not lose by 20 points at SMU and give more people more reasons to be in the Reynolds Center. The current attendance average of 4,275 is the lowest in the arena’s 21-season history.
If TU officials believe that Haith is the best man for the job, and if negotiated money can satisfy the coach while being at a responsible level for TU, then the extension should be finalized sooner than later. It should be finalized next week.
If there is not that belief, then Gragg and university President Gerard Clancy face a difficult decision.
Bill Haisten: For TU’s Frank Haith, a tough season and contract uncertainty
Eleven months ago, the Tulsa World reported that Frank Haith and the University of Tulsa were on the brink of a contract extension for the Golden Hurricane basketball coach.
It seemed that a reworked deal might be finalized by mid-summer.
Summer came and went.
So did the fall, and so did December and January.
Haith now is beyond the midway mark of the 2018-19 season – his fifth at TU – and he acknowledges that the extension still has not been processed.
When hired in 2014, Haith was given a six-year contract. It was believed that his starting pay amounted to $1.3 million a year. Sources indicate that his current salary is $1.6 million – a total that more than doubles what any previous Hurricane basketball coach received.
Haith’s contract is scheduled to expire in July 2020.
“I feel confident that something will work out,” he said last week. He also indicated that he has no idea when it might happen.
TU’s money and attendance issues are well known. In August, athletic director Derrick Gragg told the Tulsa World that he, Haith and football coach Philip Montgomery accepted pay cuts to help the athletic department. Those cuts apply for the entirety of the 2018-19 fiscal year.
It is believed that Haith’s give-back was $300,000 – the amount of a retention bonus that he was to have gotten this year.
At a time when big money apparently isn’t generated in fund-raising, and when the university as a whole faces myriad challenges, Gragg and TU leadership figures might be hesitant to extend big-dollar contracts.
Then again, TU’s leadership figures were the ones who positioned Haith and football coach Philip Montgomery at unprecedented pay levels.
The combined compensation of Haith and Montgomery nearly triples the combined pay of their predecessors (Danny Manning and Bill Blankenship).
Perhaps TU is attempting to decide whether it can afford Haith at $1.6 million – or even if TU can afford to remain a member of the American Athletic Conference.
At TU, $1.6 million has a much greater effect on the budget than Lincoln Riley’s $6 million has on the OU budget.
Because TU’s alumni and fan bases are so small, the university should establish an unbreakable salary cap. No TU football coach would be paid more than $1 million and no TU basketball coach would make more than $750,000, and yet the university is at about $3 million with its current obligation to Haith and Montgomery.
For having moved from West Virginia of the Big 12 to Houston of the AAC, Dana Holgorsen reportedly is getting about $4 million a year to coach the Cougar football program.
The Holgorsen deal should be of no concern to TU. There shouldn’t be a compulsion to play money ball with other AAC schools. TU doesn’t have money-ball resources.
For the sake of the basketball program, TU should make a decision on Haith. If there isn’t an extension before July, he would enter 2019-20 in the final year of his contract. It wouldn’t be a good look in recruiting.
In the Golden Hurricane locker room, minutes after TU defeated Memphis 95-79 on Wednesday at the Reynolds Center, Haith addressed his situation.
“We’re in the season now,” he said. “We’re doing what we’re doing. I’m not worried about it. I don’t know where (the university is) at. We’ll see.
“I like it here. My wife likes it here. I want my daughter to graduate from high school here. She’s a ninth-grader.”
With Saturday’s 79-68 loss at Wichita State, Haith’s Hurricane dropped to 13-10 overall and 3-7 in the AAC. His five-season records: 90-62 overall, 49-33 in conference play.
Against a vulnerable Shocker team that entered with records of 9-11 overall and 2-6 in the conference, Tulsa led 60-52 with 11 minutes left to play. After that, Wichita State outscored the Hurricane 27-8.
TU finished with 10 missed free throws, 18 turnovers and its 12th loss in the last 13 meetings with Wichita State.
The summary of Tulsa radio play-by-play voice Bruce Howard: “An absolute collapse. ... A game in which Tulsa had firm control, and they let it slip away.”
The Hurricane now is 1-6 in true road games. The only victory was recorded at Oral Roberts.
“What kind of intestinal fortitude do you have?” Howard said to the Hurricane radio audience on Saturday. “Tulsa (still hasn’t) proven it on the road.”
In 1994-2003, TU made eight NCAA Tournament appearances. There were Sweet Sixteen runs in 1994 and 1995, and in 2000 the Bill Self-coached Hurricane advanced to the Elite Eight.
In 13 of the last 15 seasons, Tulsa was not an NCAA Tournament participant.
This season, the American Athletic Conference schedule-makers put the screws to TU. The Hurricane league schedule was front-loaded with a mine field that included two meetings with Houston, two with Cincinnati and a trip to UCF. Entering the weekend, those teams were a combined 55-8 overall and 21-4 in conference play.
The rest of the schedule provides for TU the opportunity to stack wins and take momentum into the AAC Tournament, but it’s not likely that the Hurricane could secure an NCAA Tournament at-large berth.
Before the Wichita State loss, the Hurricane was 90th in the NCAA’s NET national rankings.
During a Jan. 16 conversation with the Tulsa World, Gragg was asked about TU’s current financial state.
“We’re really focusing on fund-raising,” he replied. “Right now, we’re working on (hiring a new) major gift officer and doing some new things with the Golden Hurricane Club.”
A new major gift officer. This is a huge hire for Gragg and the university. It’s as significant as a head-coaching hire.
As the title would imply, the major gift officer for the athletic department is responsible for securing significant donations not just from established supporters, but from new sources. From newly developed relationships.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of developing new fund-raising relationships.
Since Gragg became the athletic director in 2013, Tulsa has had three major gift officers. The next one would be the fourth one to have worked with Gragg, and it’s critically important not only to hire the right person but to keep that person for an extended period.
The first goal is to elevate TU back to a status at which it can pay the bills without asking its athletic director and coaches to take pay cuts.
Soon, American Athletic Conference officials will begin negotiations on a new contract with television partners. That arrangement would take effect with the start of the 2020 football season, and there is the potential for a healthy increase in annual TV money for Tulsa and other conference schools.
That would help, of course, but TU has to help itself by playing better basketball, playing better football, selling more tickets and persuading more Tulsa business leaders and citizens to get involved on a donation basis.
The 53-year-old Haith is responsible for the “better basketball” part of that equation. This season, he has one player (DaQuan Jeffries) who could flourish in the Big 12 or another league. Otherwise, for the most part, TU has a Conference USA-level roster.
Haith has to recruit better, not lose by 20 points at SMU and give more people more reasons to be in the Reynolds Center. The current attendance average of 4,275 is the lowest in the arena’s 21-season history.
If TU officials believe that Haith is the best man for the job, and if negotiated money can satisfy the coach while being at a responsible level for TU, then the extension should be finalized sooner than later. It should be finalized next week.
If there is not that belief, then Gragg and university President Gerard Clancy face a difficult decision.
