FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sfury]

Yep, cheap German monks. Don't want to pay for upgrades, still want free seats.*

*Kidding. Sort of. I like Fr. Wilfred.

[bennie]

I didn't realize that I was the only person on this board with a "real" job. Have none of you ever done a task/job the way you were told to do it...maybe the way it was always done, all the while just waiting for your chance to do things differently? Sometimes sweeping changes, sometimes minor tweaks. Sure, Gary may do things the same way they have always been done, but I am guessing that there are some changes he has always wanted to make and now he will have the opportunity to implement them. I am going to give him a chance to actually be the head coach before I complain about how bad he is at it.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Interesting...seems that he wasn't necessarily the favorite of the posters on this board as people wanted things shaken up a bit.  I'm sure we'll never know, but I wonder if Grant was offered the job, but the deal ($$) wasn't sweet enough to pull him from his comfy gig in EP.

I'd heard rumblings he was the pick but they were debating resources, etc. Who knows, but Frank's tweet makes me think...

Oh, I don't know. Assume grant was the most expensive  that fact doesn't make him the best.  Also, everything is relative. Even if Grant was the most expensive that doesn't lead to the conclusion that Fasching was cheap. More than the dollar amount the committee may have been swayed by the way the candidates proposed to spend the money. Maybe Fasching's plan was more compelling on the merits other than price. In fact, I bet it was.

Right...I'm not saying that they didn't want Fasching as their first choice, or that he wasn't the right pick.  I would just guess that Grant probably had a figure in mind going into the whole process, and being that the figure had to be 1 - large enough to make him want to quit his cherry gig at SJU, and 2 - make him want to re-locate to central MN.  That might have made him too rich for the SJU job.  Not saying that Fasching was cheap, but he didn't have those 2 large hurdles to overcome.

[Retired Old Rat]

John did it on shoestrings, will have resources with staff, etc.

[sfury]

I didn't realize that I was the only person on this board with a "real" job. Have none of you ever done a task/job the way you were told to do it...maybe the way it was always done, all the while just waiting for your chance to do things differently? Sometimes sweeping changes, sometimes minor tweaks. Sure, Gary may do things the same way they have always been done, but I am guessing that there are some changes he has always wanted to make and now he will have the opportunity to implement them. I am going to give him a chance to actually be the head coach before I complain about how bad he is at it.

I buy that, Bennie. And the flashiest choice isn't always the best. Time will of course tell. Maybe Gary can be the next Belichick, just waiting to get his chance outside a legend's shadow (Patriots version).

Goldandblu,
It'd be great if the money talk was actually just the fact SJU wouldn't pay for Grant's moving expenses.

[DuffMan]

I didn't realize that I was the only person on this board with a "real" job. Have none of you ever done a task/job the way you were told to do it...maybe the way it was always done, all the while just waiting for your chance to do things differently? Sometimes sweeping changes, sometimes minor tweaks. Sure, Gary may do things the same way they have always been done, but I am guessing that there are some changes he has always wanted to make and now he will have the opportunity to implement them. I am going to give him a chance to actually be the head coach before I complain about how bad he is at it.

Amen, Bennie!  I'm pumped.  All three were good choices, but I was recruited by Gary, and he was my position coach for 4 years, so I know him well.  He'll do a great job!

[SagatagSam]

Grant would've been the flashy choice.
Looking back to public statements he made about the job opening, he was not very subtle when it came to qualifying his interest with comments like "If Saint John's is committed to success, I'm interested." (I'm paraphrasing here.)

[repete]

Repete;

I just got an official email from SJU making the coaching announcement. Congratulations!  It was a hard fought, tough competition. Tell us: how did you know to pick this date and who inspired you to be so clever?

(And send me a PM with you details. It's Saturday here so I can drop your prize at the post office this afternoon.)

Ha! Guess God smiles occasionally on the dumb and slow!

I'd pegged Thursday, but wasn't quick enough to grab it. As the days wore on. I was expecting a longer negotiation if SJU  had wanted Grant. He seemed like the guy mostly likely to push SJU out of its comfort zone with requests.

Good call on the winner, Oz.

Haven't been close enough to the program in recent decades to know if this is the best choice. But I do know SJU had three solid finalists and that Gary is a very good guy. Wish him nothing but the best.

[OzJohnnie]

I'm heading to the post office now, repete.

And there are two things I always liked about bennie. One is that her commentary is always spot on.

[OzJohnnie]

Tweet from Frank:  Gary Fasching's hiring as head coach obviously opens up his position on the coaching staff and AD Tom Stock said there will also be a "small additional FTE increase."

