Northeastern State or Rogers State and I would venture a guess to the latter. Phipps isn't a D1 player. He's a D1 shooter but lacks the overall game and as we witnessed first hand, if you can't defend at a D1 level your team is going to be bad.
Transfer portal 2023
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Not surprised. After a 5 win season everything is on the table.
Cue all the weirdos like Gold calling for a firing. All players leaving will be significantly upgraded.
There is literally no one leaving that we should not be recruiting over. This staff is doing the right thing.
Amen, he pretty much took what he could on the short time he had last offseason. This offseason is when the real reconstruction begins. I'm tired of all the whining about it.
The way I read it , Gold* wanted to keep all our current players but fire the coach and try to win with the same players. Gold* you are much smarter than that to panic about our players being released.
Yea, he's gone off the deep end. He was celebrating on twitter when our transfers committed, then says fire Konkol the next day lmao. Comical.
EXACTLY CORRECT TU_BLA . He should have faced reality after his OU stint but ego and pride
got in the way . Ja Havens and Justin Barkley are both fine men and good coaches, both places
would be ideal for Mr. Phipps . Personally I would rather play anytime over sitting on a D-1 bench.
Nobody likes to lose but BB got to play as a frosh, sooooo why not honor your
commitment and be part of turning this mess around ! Appears that words like
loyalty and perseverance are seldom used anymore .
Agreed, but let's be honest, did he REALLY impress anyone in the chances he was given? He was supposed to be a shooter, but it seemed he could never really find the range there.
LOL, gotta love the lavender haze period the board is going through with Konkol. Or maybe it's a drug haze with over the top as it is. We are the 3rd team in 10 years of the AAC to have 1 win or fewer. That is epically, catastrophically bad.
There are 3 ways to get to 5 wins. 1) You have historically bad players; 2) you have historically bad coaches; 3) you have bad players and bad coaches. My guess is 95% of the time, it's category 3. It's just really hard for the players to be bad enough to go 1-17 in the AAC, you pretty much have to have the coach helping out. But I know you guys don't want reality harshing the Konkol buzz.
I can only imagine the histrionic tantrum this will throw the dough king into. Literally, I can only imagine it because I have him ignored.
MY son's coach told me years ago that the knowledge he acquired as a player , assistant coach and
head coach could be the determining factor in winning a handful of games per season, but if
he didn't have the horse's with talent it would be an uphill climb. Tulsa basketball had a few talented
players but by no means enough to make a team . There's an old adage in basketball that "If you
can shoot , you can play". TU had plenty of shooters , unfortunately most of them didn't go
in the basket.
It's hard to say if the 2 coaches other than Konkol who managed 1 or fewer wins in the AAC were bad coaches because neither of them was ever a head coach again after their ignominious AAC season. One was fired part way through the season and the other at the end of the season and neither has been a HC since. So Konkol will be mapping uncharted territory next year.
With as much bad BB as there's been at the bottom of the AAC, it's pretty amazing that no other new coach other than Konkol has ever managed as much futility as we did this year. The 1st year coaches who followed the prior 0 and 1 win seasons got to 3 and 4 wins.
There have been a lot of bad, bad teams in the history of the AAC and still all but 2 managed to squeak out more wins than us (and the other 1 win team had their coach fired part way through the season for academic fraud, so they had an added degree of difficulty). It's just really hard to only win 1 game in the AAC. You gotta work very hard to be that bad.
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I’m pro Konkol, as you all probably already know. The reason I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt this year is because of what he walked into… I know there are some who are beside themselves about him not recruiting well enough right away, but I truly don’t think he (or his staff) understood how terrible this last years roster was. They also probably didn’t want to rock the boat initially - that’s where I will criticize: I wish he would have cleaned house last year instead of holding onto some of these guys who had no business playing at TU, in this league, or even at this level. I’m willing to give him a pass on that as that’s an incredibly difficult situation to walk into. He would have been crucified for running off the entire team or he’d be crucified if he kept (some of) the team and fell flat on his face. We’ve seen the latter happen with fans all year. He’s still a relatively young/new coach and I’m sure this is the first time he’s had to deal with this type of situation. I’m sure he and his staff have learned A LOT from this unfortunate season… which is why this entire roster has been turned over (not because players necessarily wanted to leave, but because there were tough conversations about their role on the team here moving forward).
