Quote from: duckfan41 on April 16, 2021, 04:53:27 PM

Quote from: Tko244227 on April 16, 2021, 03:07:33 PM
Well one thing is clear the wrong hire was made last year because there's no way the administration thought this was a one year deal. This is exactly what happens when hires are made based on politics and alumni influence instead of who is the flat out best guy for the job. Let's see if Augie can get it right this time.

Not every day you get a second chance to make the right decision. You're right tko, they should have hired Jim Thomas a year ago.

Let's see if they can do that this year, but my bet is the job goes to Tom Jessee. A sudden coaching change like this one seems to me to be quickly filled by promoting an assistant. We'll see how it goes though.

Whoa, Whoa I never said they should have hired Jim last year, they shoulda hired me last year. I said if Jim wants it now maybe they should hire him. I was and am still by far and away the best guy for the job but situations and circumstances change. Maybe Tom Jessee gets it now but to be clear Jim is no where near close to being as viable candidate as me. Not even close but Augie missed their chance to hire a great coach 🙋🏽‍♂️. So Jim or Tom or even Alex would be solid at this point.

Well one thing is clear the wrong hire was made last year because there's no way the administration thought this was a one year deal. This is exactly what happens when hires are made based on politics and alumni influence instead of who is the flat out best guy for the job. Let's see if Augie can get it right this time.

Haha in light of the current situation he for sure was better than two of the finalist. But he for sure wasn't better than one of the other finalist and that's indisputable. Nonetheless if still interested Jim should be offered the job. It would be very interesting to know why Steve resigned because I'm sure this blindsided a lot of people and probably completely unexpected by all.

Quote from: Next Man Up on April 15, 2021, 10:57:29 PM

Quote from: Titan Q on April 15, 2021, 10:20:24 PM
I have been told Augustana Head MBB Coach Steve Schafer has informed Augustana players and commits he is leaving.

Wow! That IS news. Apparently, a one and done, just like D1.

Will former Augie star Jim Thomas of Downers North now be granted admittance if he is still interested in the position? Keep in mind that a biggie with the AD when Coach G left was college head coaching experience.
Will any commits change their minds?

How can you say that college head coaching experience was big with the AD then suggest a candidate without any college experience head or assistant. In addition I don't necessarily think the head college experience was a "biggie" cause if it was Jim wouldn't have been a candidate in the first place. I can tell you this for sure though, Jim is a much much better candidate than one of the other candidates that interviewed.

Really can't understand it. How does someone who has never had a winning season as an assistant in  this league get a head job . Amazing ! I thought you prove your ready to be a head coach by doing well as an assistant. I've never met and don't know the guy but the process itself was very poorly handled and as an alum I'm ashamed.

Well everyone in this room, just know that your basketball teams/programs will continue to be better than Millikin moving forward. Without saying names or specifics they have completely botched their coaching search. As an alum it's honestly embarrassing how the process was handled and the salary they are offering potential candidates. Several people have now either pulled their name out or were offered the job and declined it. It really disgraceful and I haven't seen a coaching search in a long time that has been handled this poorly. There is a clear lack of professionalism and quite frankly a clear showing of incompetence.

I do agree Bob that the Wiac school have a big advantage because of lower tuition rates

As far as the conversation about D3 kids returning for a 5th season, it will be really tough for a lot of kids to do. Many kids and their families have had to pay a fortune to afford the tuition or take out significant loans. It's very easy if your on scholarship to make the choice to come back to school especially if your now getting free graduate school but as usual D3 kids get the short end of the stick in this regard. The kid who comes from a family  that can afford to pay for an extra year will probably do it but if you can't afford it then your kinda screwed.

Everyone thanks for your honesty and kind words. Believe me I'm not crying over spilled milk and I wish Augie the best of luck and have a ton of respect for AD Mike Zapolski, as he has giving me a lot of sound advice throughout the years. I have moved on from coaching now and suspect I probably won't coach again as I have relocated to another part of the country.

I have also followed the situation at Amherst very closely and was surprised that Marlon was hired but happy for him. There are people in the NESCAC room who are clearly upset with his hire and probably think he was only hired because he was black. But how many times has a guy not been hired because he was black. There is pressure on him to win considering the reputation and history of Amherst. I hope he does well because it will go a long way to helping more blacks get hired.

