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We all know that Tulsa will not pay a buyout

Whoever it is, it seems like there are a slew of up-and-comers available in the market and not too many suitors at our level yet. It would nice to be get a jump on some places that might let go of their coaches and cause a domino effect / bidding war (if Texas gets rid of Smart or Florida gets rid of White it might cause ripple effects)
That’s great if our administration acts this year or next if the school wants to Scrooge a buyout now.
 
I want the Loyola of Chicago coach! That team is great fun to watch. No 4-5 stars just a bunch of well coached kids who run their offense to perfection. Two sweet sixteen visits in the past four years. Give me some of that!
 
i could give a crap if someone (Mills) isn't a perfect fit. I want a better fit than our current coach.

this is exactly why we need to keep hiring the young up and comer...you never know when one is going to turn this thing around - like he has at ORU. If you can't get Mills, you hire a young guy with great potential and pay him a lot less than our established coach and hope he works out

he's proved he is better than our coach because he's built the program up and won in the tournament. when was the last time Haith did that? improve the program with his own guys and win in the tournament? ever?

I honestly don't know why the guy would leave behind his two very young current players and come to TU (or anywhere else) unless it was for major money.

rumor has it that he has hired an agent this week for the first time.
 
Aston, you said:

“If he (Mills) outperformed his situation at TU like he has at ORU he would be quickly snatched up by a medium name like Manning, Tubby, and Self were.”

Is his 4 year record at ORU considered “outperforming his situation?

Scott Sutton, in his 18 years at ORU had an overall record of 328-247, 57%, and a conference record of 196-100, 66%.
Sutton won a league title 5 times and went to the NCAA Tournament 3 times, the NIT 2 times, the CIT 2 times and the CBI 1 time. That’s 8 post season tournaments in 18 years.

Mills has a 4 year overall record of 58-65, 47% and a conference record of 31-30, 51%
Mills has never finished higher than 4th in the Summit League. His success this year can be attributed to the recruitment of Abmas and Obanor. Both went to Christian High Schools and Obanor’s father is a bishop and his mother a pastor. I’m sure their religious upbringing and backgrounds were a major factor in them coming to ORU.

Obanor had a couple of P5 offers, TCU and WF. Abmas had offers from Army, AF, Marist snd D2 UT-Tyler. Both were not heavily recruited and ORU seemed to be an easy choice.

Had Mills been at another school, would he have been able to sign them? Who knows. I think he caught “lightning in a bottle” with Abmas and Obanor. Is getting 2 under-recruited and under-valued recruits som
I want the Loyola of Chicago coach! That team is great fun to watch. No 4-5 stars just a bunch of well coached kids who run their offense to perfection. Two sweet sixteen visits in the past four years. Give me some of that!

I can’t see Moser going anywhere but a high paying job at a big time basketball school. Before Anderson was hired by St Johns, Moser turned down an 8 year $18 million offer. No way Tulsa could afford him. I agree with you that he’s an excellent coach.
 
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Whoever it is, it seems like there are a slew of up-and-comers available in the market and not too many suitors at our level yet. It would nice to be get a jump on some places that might let go of their coaches and cause a domino effect / bidding war (if Texas gets rid of Smart or Florida gets rid of White it might cause ripple effects)
Either of those schools getting rid of their coaches for losing in the NCAA tournament would be ridiculous. Smart is a brilliant coach and if Texas fired him, Haith should be gone 5 minutes after it's announced and Dickson should put on a full court press to get him here. Unfortunately Smart would have 5 other P5 offers in that same time frame.
 
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I want the Loyola of Chicago coach! That team is great fun to watch. No 4-5 stars just a bunch of well coached kids who run their offense to perfection. Two sweet sixteen visits in the past four years. Give me some of that!
He signed a huge extension a couple of years ago. He's not going anywhere except a blue blood, like Duke if K decides to retire.
 
Aston, you said:

“If he (Mills) outperformed his situation at TU like he has at ORU he would be quickly snatched up by a medium name like Manning, Tubby, and Self were.”

Is his 4 year record at ORU considered “outperforming his situation?

Scott Sutton, in his 18 years at ORU had an overall record of 328-247, 57%, and a conference record of 196-100, 66%.
Sutton won a league title 5 times and went to the NCAA Tournament 3 times, the NIT 2 times, the CIT 2 times and the CBI 1 time. That’s 8 post season tournaments in 18 years.

Mills has a 4 year overall record of 58-65, 47% and a conference record of 31-30, 51%
Mills has never finished higher than 4th in the Summit League. His success this year can be attributed to the recruitment of Abmas and Obanor. Both went to Christian High Schools and Obanor’s father is a bishop and his mother a pastor. I’m sure their religious upbringing and backgrounds were a major factor in them coming to ORU.

Obanor had a couple of P5 offers, TCU and WF. Abmas had offers from Army, AF, Marist snd D2 UT-Tyler. Both were not heavily recruited and ORU seemed to be an easy choice.