The recruits we have coming in are better than we’ve seen in quite some time. Konkol also has been recruiting more than the last few coaches combined - I know this because it’s been reported widely that he’s been present at many games locally, regionally, and nationally. The players we have our eye on in the portal would also be giant upgrades from what we’ve seen here for a good while. I’m hopeful he will land several of those as they will be guaranteed the opportunity to compete for playing time right away based on this roster turnover - that’s pretty appealing to some kids. Of course there is NIL involved which will hamper some of our recruiting efforts, but that’s something Konkol will have to figure out as we will likely never be able to pony up the amounts that are being cast out by the blue bloods (and wanna be blue bloods). I think konkol has the personality to do this, but it will definitely be a tough battle for some of these guys when $$$ is waved in their faces.
At the end of the day we all want TU to be successful and get back to the feeling we had from the 80s to the early 2000s. I truly think Konkol can get us there, but if we don’t have some measurable improvement next year, and major improvement the following year, we may need to go a different direction, but I’m willing to give a guy who walked into a lose lose situation the opportunity to turn this around beyond one year. Sure some of you guys may be right and I could have egg all over my face in a couple of years - if so I’ll admit I was wrong.
Moving forward, next years team is going to have a completely different identity. That’s honestly a good thing. This last years team wasn’t mentally tough and let some bad attitudes permeate. A complete reset is needed and that’s what we’re seeing right now. There are plenty examples of teams turning over as much as we are (or more) and coming out ahead the following season (I.e. Kansas state and New Mexico this season). If these guys were recruiting/singed play up to their potential we have an opportunity to be GREATLY improved just like those I mentioned above.
Like I’ve said before, I know I’ve been snippy defending konkol and TU, but I do get the negativity (to a degree) as we all ultimately want the same thing: for TU to return to the glory days.
So sit back, enjoy this recruiting journey, and look forward to next season… It’ll be interesting to watch how this unfolds through the offseason and through the season next year.
The recruits we have coming in are better than we’ve seen in quite some time. Konkol also has been recruiting more than the last few coaches combined - I know this because it’s been reported widely that he’s been present at many games locally, regionally, and nationally. The players we have our eye on in the portal would also be giant upgrades from what we’ve seen here for a good while. I’m hopeful he will land several of those as they will be guaranteed the opportunity to compete for playing time right away based on this roster turnover - that’s pretty appealing to some kids. Of course there is NIL involved which will hamper some of our recruiting efforts, but that’s something Konkol will have to figure out as we will likely never be able to pony up the amounts that are being cast out by the blue bloods (and wanna be blue bloods). I think konkol has the personality to do this, but it will definitely be a tough battle for some of these guys when $$$ is waved in their faces.
At the end of the day we all want TU to be successful and get back to the feeling we had from the 80s to the early 2000s. I truly think Konkol can get us there, but if we don’t have some measurable improvement next year, and major improvement the following year, we may need to go a different direction, but I’m willing to give a guy who walked into a lose lose situation the opportunity to turn this around beyond one year. Sure some of you guys may be right and I could have egg all over my face in a couple of years - if so I’ll admit I was wrong.
Moving forward, next years team is going to have a completely different identity. That’s honestly a good thing. This last years team wasn’t mentally tough and let some bad attitudes permeate. A complete reset is needed and that’s what we’re seeing right now. There are plenty examples of teams turning over as much as we are (or more) and coming out ahead the following season (I.e. Kansas state and New Mexico this season). If these guys were recruiting/singed play up to their potential we have an opportunity to be GREATLY improved just like those I mentioned above.
Like I’ve said before, I know I’ve been snippy defending konkol and TU, but I do get the negativity (to a degree) as we all ultimately want the same thing: for TU to return to the glory days.