That's not encouraging.

What is FTE?

Full Time Equivalent---Meaning they could hire new coaches, but will likely just give out raises.

I'm not sure about that. Usually FTE is actual positions. And it sounds plural so I bet it's two. He may hire four part timers or any combination that comes up to the allocated number of FTE. I bet he went for a number of position coaches on a part time basis. Probably end up making them full time with JV duties or such.

My guess is that this deal ends up with a 20-30% program cost increase with a commitment to more based on success or other factors. I wouldn't be surprised if grant was asking for a doubled budget. I bet Ramler wasn't far off of that.

I bet the three pitches were something like:

- Powerhouse investment and mega program to exceed UST
- Powerhuse light investment to be just short of UST
- Powerhouse smart meaning you need to spend more but can't afford a lot. Here's the get back to dominance plan on a budget you can afford.

Looking back at this, it was always a lock for Fasching. He knows the budget and personalities intimately. He's probably talked to them for years about program changes and what can and should be afforded.  He's no dummy and the key to defence in anticipating and out playing the offense. He could probably very easily guess what the others presented and present a "what you really need from the other guy's ideas" proposal.

Now that I think of it, didn't he present last?  What an advantage for that approach. If its a big ideas contest, you want to be first. If its an avoid wasted spend contest then you want to be last.  I wonder who set the interview order?  Stock?

By the way, if I'm wrong in the order don't tell me. Let me bask in my false superiority.

EDIT: And one last question. Gagliardi said he didn't like the search committee approach in his retirement press conference, which of course implied that he knew already who should have the job. Was Fasching his choice?  If he was Gag's pick then does that change anyone's opinion?

[AO]

Tweet from Frank:  Gary Fasching's hiring as head coach obviously opens up his position on the coaching staff and AD Tom Stock said there will also be a "small additional FTE increase."

That's not encouraging.

What is FTE?

Full Time Equivalent---Meaning they could hire new coaches, but will likely just give out raises.

I'm not sure about that. Usually FTE is actual positions. And it sounds plural so I bet it's two. He may hire four part timers or any combination that comes up to the allocated number of FTE. I bet he went for a number of position coaches on a part time basis. Probably end up making them full time with JV duties or such.

My guess is that this deal ends up with a 20-30% program cost increase with a commitment to more based on success or other factors. I wouldn't be surprised if grant was asking for a doubled budget. I bet Ramler wasn't far off of that.

I bet the three pitches were something like:

- Powerhouse investment and mega program to exceed UST
- Powerhuse light investment to be just short of UST
- Powerhouse smart meaning you need to spend more but can't afford a lot. Here's the get back to dominance plan on a budget you can afford.

Looking back at this, it was always a lock for Fasching. He knows the budget and personalities intimately. He's probably talked to them for years about program changes and what can and should be afforded.  He's no dummy and the key to defence in anticipating and out playing the offense. He could probably very easily guess what the others presented and present a "what you really need from the other guy's ideas" proposal.

Now that I think of it, didn't he present last?  What an advantage for that approach. If its a big ideas contest, you want to be first. If its an avoid wasted spend contest then you want to be last.  I wonder who set the interview order?  Stock?

By the way, if I'm wrong in the order don't tell me. Let me bask in my false superiority.

EDIT: And one last question. Gagliardi said he didn't like the search committee approach in his retirement press conference, which of course implied that he knew already who should have the job. Was Fasching his choice?  If he was Gag's pick then does that change anyone's opinion?

There's quite a few assumptions there, but you could certainly be right about hiring more coaches. 

Wouldn't Gag's pick Jimmy?

[SagatagSam]

After listening to Gary talking with Mike Max on WCCO a few minutes ago, he sounded much more comfortable than he did in the press conference this afternoon.

[tmerton]

I'm excited for Gary and for the program.  I'm admittedly partial, as Gary was always relentlessly supportive of #13 when he showed up unbidden and unknown from the left coast.  Many issues to watch, including coaching choices he'll make and financial support he gets from the school, which obviously aren't unrelated. 

Gotta start checking the schedule to see which game/s we can get to.

[SagatagSam]

This one has got to be the Tweet of the Day:

Tweet from: Austin Murphy‏@si_austinmurphy

"In addtn to his many other qualities, Fasch can bench more than any other head coach in U.S. So he's got that going for him. Which is nice."

[sfury]

After listening to Gary talking with Mike Max on WCCO a few minutes ago, he sounded much more comfortable than he did in the press conference this afternoon.

Didn't get a chance to listen. Any interesting details?