Had Mills been at another school, would he have been able to sign them? Who knows. I think he caught “lightning in a bottle” with Abmas and Obanor. Is getting 2 under-recruited and under-valued recruits som


I can’t see Moser going anywhere but a high paying job at a big time basketball school. Before Anderson was hired by St Johns, Moser turned down an 8 year $18 million offer. No way Tulsa could afford him. I agree with you that he’s an excellent coach.
You know as well as I do that the last few season of Scott Sutton’s tenure left the cupboards bare. Also factor in the fact that the school has suffered through multiple fiascos of leadership since Sutton’s early days. Just because Sutton did a good job at times doesn’t mean Mills hasn’t also done a good job placing ORU on the right track. He assembled a roster that meshes well together. You don’t beat the likes of Florida and Ohio State without assembling a roster that is built to compete with the best teams in the nation.

I don’t care how he got his two best players. He got them and he did it whenhe was selling a basketball program that was in the dumps. Good on him.
 
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Either of those schools getting rid of their coaches for losing in the NCAA tournament would be ridiculous. Smart is a brilliant coach and if Texas fired him, Haith should be gone 5 minutes after it's announced and Dickson should put on a full court press to get him here. Unfortunately Smart would have 5 other P5 offers in that same time frame.
I really don’t want another force out retread. I agree that Smart is probably better than Haith... but the last 6 years left such a piss poor taste in my mouth.
 
i do wonder why we haven't heard of more firings...seems strange.

not a single one in our conference, no?
 
i do wonder why we haven't heard of more firings...seems strange.

not a single one in our conference, no?
SMU fans think Jankovich will be gone.

Apparently IowaState has already hired their replacement. The only teams that are similar to ours in stature and don’t have a coach there are DePaul and maybe Utah. Indiana still hasn’t gotten anyone, but they probably will look quite a bit higher than us.
 
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Apparently IowaState has already hired their replacement.

Yep, they hired the UNLV coach, T.J. Otzelberger (no idea why they hired someone that was sub-.500 at his 2nd school). UNLV then quickly promoted Lon Kruger's son, Kevin, to be their HC.
 
Agree we are more similar to DePaul, but they don’t have football. We aren’t in the conversation with Utah, unless you are a historian.
 
Agree we are more similar to DePaul, but they don’t have football. We aren’t in the conversation with Utah, unless you are a historian.

Utah has first rate facilities now thanks to the Olympic money a few years back. We’re not in their league anymore.
 
Utah has first rate facilities now thanks to the Olympic money a few years back. We’re not in their league anymore.
Not to mention they played in the nat champ game a few years ago, have a long string of recent tourney appearances, have the tradition of Mormon basketball leagues to recruit from, and have the P5 football money to borrow against to invest in basketball infrastructure to be paid back through ticket sales. It’s not apples to apples. It’s not even apples to oranges. It’s plums to watermelons.
 
not to mention one of the best games I saw at the fairgrounds in the 90's was miller and vanHorn vs TU...I think Seals was still playing? great game
 
Fairgrounds? Civic Center.
That was 1997 I think. Van Horn, Andre Miller, Michael Doleac, Hanno Mottola were the core but they had some really good bench players as well. That was Shea's final home game and I think they retired his number that afternoon. That was one of the games of the year in the WAC in the regular season. The very next game was the one at TCU where Ruffin went off for 32 and 21. That was also the year of the infamous screw job versus Clemson in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.
 
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That was also the year of the infamous screw job versus Clemson in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.

You know we still would have won that game if we had made even half of our free throws. Outplayed Clemson everywhere except at the line, even with our star player watching from the bench.
 
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Yep, they hired the UNLV coach, T.J. Otzelberger (no idea why they hired someone that was sub-.500 at his 2nd school). UNLV then quickly promoted Lon Kruger's son, Kevin, to be their HC.
Bet UNLV was in hog heaven when Iowa St hired him out from under them. I'm thinking 🤔 they at least sent Iowa St. a fruit basket.
 
One thing Haith has going for him is his embrace of diversity and inclusion at a key juncture in the history of this city. It won't look good to let him go when he has been pushing the envelope the past year in the broader community, joining boards commemorating the events of 1921, and speaking out about his own family's challenges. Personally I commend his efforts in these areas. That is not to say we should keep him. It does complicate the discussion, considering the position we are trying to take in the local community as an institution.
 
Bingo......the elephant in the room appeared. A really good man. I just hate to have several more years of a nice man with mediocre coaching and never getting a chance for a NCAA first and second round t-shirt. (I have a bunch with TU on them)
 
Part of me would love to see him pull in a couple of big time transfers a la Grimes and beef up his assistants to make a statement. His initial staff with Felton and Leito was an all star group.

Those two things happening would provide some genuine hope without a HC change.
 
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Frank "We had 8 new players" Haith... gets another shot to have (misuse) 8 new players.
 