So sit back, enjoy this recruiting journey, and look forward to next season… It’ll be interesting to watch how this unfolds through the offseason and through the season next year.
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I understand keeping a core. He didn't not know how they were in practice, and he didn't know what drive they had. He probably watched some film and saw things he thought he could correct. He just didn't realize how much of it was ingrained in the players, and was not correctable.
The only player he kept that I thought was puzzling was KES. I guess KES just talked a lot about how he would dedicate himself, blah, blah, blah. And Konkol thought he would give him the chance/fell for it. It is sad that he didn't retain Elkamil though. But it's not likely that would not have changed how this season went. And he would have probably been in the portal.
We've seen how Konkol can maintain a program, at La Tech. Now we will see how he is at rebuilding one. If he does not improve the winning % significantly by at least 7 or 8 more wins, there should not be a hot seat, he should be gone. But he has already shown in his recruiting that he probably has that capability.
My thought on the whole team jettisoning themselves into the portal, is that he really didn't want to keep a core, because the attitude of the players was bad, and he didn't want that to carry over in any way. It is really sad though that with the transfer rules and access to the portal/nil, he was not able to keep Selebangue. I am holding out hope that he comes back. My feeling on that is that there is at most a 5% chance he changes his mind, and pulls a Griffin job.
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If this was Konkol’s first season as a head coach, I would be more concerned.
If Konkol’s first recruiting class wasn’t one of the best at TU in years, I might be more concerned.
If former La Tech players, who played under Konkol weren’t already transferring here to join
Konkol in Tulsa, I might be more concerned.
If I didn’t get to watch Konkol’s bench coaching in person I might be more concerned.
I am not concerned. I still believe Konkol will do well at TU.
If Konkol’s first recruiting class wasn’t one of the best at TU in years, I might be more concerned.
If former La Tech players, who played under Konkol weren’t already transferring here to join
Konkol in Tulsa, I might be more concerned.
If I didn’t get to watch Konkol’s bench coaching in person I might be more concerned.
I am not concerned. I still believe Konkol will do well at TU.
Very good and reasoned points. I really hope you're right. Konkol seems like a perfect fit for TU if he can get the wins and losses straightened out. No first year AAC coach has ever won fewer than 3 AAC games before Konkol. There have been a lot of bad teams and coaches in the AAC, coaches who had the same problems as Konkol and worse and they all still managed to eek out at least 3 wins. That's concerning. As is the fact that Konkol isn't a new coach, he's getting ready to start his 9th year as a head coach. Tubby was at Kentucky in his 9th year and Bill was on the downside at Illinois. I understand that there wasn't a lot of talent for Konkol here but he seems to have actually downgraded in year 1. The good news is that we'll win more games purely by regressing to the mean. No AAC team that won 0 or 1 games ever managed to do it two years in a row and the conference will be a lot easier next year. Those 2 things alone should get us to 5-6 AAC wins minimum. I'm sure he gets at least 4 years no matter what so there's no real debate on him continuing.
UAB, N Texas, & FAU compare favorably to UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston in basketball. None of them stand to lose a lot next year unless the portal gets them. Especially FAU.
N Texas(Beat OSU) is in the NIT final four. UAB & Cincinnati are in the quarterfinals. UCF lost in the round before the quarters.
Why would you say the basketball league is going to be weaker next year?
We have Konkol next year, no changing that. Are you going to be ragging on him all year like Astrobite, t-townpod, etc. You never seemed to be like this with Haith or Wojcik, and there was a lot to rag on them for.
Edit UAB & N Texas are in the final four.
Second Edit: Cincinnati just lost in the Quarterfinals.
Would be nice if UAB & N Texas met in the finals.
My thought is he might not. If he doesn't show measurable improvement next year, and measurable improvement the next year, he might be gone in 3 years. I don't think they will be as patient with him as they have with Haith & Wojcik. Maybe that means 4 years, but I have my doubts.
That's not in my control, you'll have to ask the coaches and team. I'll probably post data and facts to provide context on our performance. Whether you think those data and facts are "ragging" on Konkol depends entirely on how the team performs. I'd be thrilled to share tons of data on us having the biggest turnaround in AAC history, but I'm not going to swoon over grand, imaginary victories that don't exist in reality. I'm old school, I still believe in the real world.