I do have to address Titan Q who I knew would present some counter argument. I disagree that there were 4 quality candidates. You can't tell me that the guy from Cal Tech should even be considered . The guy has no CCIW ties, playing or coaching, has no record or history of being able to recruit the Midwest and has had no winning seasons in 12 full years as a head coach. In addition Titan Q you keep saying that Jim Thomas ( who I like and is a good guy and a good coach) was a good candidate even though he had zero college coaching experience when he was up against 2 guys with college experience as assistants and head coaches. In addition you have said he would have "cleaned house" and he would seem to have been able to recruit the chicago suburbs. Well in my case there is no speculation or woulda's or coulda's as to my recruiting abilities. It's proven that I have recruited the chicago suburbs and inner city successfully for the past 11 years. In addition let's not forget my first recruiting class at North Central included 6 all conference players including 5 from the Chicago area. One of which was first team all American and first team all CCIW 4 straight years. Also I worked under one of the best X's and O's coaches in the country if not in D3 history in Todd Raridon so I had to have learned a lot from him. My X's and O's ability has to be respected as well. So I disagree that there were 4 strong candidates. Does anyone think that a black guy with 12 consecutive losing seasons as a head coach would ever be under consideration for a top 10 job in the country? Would a black head high school coach ever be under consideration for a head college job ? The answer to both questions is absolutely not.

Congrats to Vince, a Sandburg alum who is North Centrals all time steals leader as well.

A few weeks back I posted a tweet that quoted the lack of black coaches in D3 and very few people chimed in because either none of you care or none of you see that as an issue or a problem that needs to be addressed. Titan Q asked from a coaches perspective what did I think should be done? I didn't and don't have all the answers but I do know the first and most important solution is to hire the most qualified candidate.  Far too often and I can speak from experience that black candidates are good enough to get an interview but not good enough to get hired. I was told a long time ago by my parents and I really didn't want to believe this but they told me that in order for a black guy to get a head coaching job especially at the D3 level that he had to not just be better than the competition but be twice or even three times as good. Clearly they were right.  There's not a person in this room that would see the resumes, accomplishments and successes of all four candidates and could definitively and confidently pick the resume of the guy that was hired.
This is in no way any disrespect to Augie or their administrators because they had the criteria that they used to select a coach and obviously I didn't meet it.  Also, I know both Jim and Steve and both a solid coaches for sure and I'm sure Steve will do a good job.
I just had to say something because no one in this room (and I'm clearly aware of the demographics of this room) was going to address this topic which to me is the elephant in not only this room but within college basketball, particularly at the D3 level.

Greg any minority head coaches hired in the CCIW  are well aware of the challenges and the pressure, knowing that he has to succeed or it will be harder for those after to be considered. Any coach hired will also embrace that pressure . In addition I can assure you there are many D3 schools that have interviewed minority candidates with no intention to hire them and I can speak from experience on that topic.

Good question. I don't have the answers Bob. However I do feel that athletic directors and school presidents have some reluctance to hire minority coaches particularly at the D3 level because they may think that us coaches can't relate to the alumni, boosters and administrators that we would have to interact with. Also I feel those same administrators will hire people who they feel most comfortable with and in most cases people are more comfortable with people who look like them. There also may be a fear that if a minority coach is hired then the composition of the team will change which is totally not true as well. I believe there is an overall misconception that the minority coaches are best at recruiting and aren't great at the other aspects of coaching, which is totally not true. There are plenty of minority coaches that are really good with  X's and O's, player development , fundraising, budgeting, scouting, talent evaluation, game strategy, practice planning and any other duty a coach may have. In addition, when minority candidates finally do get an opportunity we need to fully take advantage by winning and winning big so that there is no doubt that we were the right hire. Unfortunately the last three African-American head coaches in the CCIW didn't do great ( even though all three had tremendous success at other places as head coaches, before and after).I think that
will go a long way to helping the cause as well. This will be an ongoing issue/discussion but I'm just frustrated that more minority coaches aren't getting the opportunities they deserve especially at the D3 level.

https://twitter.com/jesspoolea2/status/1264698465097039881?s=12

Thoughts on this ??

I still believe it's an absolute no brainer. I don't think there is a D3 head coach who would turn down these 4 things in combination : a chance to return to your alma mater, more than double your current salary, chance to go D1, while not having to relocate your family. Easy, easy decision.

This is hilarious . Any D3 coach that has an opportunity to go to his alma mater which is D1 and would more than double his salary is a complete no brainer. Nothing to really consider especially since it's close in proximity as well . I don't know why you guys are trying to come up with reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea. The D1 aspect and the salary eliminate any doubt or factors to consider.