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One thing Haith has going for him is his embrace of diversity and inclusion at a key juncture in the history of this city. It won't look good to let him go when he has been pushing the envelope the past year in the broader community, joining boards commemorating the events of 1921, and speaking out about his own family's challenges. Personally I commend his efforts in these areas. That is not to say we should keep him. It does complicate the discussion, considering the position we are trying to take in the local community as an institution.
This is true. It was easier firing Wojcik for his mediocrity because he was just a plain prick and was only here for the paycheck the last couple of years.

Haith is a good guy. He's just not the coach that is going to restore our NCAA glory.
 
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One thing Haith has going for him is his embrace of diversity and inclusion at a key juncture in the history of this city. It won't look good to let him go when he has been pushing the envelope the past year in the broader community, joining boards commemorating the events of 1921, and speaking out about his own family's challenges. Personally I commend his efforts in these areas. That is not to say we should keep him. It does complicate the discussion, considering the position we are trying to take in the local community as an institution.
I do get what your saying , but he is paid big money to win basketball games. Any of us can help make a change, but would still be fired from our jobs if we didn’t perform
 
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But best part so far is the demise of the big10.
It should also be the demise of the NET. It has absolutely failed in producing an accurate and quality metric that measures a team's quality instead measuring and inflating the quality of certain conferences. I believe the B1G and the Big XII were the 2 highest rated conferences. Let's see...Michigan and Baylor are the only 2 left from conferences that had 10 out of the top 16 seeds in the tournament. Loyola's destruction of Illinois is the argument for tossing the NET. That game was never close and Loyola was the better team and better coached team.
 
at least I'll be able to buy tickets at 71st and Lewis the next couple of years if I want to see good basketball
 
Bingo......the elephant in the room appeared. A really good man. I just hate to have several more years of a nice man with mediocre coaching and never getting a chance for a NCAA first and second round t-shirt. (I have a bunch with TU on them)
Jim King and John Phillips were also good men. They underperformed as coaches and were removed.
 
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Jim King and John Phillips were also good men. They underperformed as coaches and were removed.
I can't speak to Jim King as I never met him nor did I watch any of his teams play. Phillips was clueless as a basketball coach in general. TU got exactly what they paid for---low pay for low energy.

I don't think Haith is clueless nor do I think that he is low energy. I just know he is not getting the job done right now and the trend supports that it is not going to change as long as he is the coach.
 
I can't speak to Jim King as I never met him nor did I watch any of his teams play. Phillips was clueless as a basketball coach in general. TU got exactly what they paid for---low pay for low energy.

I don't think Haith is clueless nor do I think that he is low energy. I just know he is not getting the job done right now and the trend supports that it is not going to change as long as he is the coach.

Tough statement to make but I will say JD Barnett and John Phillips were better bench coaches than Wojcik or Haith. JD and Phillips failed because of recruiting, not bench coaching. John Phillips coached pretty good with other coaches players as did JD. (and Buzz Peterson).
 
Tough statement to make but I will say JD Barnett and John Phillips were better bench coaches than Wojcik or Haith. JD and Phillips failed because of recruiting, not bench coaching. John Phillips coached pretty good with other coaches players as did JD. (and Buzz Peterson).
I will disagree on Phillips. He got good results from Self's players simply by not screwing things up. Essentially Harrington coached that team in 2002 and I'd say Swanson and KJ were the drivers in 2003. One of the things Buzz Peterson screwed up during his one year was trying to over coach that group. I've mentioned it several times on this board about how Harrington would frequently wave off Peterson's instructions during games. I think Phillips realized he could only screw the 2002-2003 groups up by over coaching them...that's how good they were, how much chemistry they had together. When Phillips had to start coaching in 2004, we saw how bad things got....combine that with the lack of D1 talent and you ended up with a disaster.
 
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JP stuck with the Self Offense and Defense till KJ and Charlie graduated, then he quickly reverted back to the offense and defense that he ran in high school as he was more comfortable with them. JP was a real good high school coach, but his bench coaching was terrible at the college level once he had to coach his recruits. King was an excellent pro-assistant coach and might have done well as a head coach in the pros, but he never adjusted to the college level as a recruiter or a head coach. Sad because as a great person he was right there with Coach Kenny Hays.
 
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I will disagree on Phillips. He got good results from Self's players simply by not screwing things up. Essentially Harrington coached that team in 2002 and I'd say Swanson and KJ were the drivers in 2003. One of the things Buzz Peterson screwed up during his one year was trying to over coach that group. I've mentioned it several times on this board about how Harrington would frequently wave off Peterson's instructions during games. I think Phillips realized he could only screw the 2002-2003 groups up by over coaching them...that's how good they were, how much chemistry they had together. When Phillips had to start coaching in 2004, we saw how bad things got....combine that with the lack of D1 talent and you ended up with a disaster.
Players with good leadership abilities helped Phillips out a lot. Don't forget about Charlie Davis. I was in the locker room for a game in 2003 and Charlie impressed me as the leader of that team. When he talked, they all listened. I wouldn't say the same for Phillips.
 
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