Your memory is off on Haith and Wojick. I try not to make it personal, just look at the facts and try to be balanced, so maybe you're remembering that. I thought it was clear Wojick wasn't going to get it done after year 2 or 3. You can tell a lot about people from the facts if you think about them evenhandedly.
It was admittedly hard not to get personal about Wojick, I thought that guy was such an a$$hat and the lifetime contract he got after doing basically nothing in year 2 beyond being average just because the AD liked him infuriated me.
In my mind, his post was polite and respectful, evenly balanced, gave due weight and consideration to opposing opinions as well as his own and honestly acknowledged what he actually knows versus what is his opinion or straight up speculation. So ok, I don't entirely live in reality but there's only so much you can do...
If Konkol were a first time HC then I would probably say cut bait.
But he showed he could win at a much better pace at LA Tech over a long period. That makes me think last season is the anomaly.
But he showed he could win at a much better pace at LA Tech over a long period. That makes me think last season is the anomaly.
It is an anomaly. We had bottom 10 talent in the country. Look what Haith has done at the end of all places he's been, he leaves it in an absolute dumpster fire. The people on here who act like he forgot how to coach are just absolutely off base.
Interesting, I see it the other way. A first year coach is like a freshman, they have A LOT of learning and growth ahead of them, you don't know what they'll become. Konkol is like an 8th year redshirt senior. We're hoping it's not what you see is what you get, but that's usually reality. I'd cut him a lot more slack if he was an earlier career coach. Part too is we disagree on his LaTech performance. I thought it wasn't good enough to hire him, we hired him knowing he'd have to up his game several notches to be successful here. So you see this year as an aberration, I see it as confirmation - tomato, tomaahto. We both know what's the best predictor of future performance
I still think tho that he's the kind of guy who can learn and grow, unlike so many coaches we've had who refuse to consider that they might not be perfect (remember Wojick's spite zone or Blankenship's F you hiring of his kid?). If anyone can up his game, it seems like it'd be Konkol.
The state of Kansas can definitely do that to you 😂
I have really been thinking about this ever since the new teams were mentioned . ( the weaker conference part) A lot of these teams seem to be as good ( if not better ) then the ones that are leaving . UTSA in football comes to mind , plus the schools you mentioned for basketball. Seriously watch for North Texas to become a very dangerous football team. They are one of the biggest universities in the country believe it or not . If they invest in their programs , they could very well become a playoff contender. Jmo
I believe his prior performance was above average but not outstanding and so I think we have an anomaly this past season.Interesting, I see it the other way. A first year coach is like a freshman, they have A LOT of learning and growth ahead of them, you don't know what they'll become. Konkol is like an 8th year redshirt senior. We're hoping it's not what you see is what you get, but that's usually reality. I'd cut him a lot more slack if he was an earlier career coach. Part too is we disagree on his LaTech performance. I thought it wasn't good enough to hire him, we hired him knowing he'd have to up his game several notches to be successful here. So you see this year as an aberration, I see it as confirmation - tomato, tomaahto. We both know what's the best predictor of future performance
I also don't think there is anything dumbass about your comment. It is not like he took LA Tech to the sweet 16 so I get what you are saying to a degree. But he did pretty well all in all. His track record does not suggest hapless failure.
I think his record at tech shows how well he can recruit and maintain a program with the limitations in place there in Ruston. TU is by no means a big spender, but our athletic budget is twice that of la tech… so for him to have that level of success with very limited resources gives me some hope for the future as he will have a lot more to work with here at TU.
Yeah, we have people on here who use Twitter attacks, trying to pin people into extreme things that they didn't say, you're obviously more interested in a conversation than in "winning" the debate. I agree that his performance at LaTech was good (but not great), I don't think there's any chance we see the hapless failure continue. I'd be surprised if he didn't settle in at 18 - 20 wins a year with occasional seasons of 14 or 24. Just a question of whether that's good enough.
